How is AI search changing how customers find trades?

AI search puts a short answer between your customer and the list of local trades. Someone searching for a boiler repair can now read an AI summary above the results, or ask ChatGPT who covers their town, and see a handful of names rather than ten websites. Clear, consistent services, areas, call-outs and registrations on your website, Business Profile and listings give those tools facts they can repeat about you.

That's a change in who does the comparing. It used to be the customer, clicking between sites. Now it's an AI tool, reading those sites for them. Here's what that means for a plumbing, electrical, roofing or building business, and what to fix first.

How many people see AI answers when they search?

Enough that you can't treat it as a side issue. Ofcom's research on how the UK goes online, published in December 2025, says about 30% of searches now show AI overviews, and 53% of adults say they see these summaries often. The same report counted 1.8 billion UK visits to ChatGPT in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same period of 2024.

Ofcom found Google Search is used by 82% of adults, so Google still matters. The difference is what people read first. On about 30% of searches that's a summary written by AI, and on ChatGPT it's a short answer with a few names in it.

What changes for a local trade business?

Three things, and none of them needs a new website if yours is sound.

First, the urgent job gets a precise question. "Emergency electrician open now near Huddersfield" has three conditions in it: the job, the hours and the place. A website that never says whether you take emergency call-outs, or when, can't be matched to that question however good your work is.

Second, your areas have to be written down. A map on your contact page tells a person where you work. It tells a text-reading tool very little. The towns and postcodes you cover need to be in plain words on the pages that describe your services.

Third, your listings have to agree. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode can run several related searches to build one answer, so your site, Business Profile and directory listings can all feed into it. An old phone number on a directory or a trading name you dropped years ago puts two versions of you in front of the tool.

How do AI tools decide which tradespeople to name?

They start with what they're allowed to read. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites which opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Google's guidance on AI features, last updated in December 2025, says a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet before it can be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

Three gaps are worth checking first on a trade website: service details that only exist in a downloadable price list, a robots.txt rule that blocks crawlers, and service pages Google hasn't indexed.

After access, the tool matches the job to facts. Someone asking for an emergency plumber in Cardiff wants a business that does emergency call-outs, covers Cardiff and has proof it does the work well. Google's guidance says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for its AI features, and it lists practical basics instead: important content in textual form, structured data that matches the visible text, and Merchant Center and Business Profile information kept up to date. For a trade, that's your services, areas, prices or call-out fees and registrations, in words on the page.

Why do your service areas need to be written down?

Because a trade job happens at an address. Google lets service-area businesses set up to 20 service areas on their Business Profile, by city, postcode or similar, and says the overall area shouldn't be more than about two hours of driving time from where you're based.

Your website should tell the same story as your profile. List the towns you cover on your service pages, and where a town brings in enough work to justify it, give it its own page that says what you do there. Keep the list honest. Claiming a town you never travel to wins you calls you'll turn down and reviews that don't match.

Which credentials should you show, and where?

Show every registration you hold, as text, with the numbers. For gas work this isn't a choice: the government's register of regulated professions says Gas Safe registration is a legal requirement for anyone carrying out gas work in the UK. Put your Gas Safe number on your boiler and heating pages and anyone, person or AI tool, can check it.

Do the same for every trade body or competent person scheme you belong to. Name the scheme, say what it covers you for and give the number, on the service page where it's relevant rather than only in your About page.

Do reviews still matter when customers ask AI?

Yes. Reviews are evidence that sits outside your own website, and they're the part of your reputation you can't write yourself. Ask for reviews that name the job and the place, such as a consumer unit swapped in Leeds or a flat roof replaced in Stockport. They back up what your service pages claim, in your customers' words.

Ask every happy customer, every time, and make it easy with a direct link. Reply to the reviews you get, good and bad, so anyone reading them sees how you deal with problems.

Should you still pay for Google Ads and SEO?

Yes. AI answers sit on top of search, they don't replace it. The same indexed pages that rank in Google are the ones Google's AI features can link to, so SEO is the groundwork for being named. Google Ads still puts you in front of someone with an urgent job who wants to ring a number now.

That's why we run them together. In the DLR Growth Engine, GEO runs every day next to SEO, Google Ads and Meta Ads, with a free custom website worth £4,500, for £1,499 a month + VAT on a 12-month term. See how that works in practice with SEO for plumbers and Google Ads for electricians, or read our page on GEO for trades.

What should you do this month?

Do these four jobs, in this order.

• Check that search crawlers can reach every service page.
• Write the towns and postcodes you cover onto your service pages, and set the same areas on your Business Profile.
• Say whether you take emergency call-outs, and when.
• Put your registrations and scheme numbers on your pages as text.

Then ask your last ten happy customers for a review that names the job and the town, put the questions your customers ask into ChatGPT and Google, and note who gets named. Do it again next month. Our guide to checking whether AI assistants recommend your business sets out how.

Frequently asked questions

Do customers still use Google to find tradespeople?

Yes. Ofcom found Google Search is used by 82% of adults. What's changed is that about 30% of searches now show an AI overview, which sits above the list of businesses.

How do I get my trade business recommended by AI tools?

Let search crawlers reach your site, write your services, areas and registrations in plain text, keep your details the same on every listing and build reviews that name the job and the town. Then test the questions your customers ask every month.

Does my website need rebuilding for AI search?

No, not if it can be crawled, loads properly and states what you do and where. If your services, areas and registrations are only in images, logos or a map, those pages need rewriting.

What does DLR Media charge for GEO?

GEO runs every day inside the Growth Engine at £1,499 a month + VAT on a 12-month term, with SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads and a free custom website worth £4,500. Ad spend is paid separately.

Find out what AI says about your business

Want to know whether ChatGPT and Google's AI name you for the jobs you want? Call us on +44 1382 699595 or book a free call.