Solar Company SEO: How to Generate Consistent Leads from Google

Stop renting leads from aggregators. Here is how to build a solar SEO strategy that fills your pipeline with homeowners who found you first.

This guide covers solar company SEO from the ground up, and the solar industry has a lead generation problem that makes getting this right more urgent than most installers realize.

The solar industry has a lead generation problem that most companies have quietly accepted as just the cost of doing business. Lead aggregators sell the same homeowner contact to four, five, or six competing installers. Door-knockers generate appointments that cancel at a 60 percent rate. Paid ads produce clicks at several hundred dollars each from homeowners who are still in early curiosity mode and nowhere near ready to sign a contract.

And then there is organic search, which almost no local solar company is doing seriously.

When a homeowner has genuinely decided they want to explore solar, they go to Google. Not to a lead form on a third-party comparison site. Not to a door-knocker’s tablet. They search for solar companies in their area, they read what they find, and they reach out to the companies that look credible and trustworthy. These are the highest-quality leads in the solar industry because the homeowner initiated the contact. No auction. No sharing with competitors. No cold-call dynamics to overcome.

Why Solar SEO Is Fundamentally Different From Other Home Service SEO

If you have read guides about SEO for roofing companies or HVAC contractors, you know the core principle: show up in Google when a homeowner has an urgent need, and you get the call. Solar does not work that way. Nobody wakes up with an emergency that requires same-day solar installation. The solar buyer’s journey is longer, more research-intensive, more skeptical, and more influenced by policy and financial incentives than almost any other home improvement category.

These differences are not obstacles to solar SEO. They are the specific characteristics that make solar SEO uniquely powerful for the companies who understand them.

Solar Is a Considered Purchase, Not an Emergency Call

The average homeowner who ultimately installs solar takes 30 to 90 days from initial curiosity to signed contract. During that window, they are consuming significant amounts of information: how solar works, whether their roof qualifies, what the payback period looks like, how financing and incentives work, which companies in their area they can trust, and what the installation process involves.

Every one of those questions is a Google search. And every Google search is an opportunity for your company to be the source of the answer. A solar company with a rich content library that guides homeowners through this research journey does not just show up at the bottom of a lead auction. It becomes the trusted resource that the homeowner builds a relationship with before they ever fill out a contact form. That relationship quality translates directly into higher close rates, fewer price objections, and more referrals.

The Competition Landscape in Solar SEO Is Winnable Locally

Search for “solar companies” nationally and you are competing against SunPower, Tesla Energy, Sunrun, and other billion-dollar companies with enormous marketing budgets. But search for “solar installer [city name]” or “solar panels [suburb]” and the competitive picture looks completely different. National brands often have weak local SEO because their optimization efforts are spread across hundreds of markets. A local solar installer that invests seriously in SEO can absolutely outrank the national players for locally modified searches, which is exactly where the highest-intent buyers are searching.

This local gap is one of the most underexploited opportunities in solar marketing. The homeowner who searches “solar company near me” or “best solar installer in [city]” is not looking for a national brand. They are looking for someone local, someone accountable, someone whose trucks they might see around town. Local SEO positions you as exactly that, and national players cannot easily take that positioning away from you.

Policy and Incentive Searches Are Uniquely Powerful in Solar

No other home service category has the equivalent of the federal solar tax credit, state incentive programs, net metering policies, or utility rebate structures that shape solar buying decisions. And homeowners research all of these before committing to solar. A homeowner who searches “federal solar tax credit” or “[state] solar incentives” is deep in the consideration process and close to making a decision.

Creating content that accurately explains the incentives available in your specific market is one of the highest-leverage SEO investments a solar company can make. These searches have meaningful volume, relatively low competition in most local markets, and extremely high buyer intent. The solar company whose content answers these questions best wins the trust of homeowners who are almost ready to buy.

Google Business Profile Optimization for Solar Companies

The Google Business Profile is your most important local SEO asset and the engine behind your appearance in Google Maps and the local map pack. For solar companies, the GBP serves a slightly different function than it does for emergency trades like plumbing or HVAC. Solar buyers rarely call directly from a map result the way a homeowner with a burst pipe would. Instead, they use the map pack to find and evaluate options, checking photos, reading reviews, and clicking through to websites before reaching out.

