Trades are the most searched-for category of local business worldwide. Plumbers, electricians, and builders generate millions of local searches every month with high urgency — a boiler breakdown, a tripped fuse board, a leaking roof. People need someone now.
AI search is accelerating this. Instead of scrolling through Google results, people are increasingly asking ChatGPT or Perplexity to find them someone. AI gives one name. That business gets the call.
Right now, the businesses getting those calls are not the best in the area — they're the ones whose technical signals happen to be correct.
Schema.org has specific business types for every trade — Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor, GeneralContractor and more.
Using the right one tells AI exactly what category to place you in when it's building its answer.
AI needs to know where you work. A plumber covering a 20-mile radius around Sheffield needs that declared in schema — in a format AI can read and match against the user's location query.
Your AI identity file should list your specific services — boiler installation, emergency callouts, bathroom fitting.
When AI builds an answer to "find me someone who does emergency boiler repair in Nottingham," it matches against this content.
For local trade searches, Google's AI Overview draws heavily on GBP data.
An incomplete or unverified profile is one of the most common reasons a tradesperson doesn't appear in AI answers even when their website is otherwise solid.
Plumbers · Electricians · Gas engineers · Builders · Roofers · Plasterers · Painters and decorators · Joiners and carpenters · Tilers · Landscapers · Tree surgeons · Heating engineers · Solar installers · Drainage specialists · Kitchen fitters · Bathroom fitters · Loft conversion specialists · Extension builders