Solo Energy Solutions: CITATE-Built Renewable Energy Site with a Google Maps Roof-Tracing Solar Calculator and Multi-Plugin Architecture
A pre-launch bespoke WordPress build for Solo Energy Solutions — Solo Electrical (South) Ltd's MCS-accredited, OZEV-approved renewable energy brand, based in Southampton. Service-first architecture across solar PV, battery storage, EV charging, LED lighting, and EPC. Three bespoke plugins: a multi-step solar savings calculator with Google Maps satellite roof-drawing (polygon trace, draggable points, live area readout), a Google Reviews sync and storage engine, and a Cruise Planner (repurposed from another client engagement). Built on the CITATE AI citation framework from the ground up. Service-first navigation, six schema packs, dark/light mode, and a lead-capture gate on the calculator results.
The Challenge
Solo Energy Solutions is the renewable energy brand of Solo Electrical (South) Ltd (Co. 15355408) — an MCS-accredited, OZEV-approved installer operating across Southampton, Hampshire, and the South of England. Services span solar PV (residential and commercial), battery storage, EV charging, LED lighting, and EPC/energy assessments. The brand was new at time of build: a new domain, zero domain authority, zero existing search visibility, zero published content.
The keyword research (Google Keyword Planner, UK, March 2025–February 2026) surfaced three findings that shaped the entire architecture. First, "ev charger installs" at 18,100 searches per month is the highest-volume term in the entire keyword set — nearly ten times "solar installers near me" at 1,900. EV charging needed equal commercial billing on the homepage alongside solar, not a secondary position. Second, "grants for solar panels" (8,100/mo) and "solar panel grants UK" (6,600/mo) together represent 14,700 monthly searches — the grants and funding page needed to be a primary commercial page, not a footnote. Third, "solar panels for business" at 1,900/mo with low competition and a £51.60 top-of-page bid is how buyers phrase the commercial solar query — not "commercial solar panels". The commercial solar page H1 and title were changed before the scaffold ran to match the search behaviour, not the internal terminology.
On the technical side, the brief included a capability requirement no standard plugin could deliver: a solar savings calculator that lets a homeowner or business owner trace their roof outline on a Google Maps satellite view, get a live area readout, and receive a personalised savings estimate — without requiring a site visit first. The calculator needed to be a lead generation tool as well as a utility: gated results (Year 1 saving visible, full 15-year projection gated behind contact details) with lead capture flowing to both an admin database and an email notification.
The Solution
A bespoke WordPress theme with three purpose-built plugins, all built from scratch.
Build at a Glance
Scaffold-managed
Purpose-built from scratch
Validated at schema.org
Google Places + Google Reviews
The three plugins
v1.2.0
- Multi-step solar savings calculator
- Google Maps satellite polygon roof-trace
- Residential and commercial fork with lead-capture gate
v1.2.0
- Google Places API sync and storage
- Service tagging solar battery EV LED EPC
- Schema-safe helpers guard review schema quality
v1.9.43
- CITATE-built service-first architecture
- Dark/light mode with persistent preference
- Six schema packs active and validated
CITATE FRAMEWORK IMPLEMENTATION. The CITATE framework (Code, Content, Contextual Linking, AI Transparency, Trust Signals, Entity signals) underpins the entire site. Six CITATE criteria are addressed on every primary service page: structured code with schema markup (C1), substantive original content matched to commercial intent (C2), internal contextual linking between service pages and supporting content (C3), AI-transparent content including attributable expert quotes and named entity signals (C4), trust signals including MCS accreditation number NIC200217 and OZEV approval reference EVHS/WCS12845 embedded in schema and page content (C5), and named entity signals for Solo Electrical (South) Ltd Co. 15355408 and trading relationship (C6). The site is built to be cited by LLM systems and AI search from day one, not retrofitted.
SERVICE-FIRST NAVIGATION ARCHITECTURE. On a new domain with zero authority, audience-first navigation (Residential / Commercial tabs) splits ranking potential across more pages than a low-DA site can support. Service-first navigation — Solar · Battery Storage · EV Charging · LED Lighting · Energy & EPC · Calculators · Case Studies · About — concentrates authority on the head terms where volume is highest. Residential and commercial sub-pages (/solar/residential/, /solar/commercial/, /ev-charging/home/, /ev-charging/commercial/) exist as scaffold-managed pages capturing long-tail and are accessible from within the service pages, but do not appear in the primary navigation. Cannibalisation risk managed from the start.