This means your GBP needs to be optimized not just to appear in search results, but to convert the homeowner who is actively evaluating you against competitors when they find your listing.

Category, Description, and Service Area

Your primary GBP category should be “Solar Energy Company” or “Solar Energy Contractor,” depending on which is available and most descriptive of your business. If you also offer battery storage, EV charging installation, or roofing, add those as secondary categories where accurate.

Your business description should accomplish three things in 250 words or fewer: explain what you do, establish why you are trustworthy, and include your primary keywords naturally. A strong solar company description mentions the services offered (residential solar installation, commercial solar, battery backup, etc.), the years in business, any notable certifications or manufacturer partnerships, the geographic area served, and a differentiating statement about what makes working with your company different from the national installers flooding the market.

Service area configuration matters significantly for solar. Add every city, suburb, and community within your realistic installation radius. If you travel up to 50 miles for installs, that is likely 20 to 40 distinct named locations. Each one expands the geographic reach of your profile in local search results.

Photos That Convert the Considering Homeowner

Solar is a visual sale. Homeowners want to see finished installations that look clean and well-executed before they can picture solar panels on their own roof. The photo strategy for a solar company GBP should be more project-portfolio-oriented than any other home service category.

Completed residential installations showing clean panel placement from multiple angles, both on the roof and from street level to show aesthetic impact
Before and after shots where relevant, showing a roof with and without panels
Battery storage system installations, if offered, which are a growing interest area for homeowners concerned about grid reliability
Your installation team at work, showing professionalism and safety protocols
Your physical location, branded vehicles, and any showroom or office space
Certifications displayed as legible images: NABCEP certification, manufacturer dealer status, BBB accreditation, and similar credentials
Community installations or notable commercial projects that demonstrate scale and capability

Aim for 40 to 60 photos at minimum, refreshed regularly. Solar companies doing strong GBP management add new installation photos after every completed project, which both signals freshness to Google and continuously builds the proof library that convinces homeowners you are the real deal.

Reviews: The Social Proof That Sells Solar

Solar is a 20 to 30 year relationship with your installer. The panels will still be on a homeowner’s roof long after the salesperson who closed the deal has moved on. This long-term nature makes reviews more important in solar than in almost any other home service category, because homeowners are evaluating not just quality of installation but trustworthiness of the company over time.

The most effective review content for a solar GBP goes beyond simple star ratings. Reviews that mention specific outcomes, such as energy bill reductions, smooth permitting processes, responsive customer service during interconnection, and professional installation crews, are far more persuasive than generic positive statements. You cannot write reviews for your customers, but you can make sure they have the full picture of their experience when you ask, so they can speak to these specific aspects naturally.

Build your review collection system the same way the best plumbing and HVAC companies do: ask at job completion in person, follow up with a direct text link within a few hours, and respond to every review publicly. In solar, the post-installation follow-up is especially important because the homeowner’s full satisfaction is often not apparent until they see their first utility bill after going solar, which may be a month or two after installation. A follow-up review request sent 45 to 60 days post-installation, timed to when they have seen their first bill, often produces the most enthusiastic and specific reviews.

Solar Keyword Strategy: The Search Terms That Drive Real Leads

Solar keyword strategy is more complex than most home service categories because the purchase journey spans a much wider range of search intent. You need to capture homeowners at every stage, from first curiosity to ready-to-sign, and the keywords at each stage are fundamentally different.

High-Intent Local Keywords: The Leads Ready to Talk Now

These are the searches that signal a homeowner is actively looking for a solar company to contact. They should be the primary focus of your service and location pages.

“solar company near me” / “solar installer near me”
“solar panels [city name]” / “solar installation [city name]”
“best solar company in [city]” / “top solar installers [city]”
“residential solar installation [city]”
“solar panel installation cost [city]” / “how much does solar cost in [city]”
“solar company [city] reviews”
“local solar installer [city]”

Incentive and Financial Keywords: The Buyers Doing the Math

These searches come from homeowners who have moved past curiosity and are actively calculating whether solar makes financial sense for them. They are close to buying but need answers to specific financial questions first.

