AI search optimization for a plumbing company
Homeowners have started asking ChatGPT and Google's AI answers who to call before they open a map. Those systems do not rank pages the way search did. They pull a few sources that answer a question plainly and agree with each other, then name a business or two. Three things have to line up: your site answers real questions in plain sentences, your name address and phone match everywhere, and your Google profile looks established. Median review count here is 21 and 34.3% sit under ten, so the bar is low.
The mistake is treating this as a keyword problem. Stuffing "best plumber in town" into a page does nothing. A page saying what a water heater replacement costs in your area, as a range, with the variables listed, is what gets quoted back to a homeowner.
At two weeks, working means clean schema and an llms.txt in place, four or five question-and-answer pages published, and a written baseline of what the assistants say today.