Field guide · Get found by AI · UK 2026
Is your business invisible to AI? A 7-point check
Here is an uncomfortable test. Open ChatGPT and ask it for a good tradesman in your trade and your town. Then read the Google AI Overview for the same search. If your business is not named, you are invisible to AI, and a growing share of customers, around 68% of whom now use AI to research local services, never see you. The good news is that this is fixable, and fewer than one in ten firms has bothered, so the bar is low.
Being invisible to AI is rarely about the work. Plenty of excellent trades get skipped simply because an assistant cannot find, read or confirm enough about them. This is a plain seven-point check across those three things, find you, read you, trust you, with the fix for each. Run it in twenty minutes and you will know exactly which signal is letting you down.
To check if your trade business is invisible to AI, run seven checks across three questions: can AI find you (claimed Google Business Profile, consistent details, correct category), can it read you (plain-text services and an FAQ on a site you own), and can it trust you (genuine reviews, consistent third-party mentions). Fail any and an assistant skips you for a rival it can describe. Fixing them takes one to three months.
Why a good tradesman can be invisible to AI
AI assistants name businesses they can find, read and verify across more than one source, so a skilled trade with messy or thin online information gets skipped for a rival the assistant can describe with confidence.
Find, read, trust: the three things AI needs
An assistant does not judge your workmanship. It pattern-matches across sources and recommends the businesses it can stand behind. That breaks down into three questions. Can it find you at all? Can it read what you do in plain words? Can it trust you enough to put your name in an answer? The seven checks below sit under those three. If you would rather have the full method first, our guide to getting found on AI search walks it end to end; this page is the quick self-audit.
The 7-point check at a glance
Can AI find you? Checks 1 to 3
If your Google Business Profile is unclaimed, your details differ across the web, or your category is wrong, an assistant cannot reliably locate you, so the first three checks are about being findable and consistent.
Check 1: profile claimed and verified
Your Google Business Profile is the single source assistants lean on hardest for local trades. If it is unclaimed, half-filled or unverified, you are starting from behind. Claim it, verify it, fill in every field, add real photos. Google's Business Profile Help covers verification, and our Google Business Profile setup guide walks the whole thing for trades.
Check 2: details match everywhere
One number on Facebook, a slightly different business name on an old directory, a service area that says one thing here and another there: every mismatch makes a machine less sure it is looking at one real business. Pick one exact name, one number, one way of writing your towns, and make every place agree. This single tidy-up lifts you in both Google and AI.
Check 3: correct trade category
If your primary category is vague or wrong, you will be matched to the wrong questions or none at all. Set it to what you actually do, an electrician is "Electrician", not "Handyman", and add the relevant secondary categories. It is a two-minute fix that decides which customer questions you are even eligible to be the answer for.
Can AI read you? Checks 4 and 5
Assistants quote plain sentences, so if your services, towns and prices live inside images or a social page rather than as readable text on a site you own, there is nothing for AI to lift, and checks 4 and 5 close that gap.
Check 4: services, towns and prices in plain text
Trades often put their whole pitch into a graphic or a flyer image, then wonder why search ignores it. An assistant cannot reliably read words baked into a picture. Your trade, your area and roughly what things cost need to exist as actual text on a page. A site built properly, with real headings and readable copy, is legible to every assistant by default. See what a tradesman website should include for the sections that do this.
Check 5: a real FAQ that matches how people ask
A short FAQ that answers the questions customers actually ask is close to ideal for AI, because it matches the shape of a prompt almost exactly. "Do you cover emergency call-outs?" "How much is a consumer unit replacement?" Answer those plainly and an assistant can lift them straight into a reply. It also reassures the human reader at the same time, so it earns its place twice.
Can AI trust you? Checks 6 and 7
Assistants only name a business they can confirm is real and good, so genuine reviews that describe the work and consistent mentions elsewhere are what turn "found and readable" into "recommended".
Check 6: genuine reviews that name the job
A business with thirty real reviews that mention the work, "fixed our leak the same day", gives an assistant something concrete to repeat. One with none gives it nothing. Ask every happy customer while you are still on site. Our guide to getting more Google reviews as a tradesman covers the polite asks that work, and the 2026 review rules to stay the right side of.
Check 7: consistent mentions across sources
When your website, profile and a couple of relevant listings all say the same thing, that agreement reads as "real and reliable" to an assistant. Google's own guidance on AI features and your website stresses that the normal basics, readable content and a verified profile, are what decide whether you show up in AI experiences. Consistency is the quiet signal that ties it all together.
Your score, and what to fix first
Count your passes out of seven: five or more and you are in good shape, three to four and a readable website is usually the missing piece, two or fewer and you are effectively invisible, so fix in the order find, then read, then trust.
1. Run the find/read/trust test: search your trade and town in ChatGPT and a Google AI Overview, and mark which of the seven checks you fail.
2. Fix the two cheapest gaps first: claim and tidy your Google Business Profile, and ask two recent customers for a review.
3. Make sure your services, towns and a few prices exist as plain text on a page you own, the one fix that helps Google and AI at once.
Score yourself, then fix in order
Count your passes. Five to seven and you are in good shape; keep the reviews coming. Three to four and you are findable but thin, usually a readable website is the missing piece. Zero to two and you are effectively invisible, start with the profile and one clear page. The order matters: find first, then read, then trust.
The bottom line: give AI something to stand on
Most of these checks come back to one thing an assistant can read and a platform cannot take away: a clear website you own. I'll build you a free mockup of your actual business before you pay anything, with your services, towns and answers in plain readable text. Like it? A one-pager is £395 (founding price; £500 after the first 10 clients), a full site £595, with optional hosting at £20/month, no contract. Usually live in about a week. See the tradesman website cost page or apply at sitework.uk/#apply.