“federal solar tax credit [year]” / “solar ITC [year]”
“[state name] solar incentives” / “[state name] solar rebates”
“net metering [utility company name]” / “net metering [city]”
“solar panel ROI” / “solar payback period”
“solar financing options” / “solar loan vs lease vs cash”
“[utility company] solar buyback rate”
“SREC [state name]” (Solar Renewable Energy Credits, relevant in certain states)

Research and Comparison Keywords: The Early-Stage Audience

These broader searches come from homeowners in the awareness phase. They convert more slowly but build a content library that generates substantial long-term traffic and establishes topical authority with Google.

“how do solar panels work”
“are solar panels worth it in [city or state]”
“pros and cons of solar panels”
“solar panels for home cost”
“how long do solar panels last”
“solar panel brands comparison” / “best solar panel brands”
“can you go completely off grid with solar”
“solar panel maintenance requirements”

Competitor and Aggregator Keywords: The Comparison Shoppers

Some of the most valuable solar leads come from homeowners who are actively comparing companies. These searches are often overlooked but can be highly effective targets:

“[competitor company name] reviews” (informational, but you can appear in related searches)
“solar company reviews [city]”
“how to choose a solar company”
“questions to ask a solar installer”
“solar company red flags” / “solar installer scams”

That last category, questions to ask, red flags to watch for, and how to evaluate solar companies, is particularly powerful because it positions your company as the trustworthy guide in an industry where homeowners have legitimate reasons to be wary of pushy sales tactics and misleading claims. A solar company that publishes honest, helpful content about how to evaluate any solar company, not just their own pitch, earns the kind of trust that converts into signed contracts.

Ready to build a solar SEO strategy for your market? See exactly how we help solar companies rank on Google; one installer per territory, no shared strategies.

Solar Website Structure: The Pages You Need to Rank and Convert

A solar company’s website needs to serve a more complex set of needs than most home service websites. It has to rank for both high-intent local search terms and longer research-phase queries. It has to educate skeptical homeowners who have been burned by aggressive solar sales tactics. And it has to convert visitors who are comparing multiple companies at once. Getting the structure right is the foundation of everything.

Core Service Pages Every Solar Company Website Needs

Unlike plumbing or HVAC where each service is relatively self-contained, solar services are interconnected. But each still deserves its own dedicated, keyword-optimized page:

Residential Solar Installation: Your primary service page. Should cover the full process from site assessment to interconnection, system sizing, panel and inverter brands you use, warranty coverage, and a strong call to action. This page competes directly for ‘solar installation [city]’ and related terms.
Commercial Solar Installation: A separate page targeting business owners and property managers. Different financial considerations (depreciation, commercial incentives), different system sizes, and often a different decision-making process that deserves distinct coverage.
Solar Battery Storage: Battery backup systems are increasingly searched independently by homeowners concerned about grid outages. A dedicated page targeting ‘solar battery storage [city]’ and ‘home battery backup’ captures this growing search segment.
Solar Panel Maintenance and Repair: Many solar companies underinvest in service content because installation is more profitable. But homeowners with existing systems searching for maintenance and repair are some of the most targeted, lowest-competition leads available.
EV Charger Installation: If you offer EV charging as part of your energy services, this warrants its own page. The EV charger market is growing fast and the keyword set has relatively low competition in most local markets.
Solar Financing Options: A page dedicated to explaining your financing options, including cash purchase, solar loans, and lease or PPA structures, addresses one of the highest-anxiety questions in the solar sales process and can rank for ‘solar financing [city]’ searches.

Location Pages: How to Beat National Brands in Local Search

This is one of the most strategically important elements of solar SEO and one that national installers consistently execute poorly. A local solar company that builds dedicated, well-written location pages for every city and suburb they serve can outrank SunPower and Sunrun for locally-modified searches even if those companies have dramatically higher domain authority overall.

The reason is specificity. A national brand’s location page for your city is typically a thin template with the city name swapped in and a few generic sentences. Your location page, written with genuine knowledge of that community, the local utility provider and their net metering policy, the specific incentives available in that county or city, the typical home styles and roof types in that area, and your history of completed projects there, tells Google far more about relevance to that location than any national template can.

Each location page should be at least 700 to 900 words and should include: the specific utility serving that area and how net metering works with them, applicable state and local incentives beyond the federal tax credit, why solar makes particular financial sense in that market (average sun hours, electricity rates, grid reliability), and a selection of testimonials from homeowners in that community.