SIX SCHEMA PACKS. Core organisation schema with Solo Electrical (South) Ltd legal entity, trading name, accreditation, and service-area data. LocalBusiness schema with the Southampton address. ProfessionalService schema for each service vertical. Article schema on blog and case study pages. CollectionPage schema on service hub pages (Solar, Battery, EV). Speakable schema for AI voice search eligibility. All schema packs validate cleanly; all MCS and OZEV references are embedded as structured `hasCredential` and `certification` properties.
SOLO CALCULATORS PLUGIN — THE ROOF-DRAWING SOLAR SAVINGS CALCULATOR. The flagship technical deliverable. A multi-step lead generation calculator with a residential/commercial project-type fork.
Step 1: Project type (homeowner, business owner, or ground-mount). Step 2: Property type (residential: detached, semi, terraced, bungalow, flat; commercial: warehouse, factory, hospitality, offices, retail, agriculture). Step 3: Address autocomplete via Google Places API, then satellite map for roof tracing. Step 4: Monthly electricity bill (slider plus number field). Step 5: Orientation, battery/EV add-ons, "what matters most" personalisation. Lead capture gate: name, email, phone to unlock the full projection. Results: "Going solar could save you £X in Year 1 alone" hero figure, plus a 15-year SVG savings chart (without solar / with solar / cost of doing nothing line).
THE ROOF TRACING UX (v1.2.0 — POLYGON-FIRST). The calculator's satellite roof-drawing tool went through two major UX iterations before the current polygon-first approach. v1.1.0 launched a rectangle-first UX (drag, resize, rotate a pre-placed rectangle) modelled on path.energy — a pattern suited to solar engineer precision use cases. Field testing on real devices revealed the problem: Google's Places API often resolves a UK address to the road or driveway, not the building, so the default rectangle landed off-roof and required drag → resize → rotate before it was anywhere near useful. v1.2.0 replaced the rectangle entirely with polygon click-to-trace: the user clicks each corner of the roof (minimum 4 points, since a triangle is not a useful roof outline), the draft polygon renders from point 3 onward so the shape is visible as it's being drawn, and draggable points let the user nudge any corner after placing. A live area readout ("Roof area: 24.3 m² — live, press Finish to lock in") updates continuously. A two-step onboarding overlay (Step 1: "Click each corner of your roof — at least 4 corners"; Step 2: "Press Finish or drag to adjust") guides first-time users. Finish locks the polygon with stronger fill and stroke; "Edit again" re-opens it. The UX decision — polygon over rectangle — is documented in the changelog because it is a real product decision made from real-device data, not a design preference.
Roof drawing UX — the decision
v1.1.0 Rectangle
- Auto-placed 10m × 6m rectangle on address pin
- Google Places resolves to road not building — rectangle lands off-roof
- Requires drag + resize + rotate before it is near the actual roof
v1.2.0 Polygon
- Click each corner of the roof — minimum 4 points
- Traces what the user can see not what the algorithm guessed
- Draggable points let users nudge corners after placing
Why
Field testing on real devices showed the rectangle approach forced users through three interaction steps before the rectangle was anywhere near useful. Polygon click-to-trace is faster because the first click is already on-target. The decision came from real-device data, not a design preference — and is documented in the plugin changelog as such.
LEAD QUALITY FIELDS. Each calculator lead captures trace_method (polygon or fallback_size), address_confidence (exact property matched vs rough postcode estimate), and place_types (the Google Places result type). This means future analytics can compare how polygon-traced, size-picker, and postcode-level leads convert — providing the data to optimise the calculator UX over time.
SOLO REVIEW ENGINE PLUGIN. A Google Places API sync and storage layer for Google reviews. The theme owns all front-end display, filtering, schema output, and conversion logic; the plugin owns data fetching, storage, and the read API. Weekly and daily scheduled syncs plus manual refresh. Reviews are tagged by service (solar, battery, EV, LED, EPC, commercial, residential) via keyword matching. Pin or hide individual reviews. A health panel shows last sync time, counts by service, freshness, and warnings for stale data, low diversity, and untagged reviews. Schema-safe helper functions (sre_can_output_review_schema(), sre_get_schema_safe_reviews()) guard against emitting review schema before the data meets the quality threshold. The plugin is built for the new Google Places API (New) — the legacy Place Details endpoint is available for existing projects but Google no longer enables it for new Cloud projects.
