Getting found in Google and ChatGPT: a plain guide for trades
Search is splitting in two: classic Google results and AI answers. Here's what trades need to do to show up in both.
For years, "getting found" meant ranking on Google. That still matters, but more and more people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overview for a recommendation and act on the answer. If your business isn't legible to those systems, you're invisible in a fast-growing slice of search.
The good news: the work that wins one largely wins the other. Here's the plain version.
Classic SEO still does the heavy lifting
The fundamentals haven't changed, and they still bring the most jobs:
- A fast, mobile-friendly site: most trade searches happen on a phone
- A page per service: the words people actually type
- A complete Google Business Profile: categories, photos, hours, reviews
- Steady reviews: the single biggest local-ranking lever most trades ignore
Get these right and you'll rank for the searches that put work on the books. This is the core of our SEO & Local SEO work.
Local is where trade jobs are won
Nobody hires "an electrician". They hire an electrician in their town. A page for each area you cover, with genuinely local detail, beats one vague "areas we cover" list every time. It's slower to build and far harder for competitors to copy.
Making yourself quotable to AI
AI answers favour content that's clear, structured and factual: plain answers to real questions, proper headings, and structured data (schema) that spells out who you are, what you do and where. That's what people mean by AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation.
A few moves make you "quotable":
- Answer real questions directly, in plain English, with a heading per question
- Add schema (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ) so machines can read your facts
- Keep an
llms.txtand clean, factual pages AI can cite with confidence - Be consistent everywhere: same name, number and address
The goal is simple: when someone asks an AI "who's a good electrician near me?", your business is one it can confidently name.
A simple checklist
- Service page per trade + a local page per town
- Google Business Profile complete, reviews coming in monthly
- Site fast on mobile
- Schema on key pages
- Clear, factual answers to the questions customers actually ask
Want the AI half done properly? See AEO, get found by AI, or book a free call and we'll audit where you stand in both kinds of search.
By Lumith