First edition
I run a company that tries to get local brands recommended by AI, so I wanted our own numbers on the record. This is what 119 home-services brands looked like across 2,671,846 prompt checks in the 28 days ending September 2, 2026, plus 356,019 citations we collected in 100 metros to see which sites the engines actually reach for.
Press-ready summary
Home-services brands show up in about one AI answer in four, while beauty and real-estate brands show up in more than half: the median home-services organization appeared in 27.4% of its checks against 56.4% in beauty and 61.5% in real estate. Prompt shape moved the number more than trade did, with price and cost questions pooling 37.9% appearance against 22.8% for best near me. And the engines disagree about who deserves a citation: ChatGPT sent 44.7% of its citations to directories, Gemini sent 17.2%, and Google AI surfaces sent 11.4% back to Google's own pages.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026; Cheers Market Baseline citation pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Cut 1
Every rate here is measured per organization first, then summarized across organizations, so a brand with 40 locations counts once. Home services sits far below the other two verticals we publish. Its median organization appeared in 27.4% of its checks. Beauty ran 56.4% and real estate 61.5%, which means a typical brand in those categories is in more than half the answers while a typical home-services brand is in about one in four.
Inside home services the spread is wide: 15.1% at the 25th percentile against 47.4% at the 90th. Almost everyone gets named somewhere, since only 0.8% of the panel never appeared at all. Frequency is the problem, not total absence.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Organization-level appearance rates across the 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Each organization is measured once, then percentiles are taken across organizations.
| Vertical | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home services | 15.1% | 27.4% | 37.3% | 47.4% |
| Real estate | 23.9% | 61.5% | 71.3% | 78.6% |
| Beauty and personal care | 42.4% | 56.4% | 69.1% | 72.6% |
Panel sizes: home services 119 organizations, real estate 56, beauty and personal care 47.
Cut 2
Four trades cleared the ten-organization floor. Plumbing, HVAC, and electrical all land within a single point of each other on mean appearance, close enough that I would not build a strategy on the difference. Solar installation is the outlier at 34.7%, about ten points clear of the other three.
Roofing and cleaning are named as suppressed below. One organization each is not a benchmark, and averaging them into a neighbouring trade would make a single business identifiable.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Organization-level rates for the four home-services trades with at least ten organizations. Organization counts appear in each label.
| Trade | Mean appearance rate | Median appearance rate | Mean citation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing (54) | 23.6% | 21.5% | 19.5% |
| HVAC (52) | 24.2% | 21.4% | 19.6% |
| Solar installation (47) | 34.7% | 34.7% | 28.0% |
| Electrical (21) | 23.9% | 20.9% | 20.5% |
An organization with several subcategories counts inside each of them, so trade counts do not sum to the panel.
Cut 3
Averaging the four engines into one visibility score hides the trade that matters. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode gave the panel its best mean appearance rate at 31.6%. Perplexity gave the worst pooled appearance rate at 20.4% and, at the same time, the best mean citation rate at 34.3%. It names fewer businesses and links harder to the ones it names.
ChatGPT is the one to watch on position rather than presence. When it did name a tracked brand, the average mention landed at 2.9 in the list. Third on a four-name list is a different outcome from first, and an appearance rate alone will never tell you which one you got.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Organization-level mean and median rates for the 119 home-services organizations on each engine.
| Engine | Mean appearance rate | Median appearance rate | Mean citation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 25.1% | 21.6% | 13.4% |
| Google AI surfaces | 31.6% | 31.8% | 28.7% |
| Gemini | 25.9% | 25.6% | 12.4% |
| Perplexity | 25.1% | 23.9% | 34.3% |
Pooled appearance, which weights every check equally instead of every organization: ChatGPT 34.5%, Google AI surfaces 31.2%, Gemini 29.2%, Perplexity 20.4%.
Cut 4
Sorted by pooled appearance, the shape of the question outranks the trade behind it. Price and cost prompts pooled 37.9% across 367 tracked prompts. Best near me and named-place prompts, the ones every local marketer optimizes for, pooled 22.8%.
For a service page that is a straightforward instruction. The question a customer asks an assistant is usually about money, timing, or whether the job is worth doing, and the pages that answer it are thin on the ground. Directory listings already answer who is nearby; they rarely answer what a panel upgrade costs in Denver in September. Write that page, keep it dated, and put the number in the first paragraph rather than behind a form.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Pooled appearance across every check in the shape, so heavier prompt classes carry more weight. Prompt text was classified by regular expression.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Price and cost questions | 37.9% |
| Other local prompts | 33.9% |
| Best or top lists without a place name | 28.9% |
| Uncategorized | 28.6% |
| How, what, why, should I questions | 26.4% |
| Best near me or in a named place | 22.8% |
Comparison prompts are suppressed: 11 tracked prompts across 6 organizations is below the floor.