DARK/LIGHT MODE. The site defaults to dark mode — a deliberate design decision for a renewable energy brand. A toggle in the header and mobile nav switches to light mode, with the preference persisted across the session. The footer always remains dark in both modes as a deliberate design anchor.
21 SCAFFOLD-MANAGED PAGES. Homepage, Solar hub, Solar Commercial, Solar Residential, Battery Storage hub and sub-pages, EV Charging hub and sub-pages, LED Lighting, Energy and EPC, Grants and Funding, Calculators hub, Solar Savings Calculator, Case Studies archive, About, About Accreditations, Contact. Meta titles and descriptions added across all pages with bespoke, AI-citation-optimised copy for each service page.
What Made This Different
Three things make this build technically distinctive.
First, the roof-tracing solar calculator is not a standard off-the-shelf solar calculator. The Google Maps satellite polygon-trace UX — draggable corner points, live area readout, two-step onboarding overlay, edit-after-finish — required custom JavaScript development (map-roof.js, ~560 lines in its polygon-only form) built on the Google Maps API. The UX went through a documented iteration: v1.1.0 launched with a rectangle-first UX modelled on an established competitor's pattern; field testing on real devices revealed the UX assumption (that Google's address resolution would reliably land the rectangle on the building) was wrong in practice. v1.2.0 replaced it with polygon-first. The willingness to reverse a major UX decision based on real-device field data — and to document that decision in the changelog — is the kind of product discipline that most web projects avoid because reversals feel like admissions of failure. In practice, it is what building for users rather than against a spec actually looks like.
Second, the CITATE framework implementation from day one means this site will be more AI-citation-eligible at go-live than most established competitors are after years of operation. AI search systems — Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT search — cite sources that are structured, attributable, and corroborated. The Solo Energy Solutions site has legal entity schema, named credentials, structured service content, and named expert signals baked in. Competitors who built their sites before AI search became commercially significant will need to retrofit this; Solo Energy Solutions starts with it.
Third, the separation of concerns between the Review Engine plugin (data ownership and sync) and the theme (display, filtering, schema, conversion) is an architectural decision with a specific rationale. Review data is business-critical: if the theme is ever changed or rebuilt, the review history and service tagging should survive. By owning the data in a plugin's own database table rather than in theme-managed options or post meta, the review record is portable across theme changes. The sre_get_reviews() API and the Filter equivalents mean the theme reads from the plugin through a stable interface — the plugin's internal storage can be updated without touching the theme, and the theme can be redesigned without touching the review data.
This is the kind of renewable energy website build that SEO Strategy Ltd delivers for trade and specialist businesses across Southampton and Hampshire — technically ambitious from the first line of code, not retrofitted for SEO and AI citation after the fact.
The Results
Solo Energy Solutions is built, configured, and ready for go-live at soloenergysolutions.co.uk. The site is pre-launch at time of publication (Coming Soon active), with go-live dependent on final client-side items including Google Business Profile verification and brand photography delivery.
CALCULATOR LIVE AND TESTED. The solar savings calculator (solo-calculators v1.2.0) is fully functional with the polygon roof-tracing UX, lead-capture gate, and 15-year SVG savings projection. Lead data flows to the admin database and email notification. The first test lead confirmed the end-to-end flow including data storage and email delivery.
SCHEMA ARCHITECTURE VALIDATED. All six schema packs validate cleanly at validator.schema.org. MCS accreditation number and OZEV approval reference are embedded in structured data. The legal entity relationship (Solo Energy Solutions trading name of Solo Electrical (South) Ltd) is expressed in schema sitewide.
REVIEW ENGINE CONFIGURED. Solo Review Engine v1.2.0 is installed and configured with the Google Places API (New). The reviews admin shows health panel, service tagging, and sync controls. Ready to begin accumulating Google reviews once the GBP listing is live and verified.
CITATE FRAMEWORK ACTIVE. All primary service pages carry CITATE-compliant content including C5 named credential signals (MCS NIC200217, OZEV EVHS/WCS12845) and C6 attributable named entity (Solo Electrical (South) Ltd, Co. 15355408). The site is AI-citation-ready from go-live, not from a future retrofit.
