See How Contractors Stay Booked Up
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Updated November 11, 2026
You can find out whether AI search recommends your business in about 15 minutes. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google three questions your customers would ask before hiring you. Leave out your company name. Then count how many of the 9 answers mention you. A score of 0 means AI tools don't connect your business to the work you do. A score of 7 or higher means you're already one of the businesses they recommend.
No tool to buy. No agency to call first.
Key takeaways
- The audit is 3 questions × 3 AI tools = 9 checks. Use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
- Test ChatGPT logged out, or in a Temporary Chat with personalization off. Otherwise ChatGPT may recognize you from past chats and mention your business when a stranger's search wouldn't.
- Include your city in every question. AI tools answer local questions differently depending on the location.
- The businesses that show up instead of you are your real competition in AI search, whether or not you've ever heard of them.
Who should run this audit?
Anyone whose customers search before they call. That's roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers, remodelers, insulation contractors, and most other local service businesses. The method works the same for any business. Only the questions change.
Think about how people used to find a contractor. They asked a neighbor over the fence. Today a lot of them ask ChatGPT instead, and ChatGPT answers the way a neighbor would. It gives two or three names, not a page of ten links. This audit tells you whether yours is one of them.
What do you need before you start?
- 15 minutes and a notepad. Or copy the scoring grid below.
- Three buyer questions. These are the questions a customer types before hiring someone like you.
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google. The free versions are fine. You don't even need to log in.
Step 1: Write down the questions your buyers actually ask
Write three questions in your customer's words, not yours. Include your city or service area. Here are some examples:
- "Who's the best roofing company in Midlothian, TX?"
- "How do I find a reliable HVAC company near Waxahachie?"
- "Who builds outdoor kitchens in Fort Worth and is worth the money?"
- "What should I look for when hiring a bathroom remodeler in Dallas?"
- "Who can reinsulate my attic in Southlake, TX?"
Do not use your company name. You're testing whether AI tools recommend you to a stranger, not whether they know you exist.
Pick questions from your top three revenue services. If you only have time for one category, start with the job that makes you the most money.
Step 2: Ask ChatGPT without your history
The simplest way is to open ChatGPT in a browser where you're not logged in. A logged-out session has no memory of you. If you'd rather stay logged in, click Temporary in the top corner and choose Unpersonalized before you type anything. Skip this and ChatGPT may draw on your past conversations and mention your business when it wouldn't for anyone else.
Ask your first question. Then read the answer and write down two things:
- Did your business come up? Mark Yes or No.
- If not, who did come up? Those names are your competitive set in AI search.
Run each question twice in a new chat. AI tools write a fresh answer every time, so results shift. If you show up in one run but not the other, mark it "Sometimes."
Step 3: Ask Perplexity and check its sources
Ask the same three questions in Perplexity. Perplexity lists the websites it pulled from beside its answer. Look at the answer and at the sources. If you're not signed in, Perplexity may ask you to sign up before it answers the same question twice. One run there is enough.
If your website is a source, that's a strong signal. If it isn't, write down which sites are. Notice what kind of sites they are. Some are competitors. Some are directories like HomeAdvisor, BBB, and Thumbtack. Each tells you where AI tools get their information about your trade.
Step 4: Check Google AI Overviews
Search the same questions on Google. Look for an AI Overview at the top of the results. Google doesn't show one for every search, so if none appears, mark it "No Overview" and leave that check out of your total.
If your results page shows an AI Mode tab, you can run the questions there too. Count it as a bonus check.
Step 5: Score yourself with the 9-point grid
Fill in one row per question. Count a Yes as 1 point and a Sometimes as half a point.
| Question | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Google AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question 1 | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No |
| Question 2 | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No |
| Question 3 | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No | Yes / Sometimes / No |
What does your AI search score mean?
| Score (out of 9) | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Invisible. AI tools don't connect your business to this work. | Start with the foundations: Google Business Profile, reviews, and a website that answers buyer questions. |
| 1–3 | A foothold. One tool knows you, but the others don't. | Build consistency so the same name and services show up everywhere. |
| 4–6 | In the conversation. You're one of several names. | Work on depth. Answer more buyer questions than your competitors do. |
| 7–9 | Winning. You're a regular recommendation. | Keep publishing and keep your information fresh. Rerun the audit quarterly. |
Your score is a snapshot, not a verdict. A 2 doesn't mean your business is bad. It means AI tools don't have enough clear information about you to recommend you with confidence.
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What happened when I ran this audit for a real contractor?
