The signal room
The playbook for being found in the AI era.
We publish what we practice. Cornerstone guides that map the surfaces where customers now decide, and how to own each one. Answer-first, no jargon, no gatekeeping.
Cornerstone guides
Start with the fundamentals.
Four cornerstone reads on how local and AI search work now, followed by focused guides on each decision.
Updated for 2026
Focused guides
One question, answered properly.
Shorter guides on a single decision: Business Profile categories and suspensions, reviews, AI crawlers, lead channels, costs, and choosing an agency.
- Guide
AI crawlers explained for contractors
GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended compared, with what blocking each one does.
- Guide
Angi, Thumbtack, and the leads you own
What Thumbtack and Angi say about their pro pricing, and the questions that compare marketplace leads with leads you own.
- Guide
A contractor website checklist you can run today
A checklist to test your own contractor site: tap-to-call, trust proof, service pages, service area, forms, and speed.
- Guide
How ChatGPT handles local business recommendations
What the data shows, what OpenAI documents, and what a contractor controls when ChatGPT answers a local question.
- Guide
Choosing Business Profile categories as a contractor
How to choose a primary and secondary Business Profile category, with examples for five trades from third-party guides.
- Guide
What to do when your Business Profile is suspended
What Google says about suspended profiles, the one-time appeal, and the guideline checks to make before requesting reinstatement.
- Guide
How Google AI Overviews pick local businesses
What Google documents about AI Overviews eligibility, where local ranking signals fit, and what stays unstated.
- Guide
What contractor SEO costs and why it varies
What a published pricing survey reports for local SEO, and the factors that move a contractor's quote up or down.
- Guide
Choosing a marketing agency for your trade business
Neutral questions to ask any agency about profile and website ownership, reporting, and contract terms.
- Guide
How to get more Google reviews the allowed way
A review request routine for contractors, built on what Google allows and the incentive and gating rules it enforces.
- Guide
Local Services Ads, SEO and PPC for contractors
A sourced comparison of how Local Services Ads, PPC, and SEO charge and where each appears, with no invented cost figures.
- Guide
Setting up a service area business on Google
How to set up a Google Business Profile for a business that travels to customers, with Google's limits on address, areas, and radius.
Looking for a definition? The local search and AI glossary covers the terms these guides use.
The first step
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