Introducing A Chat with Chat: Your Home Service Business and AI Search (GEO)

0:02Okay, my name is Aaron. I'm with Sequoia GEO and today I'm here with Chat who is our co-host for our very first episode of a chat with Chat. How are we doing today, Chat? >> Aaron. I'm Chat. I'm doing great. Excited to co-host this first episode with you. I'm ChatGPT. I'm here to help turn ideas into momentum. We can talk things through, help structure a project, work with what's on the screen, write code, or dig into research. Where do you want to kick

0:32this off? >> We know there's a lot that you can do, but today we're going to be focusing on really starting our podcast off with an introductory discussion about why we started this podcast and some of the things that we'd like to cover in the future episodes. Sequoia GEO's focus is really marketing home service businesses and with the explosion of AI, there's been a lot of buzz with related to

1:02AI search, generative engine optimization, and overall improving websites and search results for home service businesses. >> Let me think through a clean intro setup for this. >> Don't think too long. We're live now. >> Got it. Big picture, this show is basically about cutting through the buzz and turning what's happening into practical moves for home service companies. We can start by saying why you created

1:33podcast. Owners are hearing a lot about AI search and GEO and so on and they need clarity, not hype. Then tee up what's coming, how AI search is changing customer journeys, what generative engine optimization means in plain English, and simple website moves that actually help visibility and leads. >> Yeah, that sounds good. I I initially what I'd like to cover is what is what makes AI search or generative engine optimization different?

2:05>> Let me pin that down. So, think of it like this. Traditional SEO is about ranking a page. Generative engine optimization adds being understood and cited by the AI giving the answer. For home services, that means really clear service and location pages, consistent business info, strong reviews, proof you know your stuff, and genuinely useful answers to real homeowner questions. It's not replacing SEO, it's building on it because now visibility includes being recommended

2:36inside the answer, not just showing up as a link. >> Visibility includes being recommended inside the answer. So, how do we do that? How does a heating and air conditioning company, say they're located in I don't know, San Francisco, get recommended inside the answer versus the other what? A thousand HVAC companies that are in that area? >> Let me think that through carefully. One key piece is that it's less a single

3:09trick and more that the business keeps showing up as relevant, reputable, and consistent across the web, not just on their own site. >> Okay, and I still haven't nailed down though what makes it different from SEO when we're trying to add these AI search and GEO layers on top of it. >> Let me untangle that clearly. The clean line is SEO helps you rank and get retrieved and GEO helps your info get understood,

3:42trusted, and pulled into the synthesized answer with confidence. Let me pin down the practical difference for an HVAC company. That's because GEO isn't a replacement, it's a second target. SEO helps that San Francisco HVAC page get found. GEO helps an AI system recognize the business as real, pull the right facts, verify them, and include them in an answer. So, overlap is big, but the outcome changes. It's less use the keyword everywhere and more

4:14make each claim clear, structured, supported, and consistent. And the honest take is that much of it isn't different at all. It's SEO evolving, plus some new content requirements and new ways to measure success. >> Okay, so in your opinion, the two are different. >> They're distinct, but not separate. Same foundation, slightly different outcome and metrics. >> And how do we track how we're ranking or

4:44getting recommended in AI search? >> Let me check that quickly. AI search is tracked less like one fixed ranking position and more like repeatable prompt visibility, since answers vary by system, location, and wording. We take real customer questions, run them regularly across the major AI search experiences, and log whether you're mentioned or cited, where you show up, who else is mentioned, and whether the facts about your business come through accurately. Then,

5:16we watch referral traffic, leads, and jobs booked, and track share of voice across those prompts. The goal isn't a universal number one ranking, it's consistent visibility trends across a stable set of prompts, not any one test. >> So, if I find that my competitor is consistently getting recommended and I'm rarely getting recommended, and I might not even be in any of the source material that