Incentive and Policy Pages: Your Highest-Intent Research Content

These pages sit at the intersection of SEO and sales enablement, and they are genuinely unique to the solar industry. No plumbing or HVAC company has an equivalent. Pages that clearly explain the federal solar Investment Tax Credit, your state’s specific solar incentive programs, net metering policies in your service territory, and available utility rebates serve two purposes simultaneously: they rank for searches that indicate advanced buying intent, and they pre-answer the financial questions that most commonly create hesitation in the sales process.

A homeowner who reads your detailed explainer on the federal solar tax credit before they even speak to your sales team arrives at that conversation already understanding how the incentive works, already mentally accounting for it in their financial calculation, and with one fewer major objection for your team to address. The content does sales work before a sales conversation ever happens.

How Local Solar Companies Can Outrank National Installers on Google

The national solar brands, Sunrun, Tesla Energy, SunPower, Palmetto, and others, have substantial advantages in terms of domain authority, brand recognition, and marketing budgets. In a straight contest for generic national keywords, they will win. But local solar SEO is not a straight contest, and the ways in which local companies have an inherent advantage are numerous and underexploited.

The Local Authenticity Advantage

National installers use centralized subcontractors in most markets, operate through call centers, and manage customer relationships remotely. Local solar companies install with their own crews, have local leadership that can be reached directly, and have a genuine stake in community reputation that national brands simply cannot replicate.

These differences are meaningful to a homeowner who is about to spend $25,000 to $40,000 on a system that will be on their roof for 25 years. Use them. Your website, your content, and your Google Business Profile should make it unmistakably clear that you are a local company with local accountability. Name the owners. Show the team. Reference your history in the community. Highlight local customer testimonials by neighborhood or city. Everything that communicates genuine local presence is a competitive signal that national brands cannot authentically match.

Location-Specific Content That Nationals Cannot Replicate

National solar companies produce generic content that applies broadly but speaks specifically to no one. A local installer in Phoenix, Arizona can publish content about how the Sonoran Desert climate affects solar production, how APS and SRP handle net metering differently, what the Maricopa County permitting process involves, and which neighborhoods have HOA solar restrictions and which do not. None of that content can be authentically produced by a company headquartered in another state.

This hyper-local specificity is exactly what Google values and what homeowners appreciate. A homeowner in your market who finds detailed, locally accurate information on your website will trust you more than a homeowner who reads the generic output of a national company’s content team.

The Review Volume Gap

National solar installers in any given local market typically have fragmented reviews scattered across different GBP locations, making their review presence in any specific city look thinner than a dedicated local installer who concentrates all their reviews in one profile. A local solar company that actively collects reviews from every customer will often have more local reviews than a national brand despite installing a fraction of the systems. In the trust-sensitive solar market, that review presence translates directly into more map pack clicks and more inbound contacts.

The Local vs. National SEO Advantage Summary

Local keyword targeting: ‘solar installer [suburb]’ is winnable; ‘solar company’ nationally is not
Location page specificity: local utility info, local incentives, local projects nationals cannot match
Review concentration: all your reviews in one profile vs. nationals spread thin across regions
Local trust signals: named owners, local team, community presence, accountability nationals cannot fake
Faster customer service content: you know your local permitting process, interconnection timelines, and utility specifics

Content Marketing for Solar Companies: What to Publish and Why It Works

More than any other home service category, solar benefits from a robust content marketing strategy. The extended research journey means homeowners are consuming more content before buying solar than before hiring a plumber or HVAC technician. Every piece of content you publish is a potential first touchpoint with a homeowner who will eventually need an installer, and a chance to be the company they trust by the time that decision arrives.