I ran this audit in November 2026 for a home performance company in North Texas. They have a building science certification, a perfect 5.0 rating on Google, and they do excellent work. I asked about spray foam in their hometown, home energy assessments in Frisco, and attic reinsulation in Southlake. They scored 0 out of 9.
| Question | ChatGPT (2 runs) | Perplexity | Google AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best spray foam company in their hometown | No / No | No | No |
| Home energy assessments in Frisco, TX | No / No | No | No |
| Reinsulate my attic in Southlake, TX | No / No | No | No |
ChatGPT recommended J&E Spray Foam first, two runs in a row. Google's AI Overview listed four other spray foam companies in their own hometown, starting with Lone Star Insulation. Perplexity cited HomeAdvisor, BBB, Thumbtack, and competitors' city pages, but never their website.
Here's what surprised me. Google knew exactly who they were. When I searched the business name, Google showed their profile and an AI Overview about them. They even had city pages on their website. The problem wasn't that they didn't exist. Nothing connected them to the questions buyers actually ask.
Notice what the businesses that did show up had in common. Lone Star Insulation had 156 Google reviews. Koala Insulation had 135. Superior Attic had 573. My client had 6.
Great work doesn't get you recommended. Proof that AI tools can find does.
Now, I don't think reviews are the only thing AI tools weigh. But when every business they recommend has more than 20 times your review count, that's the first gap to close.
What mistakes make the self-audit inaccurate?
- Searching your own name. This only proves AI tools know you exist. It doesn't show whether they recommend you.
- Using your normal ChatGPT. Your chat history can make ChatGPT more likely to mention you. Test logged out or in an unpersonalized Temporary Chat.
- Using industry jargon. Homeowners ask about "AC repair," not "HVAC service and diagnostics." Ask the way your customer talks.
- Leaving out the city. Local questions without a location get answers that don't fit your market.
- Testing once and panicking. One answer can change tomorrow. Run each question twice and look for the pattern.
Why doesn't AI search recommend my business?
AI tools recommend the businesses they can verify and understand. When a business doesn't show up, the cause is usually missing information, not bad work. Common gaps include a thin Google Business Profile, few recent reviews, no presence on the directories AI tools read, and a website that never answers the questions buyers ask.
I've watched this happen for years. A contractor does great work, and the referrals carry them. Then the way people search changes. The website doesn't. The next thing you know, a newer company with half the experience gets named by ChatGPT, simply because its online presence answers the questions.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this means you need to rebuild everything this week. It means you need to know your score and fix the biggest gap first. These posts break down the fixes:
- Why Your Website Isn't Showing Up in ChatGPT (And How to Fix It)
- The 5 Signals AI Tools Use to Decide Who to Recommend
- AEO for Service Businesses: A Practical Guide to Getting Cited by AI
- What Is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Should you fix a low score yourself or hire help?
You can fix it yourself if you have time to do it every month. That means asking every customer for a review, keeping your Google Business Profile active, and publishing clear answers to the questions buyers ask.
Most of the contractors I work with hire it out. It isn't that they can't do it. They're running crews and jobs, and the online side keeps sliding to next week. If that sounds familiar, take the Marketing Health Check. It scores your business across 7 areas in about 5 minutes and shows you what to fix first.
Your Marketing Isn't Bringing in Leads and You Can't Figure Out Why
Score your marketing across 7 key areas in 5 minutes and find out exactly what's holding back your leads and what to fix first.
So here's my question. Run the audit this week. Which number did you get?
If it was lower than you'd like, watch the short walkthrough of how I help contractors get found and booked.
Want a website built on a system, not guesswork?
Send me a message and tell me about your project. I'll come back with a clear picture of what your site needs to do and a rough budget range, whether you hire me or not.
Questions You Might Be Asking
Yes. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google all have free versions that work for this audit, and you don't need to log in to any of them. The only cost is about 15 minutes of your time.
Write down which competitors and sites appear, then study them. Compare their Google review count to yours, check which directories list them, and look at how many buyer questions their website answers. That gives you a benchmark to match and then beat.
Start with your top three revenue services. That shows you where you're invisible and where you already have traction. Add more services once you've fixed the biggest gaps.
Run it monthly for the first three months after you start making changes, then quarterly. AI answers shift over time, so a regular check shows whether your work is paying off.
ChatGPT writes a new answer every time, so the businesses it names can change between runs. That's why the audit asks you to run each question twice and track the pattern, not a single result.
Not always. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews pull from different sources and weigh them differently. That's why the audit checks all three separately.
Close to it, but not word for word. The bigger mistake is using industry jargon when your buyer would use plain language. Ask "who can fix my AC" before you ask about "HVAC diagnostics."
