AI Search for Home Service Businesses: How Plumbers, HVAC and Roofers Get Recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Mode for a plumber, the answer is assembled from a small set of sources — and the data on which ones is now public. Here's what it shows, and what it means for a trade business.
AI search for home service businesses means getting your company named when a homeowner asks ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews or Google's AI Mode for a plumber, HVAC company, roofer or electrician. The best available data shows those answers lean heavily on a few sources: your Google Business Profile, Yelp, and your own website. For a trade business, that makes AI visibility mostly an extension of local SEO, not a separate discipline.
Key takeaways
- In a 2026 study of nearly two million AI citations for local businesses, Google Business Profile was the single largest source, at roughly 28.5% of all citations.
- Yelp appeared as a source in 80% of ChatGPT's local answers in the same study, which makes it far more important for ChatGPT than its overall share suggests.
- For plumbers specifically, Google was over half of all citations in the study's sample, with Yelp second.
- Around 93% of the domains cited were individual business websites, so your own site still matters, particularly clear service and area pages.
- Most of what is sold as "AI optimization" for trades, such as llms.txt files, special schema and guaranteed AI rankings, has no measured effect.
Want to know whether AI assistants recommend you right now? On a free strategy call we check what ChatGPT and Google's AI say when someone asks for your trade in your area, and where the gaps are. Book it here.
Where AI answers for local trades come from
The clearest public data comes from BrightLocal, which published a study in August 2026 covering Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT. It ran 60,970 checks for 1,355 business locations across the US, UK and Australia, and recorded 1,967,762 citations across 116,670 domains (BrightLocal).
Across all the businesses in the study, the sources broke down like this:
| Source | Share of all AI citations | Share of businesses where it was cited |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Business Profile) | ~28.6% | ~94% |
| Yelp | ~9.5% | — |
| 2.23% | 93.06% | |
| BBB | 0.33% | 29.30% |
| Angi | 0.24% | 18.97% |
| Nextdoor | 0.08% | 14.32% |
The figures come from BrightLocal's tables. Its own summary rounds some differently: it gives 28.5% for Google, and its summary and table disagree on Yelp (8.53% vs 9.53%). Treat the numbers as close approximations, not precise measurements.
What it looked like for plumbers
The study broke results down by business type. For plumbers, across 26,672 citations, the leading sources were:
| Source | Share of plumber citations |
|---|---|
| Google (Business Profile) | 54% |
| Yelp | 13.8% |
| 3.1% | |
| Angi | 2.2% |
| HomeAdvisor | 0.9% |
| BBB | 0.9% |
The plumber sample was small, about 28 locations, so read it as a strong indication rather than a law. But the direction matches the wider "services" category, where Google was 45% and Yelp 12.3%. For a trade business, the Google Business Profile is the source AI answers draw on most.
ChatGPT and Google draw on different sources
The headline number hides a split between platforms. Google's AI features lean on Google's own Business Profile data. ChatGPT leans on Yelp: BrightLocal found Yelp appeared as a source in 80% of ChatGPT's answers. A plumber with an excellent Google profile and no Yelp presence may show up well in Google's AI Overviews and barely at all in ChatGPT.
What a trade business should do, in order
1. Get the Google Business Profile right
Everything in our plumbing SEO guide applies, because the same profile feeds both the map pack and Google's AI answers. Google's own guide to AI search recommends a Business Profile for local businesses as part of being understood by its AI features (Google Search Central).
- Verify the profile, and pick a precise primary category.
- List each service individually, with a short description.
- Set an honest service area. Don't use a virtual office or an address you don't operate from; that can get the profile suspended.
- Keep hours accurate, including whether you genuinely answer after hours.
- Add real photos of real jobs.
2. Claim and complete your Yelp listing
This is the most overlooked step for trades, and it's free. Given how heavily ChatGPT drew on Yelp in BrightLocal's data, an unclaimed or empty Yelp page is a gap in exactly the place ChatGPT looks. Claim it, fill in the services and service area, add photos, and keep the details identical to your Google profile.
3. Make your own website easy to quote
Business websites made up about 93% of the domains cited in the study. That's a count of domains, not a share of citations, but it means your own site is very much in play. AI assistants work from short excerpts. A 2026 analysis of how ChatGPT retrieves pages found the model mostly sees a page's title, URL and a short snippet anchored on its main heading, and fully opens only a small fraction of pages (RESONEO).
