Word of mouth works, but you want more consistent lead flow. We help roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers and pest control companies earn a place in the Map Pack and the AI answers.
Home services SEO puts a trades company in Google's Map Pack, the organic results and the AI answers homeowners read. Home service businesses here means the trades that work at a customer's home. That includes roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pest control, lawn care and cleaning.
The work runs on one foundation. Your Google Business Profile, reviews, service pages and citations feed Google and ChatGPT at the same time. Spearleaf builds that foundation with the same local SEO system it runs in every market, then adds AI search optimization on top.
One agency reviewer on Trustpilot wrote, "The only 'input' I got from my sales rep was 'spend more money'." Another described "ALOT of clicks and no calls". We count booked jobs by source instead.
Every trade sells different jobs on a different calendar. Each page below covers the searches, seasons and rules for one of them.
Storm and hail seasons, insurance work and roof replacement searches. Built to win the calls before the storm, not after it.
Summer and winter demand swings, unsold replacement quotes and maintenance agreements. Built to keep the board full in mild weeks.
Emergency calls, water heater replacements and property management accounts. Built for a service-area business that drives to every job.
Plan renewals, pest seasons and one-time jobs that become plans. Built to fill the route with recurring customers.
Sort every channel by when it pays off. Google's help page on local ranking says no one can pay for a better ranking.
People who already paid you. Calling them costs time, not ad money, and it can fill a slow week. The list already sits in your invoicing software.
Property managers for plumbers, builders for electricians, realtors and home inspectors for most trades. They take months to build, then send work in quiet stretches.
Months of work up front. The calls that come from them carry no cost per click, and AI answers read the same reviews and pages.
Local Services Ads charge per lead and search ads charge per click. They cover this month, and the calls stop when the budget does.
Past customers already trust you. Give every call a real reason tied to their home. When the list runs long, Spearleaf also runs customer reactivation.
Plumbing: water heater installs from years back, since the heater's age is a real reason to check in.
HVAC: replacement quotes you gave and never sold, and maintenance customers who skipped a season.
Pest control: quarterly plans that lapsed.
Roofing: past roof customers before storm season, with an inspection offer.
Electrical: panel, generator or EV charger quotes that stalled.
Lawn care: last year's seasonal customers, before spring cleanup.
Cleaning: one-time cleans who never booked a second visit.
Calling your own customers still has rules. The FTC's Do Not Call guidance and the FCC's rule at 47 CFR 64.1200 set the federal floor. State laws can be stricter.
Past customers on the Do Not Call Registry can still get sales calls for 18 months after their last purchase. Anyone who asks you to stop goes on your own do-not-call list.
After an inquiry with no job, such as a quote request, the window is three months.
Sales calls to homes are allowed only from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., the customer's local time.
Autodialed or prerecorded sales calls to a cell phone need prior express written consent, and a text counts as a call.
A customer can revoke consent any reasonable way, and you must honor it within 10 business days.
Ask every customer for a review and offer nothing for it. Google's content policy bans incentives and asking only happy customers.
The FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews and rewards tied to a review's sentiment.
Put your license number on the site, the trucks and every ad where your state requires it. California's Contractors State License Board requires it.
For timing and the QR code, see how to find your Google review link. You can also use the free review link generator.
ChatGPT reads directories and review sites before it names a home service business, and the sites differ by trade. In Spearleaf's August 2026 study, bestprosintown.com was its most-cited site for plumbers, in 8 of 18 markets.
Consumeraffairs.com led for HVAC companies in 8 of 18 markets, and expertise.com led for roofing companies in 6 of 18. Among plumber cards that matched one platform, 36.2% showed Yelp's rating (21 of 58).
Location and review depth stood out. 92.0% of businesses ChatGPT showed had an address in the asked city (1,790 of 1,946). Businesses it showed again had a median of 226 reviews, against 164 for those it dropped.
Note the sites it cites and whether you are named. That gap is what AI search optimization closes, on the same foundation as your Google listing.
