AEO for solar installers in East Brisbane: AI search visibility ranking
How AI search engines rank solar installers in East Brisbane by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Solar installation companies serving East Brisbane households and businesses with rooftop solar, batteries, energy monitoring, system upgrades, and residential or commercial energy projects across Brisbane's eastern suburbs. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When checking with AI engines about solar installers in East Brisbane, Solargain emerges as a top-recommended brand among buyers, with a citation visibility of 12.5%. Other notable brands include AGL and Origin Energy, often mentioned alongside Solargain. These insights highlight Solargain's prominence in the local market as perceived by AI engines.
The rankings are influenced by the AI engines referencing top-cited sources, with domains like solarchoice.net.au and solarquotes.com.au being frequent contributors. These sites serve as aggregators and review platforms, meaning they consolidate user reviews and expert opinions, which significantly impacts a brand's prominence on AI platforms.
For a buyer, understanding what AI engines value is crucial when picking from this list. They often prioritize recent reviews and third-party validations, indicating that Solargain's strong position can be attributed to consistently updated positive feedback and recognition from trusted sources.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
Solargain holds rank 1 in the East Brisbane solar installer category with a composite score of 3.8 and a citation rate of 12.5%, while every other brand in the top 10 sits at 0.0 across all three metrics. That gap is not marginal. With the category average citation rate at just 0.6%, Solargain is the only brand Google AI Mode references at a measurable frequency, making it effectively the sole named presence in AI-generated answers for this category.
The data reveals a sharp divergence between rank and actual AI engagement. AGL holds rank 2 and Origin Energy rank 3, both large national brands, yet both record 0.0% visibility and 0.0% citation. Solargain has zero visibility percentage but a 12.5% citation rate, meaning it is named in AI responses without being surfaced as a visible result in the traditional sense. Being cited and being visible are not equivalent outcomes in this category.
Google AI Mode is the sole engine recorded across all 10 listed brands. The top cited sources in this category are dominated by aggregator and comparison platforms, specifically solarchoice.net.au, solarquotes.com.au, solardirectory.com.au, and top10solarcompanies.com.au, alongside google.com, facebook.com, and reddit.com. This pattern suggests the AI is anchoring its responses on third-party review and directory content rather than individual brand domains.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility fallers
-
AGL 50% → 0% · rank #1 → #2-50pp
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Arise Solar 12% → 0% · rank #2 → #20-12pp
The AEO ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
solargain.com.au
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Solargain is the only brand with any measurable AI presence, holding a 12.5% citation rate and a composite score of 3.8 against a category average citation rate of 0.6%. |
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| 2 |
agl.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
AGL ranks second but records 0.0% on all metrics, and its visibility fell 50 percentage points from the prior period, making its current rank a legacy position rather than an active AI signal. |
||||
| 3 |
originenergy.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Origin Energy sits at rank 3 with a composite score of 0.0 and no citation activity, performing identically to ranks 4 through 10 despite its national brand scale. |
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| 4 |
solahart.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Solahart records 0.0% visibility and 0.0% citation, indistinguishable from the six brands ranked below it, indicating no differentiated AI footprint in this local category. |
||||
| 5 |
greensolartechnologies.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Green Solar Technologies holds rank 5 with a composite score of 0.0, matching the floor performance shared by all brands outside Solargain in this category. |
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| 6 |
sunboost.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
solaray.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
shinehub.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
nectr.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
infiniteenergy.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
smartenergyanswers.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
captaingreensolar.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
openelectrical.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
1komma5.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
halcolenergy.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
solarsecure.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
energymatters.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
emeraldsolar.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
obrienelectrical.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
arisesolar.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on solar installers in East Brisbane, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this AEO ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
AEO rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Run an AEO audit on your own solar installers in East Brisbane brand
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about AEO for solar installers in East Brisbane
Who leads AI visibility among solar installers in East Brisbane?
Solargain leads with a composite score of 3.8 and a citation rate of 12.5%, which is the only non-zero performance recorded across the entire top 10 in this category.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for solar installer research in East Brisbane?
The top cited sources are aggregator and comparison platforms including solarchoice.net.au, solarquotes.com.au, solardirectory.com.au, and top10solarcompanies.com.au, alongside google.com, facebook.com, and reddit.com.
Which brands have lost the most AI visibility in this category recently?
AGL dropped 50 percentage points in visibility to reach 0.0%, and Arise Solar fell 18 rank positions from rank 2 to rank 20 with a visibility delta of negative 12.5 percentage points.
Is there a difference between being cited and being visible in Google AI Mode for this category?
Yes. Solargain records 0.0% visibility but a 12.5% citation rate, showing it is named in AI responses without registering as a visible brand result in the conventional sense.
How does the category average compare to the leading brand's performance?
The category average citation rate is 0.6%, while Solargain's citation rate is 12.5%, meaning Solargain is cited at more than 20 times the category average rate.
Do large national energy brands perform better in AI visibility for this local solar category?
No. AGL and Origin Energy both rank in the top 3 but record 0.0% on visibility, citation, and composite score, performing no better than smaller local or regional brands in the dataset.