In practice that means:
- One page per service, with a heading that says plainly what it is: "Emergency Drain Cleaning in Winnipeg", not "Our Solutions".
- The answer near the top. Say what you do, where you do it, and roughly what it costs in the first paragraph.
- Specific, checkable details. Your service area, response times, licensing and typical price ranges are all things an assistant can repeat.
4. Be consistent everywhere else
Facebook, BBB, Angi and HomeAdvisor were each a small share of citations, but they turned up for a large share of businesses. Facebook was cited for 93% of them. Each listing should give the same name, phone number and service area as your website and Google profile. When the details conflict, an assistant has less reason to be confident they all describe the same business.
5. Earn reviews the honest way
Reviews sit on the platforms AI answers draw from, and they're what a homeowner reads before calling. Ask every satisfied customer at the end of the job, with a direct link. Don't buy reviews, fake them or offer anything in return. Google's policies prohibit it, and so do the US Federal Trade Commission's rules on fake reviews.
6. Don't block the AI crawlers
If your site blocks OpenAI's search crawler, ChatGPT can't read your pages properly. OpenAI's documentation says any public site can appear in ChatGPT search provided it doesn't block OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI). Some security plugins and firewall settings block unfamiliar bots by default, so it's worth a check.
What not to pay for
- llms.txt files. Google has said it doesn't use them, and large-scale analysis found no link between having one and being cited. Our GEO guide covers the evidence.
- Schema markup sold as an AI lever. A 2026 controlled study of 1,885 pages found adding structured data had no clear positive effect on AI citations. Schema is fine for other reasons; it isn't a shortcut into ChatGPT.
- "Guaranteed AI rankings." Nobody controls what an AI assistant says. Answers vary by wording, location and even from one run to the next.
- Fake reviews or fake locations. Both risk the Google profile, which is the source AI answers rely on most.
How to check where you stand
Ask the assistants yourself, the way a homeowner would: "Who's a good emergency plumber in [your city]?" or "Best HVAC company near [your suburb]". Do it in ChatGPT, in Google's AI Mode and with a normal Google search, and repeat each a few times, because answers change. Then note:
- Whether you're named at all
- Which competitors are named, and what sources the answer links to
- Whether the details shown about you are correct
The linked sources are the useful part: they tell you exactly which listings the assistant trusted for your area.
The honest limits of the data
BrightLocal's study is the largest public dataset on AI citations for local businesses, but it's a vendor study with some internal inconsistencies. It covers the US, UK and Australia, not Canada. The plumber subsample is small. And AI platforms change how they pick sources often, sometimes within weeks. The direction is clear and consistent across the data; the exact percentages will move.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my plumbing business recommended by ChatGPT?
Start with Yelp and your own website. In BrightLocal's 2026 study, Yelp appeared as a source in 80% of ChatGPT's local answers. Claim and complete your Yelp listing, keep your details identical to your Google Business Profile, and give each service a clear page on your website. Nobody can guarantee a recommendation, because answers vary.
Where do Google's AI Overviews get local business information?
Mostly from Google Business Profiles. In BrightLocal's study of nearly two million AI citations, Google was the largest single source, at about 28.5% overall and 54% of citations for plumbers. Your own website, Yelp, Facebook and trade directories make up much of the rest.
Is AI search different from local SEO for a trade business?
Mostly not. The sources AI answers rely on for local trades are the same ones local SEO already works on: your Google Business Profile, reviews, directory listings and service pages. The main addition is giving Yelp more weight than you might for Google alone, because ChatGPT relies on it heavily.
Do I need a special file or code for AI search?
No. llms.txt files and extra schema markup have not been shown to increase AI citations. What matters is that AI crawlers aren't blocked from your site, and that your pages state clearly what you do, where, and roughly what it costs.
How long does it take to show up in AI answers?
It depends on how complete your listings already are. Fixing a Google Business Profile or claiming a Yelp page can change what assistants see fairly quickly, because they read those sources live. Building reviews and website authority takes months.
Want to know what ChatGPT and Google's AI say about your business? On a free strategy call we run the checks, show you which sources the answers trust in your area, and tell you honestly what to fix first.
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