Paid ads cover this month, and the calls stop when the budget stops. Google's Local Services help says you are charged per valid lead.
Search ads charge per click at a price the auction sets. Eligible Local Services categories include plumbers, electricians, HVAC, roofers, pest control, lawn care and house cleaning.
A lead is not a booked job, so judge every paid source by what it books. Keep the ad accounts in your company's name. Spearleaf runs Google Ads management beside the organic work when you want both.
In this short, Joshua answers a plumber's question about whether marketing means Facebook posts or buying leads. He sorts the four ways by when each one pays off.
Paid covers this month. Past customers and property managers help fill slow weeks. The listing builds for next year.
Our clients came to us after agencies that didn’t deliver. Here’s what happens when the fundamentals are done right.
Monthly Google impressions for a pool service company
15 years in business. Its last agency had it for 3 years and moved nothing: 16 searches, almost all its own name.
Search Console · 28 days, Oct 2025 vs Sep 2026Searches where the same company ranks on page one
15 years in business. Its last agency had it for 3 years and moved nothing: 16 searches, almost all its own name.
Search Console · Mar vs Sep 2026Buyer questions where ChatGPT recommends the same client when asked who to hire
Real ChatGPT · Oct 2026Every figure comes from the client's own Search Console or a real ChatGPT answer. Percentages measure search visibility, not revenue, and results vary by market.
Website, SEO and AI search for a Long Beach pool company. 14x Google impressions, 429 page-one searches, and ChatGPT's pick in 5 of 6 buyer questions.
Read the case study →Paid covers this month, past customers and partners fill slow weeks, and the listing builds for next year.
Local Services Ads or search ads, kept only while they book jobs at a profit.
A block of calls to past customers, each with a real reason, plus one visit with a partner.
A review request with nothing offered in return, plus job photos for your listing.
A new service page and a ChatGPT check for your trade and town.
Ask every caller how they heard about you. Divide each source's cost by the jobs it booked.
You get a written quote after a free audit of your market.
Google Business Profile optimization with every service and town you cover.
A service page for each job you sell, such as water heater repair or AC replacement.
Citation cleanup across the directories ChatGPT and Google read for your trade.
A review system inside Google's rules, with replies written in your voice.
Visibility tracking across ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok.
Call and form tracking, reported as booked jobs by source.
It puts a trades company in Google's Map Pack, organic results and AI answers when homeowners search. It covers your Google Business Profile, reviews, service pages and citations. Start with the profile, then build a page for every job you sell.
Home services SEO cost depends on your trade, the towns you serve, local competition and how much listing cleanup comes first. The state of your current site matters too. You get a written quote after a free audit of your market.
Expect months, not weeks. Google's help page on local ranking says prominence builds from reviews and links from other websites, and those take time. Start now, and keep paid ads running while the listing grows.
Local Services Ads charge per valid lead, while search ads charge per click. Compare both by cost per booked job, not cost per lead.
No one controls how many homeowners call. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Ask any agency what it will do each month, and what you will be able to measure.
It depends on your hours. Calling past customers and asking for reviews needs no agency. Hire help for the slow-building parts, the listing, the pages and the AI answers, if you would rather run jobs.
Watch both. In Spearleaf's August 2026 study, Google's local pack held at 0.82 overlap across two checks days apart, while ChatGPT's picks held at 0.36. Keep your Google listing strong, and check what ChatGPT says each month.
Your Google Business Profile, website, domain and ad accounts. Spearleaf clients own their profile, website and domain, and keep everything if they leave. Check who holds admin access on each one today.
Joshua Albanese is the King of AI SEO and the founder of Spearleaf, an SEO and AI search optimization agency. Joshua Albanese took his own business to number one in Chicago. He then took six more businesses to number one and ranked first again in a new market.
Joshua Albanese delivers every Spearleaf engagement personally. Read the legend at kingofaiseo.com or the short answer at whoisthekingofaiseo.com. More about Spearleaf.
Tell us your trade and the jobs you want more of. We will show you where you rank today, on Google and in ChatGPT, and what to fix first.
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