AI Visibility Index · Indianapolis, IN

It's July. A homeowner in Carmel notices their air handler is cycling off mid-afternoon. Temperature is 94 degrees. They pull up ChatGPT and ask "best HVAC contractors near me."

ChatGPT names three contractors. None of them are you. The homeowner calls the first one. They close the call in 45 minutes. $8,500 job gone to someone else. This pattern repeats 30 times a month across Indianapolis.

The problem: you exist in Google search. You don't exist in AI search.

Why Indianapolis HVAC Contractors Get Missed

Indianapolis has a specific advantage for AI visibility work. The market is fragmented. Crown Air, Eagle Air, Phoenix Air, Cardinal Heating—they all compete for the same pool of homeowners asking AI for help. But most contractors are invisible to the models.

Three market factors make this worse:

• Seasonal call volume. Indianapolis summers hit 90+ degrees June through August. That's when every homeowner with a failing unit searches for HVAC help. Peak season means peak call volume at stake.
• Midwest contractor density. The Indianapolis metro has over 400 HVAC contractors. Homeowners use AI to cut through the noise. If AI doesn't mention you, you're invisible to the 40% of searches that start with ChatGPT instead of Google.
• New construction corridor. Greenwood, Fishers, and the north side are adding 15k new homes annually. Builders default to contractors they already know. But when homeowners move in and their new systems need service, they search for local help. AI search is where they start.

Add it together: you're competing in a market where four contractors own the AI recommendation layer.

What the Data Shows

We audited 137 HVAC contractors across the US. The benchmark is stark.

Median visibility score: 32 out of 100. Top performers: 79. That 47-point gap translates to roughly $5k to $20k per month in inbound calls going to whoever AI names instead of your phone.

The gap compounds. Contractors ranking in the top quartile show up 6x more often in ChatGPT responses. Their Google Business Profile is locked in with citations from major review aggregators. Their NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is consistent across the web. Structured data is in place. Schema is correct.

Contractors in the bottom half? Invisible. Missing from Claude. Absent from Perplexity. Never mentioned by Gemini. Even when homeowners search "[your city] HVAC emergency," you don't appear.

The audit includes four dimensions. Citation presence is the first: how often AI mentions you at all. Citation accuracy is the second: whether your NAP matches what the model sees. Competitive position is third: how dominant your competitors are in the local benchmark. Structured data health is fourth: whether your schema, business category, and service area are correctly wired.

Most contractors fail on the first two. Name spelled differently across platforms. Phone number with extension on one site, without on another. Address variations. These microinconsistencies make AI models uncertain. When a model is uncertain, it recommends someone else.

What to Do About It

Three concrete moves. Pick the fastest one and start there.

Move 1: Audit your NAP.Scan your Google Business Profile, website, Yelp, BBB, industry directories, and the top three local contractor lists Indianapolis uses. Write down every variant of your name, address, and phone. Any mismatch kills you. Fix the five most visible ones (GBP, website footer, Yelp, local directories, the top review site for your trade). Takes four hours. Worth $2k-$5k in recovered monthly calls once locked in.

Move 2: Add structured data.Most contractors have a website. Almost none have LocalBusiness schema. Add it. Name, address, phone, service area, hours, payment accepted, aggregateRating if you have reviews. This is HTML you paste once and forget. Google, ChatGPT, and Claude all read it. Takes one hour if you use a schema generator. Worth $1k-$3k in improved citation presence.

Move 3: Claim and optimize your business listings.You have a Google Business Profile. You probably don't have a claimed profile on Yelp, Angie's List, ServiceTitan's contractor directory, or HomeAdvisor. Five minutes each. The models cross-reference these directories. If you're only on Google, you're half-visible. Fill out the top five directories for your trade. Bonus: each one surfaces reviews in different places.

These three moves don't require a redesign, a rebrand, or new content. They're fixes to infrastructure you already have.

The Fast Path

Run your free AI Visibility Audit at mentionedinai.com. Takes 90 seconds. You'll see your exact score, how many times you appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity, and which specific data inconsistencies are holding you back.

If you want ongoing tracking, we run monthly re-audits. Subscribe to see your score move week to week, track your top three local competitors, and get alerts when you drop. Founder tier pricing closes July 4. Then it becomes $297/mo. Lock in $297/mo lifetime (or $1,497 one-time) before it closes.

See your HVAC AI visibility score in Indianapolis

Enter your business below. We run live queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. You get your score in under 90 seconds.

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