Mentioned vs SEMRush: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors
The Short Version
These aren't competitors. They're tools for different problems.
SEMRush tracks Google: ranking position, local citations, Map Pack placement, Yelp reviews. Your agency probably uses it.
Mentioned tracks AI: how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini rank you when homeowners ask for recommendations. Your agency doesn't touch this.
You can be #1 on Google and ranked 0 in AI. We've seen it 137 times in our dataset.
What SEMRush Does (and Does Well)
SEMRush is solid at what it's built for:
- Keyword rankings in Google organic
- Backlink and citation tracking
- Competitor keyword overlap
- Local Map Pack position
- Yelp and review site monitoring
- Site audit and technical SEO flags
If your business lives on Google search, SEMRush tells you whether you're winning. It's been doing that for 15 years. It works.
The blind spot isn't SEMRush's fault. It's that Google search and AI search are fundamentally different engines pulling from different data sources.
Where Mentioned Is Different
AI visibility is its own game.
When a homeowner types "best HVAC near me" into ChatGPT, it doesn't rank you by your Google position. It pulls from:
- Training data partnerships (Reddit, Forums, Q&A sites)
- Schema and structured data across your website
- NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across 100+ aggregators
- Content mentions in unexpected places (contractor forums, local subreddits, trade publications)
- Third-party mentions and citations in AI-indexed sources
We query ChatGPT and Perplexity with real homeowner questions across your market. We log which companies they recommend. Your score is the count of times you get named, normalized to 0-100.
Real data from 137 audits: median score is 32/100. Top 5% are above 60. 87% of operators score under 20. The gap between top and median is 47 points.
The overlap? Under 30% of AI ranking signals are shared with Google. You can crush it on one and be invisible on the other.
Quick Comparison
| What it measures | SEMRush | Mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| Google ranking | Yes | No |
| AI (ChatGPT/Perplexity) | No | Yes |
| Citation networks | Yes (Google-focused) | Yes (AI-focused) |
| Backlinks | Yes | No |
| Local Map Pack | Yes | No |
| Schema effectiveness | Audit only | Live impact |
| Competitor AI rank | No | Yes |
| Cost | $120-500/mo | $497/mo or $1,497 DFY |
Use Both? Or Pick One?
Here's the honest recommendation:
If you're paying for SEO: You probably have SEMRush (or BrightLocal or similar). Keep it. It's tracking Google.
If your Google rank is solid but phone-ins are soft: Run a free Mentioned audit. 87% of operators who do this discover they're invisible in AI — the actual leak in their funnel.
Ideal scenario: SEMRush tells you about Google. Mentioned tells you about AI. You fix both. AI search traffic is growing 27% month over month. Google organic is flat for local service queries. The operators investing in AI visibility now are buying compounding market share.
But if you had to pick one fix first: AI visibility. It's the gap nobody's closing, and the growth slope is steeper.
Next Step
Run the free audit. 30 seconds. No card. See your actual AI score against your local competitors. If it's under 20 (which it probably is), you'll see exactly which fixes matter first.
About Mentioned: Built by an operator running a $3M+ trade business who paid a $4K/mo SEO retainer while invisible in AI. The audit is free because the real product is helping operators close the gap.
See your SEMRush 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 SEMRush contractors in
Google ranks pages. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity name specific businesses in answers. A SEMRush 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 SEMRush 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.