Searching for Home Services Companies Has Changed, But Has Your Strategy?

Remember when “plumber near me” was the golden ticket for local contractors? Those days feel like ancient history with AI search, which has created new search patterns for businesses to target.

These patterns range from conversational searches (“why won’t my toilet stop running. it’s been doing it since last night”) to inferred location (“emergency plumber near me”).

What’s key for home services companies like yours, though, is adapting to these changes so you can reach homeowners and property managers before your competitors do.

Discover what has changed and what you need to do now:

How has searching for home services companies changed?

Searching for home services companies has changed by making it easier for homeowners and property managers to arrive at Google or ChatGPT and get a customized answer to their unique problem.

That shift has resulted in people:

• Searching more conversationally
• Asking more diagnostic questions
• Skipping local references (like zip code) for an assumed location (like “near me”)
• Being more informed when calling or contacting a home services company

Google’s confirmed these shifts within its own data, remarking that “the average AI Mode search is triple the length of a traditional Search query,” and that 1 in 6 U.S. searches now include images or voice.

You can see this shift in the table below. While generic terms maintain high volume, problem-specific queries (“why is my toilet running”) show massive growth:

Inside the diagnostic-based shift

The rise of diagnostic searches (and their value) is visible in the table below, which shows that even those these searches post a lower monthly search volume, they command a high cost-per-click (CPC) because the user’s on the path to calling for help.

Inside the location-based shift

Location-based searches have shifted due to generational differences with Boomers being 14x more likely to include ZIP codes than Gen Z. You can see the impact of this change in the table below:

How do these changes in home services searches affect my strategy?

These changes in home services searches affect your strategy by:

• Adapting keyword targeting based on your market’s age (Boomer vs. Gen Z)
• Focusing on searches where the user is on the path to asking for professional help
• Creating unique and detailed content that shares your opinion (approach it like you’re speaking with a customer)
• Distributing content through reputable publishers to increase its chances of being surfaced in AI conversations, like in Google’s AI Mode or ChatGPT
• Populating local listings (like Google Business Profile) with the questions you most often hear from customers and answering them based on your first-hand experience
• Researching how AI understands your business (like whether you’re great for emergencies, do commercial work, or something else) and then using your website, local listings, and reviews to shape that perspective

Some areas of your strategy will remain the same, for example, like by:

• Encouraging customer reviews
• Maintaining local listings, like Google Business Profile
• Sharing photos and videos across on social media
• Continuing search engine optimization, which is foundational to AI search

It’s important to start making these changes because of how fast people are adopting AI (they’re adopting it faster than the Internet and the PC). You don’t want to wait — it’ll only give your competitors a head start.

Get discovered across search with home services marketing pros

Search is changing fast, and the companies that adapt now will have the competitive advantage. If you’re looking for help getting ahead of your competitors in AI search, WebFX can help.

With 48,000+ hours of experience in helping home services companies generate qualified leads and deals from the web, we’re a trusted partner for businesses looking to get the job done.

Explore our AI search and SEO optimization services or contact us online to get your custom plan!