Your next customer is asking ChatGPT who to call.
Right now, 45 percent of people looking for a local contractor are asking an AI first. Only 1.2 percent of local businesses ever get recommended. This is the full playbook for being one of them. Every step, every setting, every copy-and-paste block. No course, no upsell.
Your name and email, nothing else. We send the PDF and that is it.
The research phase moved, and nobody told the trades.
A homeowner used to Google "HVAC company Baltimore," look at three websites, and call one.
Now they ask ChatGPT "who is the best HVAC company in Baltimore and what should a new system cost." They get a paragraph with two or three company names in it. Then they call one of those.
If you are not in that paragraph, you never got a chance to be considered. There is no page two to be on.
Here is the part that should get your attention: only about 45 percent of the businesses winning in normal search are the ones getting recommended by AI. Ranking well is not enough anymore, and being invisible is not something you will notice happening.
Everything we know, written down.
We build websites and run marketing for contractors. This playbook is our actual method, not a teaser for it.
The free 25-prompt audit that shows you exactly where you stand across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. Takes 45 minutes.
The robots.txt file that decides whether AI systems can see your site at all, ready to copy and paste. A lot of contractor sites are blocking them right now by accident.
The one Google Search Console setting added in June 2026 that controls whether you are eligible for AI answers.
The Google Business Profile field that jumped to third among AI visibility factors this year, and the one ranked 148th out of 187 that everybody is still wasting an hour a week on.
Why ChatGPT pulls from Yelp for most local business cards, and the one hour of work that fixes it.
The service page template that answers the question in the first two sentences.
How to publish real prices without giving away your business.
The 12 pages worth writing, in build order.
How to get on the "best of" lists that AI systems cite far more often than anything on your own site.
Free tracking setup so you can see AI traffic in Google Analytics.
Seven things being sold to contractors right now that do nothing, with a citation for each.
A 30-day plan, a 54-point scorecard, and a printable tracking sheet.
Every number in it has a source.
Most AI marketing advice is guesswork written confidently. We cited a real study or a platform's own documentation for every claim in this playbook, and where the evidence is thin we say so instead of rounding it up.
That includes the parts that are inconvenient for us. There is a whole section on things agencies sell that do not work.
of AI citations about local businesses trace back to Google Business Profile. It is free and most contractors have it half filled in.
of AI citations in professional services come from other people's lists, not your own website.
where "how often you post on Google Business Profile" ranks out of 187 local search factors.
Written for contractors, not marketers.
This is for you if you run an HVAC, roofing, plumbing, landscaping, pond, remodeling, electrical, paving or home service company, you have a website and a Google listing, and you would rather understand this once than pay someone forever to handle it vaguely.
You do not need to be technical. Where something requires touching code, we give you the exact block and you can forward it to whoever manages your site.
It is roughly one focused weekend of work.
Why are we giving this away?
Fair question.
Two reasons. First, most contractors will read it, do three or four things, and never contact us. That is fine. It is still better than them buying an expensive "AI optimization" package that does nothing.
Second, some of them will read it, realize they do not have a weekend, and call us. That is a much better first conversation than a cold pitch, because they already know what we would actually be doing.
We show our prices on our website and we work month to month with no contracts. Giving away the method fits how we do everything else.
Get the playbook.
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