Cut 5
Pooled appearance fell from 36.7% in the week of June 8 to 30.6% in the partial week of August 31, while pooled citation rose from 22.0% to 23.9%. I would not read that as the market turning against home services.
The panel grew from 106 to 119 organizations over the same thirteen weeks, and new brands enter with low appearance rates, which drags a pooled series down on its own. Weekly check volume also nearly doubled. The last point is a partial week through September 2. Treat this chart as a shape, and hold your judgment about direction until the panel stops changing size.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Pooled across the home-services panel each week. The hollow final point is a partial week through September 2, 2026.
| Week starting | Pooled appearance rate | Pooled citation rate |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 8 | 36.7% | 22.0% |
| Jun 15 | 38.8% | 17.7% |
| Jun 22 | 37.7% | 17.7% |
| Jun 29 | 37.3% | 16.6% |
| Jul 6 | 40.4% | 17.8% |
| Jul 13 | 35.5% | 22.5% |
| Jul 20 | 30.9% | 25.1% |
| Jul 27 | 30.7% | 26.6% |
| Aug 3 | 33.7% | 27.1% |
| Aug 10 | 27.9% | 29.3% |
| Aug 17 | 28.2% | 21.2% |
| Aug 24 | 30.3% | 21.7% |
| Aug 31 (partial week) | 30.6% | 23.9% |
pooled across the home-services panel; week of 2026-08-31 is partial (through 2026-09-02); panel grew from 106 to 119 organizations over the period
Cut 6
Over the 90 days ending September 2, the median home-services organization collected 6.0 reviews a month. The 90th percentile collected 46.7. That is not a small difference in degree; it is a different operation, usually one that asks at the end of the job instead of remembering later.
Response rate is the part home services already does well, at 81.9%. Ratings are the part it does not: a mean organization rating of 3.96 against beauty and personal care at 4.77. Emergency trades collect angrier reviews, which is exactly why volume and recency carry so much of the weight.
Source: Cheers production review pull, 90 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Reviews created in the 90 days ending September 2, 2026, divided by three. Deleted reviews are excluded.
| Vertical | 25th percentile | Median | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home services | 2.3 | 6.0 | 46.7 |
| Real estate | 5.6 | 9.5 | 26.6 |
| Beauty and personal care | 4.5 | 7.7 | 15.9 |
Organizations with at least one review in the window: home services 73, real estate 52, beauty and personal care 43. Google supplied 97.9% of the home-services reviews.
Market Baseline
The customer panel tells you how our clients did. It cannot tell you what the engines reach for in a market where nobody is paying us. So we run a separate Cheers-owned organization, number 1424, that asks 32 plain home-services questions in 100 metro service areas on all four engines and records every domain that comes back. Nothing about that organization is a business, so its appearance rate is meaningless. The citations are the point.
In the 28 days ending September 2, 2026 it collected 356,019 citations. 68.1% went to business websites and 23.0% to directories and review platforms. That pooled split hides the disagreement between engines, which is the useful part.
Source: Cheers Market Baseline citation pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Share of home-services citations by domain class. Contractor and franchise domains sit inside the business-site class and are never named.
| Engine | Citations | Business sites | Directories and review platforms | Google's own pages | Social and forums | Media and vendors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 70,723 | 48.8% | 44.7% | 0.2% | 4.3% | 2.0% |
| Google AI surfaces | 99,904 | 70.3% | 10.7% | 11.4% | 4.8% | 2.8% |
| Gemini | 41,356 | 80.7% | 17.2% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 1.7% |
| Perplexity | 144,036 | 72.3% | 22.7% | 0.1% | 1.4% | 3.5% |
| All four engines | 356,019 | 68.1% | 23.0% | 3.3% | 2.8% | 2.8% |
ChatGPT leans on directories at 44.7%, four times the 10.7% from Google AI surfaces and more than double Gemini's 17.2%. Google AI surfaces are the only engine that cites Google itself in volume, at 11.4%. Perplexity produced the most citations of any engine at 144,036.
