In a business that often pivots from one emergency call to another, AI has become a valuable tool. It allows the customer to easily find and compare plumbers before calling the one that is best suited for after-hours repairs. Before, they would have searched, scrolled a page of results, and then started calling around, but AI does much of this work for them now, narrowing their results to just a couple of ideal contractors.

It’s a short-listed, high-stakes decision, and just about all of it is made before anyone calls you. The AI assistant does the talking, but what it shares with prospective customers is, largely, pulled from the contractor’s own website. If that information turned out to be incorrect, outdated, or even missing, your business will likely be skipped over by the customer, and you’ll be completely unaware you were ever considered.

I run a web hosting company, so I get to see small business websites from the perspective that most owners, understandably, never consider. It’s easy to overlook when you’re constantly out on unscheduled calls or booked solid for weeks on end.

Consistently, many sites are broken, not in the traditional sense, but in a way that prevents AI from providing someone with the most accurate results. A contact form might no longer be delivering messages to the business, or an important page might time out, even an old phone number that was never updated. These are all things that should be considered in this new age of internet search, with AI assistants at the customer’s side.

For the vast majority of businesses, this is a mere irritation. But for a trade that runs on emergency calls, it’s work you’ll never know was lost.

Your Phone Number Must Be Right Everywhere

This matters more in trades businesses because customers often call first, especially when they have an urgent need.  

Make sure that the phone number on your website is correct, and matches your Google listing, directory profiles, and any other place the business might appear online. If those numbers don’t match, an AI assistant could very well choose the wrong one. 

The same goes for that second number you added during a busy spell years ago and forgot about, or an old cell phone number that now goes to someone who left the business.

While you’re at it, call the number(s) yourself. From a phone, at the time of day someone would actually be ringing. It takes a minute and it is the single most useful check on this list.

Be Specific About Your Service Area

Homeowners typically search first by location, seeking a plumber near them, someone in their own town, or at least an emergency plumber that will come to their neighborhood. If your site, for example, only says “serving the surrounding area,” there’s very little for AI to match against. On the other hand, a competitor that names the town is likely to appear as the better answer to the AI assistant.

The more detail the better. List the towns, suburbs, or specific neighborhoods you cover in plain text on the web page. Update that list if you have expanded since first posting it and remove any places you no longer serve. Saying where you do not go can be equally important.

Include What You Actually Do

To a plumbing contractor the work they do might feel obvious. To a homeowner, they have a very specific problem and want to know you can address it for them. Routine problems like a clogged drain, a leaking pipe or valve, or low water pressure are just part of the work you do, but a homeowner doesn’t always realize that.

If your site only says “all plumbing services,” for example, it gives the AI assistant very little to match against.

If someone has an urgent issue and is looking for proof of service, you’re likely to be overlooked when each thing you can do isn’t listed, even if it’s obvious to you. Again, the more detail the better. If you have specialties, list them. If you have a minimum job size, say so. If you don’t take certain work, list that too.

Check Your Credentials Are Current

Trust is critical too and if things like licenses, insurance, bonding, trade memberships and manufacturer certifications aren’t current, you’re preventing AI and the customer from seeing your full credentials for the job.  

These items should be current and easy to find on the site. If an AI assistant is comparing two plumbing businesses, the one with up-to-date credentials will appear more reliable and will be the one the AI assistant hones in on. 

Read your own site like a homeowner would. Is the license number still valid? Is the insurance information current? Are recent certifications listed? A business that says less about itself than the contractor down the road may look less established, even when that is not true.

A Slow Site Can Leave You Out Entirely

This is where the hosting side matters. AI tools and search systems move across many sites quickly. If yours is slow, times out or is unavailable when they visit, no one at the business may see the problem. The site may simply be skipped, while another contractor’s site becomes the easier source to use. 

You do not need to become technical to ask the right questions. Ask whoever manages your site how fast it loads on a phone and whether it has had downtime in the last few months. If no one can answer, that tells you something important.

Do It Now, Not in January

Here’s the hard part of this whole problem. Your website is doing its most important work when you are at your busiest. In the colder months, frozen pipes, failed boilers and emergency repairs mean that homeowners will be searching for the right plumber at all hours.

That is exactly when most contractors have the least time to check whether the site is accurate and working.

By the time the season slows down, a wrong number, outdated service area or broken form may have been costing calls for months. That makes the time before the rush the best time to look. Read your own pages. Call your own number. Check your service area, credentials and emergency details. None of this is complicated, but it can decide whether a homeowner finds you and reaches you when the problem cannot wait.

Neycho Tepavicharov is co-founder of Flashcloud (https://flashcloud.com), a web hosting company, and has spent nearly two decades in the industry.