KEYWORD ARCHITECTURE IN PLACE. The scaffold-managed content reflects the keyword research findings: "solar panels for business" H1 on the commercial solar page, five FAQ entries targeting the 14,700/mo grants search cluster, EV charging given equal commercial prominence to solar on the homepage reflecting its 18,100/mo search volume. The architecture is built around what buyers actually search, not internal service terminology.
[JACOB_TESTIMONIAL]
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the CITATE framework and why was it used for Solo Energy Solutions?
CITATE is a six-criterion AI citation readiness framework developed by SEO Strategy Ltd and UK-trademarked (UK00004359244, Classes 35 and 41). The six criteria are: Code (structured markup and schema), Content (substantive, intent-matched original content), Contextual Linking (internal architecture that signals topical relationships), AI Transparency (attributable expert signals, named authors), Trust signals (verifiable credentials and accreditations), and Entity signals (named legal entity, company number, trading relationship). For Solo Energy Solutions, implementing CITATE from day one means the site is AI-citation-eligible at go-live — MCS accreditation number, OZEV approval reference, and legal entity (Solo Electrical (South) Ltd, Co. 15355408) are all embedded in structured schema, not just mentioned in page text.
Why was the solar calculator's roof-drawing UX changed from rectangle to polygon between versions?
The v1.1.0 rectangle UX was modelled on a pattern used by path.energy — a drag-resize-rotate rectangle that auto-places on the selected address. Field testing on real devices revealed a specific problem: Google's Places API frequently resolves a UK residential address to the road or driveway rather than the building footprint. When the auto-placed rectangle lands off the roof, the user has to drag it, resize it, and rotate it before it is anywhere near useful — three steps before they have even started. Polygon click-to-trace does not have this problem: the user clicks the corners of the actual roof they can see on the satellite image, so the first click is already on-target. v1.2.0 replaced the rectangle entirely. The decision is documented in the plugin changelog because it is the kind of product reversal that should be explicit rather than silent — it came from real-device data, not a design preference.
Why does the calculator use a lead-capture gate rather than showing full results immediately?
The calculator serves two jobs: it gives a homeowner or business owner a genuinely personalised savings estimate (differentiated from generic online calculators by using their actual roof area and electricity bill), and it generates qualified leads for Jacob's sales team. The gate is positioned at the results step: Year 1 saving is visible immediately, which establishes the value of the estimate before asking for contact details. The full 15-year SVG projection — which includes the cost-of-doing-nothing line and the payback period — is released after name, email, and phone are submitted. Gating the full projection rather than the whole result means the visitor sees enough to trust the calculator before sharing their details, which improves completion rates compared to gating everything upfront.
What does the Google Reviews sync engine do that a standard reviews plugin cannot?
Three things. First, it stores reviews in its own indexed database table rather than in WordPress options or post meta, which means the review history survives theme changes and plugin updates. Second, it supports service tagging — each review can be tagged by the service it relates to (solar, battery, EV, LED, EPC, commercial, residential) via keyword-based suggestions, with filtering on the front end so the solar page shows solar-tagged reviews and the EV page shows EV-tagged ones. Third, it includes schema-safe helper functions that guard the theme against emitting review schema before the data quality warrants it — sre_can_output_review_schema() returns false if there are too few reviews, too many untagged, or the data is too stale. The theme and the plugin are deliberately separated: the plugin owns the data, the theme owns the display, and the interface between them is a clean PHP API.
Why was service-first navigation chosen over audience-first navigation for a new domain?
Audience-first navigation — tabs for Residential and Commercial — splits ranking authority across more top-level pages than a new domain with zero existing authority can support. Users predominantly search by service ("solar panels", "ev charger installs", "grants for solar panels") rather than by audience category ("residential solar", "commercial ev charging") as their opening query. Service-first navigation concentrates the site's ranking potential on the head terms where search volume is highest. Residential and commercial sub-pages exist at /solar/residential/, /solar/commercial/, /ev-charging/home/, and /ev-charging/commercial/ to capture long-tail queries — but they are not in the primary navigation, so they do not dilute the head-term authority of the service hub pages. As the domain accrues authority over time, the sub-pages compound; the strategy does not need to change, only the balance of effort.
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