The same citations, grouped by the trade behind the prompt. The media and vendor class is folded into business or other in this cut.
| Trade prompt | Citations | Business sites or other | Directories and review platforms | Social and forums | Google's own pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC | 108,878 | 71.6% | 21.9% | 3.0% | 3.4% |
| Plumbing | 100,465 | 75.2% | 19.5% | 2.2% | 3.1% |
| Electrical | 72,097 | 69.8% | 24.2% | 3.0% | 3.0% |
| Roofing | 22,071 | 63.2% | 30.1% | 3.1% | 3.6% |
| Pest control | 10,997 | 67.5% | 26.9% | 2.3% | 3.3% |
| Garage door | 10,200 | 63.6% | 30.0% | 2.7% | 3.7% |
| Restoration | 9,971 | 70.3% | 24.9% | 1.5% | 3.3% |
| Other (duct cleaning, windows and doors, lawn care) | 21,340 | 67.6% | 26.3% | 2.5% | 3.5% |
Roofing and garage door prompts pull the heaviest directory share, at 30.1% and 30.0%. Plumbing pulls the lightest at 19.5%, which is the trade where a strong site competes most directly with the platforms.
The 23 platform, directory, media, and social domains the baseline cited most, down to 920 citations. Contractor and franchise domains are deliberately left out.
| Platform or directory | Citations | Metros | Engines |
|---|---|---|---|
| google.com | 11,729 | 100 | 4 |
| expertise.com | 8,676 | 65 | 4 |
| angi.com | 8,658 | 76 | 4 |
| bbb.org | 7,847 | 100 | 4 |
| serviceagent.ai | 6,695 | 69 | 4 |
| reddit.com | 6,536 | 100 | 4 |
| homestars.com | 5,724 | 46 | 4 |
| homeadvisor.com | 5,518 | 69 | 4 |
| consumeraffairs.com | 4,646 | 84 | 4 |
| yelp.com | 4,405 | 97 | 3 |
| birdeye.com | 3,875 | 100 | 4 |
| thumbtack.com | 3,603 | 73 | 4 |
| bestprosintown.com | 3,297 | 100 | 2 |
| facebook.com | 2,461 | 100 | 3 |
| homeguide.com | 2,374 | 70 | 4 |
| yellowpages.ca | 2,324 | 42 | 4 |
| threebestrated.ca | 2,192 | 33 | 4 |
| trustanalytica.org | 1,574 | 72 | 4 |
| todayshomeowner.com | 1,495 | 70 | 4 |
| threebestrated.com | 1,474 | 60 | 4 |
| forbes.com | 1,269 | 55 | 4 |
| houzz.com | 999 | 99 | 4 |
| yellowpages.com | 920 | 62 | 4 |
platform and directory domains only; contractor domains omitted on purpose
All 100 metro service areas in the baseline, with the share of citations going to each domain class and the number of distinct domains cited.
| Metro | State or province | Country | Citations | Directories | Social | Business or other | Distinct domains | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa | ON | Canada | 3,887 | 3.0% | 12.4% | 4.4% | 80.2% | 650 |
| Denver | CO | United States | 3,817 | 3.1% | 22.5% | 2.6% | 71.7% | 763 |
| Toronto | ON | Canada | 3,806 | 2.8% | 12.3% | 2.3% | 82.5% | 852 |
| Winnipeg | MB | Canada | 3,783 | 2.9% | 15.4% | 5.3% | 76.4% | 540 |
| San Diego | CA | United States | 3,776 | 3.2% | 26.8% | 1.7% | 68.2% | 660 |
| Charlotte | NC | United States | 3,772 | 3.1% | 28.4% | 2.2% | 66.4% | 622 |
| Saskatoon | SK | Canada | 3,755 | 3.3% | 17.2% | 5.2% | 74.3% | 493 |
| Houston | TX | United States | 3,751 | 3.3% | 23.6% | 1.8% | 71.2% | 810 |
| Portland | OR | United States | 3,736 | 3.1% | 26.3% | 2.6% | 68.0% | 612 |
| Guelph | ON | Canada | 3,716 | 3.3% | 13.5% | 5.0% | 78.3% | 481 |
| Colorado Springs | CO | United States | 3,716 | 3.5% | 24.5% | 2.3% | 69.7% | 619 |
| Nanaimo | BC | Canada | 3,707 | 3.3% | 17.8% | 4.3% | 74.6% | 447 |
| Windsor | ON | Canada | 3,706 | 3.0% | 18.5% | 5.6% | 72.9% | 655 |
| Las Vegas | NV | United States | 3,706 | 3.2% | 25.5% | 2.2% | 69.0% | 629 |
