Phil Risher advises home service businesses to prepare for AI search, which uses longer, more specific queries than Google. Add pricing guides and real photos to your website, create content answering common questions about costs and maintenance, and offer online scheduling so AI can surface concrete answers.
AI search is about to change how home service business owners get leads. It's not just go to Google, type in H Vac repair near me and then show up in the four spots on Google. It's now a conversation. The average Google search has four words. H vac repair near me. The average AI search has 347 words. It's more of a conversation. They want to ask who's the local owned company? Is it owned by a private equity company or is it owned by someone local? What's the average pricing I should expect to pay? What happens when things go wrong? What are the reviews? Tell me. They're asking a lot more qualifying questions so that way I can provide the answer. It's no longer reading through a list and trying to figure out who should I work with. They are asking questions so that I can help support and come alongside them to make the decision. What can you do as a business? You can do three things. First, you need to be creating content on your business so you stand out as a subject matter expert. This is how much does something cost? Top of the funnel authority content, which is here's how often you should get something done. The second thing that you can do is on your website, have a pricing guide page, have online scheduling because when people ask, well how much does something cost and when is the person available to do it? Now there's a place that AI can go and find the information on your website. And the third thing is make sure you share real pictures, real stories on your website and inside of your social content. If you are using generic cookie cutter stock content, you are not going to stand out and you're going to get lumped in with everyone else when it comes to AI search. If you're not prepared and you're working with a marketing company that's doing the old school tactics, you're going to get left behind in the next two to three years.
