AI Visibility for contractors & trades
Why doesn’t ChatGPT recommend my plumbing, electrical, roofing or HVAC company?
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT for “an emergency plumber open now” or “a roofer who works with insurance”, it names the companies whose pages list that exact service, the towns they cover, and their license — not the one with the most trucks. If your site says “quality service since 1998” and little else, the assistant sends the call to a competitor or a lead-selling directory.
Updated October 4, 2026 · Free check at the bottom
What your customers actually type
Each of these is a question the assistant answers by naming a few businesses. The ones it names are the ones whose pages answer that exact question.
What we saw in our own test
In our October test, a family pipe yard with a brand-new website was listed last when ChatGPT was asked where to buy used pipe nearby, and elsewhere described, from a Yellow Pages entry, with the wrong number of years in business. Its Google listing was unclaimed and didn’t link to the new site, so the assistant never read it. The competitor listed first had a page saying exactly what it sells.
Homeowners ask for a fix, a town and a time
Trade questions come with urgency and a place: “tonight”, “Saturday”, “in Youngsville”. The assistant looks for a page that has the service, the area and the availability together. A single “Services” page with eight words on it can’t answer any of them.
What your pages need to say
- One page or section per service you want calls for: water heaters, drain cleaning, panel upgrades, roof replacement, AC repair.
- Every town and parish you serve, written out.
- License numbers, insurance and any certifications you actually hold.
- Emergency or after-hours service only if you really answer the phone; say the hours.
- Financing, insurance-claim help, warranties: whatever is true and asked about.
Contractor & trades checklist
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A page or section for each service
One service per answer.
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Service area towns written out as text
“Near me” is answered by town names.
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License number and insurance stated
Assistants get asked “is there a licensed…”.
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Emergency and weekend hours, only if real
Wrong “24/7” claims cost you reviews.
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Brands you install and service
“Who services Trane” is a real question.
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Google Business Profile service areas and services filled in
Feeds the map card for local asks.
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Bing Places claimed and linked to your site
ChatGPT’s search leans on Bing.
Check it yourself in five minutes
- 1
Open ChatGPT in a private (incognito) window, so it isn't shaped by your own history, and ask: “emergency plumber open now near me”
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Ask the same question two more times, worded a little differently. Answers change from one ask to the next, so one try is not a verdict.
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Write down who gets named, in what order, and what it says about each. Then ask it directly about your business by name and check every fact: hours, address, what you sell.
- 4
Do the same in Perplexity and Claude if you can. The businesses that show up everywhere are the ones whose facts are clear in the places all of them read.
Questions
Most of our work comes from referrals. Does this matter?
More people now ask an assistant to confirm a referral: “is [company] any good?”. What it says back is drawn from the same listings and pages.
We serve 15 towns. Do we need a page for each?
Not necessarily. A clear list of every town you serve, as text, plus one strong page per service is a solid start.
Will this replace our Google Ads or Local Services Ads?
No. It’s a different door. People who ask an assistant instead of searching Google see whatever the assistant writes, and your Google ads aren’t part of that answer.
Free check · no sign-in
See what an AI assistant can read on your website.
Type your company’s website. We read your homepage the way a search crawler does and list what’s missing: business details assistants look for, page titles and descriptions, and anything hidden from search. Results show right on the page. No card, no account.
Want to know what an AI assistant actually says when your customers ask? That’s the weekly part of AI Visibility. Questions first? Email [email protected].