Home Energy Audit or Home Energy Assessment?

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By Will - September 12th, 2012

"What's the difference?," you ask?

Well, there usually isn't one, depending on who you ask. But the language that you use to describe your home energy evaluation could make a big difference when it comes to acquiring new customers.

We've written before about keywording strategies for home performance businesses, how home performance companies can use Google Insights, web marketing basics for home energy pros, et cetera, so you may be familiar with our line of argument. Basically, it goes something like this: in order for potential customers to find your business on the internet, you need to use the language that they use, rather than the language that you prefer.

Many home energy professionals hate to use the term "audit," and for good reason: it conjures images of endless paperwork, the IRS, taxes, and other things that most people don't typically love. So if you're trying to get someone to sign up for a home performance evaluation, some would say that you should steer clear of the term "energy audit," because those potential customers will run away.

But while our instincts may agree, we should also look at the data. Look at this chart showing the interest over time in the terms "home energy audit" and "home energy assessment" as documented by Google's Insights keyword tool. (For the record, the numbers on the y-axis are relative, and don't signify exact search volume).

energy audit vs energy assessment

The blue line represents "home energy audit," and the red represents "home energy assessment." As you can see, there is clearly more interest in the former term across the internet. (This chart represents interest in the U.S. between January 2008 and September 2012.)

Long story short, more people are looking for home performance and home energy professionals by using the search term "home energy audit" than "home energy assessment." If you want them to find your business, it's a good idea to use the term "home energy audit" on your site, whether you like the term or not.

For a more in-depth look at keyword research and SEO strategies for home performance businesses, be sure to check out our free white paper on the topic. And, as always, all thoughts are welcome in the comments.

Comments

Assessment is a more wretched

Assessment is a more wretched word than audit by far. "Energy audit" is actually used as an example of a type of audit in Websters, meaning an evaluation of building efficiency. Assessment's first definition in my dictionary is a valuation of property for the purpose of taxation. We should use the same word for the same thing. Al Gore and Joe Biden use energy audit. What do you want to use? Posted by John Krigger on Sep 14, 2012 4:11pm

Thanks for weighing in, John.

Thanks for weighing in, John. I'm always cautious about being a complete slave to mother Google, but the data doesn't lie, and it is as good a proxy for the mindset of the average consumer as we've got.

A somewhat larger issue that I've been thinking about is the fact that the whole house audit is so much more than about "energy." How do we convey the full set of benefits?

Posted by Peter Troast on Sep 17, 2012 9:08am

The "whole house audit", yes,

The "whole house audit", yes, who knows exactly what that is? I guess that's why we use the term "home performance" (Who knows what that is?). Many people think of performance as dramatization and next as execution or implementation. We haven't chosen our terms very well. By home performance we mean energy conservation and related home improvements. We do an energy audit to identify a package of benefits, including comfort improvement, energy conservation, health and safety enhancements, and durability improvements. Posted by John Krigger on Sep 17, 2012 9:20am

Thanks for share information

Thanks for share information . Every new commercial building development, extension or alteration is required to show compliance with the energy efficiency provisions set out in Section J of the BCA. Posted by Home energy assessment on Oct 2, 2012 3:37am