| Regina | SK | Canada | 3,702 | 3.0% | 15.7% | 6.5% | 74.7% | 468 |
| Tulsa | OK | United States | 3,694 | 3.3% | 27.4% | 3.7% | 65.6% | 493 |
| Fort Worth | TX | United States | 3,691 | 3.2% | 24.8% | 1.6% | 70.4% | 648 |
| Phoenix | AZ | United States | 3,690 | 3.4% | 25.0% | 2.4% | 69.3% | 738 |
| Tampa | FL | United States | 3,686 | 3.4% | 25.3% | 2.9% | 68.4% | 669 |
| Wichita | KS | United States | 3,686 | 3.3% | 26.2% | 2.3% | 68.1% | 475 |
| Calgary | AB | Canada | 3,683 | 3.5% | 13.7% | 4.1% | 78.7% | 649 |
| Sacramento | CA | United States | 3,673 | 3.2% | 27.8% | 2.5% | 66.5% | 676 |
| Jacksonville | FL | United States | 3,670 | 3.1% | 27.8% | 2.2% | 66.9% | 566 |
| Hamilton | ON | Canada | 3,668 | 3.3% | 14.9% | 4.2% | 77.6% | 609 |
| Oklahoma City | OK | United States | 3,667 | 3.2% | 28.7% | 2.5% | 65.6% | 585 |
| Nashville | TN | United States | 3,666 | 3.1% | 24.9% | 2.4% | 69.6% | 590 |
| London | ON | Canada | 3,664 | 3.2% | 17.1% | 4.8% | 74.8% | 597 |
| Dallas | TX | United States | 3,661 | 3.3% | 22.6% | 2.0% | 72.1% | 733 |
| Kitchener | ON | Canada | 3,659 | 3.3% | 15.0% | 3.4% | 78.3% | 628 |
| Austin | TX | United States | 3,657 | 3.0% | 21.8% | 3.1% | 72.1% | 630 |
| Mississauga | ON | Canada | 3,650 | 3.4% | 16.2% | 1.9% | 78.6% | 649 |
| Vancouver | BC | Canada | 3,649 | 3.0% | 14.4% | 2.2% | 80.4% | 693 |
| Edmonton | AB | Canada | 3,648 | 3.2% | 15.7% | 4.0% | 77.1% | 629 |
| Surrey | BC | Canada | 3,642 | 2.7% | 15.5% | 2.5% | 79.3% | 646 |
| Atlanta | GA | United States | 3,640 | 3.3% | 24.3% | 1.8% | 70.6% | 620 |
| Raleigh | NC | United States | 3,631 | 3.2% | 24.8% | 2.6% | 69.3% | 586 |
| San Jose | CA | United States | 3,619 | 3.4% | 29.8% | 2.1% | 64.8% | 578 |
| Indianapolis | IN | United States | 3,612 | 3.0% | 27.4% | 3.7% | 65.9% | 531 |
| Baltimore | MD | United States | 3,612 | 3.3% | 28.0% | 2.7% | 66.1% | 636 |
| Columbus | OH | United States | 3,611 | 3.5% | 25.3% | 3.1% | 68.1% | 535 |
| Henderson | NV | United States | 3,606 | 3.3% | 27.7% | 1.6% | 67.4% | 544 |
| Victoria | BC | Canada | 3,600 | 3.1% | 16.9% | 4.2% | 75.8% | 537 |
| Louisville | KY | United States | 3,598 | 3.3% | 25.4% | 3.3% | 68.0% | 549 |
| Kamloops | BC | Canada | 3,591 | 3.4% | 14.7% | 3.0% | 79.0% | 394 |
| Los Angeles | CA | United States | 3,591 | 3.1% | 26.6% | 1.2% | 69.1% | 825 |
| San Antonio | TX | United States | 3,584 | 3.4% | 23.9% | 2.1% | 70.7% | 596 |
| Chicago | IL | United States | 3,582 | 3.3% | 27.0% | 1.8% | 68.0% | 647 |
| Anaheim | CA | United States | 3,579 | 3.5% | 26.6% | 1.0% | 68.9% | 674 |
| Barrie | ON | Canada | 3,579 | 3.2% | 15.7% | 3.8% | 77.2% | 502 |
| San Francisco | CA | United States | 3,574 | 3.2% | 29.7% | 1.8% | 65.3% | 662 |
| Red Deer | AB | Canada | 3,571 | 3.6% | 17.6% | 3.7% | 75.1% | 396 |
| Washington | DC | United States | 3,570 | 3.0% | 26.0% | 2.5% | 68.5% | 665 |
| Seattle | WA | United States | 3,570 | 3.4% | 26.9% | 3.1% | 66.6% | 613 |
| Oshawa | ON | Canada | 3,567 | 3.3% | 15.2% | 2.6% | 79.0% | 543 |
| Aurora | CO | United States | 3,563 | 3.5% | 27.3% | 1.7% | 67.5% | 632 |
| Cleveland | OH | United States | 3,560 | 3.3% | 28.5% | 2.3% | 66.0% | 567 |
| Virginia Beach | VA | United States | 3,557 | 3.4% | 29.8% | 2.1% | 64.7% | 514 |
| Milwaukee | WI | United States | 3,555 | 3.3% | 28.7% | 2.8% | 65.2% | 527 |
| St. Albert | AB | Canada | 3,553 | 3.4% | 18.9% | 2.3% | 75.4% | 521 |
