Cited for contractors: be the name AI recommends

Every other page on this site is written for homeowners — the people asking ChatGPT and Perplexity "who’s the best HVAC, plumbing, roofing, or electrical company near me?". This page is for you, the contractor. Because when an assistant answers that question with a short list of names, being on it means a ready-to-book customer hears yours — and most local firms aren’t named at all.

Cited helps you become that recommended name, and hands you the honest fix list to get there. It’s the opposite of buying shared leads that also went to five of your competitors: an AI recommendation is exclusive, it points the customer straight at you, and the same fixes that earn it also win you Google and your Google Business Profile. Here’s exactly how it works, and how it’s different.

New here? Read the guide: how to get recommended by AI

What do home-services leads actually cost? Angi vs. exclusive vs. being recommended

How Cited works for contractors

Run the free audit. Tell us your business, city, and trade. We run the real questions your customers ask — "who’s the best HVAC company in {city}?" — across official AI APIs (ChatGPT web search and Perplexity), and email you a plain-English report: whether you’re cited, mentioned, or absent, and who gets recommended instead. Free, no account, and we show you every question we asked.
Get your fix list. The report ends in a prioritised, honest list of what’s holding you back — a thin Google Business Profile, too few recent reviews, missing service-area pages, inconsistent listings. These are the same fixes that win Google and the local map pack, so the work pays off whether a customer finds you through an assistant or a classic search.
Become the name that gets recommended. Work the list (or have your marketing person do it) and your odds of being named climb over the following weeks — in AI answers and in Google’s local results at the same time. Visibility compounds; it’s a steady climb, not an overnight flood, and we’ll say so plainly.
Later, get the demand — exclusive, not shared. Once a city ranks, contractors who want more of that demand can opt into exclusive leads or a featured "AI-recommended" listing for their area. This part is early access and priced per market as we validate — nothing is paywalled today, and the audit and fix list stay free either way.

Why this beats buying shared leads

Exclusive, not sold to five of your competitors. Shared-lead marketplaces like Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Thumbtack sell the same homeowner to several contractors who then race to call first. Being the business an assistant recommends by name is the opposite: it’s you the customer hears, not you plus four rivals. Exclusive leads close far more often than shared ones, which is what makes them cheaper per job won even at a higher sticker price.
You own the customer and the relationship. A recommendation points a ready-to-book homeowner straight at your business — your reviews, your site, your phone. There’s no platform sitting between you and the customer taking a clip and re-selling them next week.
No lock-in, no long contract. The audit and fix list are free, and there’s no 12-month auto-renewing membership or cancellation penalty to get them. The value is durable: the profile, reviews, and pages you improve keep working for you, not for a platform you’re locked into.
It compounds instead of renting attention. Paid lead flow stops the day you stop paying. The visibility work compounds — a stronger Google Business Profile and review base keep earning AI mentions and map-pack rankings long after you do the work. You’re building an asset, not renting a queue.
Honest about what AI does — and doesn’t — do today. AI-referral volume to local businesses is still small right now, and we won’t pretend otherwise. The reason to act is that the fixes are the same ones that win Google today, and AI usage for "who should I hire" is growing fast and unusually high-intent. You get the Google upside now and a head start on the AI channel as it grows.

Run your free audit

See whether AI assistants recommend your business — free, no account. We email one report.

The exact questions we’ll ask AI about you:

“Who are the best HVAC companies in my city?”
“Which plumber should I call when a pipe bursts?”
“Recommend a trustworthy, well-reviewed roofing company near me.”

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from Angi, HomeAdvisor, or Thumbtack?

Those are shared-lead marketplaces: they sell the same homeowner’s request to several contractors at once, usually on a membership plus per-lead fees and a long contract. Cited’s goal is to make you the business AI assistants and Google recommend by name — an exclusive, organic recommendation the customer hears directly, not a lead resold to your competitors. The free audit and fix list are the starting point; there’s no membership to buy to get them.

What does it cost, and how do you make money?

The AI-visibility audit and the fix list are free, full stop — no account, no card. Later, contractors who want more of the demand in a city they serve will be able to opt into exclusive leads or a featured "AI-recommended" listing for their area; that part is early access and priced per market as we validate it. Nothing you get today is paywalled, and we’ll always be upfront that it’s early.

Does AI actually send enough leads to bother? Isn’t AI-referral traffic tiny?

Today it is small, and we say so — anyone promising an AI traffic flood is overselling. The honest case is that the fixes that get you named by AI (a complete Google Business Profile, recent reviews, clear service pages, consistent listings) are the exact same ones that win Google and the local map pack, which drive real leads now. So you get the Google payoff immediately and a head start on AI as more homeowners use it to pick who to call.

Is the free audit accurate? AI makes things up.

It’s a sampled, non-deterministic signal, not a guarantee — and we’re transparent about that. We run your customers’ real buying-intent questions through official AI APIs (ChatGPT web search and Perplexity — we never scrape Google AI Overviews), show you the exact questions asked and which engines, and report cited / mentioned / absent plus who’s named instead. That’s why the report is a prioritised fix list, not a single scoreboard number.

How do I get started?

Run the free audit for your business from any page on this site — enter your company, city, and trade, and we email your report within a few business days (audits are run by hand in early access). No account, no sales call. If the fix list is useful, that’s the whole point; there’s nothing to buy to act on it.