The Content Categories That Drive Solar Leads

Cost and ROI Calculators and Guides: The single most searched solar content category. ‘How much do solar panels cost in [city]?’ and ‘What is the payback period for solar in [state]?’ attract homeowners who are seriously evaluating the purchase. Write thorough, honest guides with real local numbers, not vague ranges that frustrate readers who want actual answers.
Incentive and Tax Credit Explainers: The federal solar ITC, state rebate programs, net metering policies, and utility incentives all change over time. Publishing regularly updated, locally specific explainers of the incentives available in your service territory builds search authority for high-intent searches and makes your site the go-to resource for homeowners trying to understand their financial picture.
System Design and Technology Content: ‘How many solar panels does my home need?’, ‘Monocrystalline vs. polycrystalline solar panels’, ‘String inverters vs. microinverters’: these educational pieces attract homeowners in the active research phase and establish your company’s technical expertise before the sales conversation begins.
Utility-Specific Net Metering Content: Homeowners in your territory want to know specifically how net metering works with their utility, not how it works generically. Publishing a page or post specifically titled ‘How Net Metering Works with [Local Utility Name]’ captures a hyper-local, high-intent search that no national company will bother with.
Local Solar Success Stories and Case Studies: A detailed case study of a homeowner in a specific neighborhood who switched to solar, what their system looks like, what their previous bill was, what they pay now, and what their timeline to payback looks like is one of the most persuasive pieces of content a solar company can publish. It is also uniquely yours: no competitor can publish the same story.
Myth-Busting and Objection Content: ‘Do solar panels work in cloudy weather?’, ‘Will solar panels void my roof warranty?’, ‘Is solar worth it if I might move in 5 years?’: homeowners have real objections and real fears about solar. Publishing content that addresses these directly, honestly, and with genuine evidence positions your company as the straight-talking antidote to the pushy sales culture that has tainted the industry’s reputation.

Publishing Frequency and Quality Standards for Solar Content

Solar content requires more depth than other home service categories because the subject matter is genuinely complex and homeowners can tell the difference between authoritative information and superficial AI-generated fluff. Every piece of content you publish should be accurate, current, and specific to your market.

A realistic solar content calendar might look like this: one comprehensive long-form piece per month targeting a high-value keyword, such as a detailed cost guide or incentive explainer. Two medium-length supporting posts targeting research-phase questions. And quarterly updates to any existing incentive or policy pages as programs change. At that pace, a solar company builds a content library that increasingly dominates local search across the full buyer journey over 12 to 18 months.

Technical SEO Considerations Unique to Solar Companies

Most of the technical SEO fundamentals apply across all home service categories: mobile responsiveness, page speed, HTTPS security, proper crawlability, and clean site structure. But solar has a few specific technical considerations that deserve attention.

Freshness Signals and Content Currency

Incentive programs change. Tax credit percentages have step-down schedules. Net metering policies get revised by state utility commissions. Utility rebates open and close based on program funding. In no other home service category does the specific information on your website go stale as quickly or as consequentially as in solar.

Google rewards fresh, up-to-date content on topics where recency matters. A solar company that updates its incentive pages every time a program changes, marks those updates with a clear ‘Last Updated’ date, and publishes timely news content when significant policy changes occur in their state will consistently outperform competitors whose content silently becomes outdated. This is an ongoing maintenance responsibility that most solar companies ignore, and it is a meaningful differentiator for those who take it seriously.

Schema Markup for Solar Companies

Implementing the right structured data markup on your solar website helps Google understand your business type, location, and services more precisely. For solar companies, the most impactful schema types include:

LocalBusiness schema on your homepage and contact page, specifying your business type, address, service area, and contact information
Service schema on each individual service page, describing the specific service offered
FAQ schema on any page with a questions-and-answers format, which can generate expanded SERP listings
Review schema if you display customer testimonials on your website (this can show star ratings directly in search results)
Article schema on blog posts and educational content, signaling to Google that these are informational resources rather than transactional pages

Site Speed and Core Web Vitals in Solar Contexts

Solar company websites often include high-resolution installation photos, interactive quote calculators, and video content that can slow page load times significantly if not properly optimized. Google’s Core Web Vitals are a direct ranking factor, and a solar website that loads slowly or has poor interactivity scores is actively being penalized in search rankings relative to competitors with better-performing sites.

Compress and properly size every image before uploading. Use a content delivery network for serving media files. Defer non-critical JavaScript. And test your most important pages in Google PageSpeed Insights regularly, particularly after adding new content types like calculators or embedded videos.

Frequently Asked Questions About Solar Company SEO

How is solar SEO different from buying leads from EnergySage or other aggregators?

Aggregator leads are shared with multiple competing installers simultaneously. The homeowner fills out a single form and receives quotes from five or six companies who are all racing to be first to call. Win rates from shared leads in solar are typically low, price competition is intense, and the cost per acquired customer can be very high once you account for the leads that go nowhere. Organic SEO leads are exclusive: the homeowner searched, found your company specifically, evaluated your reputation and credentials, and chose to reach out to you. These leads convert at substantially higher rates, involve less price competition, and cost a fraction as much per acquired customer at full SEO maturity. The tradeoff is time: aggregators generate leads tomorrow, SEO generates leads in six to twelve months and then compounds indefinitely.