| Lethbridge | AB | Canada | 3,550 | 3.4% | 18.3% | 5.7% | 72.6% | 420 |
| Philadelphia | PA | United States | 3,549 | 2.8% | 29.9% | 2.5% | 64.8% | 661 |
| Tucson | AZ | United States | 3,540 | 3.3% | 27.1% | 2.8% | 66.8% | 507 |
| Albuquerque | NM | United States | 3,532 | 3.5% | 28.0% | 2.1% | 66.4% | 492 |
| Mesa | AZ | United States | 3,526 | 3.3% | 26.6% | 1.6% | 68.5% | 598 |
| Detroit | MI | United States | 3,526 | 3.3% | 26.5% | 2.7% | 67.5% | 702 |
| Airdrie | AB | Canada | 3,517 | 3.0% | 16.6% | 3.1% | 77.3% | 540 |
| Brampton | ON | Canada | 3,501 | 3.6% | 16.5% | 2.0% | 77.8% | 662 |
| New Orleans | LA | United States | 3,496 | 3.1% | 26.2% | 3.3% | 67.4% | 505 |
| Riverside | CA | United States | 3,493 | 3.3% | 27.9% | 1.0% | 67.8% | 618 |
| Omaha | NE | United States | 3,489 | 3.6% | 25.7% | 3.6% | 67.2% | 507 |
| Memphis | TN | United States | 3,489 | 3.4% | 28.2% | 3.2% | 65.1% | 454 |
| Corpus Christi | TX | United States | 3,488 | 3.5% | 26.9% | 1.7% | 67.9% | 461 |
| Boston | MA | United States | 3,486 | 3.2% | 32.1% | 1.7% | 63.0% | 639 |
| Minneapolis | MN | United States | 3,479 | 3.4% | 26.0% | 2.4% | 68.3% | 580 |
| Grande Prairie | AB | Canada | 3,470 | 3.4% | 16.4% | 3.0% | 77.2% | 480 |
| Kelowna | BC | Canada | 3,461 | 3.5% | 14.6% | 3.5% | 78.4% | 466 |
| Honolulu | HI | United States | 3,450 | 3.2% | 32.4% | 2.0% | 62.4% | 464 |
| Burnaby | BC | Canada | 3,449 | 3.4% | 20.2% | 1.2% | 75.2% | 559 |
| Santa Ana | CA | United States | 3,439 | 3.3% | 30.0% | 0.8% | 65.8% | 620 |
| Miami | FL | United States | 3,433 | 3.3% | 26.0% | 1.3% | 69.4% | 722 |
| New York | NY | United States | 3,431 | 2.8% | 25.6% | 1.0% | 70.6% | 818 |
| Oakland | CA | United States | 3,422 | 3.4% | 34.6% | 1.9% | 60.1% | 529 |
| El Paso | TX | United States | 3,420 | 3.6% | 27.2% | 1.7% | 67.5% | 502 |
| Leduc | AB | Canada | 3,420 | 3.2% | 19.1% | 2.0% | 75.6% | 508 |
| Brandon | MB | Canada | 3,418 | 3.5% | 16.6% | 2.5% | 77.4% | 497 |
| Kansas City | MO | United States | 3,406 | 3.5% | 25.8% | 2.8% | 67.9% | 554 |
| Bakersfield | CA | United States | 3,402 | 3.4% | 28.9% | 1.3% | 66.4% | 483 |
| Abbotsford | BC | Canada | 3,397 | 3.3% | 16.1% | 1.8% | 78.8% | 501 |
| Okotoks | AB | Canada | 3,377 | 3.5% | 16.9% | 2.3% | 77.3% | 453 |
| Fresno | CA | United States | 3,370 | 3.6% | 29.6% | 2.1% | 64.6% | 474 |
| Arlington | TX | United States | 3,366 | 3.3% | 28.1% | 0.7% | 67.9% | 561 |
| Medicine Hat | AB | Canada | 3,354 | 3.0% | 21.3% | 3.7% | 72.0% | 373 |
| Sherwood Park | AB | Canada | 3,349 | 3.6% | 19.1% | 3.8% | 73.5% | 515 |
| Camrose | AB | Canada | 3,308 | 3.5% | 19.0% | 1.6% | 75.8% | 529 |
| Long Beach | CA | United States | 3,280 | 3.6% | 31.3% | 1.9% | 63.2% | 594 |
| Spruce Grove | AB | Canada | 3,273 | 3.5% | 18.2% | 2.1% | 76.3% | 485 |
| Fort McMurray | AB | Canada | 3,265 | 3.9% | 20.4% | 2.5% | 73.3% | 445 |
| Prince Albert | SK | Canada | 3,233 | 3.5% | 19.2% | 2.3% | 75.0% | 450 |
| Moose Jaw | SK | Canada | 3,228 | 3.8% | 21.1% | 2.0% | 73.2% | 389 |
| Cochrane | AB | Canada | 3,222 | 3.7% | 16.6% | 2.9% | 76.8% | 477 |
Country is derived from each metro's state or province code, which gives 60 United States metros and 40 Canadian ones. The pull's own summary line records 64 and 36; we publish the derived split and have not resolved the four-metro difference.
