Mentioned vs Surefire Local: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors
You're looking at two different tools solving two different problems. Before you pick one, you need to understand what each one actually does.
Homeowners find contractors in two ways now: Google search (traditional local SEO) and AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini). Most trade contractors are set up for Google. Almost none are set up for AI.
That's the split.
What Surefire Local Does Well
Surefire Local is a solid local SEO platform. It handles Google Business Profile optimization, citation building, review management, and rank tracking for local keywords. If you're trying to dominate the "HVAC near me" search on Google Maps, this is the category of tool you need.
They've built a real product with real traction. The dashboard works. The citation builder saves time. If local rank is your bottleneck, they solve it.
The gap: they don't track AI. You can be crushing Google Maps and completely invisible to ChatGPT. You can have 50 Google reviews and zero mentions in Perplexity. Surefire Local will never tell you that.
Where Mentioned Is Different
Mentioned solves a different problem: AI visibility. We track whether your business appears when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Gemini a trade question. Not Google. Not Maps. AI.
Here's what we found testing 137 trade contractors: median visibility score of 32/100. Top performers hit 79. That's a 47-point gap. Most contractors don't even know they're invisible to AI.
The visibility gap is the revenue leak nobody's looking at.
We publish everything. 137 public audits. Open methodology. CC-BY-4.0 dataset. You can see exactly what you're being scored on and why. No black box. No mystery pricing tiers. You get real data.
The math is simple: if AI searchers can't find you, they can't book you. That's usually 10-15% of your incoming lead volume that's just gone.
Best For
| Use Case | Surefire Local | Mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps rank optimization | Yes, purpose-built | No, not tracked |
| Review management at scale | Yes, automated workflows | No |
| Citation building | Yes, 300+ directory distribution | No |
| AI visibility (ChatGPT/Perplexity/Claude/Gemini) | No | Yes, tracks all 4 platforms |
| Find your AI visibility gap | No | Yes, 90-second audit |
| Competitive benchmarking in AI | No | Yes, against local trades in your market |
| Open, public data | No, proprietary | Yes, CC-BY-4.0 dataset |
Use Both
Most contractors should run both. Surefire Local keeps Google Maps working. Mentioned finds the revenue leak in AI search. They're not competing. They're both feeding your pipeline, just from different sources.
Your Google strategy and your AI visibility strategy are separate bets. Both matter. Most trade contractors default to Google because it's familiar. But they're leaving 10-15% of lead volume on the table in AI platforms they don't track and don't optimize for.
Next Step
Run the free 90-second Mentioned audit. Takes less time than a Google review request.
You'll see your exact visibility score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. You'll see where you're winning and where you're invisible. No signup required. No email capture. No dark patterns.
Interested in fixing your AI visibility? We're locking founder pricing July 4. $297/month or $1,497 lifetime access. Only for founders who commit before that date.
Run your free audit now: mentionedinai.com
See your Surefire Local 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 Surefire Local contractors in
Google ranks pages. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity name specific businesses in answers. A Surefire Local 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 Surefire Local 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.