How much does solar company SEO cost?

Solar SEO pricing varies based on market competitiveness and scope of work, but most local solar companies invest between $1,500 and $5,000 per month with a specialized agency. Given that the average residential solar installation generates $3,000 to $8,000 or more in gross profit, the ROI calculation can justify the investment with as few as one to two additional closed jobs per month attributable to organic search. At full SEO maturity, a solar company generating ten to twenty inbound organic leads per month from a well-executed strategy will have an extraordinarily favorable cost per acquired customer compared to any paid lead channel.

Should a local solar company try to rank nationally or locally?

Almost always locally. National solar keywords are dominated by brands with 10 to 100 times the domain authority of any local installer, and the traffic from national rankings would not convert to local jobs anyway. The winning strategy for local solar companies is to dominate their specific market: own the map pack for solar searches in their city and surrounding suburbs, rank on page one for locally-modified keywords and utility-specific content, and build the kind of hyperlocal authority that national brands cannot authentically replicate. A local solar company ranking number one for ‘solar installer [their city]’ will generate more revenue than one ranking number fifteen nationally.

How do I know if my current solar website is holding back my SEO?

Several warning signs indicate a solar website is actively limiting rankings rather than helping them. If your site has no dedicated service pages beyond a generic homepage describing everything in one place, it will not rank for specific service searches. If it has no location pages for the suburbs and cities you serve, you are invisible to locally-modified searches in those areas. If your incentive content has not been updated in over a year, Google will recognize it as stale on topics where freshness matters. If your site loads slowly on mobile, it is penalized in rankings and losing the visitors it does attract. If your site has fewer than fifteen indexed pages of content, Google has very little to work with in terms of establishing what you are an authority on. A technical SEO audit will surface all of these issues and prioritize what to address first.

How long will it take for solar SEO to replace our paid lead volume?

Most solar companies do not fully replace paid lead volume with organic; they supplement it in a way that improves their overall economics. The timeline to meaningful organic contribution is typically six to nine months, with organic leads becoming a significant pipeline source by month nine to twelve. Full replacement of a paid lead budget, meaning organic is generating enough volume that paid channels become optional rather than essential, typically requires 18 to 24 months of consistent execution. The companies that achieve this have built content libraries of 30 or more targeted pieces, accumulated 100 or more Google reviews, established strong local authority, and optimized location pages for their entire service territory. That is a meaningful investment of time and resources, and the resulting asset pays dividends indefinitely.

The Solar Companies Owning Their Pipeline Are Building SEO Now

The solar lead generation landscape has a quality problem that every company in the industry knows but few have solved. Door-knockers close at low rates. Shared leads convert poorly and drive margin-killing price competition. Paid ads generate clicks from homeowners who are nowhere near ready to buy. The entire model is built around renting access to customers rather than owning the relationship with them.

Organic search is how you break that cycle. A homeowner who finds your company through Google, reads your content, examines your reviews and credentials, and chooses to reach out is not comparing you against five competitors on a lead aggregator. They came to you. That changes the entire dynamic of the sales conversation that follows.

Building that organic presence requires the elements this guide has covered: a Google Business Profile that establishes trust and local authority, a website with genuine service, location, and incentive content that serves homeowners throughout the research journey, a review collection process that generates consistent social proof, and a content strategy that makes your company the most knowledgeable and trustworthy solar resource in your market.

It takes longer than a lead purchase. It compounds in a way that a lead purchase never can. And once it is built, no aggregator can take it away from you, no algorithm change in lead pricing affects it, and every month it generates more leads than the month before.

The solar companies that are three years ahead of you in organic search built their strategy when their competitors were still relying entirely on paid channels.

Ready to Stop Renting Leads and Start Owning Your Pipeline?

We specialize exclusively in SEO for home service companies, including solar installers competing against national brands in local markets. We know the keywords, the content strategy, and the local authority signals that rank solar companies on page one.

Get a free solar SEO audit and find out exactly where your competitors are outranking you in your market.

Tristen

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