Try this tonight. Open ChatGPT and type "Who's a good roofer in [your town]?" See who it names.
Maybe it's you. Maybe it's a competitor. Maybe it's a company that closed two years ago. Either way, some of your customers are already asking questions like that, and the answer they get shapes who they call.
That is what people mean by AI search, and you have more say in it than you might think.
What "AI search" means
AI search is when someone asks a tool a question and gets a written answer back instead of a list of links. The main ones you'll run into:
- ChatGPT, which can search the web when it answers
- Gemini, Google's AI assistant
- Google AI Overviews, the AI summary that shows up above the normal results on some Google searches
- Perplexity, Copilot, and others that work in a similar way
Ask any of them "best plumber near me" or "how much does it cost to replace a water heater in Tampa" and you'll get a paragraph back. Often with a few business names in it.
Where these tools get their answers
These tools don't know your business personally. They read what's already out there and put an answer together from it.
That usually means some mix of:
- Websites, including yours and your competitors'
- Review sites and the reviews on them
- Business listings like your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places, and the BBB
- Directories and local sites that mention you
- Articles, forums, and other pages that talk about businesses in your area
The tool looks for sources that clearly answer the question. Then it writes a summary, and sometimes it links to where it got the information.
So if your website is vague, your listings disagree with each other, and nobody online mentions you, the tool doesn't have much to work with. It will lean on businesses that are easier to understand.
Why some contractors get named and others don't
Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how each tool decides. They don't publish a rulebook, and they change things often. But the pattern is pretty common sense. The businesses that get mentioned tend to be the ones that are easy to understand and easy to confirm.
Easy to understand means it's obvious what you do and where. Your website says "We repair and replace roofs in Brandon, Riverview, and Valrico," not just "Quality service you can trust."
Easy to confirm means other places agree with you. Your Google profile, your reviews, and your listings all say the same name, phone, services, and area. Customers describe the jobs you did in their reviews.
When the tool sees the same facts in several places, it has more reason to trust them.
What you can do to be a clear answer
None of this is a trick. It's mostly the same work that helps real people choose you.
Say exactly what you do and where, on your website
Give each main service its own page. Name the towns you serve. Use the words your customers use. "Emergency AC repair" beats "comfort solutions."
Add a short FAQ to your main pages that answers questions people really ask: Do you do free estimates? Are you licensed and insured? How soon can you come out? AI tools pull direct answers to direct questions, so write them plainly.
Make your business details match everywhere
Your business name, address, and phone number should be identical on your website, your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, Bing Places, and every directory you're on. If you changed your number or moved, hunt down the old listings and fix them. Our Google Business Profile checklist covers this step by step.
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and active
Gemini and Google AI Overviews come from Google, and your Google profile is one of the clearest sources it has about your business. Fill out every section. Add photos. Keep your hours right.
Earn real reviews that describe the job
Ask every happy customer for a review. If they mention what you did and where ("They fixed our leaking roof in Brandon the same week"), that's more useful to a reader, and to a tool trying to understand you, than "Great job!" Never buy reviews or write your own. It's against Google's rules and it can backfire badly.
Get mentioned in real places
Local news stories, your supplier's website, a chamber of commerce listing, a sponsorship page for the Little League team you support. Each real mention is another place that confirms you exist and what you do.
Make sure your site can be read
Some websites accidentally block the bots these tools use to read pages. Others hide their text in ways that are hard for a machine to read. If you're not sure, ask whoever built your site. A fast, simple site with real text on the page is the safest bet. If yours needs work, here's what a contractor website should cost.
The honest part
Nobody can promise you'll be recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI tool. Not us, not anyone. These tools change how they work all the time, and two people asking the same question can get different answers.
If someone guarantees you'll show up in AI answers, be careful. What you can do is give these tools clear, consistent, true information about your business, in the places they look. That improves your odds. It also helps the humans who look you up, which is the point anyway.
That's the work our AEO and GEO service does, for $200 a month. AEO and GEO are just names for this: answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization. It pairs well with regular SEO and local SEO and Google Business Profile work, since a lot of the groundwork overlaps.
Want to know where you stand?
We'll check what the main AI tools say about your business and walk you through what we'd fix first. Get a free quote.