AI Visibility Research
83% of builders are invisible to AI. Building work involves significant cost and consumer risk — AI is extremely cautious, defaulting to FMB-registered builders and Checkatrade. Companies without federation membership and project documentation get filtered out.
Check your business83%
Invisible to ChatGPT
building companies
Thousands
Businesses analysed
17%
AI-visible
Can be found by AI assistants
2-4 weeks
Time to fix
With structured data + directories
The test
ChatGPT recommends FMB directory and Checkatrade for 78% of builder queries. Only 22% cite individual companies — those with FMB membership and project documentation.
Each AI system uses different data sources and citation patterns.
Source: Bing index
ChatGPT recommends FMB directory and Checkatrade for 78% of builder queries. Only 22% cite individual companies — those with FMB membership and project documentation.
Source: Live web crawl
Perplexity cites builders 29% of the time, usually from MyBuilder profiles or Checkatrade listings.
Source: Google index + Maps
Google AI Overviews for builder queries pull from cost comparison articles, Checkatrade, and FMB.
Builders businesses face specific challenges that prevent AI assistants from finding and recommending them.
Building work is high-cost and high-risk — AI defaults to verified platforms to protect consumers from cowboys.
Most builder websites show project photos with no text: no specifications, no costs, no timelines, no contracts explained.
FMB (Federation of Master Builders) and NHBC membership are the trust signals, but rarely in structured data.
Service scope (extensions, conversions, new builds, renovations) isn't separated into individual pages with relevant content.
What the visible businesses do differently
FMB or NHBC membership in schema • Project portfolios with full specifications: sqm, build cost per sqm, materials, timeline, planning permission status • Service pages: extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, new builds, renovations, commercial fit-outs • Published pricing ranges per project type and per sqm
Schema types that matter: GeneralContractor, HomeAndConstructionBusiness, LocalBusiness, Service
FMB membership is the builder trust signal. Add your membership number and warranty details to schema.
Each project: sqm, cost range, materials, timeline, planning challenges, and before/after. 400+ words per case study.
Single-storey extension from £1,500/sqm, loft conversion from £40,000, garage conversion from £15,000. AI answers builder cost queries from pages with numbers.
These three directories dominate builder AI citations. MyBuilder for quotes, Checkatrade for trust, FMB for verification.
Planning permission, building regs, Party Wall Act, contract terms, payment schedules. This educational content is what AI extracts for 'how does a house extension work?' queries.
Only about 17% of building companies are visible to ChatGPT. The rest are invisible because they lack the structured data, directory presence, and content that AI assistants need to make recommendations. Our research shows that ChatGPT relies on Bing's index for 87% of its citations.
Most building companies can achieve basic AI visibility within 2-4 weeks by adding structured data, claiming key directories, and submitting to Bing Webmaster Tools. Full optimisation (including review building and content creation) typically takes 2-3 months to show results.
Not directly. ChatGPT uses Bing's index, not Google's. However, the factors that help you rank on Google (structured data, quality content, reviews) also help on Bing. Our data shows that 87% of ChatGPT citations match Bing's top 10 results, while only 56% match Google's top 10.
It depends on the query. Google AI Overviews are strongest for local searches backed by Google Maps data. Perplexity crawls the web daily and often finds more niche results. ChatGPT relies on Bing's index and favours well-known directories.
building companies should use GeneralContractor, HomeAndConstructionBusiness, LocalBusiness, Service schema types. The most impactful is adding your business details (name, address, phone, hours, services) in structured data that AI can read programmatically.
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