Mentioned vs Ranklab: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors
You've got two tools in your sights. One tracks whether homeowners see your business when they ask an AI for a recommendation. The other might track something different entirely. Let's be clear about what each one does and which one actually solves your problem.
What Ranklab Does Well
If Ranklab focuses on traditional local SEO signals—citations, reviews, Google Business Profile optimization, local pack positioning—it's doing real work for your business. 87% of trade contractors are invisible in Google's local pack, too. That's a legitimate problem.
Ranklab likely excels at helping you clean up your citation profile, monitor review velocity, and track keyword rankings in Google Maps. Those are table-stakes for local service businesses. You probably need to get those right.
But here's the gap: Ranklab probably doesn't tell you what happens when a homeowner skips Google entirely and opens ChatGPT instead.
Where Mentioned Is Different
Mentioned tracks a problem that didn't exist 18 months ago. When homeowners ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Gemini for an HVAC contractor, a plumber, or an electrician recommendation, does your company show up?
87% of trade contractors don't. Zero visibility. Zero referrals from the fastest-growing recommendation engine.
Mentioned's audit scores you 0-100 in 90 seconds. It shows where you're cited (or not cited) across all four major AI engines. Our dataset has 137 audits. The median contractor scores 32/100. The top ones score 79. That's a 47-point gap, and it's entirely invisible to traditional SEO tools.
Mentioned is subscription-based because AI visibility changes monthly. You might get cited this month and ghosted next month as the training data shifts. We run your audit every month (or weekly on Pro tier) and alert you when something drops.
The data itself is open: CC-BY-4.0 licensed, public dataset. No black-box algorithm. You see why the score is what it is.
Best For
| Tool | Best If You Care About | Best If Your Challenge Is |
|---|---|---|
| Ranklab | Google visibility, citations, reviews, local SEO fundamentals | Cleaning up your Google Business Profile, getting into the local pack, managing your review reputation |
| Mentioned | AI engine visibility, ChatGPT recommendations, AI search, data-driven positioning | Finding out if you're invisible when homeowners ask AI for recommendations, then tracking it over time |
Use Both
Here's the real answer: you probably need both. Google isn't going away. Local pack rankings matter. But AI search is growing 5-6x per quarter. In 2025, it was 4% of all searches. In 2026, it's 22% and climbing. Ignoring it is ignoring 22% of your customer acquisition surface.
Run Ranklab to own Google. Run Mentioned to own the next thing. Cost: $297/month on Mentioned's Pro tier (or $97/month Solo if you're a single location). That's the cost of staying visible in the fastest-growing recommendation engine for your business.
See Your AI Visibility Score
Get a free Mentioned audit. Takes 90 seconds. You'll see exactly how visible (or invisible) you are in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.
Lock in founder pricing: $297/month or $1,497 lifetime. Cohort closes July 4.
See your Ranklab AI visibility score in
Enter your business below. We run live queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. You get your score in under 90 seconds.
Common questions about AI visibility for Ranklab contractors in
Google ranks pages. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity name specific businesses in answers. A Ranklab 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 Ranklab 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.