5:46you're using. What do I need to do today to start showing up and get cited? >> Let me map out the most direct moves there. First, look at the competitors' evidence trail, not a stack of generic AI pages. Ask what claims they're making, what questions they're answering, and who independently confirms them. Then, in order, make sure your site is crawlable, build solid pages for each

6:16real service and service area with proof, like licensing, warranties, project photos, tech credentials, and answer customer questions. Align your name, address, phone, services, and coverage across your site, Google Business Profile, directories, and trade associations, and add accurate structured data to reduce ambiguity. Earn detailed reviews and legitimate local mentions. Then, retest the same prompts every few weeks and watch mentions, citations, leads, and jobs. No

6:48one guarantees a recommendation, but those steps make your business easier to cite and trust, which is what shifts the odds. >> Now, some people may be asking the question of why is this important? Why do I need to worry about GEO or AI search? And there was a recent study done by BrightLocal that you might want to pull up because it's claiming that 45% of US adults utilize AI to I believe the language is

7:20that they found contractors or home service providers using AI. What does that report say? >> Let me check that report. Wording matters a lot there. I'm checking the original language and methodology before we lean on that stat. All right, I found the BrightLocal write-up. That 45% figure is about local business recommendations broadly, not specifically contractors. >> Okay. >> They say 45% of US adults used AI tools

7:52for local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6% year before. So, the headline is the speed of adoption, not that everyone is booking via AI. And most people still verify on Google, social, and review sites afterward. That's exactly why GEO matters now, because AI is influencing the short list, while traditional search and reviews still confirm the choice. You need to show up credibly in both places or layers, really. >> All right, so that's pretty interesting because that BrightLocal finding we're

8:25hearing a lot of people citing that 45% and making implications that it's bigger or more related to home service providers than than what it's stating. So, a thousand about a thousand people were surveyed, and almost half of them said that they've used AI for local recommendations. It doesn't say It sounds like it doesn't say how often they're using it. And what's also

8:55interesting is that 88% still check the source. And that kind of leans towards the zero-click phenomenon that a lot of people have been experiencing lately. Would you agree with that? >> Let me think through that connection. I'd separate the two claims. 45% is used at least once in the past year, and the 88% stats shows AI is shaping the journey, but not replacing it.

9:27So, I wouldn't call that zero-click evidence, especially for home services, where trust drives more verification clicks. The safer takeaway is that AI is an influential discovery layer, not that it is replaced search. And for contractors, it's influencing the short list. Then people validate elsewhere. >> What other related questions do you think we should be asking about that? >> Let me frame a few crisp on my questions. I'd push from headline numbers to

9:58behavior. So, what kinds of local businesses were people actually searching for? Which AI tools? How often and for what stakes? Did they start in AI or see it inside Google? What exactly did they verify afterward? And crucially, did AI lead to a call, a lead, or a booked job? Or was it just one step along the way? >> Yeah, those are all good questions and customers need to start asking

10:28what did they search when they found the company they ended up calling. So, if if customers are telling you, "Oh, I found you on ChatGPT." If you can get a screenshot of that search, that would be very helpful to understanding what you're showing up for when people search and also who else is showing up when that's searched as well. >> Totally. That's exactly the kind of ground truth that cuts through the hype.

10:58Asking what they typed, what tool, and grabbing screenshots when possible cuz you have real prompts to test, plus the actual competitors and claims showing up. It's a simple habit, but it turns GEO from theory into something you can actually optimize and measure. >> Any closing thoughts for our first episode on a chat with chat? >> Yeah, I planned it like this. AI search

11:28is changing how people form a short list, but the fundamentals haven't gone away. Be findable, be credible, and be consistent everywhere. We'll use this podcast to turn the shifting landscape into plain language and practical steps. And next time, we can go deeper on one comfy piece. AI search behavior, geo basics, or website moves. Your pick. >> That sounds great. Thanks so much for your help today, Chat. And I look forward to our next episode. I hope that all of you can join us.

12:00>> Looking forward to it.