When the heating fails on a Sunday evening, many people no longer type into Google but ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity: “Which plumber in Salzburg has an emergency service right now?” The answer names two or three businesses. Test here whether yours is among them and what moves it up.
Where AI chatbots get their recommendations
When asked about trades businesses, assistants such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or Perplexity usually search the web live. They read company websites, the Google Business Profile, reviews and business directories and turn them into a short recommendation. The AI Overviews above Google's search results work the same way.
Instead of ten results there are only a handful of names. The businesses that get named are the ones the AI can describe clearly: trade, area covered, services, availability and what customers say about them. If too much is missing or the details contradict each other, it would rather recommend a competitor.
What puts your business ahead in AI answers
A website with clear sentences: spell out what you do and where. “We replace gas boilers in the city of Salzburg and the Flachgau, usually within a week.” A chatbot will take a sentence like that almost word for word. A separate page for each service, such as bathroom renovation, heat pumps or emergency call-outs, helps even more.
The facts people ask about: emergency service and availability, the area you cover with towns and districts, master business status, languages spoken in the team and an honest price range, for example for the call-out charge or a boiler service. If a detail is missing, the AI cannot pass it on.
Structured data: with Schema.org markup such as LocalBusiness and the matching subtypes (Electrician, Plumber, RoofingContractor, HousePainter, AutoRepair), including address, opening hours and service area, machines can read your details without guessing. Our websites include this on every page automatically.
The same details everywhere: business name, address and phone number should be identical on your website, your Google profile, the chamber's company directory and business directories. Every discrepancy, even an old mobile number, makes the AI less certain.
Reviews and references: many recent reviews that you reply to are a strong signal. So are reference photos with the location and a short description, articles in the regional paper or a listing as a manufacturer's certified partner.
Technology: let the AI onto your site
Many AI crawlers do not run JavaScript and only see what is in the HTML itself. Text that only loads in the browser stays invisible to them. Also make sure your site loads quickly and that your robots.txt does not block search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Bingbot.
An llms.txt file does no harm, but as things stand it achieves little: there is no evidence that the big providers use it. It is no substitute for good content.
Specific beats loud
“Best plumber in town” impresses neither customers nor chatbots. What counts can be checked: how long the business has been around, how many people are on the team, which manufacturers' equipment you service, which towns you work in. Give that kind of information and you will be found by people and machines alike.