Read the metro table by country and the pattern is hard to miss. Canadian metros sent between 12.3% and 21.3% of their citations to directories and between 72.0% and 82.5% to business sites. United States metros sent 21.8% to 34.6% to directories and 60.1% to 72.1% to business sites. The ranges do not overlap. American home-services answers run through Angi, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, and the rest far more than Canadian ones do, where the engines fall back to contractor sites and a thinner set of local platforms. If you operate on both sides of the border, that difference should change where you spend the quarter.
Source: Cheers Market Baseline citation pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
What to do this quarter
Do this first
Price and cost prompts pooled 37.9% appearance against 22.8% for best near me. The engines have plenty of directory pages that answer who is nearby, and far fewer that answer what a water heater swap runs in your market. Put a real range on the service page, say what moves it up or down, and date it.
Do this second
ChatGPT sent 44.7% of its citations to directories and review platforms, against 17.2% for Gemini. If your hours, service list, or service area are wrong on the platforms in the table above, you are wrong inside the answer no matter how good the site is.
Do this every month
The median home-services brand collected 6.0 reviews a month while the 90th percentile collected 46.7. That gap is a process gap, not a luck gap. Response rate already sits at 81.9%, so the work is asking more often, not writing more replies.
Source: Cheers production panel pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026; Cheers Market Baseline citation pull, 28 days ending September 2, 2026; Cheers production review pull, 90 days ending September 2, 2026. Last verified September 2, 2026. Methodology
Suppression record
A published cell needs at least ten organizations behind it. These did not clear that floor, so they are named here rather than quietly folded into a bigger group. Nothing below is an estimate.
Cuts that ran but are not published, with the organization count behind each.
| Cut | Suppressed cell | Organizations | Why it stays out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home-services trade | Roofing | 1 | Below the ten-organization floor, so no rate is published and the cell is not merged into a neighbouring trade. |
| Home-services trade | Cleaning service | 1 | Below the ten-organization floor, so no rate is published and the cell is not merged into a neighbouring trade. |
| Prompt shape | Comparison prompts | 6 | Only 11 tracked prompts across 6 organizations, so the pooled rate would describe a handful of businesses. |
| Child locations under the tracked organization | 6 to 15 | 3 | Larger location networks are still too few to publish without making an individual brand identifiable. |
| Child locations under the tracked organization | 16 or more | 4 | Larger location networks are still too few to publish without making an individual brand identifiable. |
Cite this
Allen-Arnegård, Dylan. "Home Services AI Visibility Index 2026." Cheers Research, September 2, 2026. https://www.cheers.tech/research/home-services-ai-visibility-index-2026. Accessed [date].
Data pulled September 3, 2026 at 04:05 UTC. When you quote a figure, carry the 28 days ending September 2, 2026 window, the last verified date, and a link to the methodology.
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