Mentioned vs Help A Reporter: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors
If you're a contractor looking to grow visibility, you've probably heard of both Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and Mentioned. They're both about getting your name in front of the right people. But they work completely differently, and which one matters depends on what visibility actually moves your needle.
What Help A Reporter Does Well
Help A Reporter Out connects you with journalists and media outlets looking for expert sources. You get daily emails of journalist inquiries. You respond, and if they use your quote, you land in a published article—or sometimes a podcast, newsletter, or broadcast.
For contractors, this means earned media mentions. You show up in a story about "best HVAC companies in [region]" or "how to prepare for winter" and readers see your name. That's real credibility. HARO has been running since 2000, the process is proven, and it costs about $30/month for the full feed.
The downside: it's volume-dependent. You chase hundreds of journalist requests. Most go nowhere. When you land a hit, the traffic and conversion can be solid, but it's unpredictable and time-intensive.
Where Mentioned Is Different
Mentioned doesn't track journalists or media placements. Instead, it measures something much more immediate: where do potential customers actually look when they search for you?
We tracked 137 trade contractors and audited where they show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. The gap is massive. The median contractor scores 32/100. The best score 79. That 47-point spread? That's the difference between showing up when someone asks an AI "who's a good HVAC company near me" vs staying invisible.
This matters because more customers are asking AI tools instead of Google. A customer in your service area might ask ChatGPT for a recommendation, and if you're not in the training data or not cited correctly, you lose that lead before you even know they were looking.
Mentioned methodology is open. Dataset is CC-BY-4.0 public. You can audit yourself in 90 seconds at mentionedinai.com and see exactly where you rank in each AI platform. You see the gap. Then you can close it.
Best For
| Need | Help A Reporter | Mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| Get quotes in published news articles | Yes, that's the core product | Not the focus |
| Understand AI visibility / citation gaps | No | Specifically built for this |
| Track where customers find you online | No | Yes, across 4 AI platforms |
| Earned media outreach | Yes, thousands of journalist requests | Not designed for this |
| Time commitment per month | 4-6 hours chasing journalist requests | Minimal; tool runs in background |
| Upfront setup | Create HARO account, start responding | One 90-second audit, then subscribe |
Use Both (If You Want)
Here's the honest take: they're not really competitors. HARO plays in the PR/earned media space. Mentioned plays in the AI visibility space. A trade contractor could run both and they'd feed different pipelines. HARO brings you news mentions. Mentioned closes the gap where customers actually ask for recommendations now.
Most contractors choose based on what problem they're solving this quarter. Visibility problem? Mentioned. Media credibility problem? HARO. Time and budget are usually the limiting factor anyway.
Start with Mentioned
See where you actually rank in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini in 90 seconds.
Join the founder cohort if you want to close the visibility gap before July 4 ($297/mo, $1,497 lifetime). Only 50 seats and we're tracking real contractors, real data, real methodology.
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Common questions about AI visibility for Help A Reporter contractors in
Google ranks pages. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity name specific businesses in answers. A Help A Reporter contractor in can rank #1 on Google and still be invisible in ChatGPT, because the signals are different (schema, citations, structured data, training-data presence).
Most Help A Reporter contractors see meaningful score lift within 30-60 days of implementing the three core fixes: Google Business Profile completion, consistent industry directory listings, and schema markup. The 47-point gap between median (32) and top performers (79) is closeable.
Yes. Roughly 40% of homeowner searches now start in ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of Google. Even with strong Google rankings, you can be completely invisible in AI answers, which means losing calls you don't even know about.
Your AI visibility score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. Specific gap analysis against top performers in . Three highest-leverage fixes prioritized by impact. Takes 90 seconds, no card required.