
Loading summary
A
AI search is search. With technology adoption, you have a chance to pass the current winner.
B
Well, I think everybody's going to have their own, like personal AI agent. Sam's going to have his own agent. It's my va, if you will, that goes. And it sets appointments for me. It schedules things.
A
I mean, it's a shock. It's a shock.
B
If you're small enough, start doing some research, start working with SEO and reviews. Right.
A
It was a really pleasant surprise when our SEO performed for AI. Welcome back to Owned and Operated. I am your host, John Wilson. I run Wilson Plumbing and Heating in Ohio. I'm here today with Sam Preston, the CEO of Service Scalers. Welcome to the show.
B
Thanks, John. I really appreciate it.
A
Yeah, I'm doing my best to do like better intros, so.
B
That's a great intro.
A
Yeah, I'm excited to see you. Like we have. I get to see you in a couple weeks. Five weeks.
B
Five weeks, Six weeks. You're coming out of Charleston?
A
Yeah, we're doing a meetup in Charleston. We're doing this thing and we haven't like announced this yet, so I think it's going to go out on Twitter and LinkedIn soon. But we're starting to do these like mini meetups basically. So we're doing one in Charleston, we're doing one in New York. We're thinking about Chicago and it's basically like, hey, let's just go there and like, who's a home service entrepreneur in there? And let's just like get together. So yeah, I'm pumped to see you September 4th.
B
There's some great, great companies out here in Charleston. Actually several people that have been to the Breaking five and so like coming down, big fans here of the podcast. So yeah, we can easily get a bunch of people together.
A
We just are finishing the best April we've ever had. 55% year over year organic growth. Really just a huge thanks to service scalers for being our marketing partner in that A ton of that growth came from both paid and organic SEO efforts. We did a ton of work on our SEO with Service Scalers really strategizing and working on that about a year and a half ago and the results have been creeping up over the past about year. Really started to go crazy over the last few months as we're starting to see multiple six figures of revenue attributed to our website and that's from their work on our SEO. On top of that, the management of Paid has just been absolutely huge to date. We're up 30 something percent. April alone was 55. And we're just super grateful for service scalers and that partnership. So if you want to learn more about how they helped us, make sure you check out service scalers dot com. Yeah, and I've. I'm friends with Preferred, and Brandon's their leader down there, and they're, I think, the biggest in market. And then call dad has eight locations. One of them's Charleston. I'm friends with also. Yeah. Matt, I'm friends with him, and I have some roofers that are close by, so it'll be fun. I think It'll be like, 20 or 30 people.
B
Let's do it. Let's go.
A
Yeah, it'll be good. All right. So you posted on the Facebook group some questions, or is that how you want to lead in?
B
Yeah, yeah. So I don't know if you know, but John has a Facebook group, and if you're not a part of that, you should definitely go be a part of that, because it's great. I asked a question of, like, hey, what kind of marketing questions do y' all have for me and John to answer? We got a bunch of people asking questions, and so I think for this episode, we're choosing one topic and a bunch of questions to just, like, try to dig in and answer anything we can about marketing.
A
Yeah. Sweet. Where do you want to start? What topic do you want to hit?
B
Oh, I kind of like the. I'm excited about the AI search inside of marketing and the kind of where that's going, mostly because I was just, like, playing with it this morning and trying to break it, and so, like, that's the one I'm excited about to talk about, I think.
A
Let's do it. Yeah. AI search has been a. Search has been really interesting. Like, we watch it like crazy, obviously, because the. The potential impact is. Is real. Like, it's. It's existential. Yeah, right. It's a big potential risk. So, yeah, we're watching it like crazy, and we're trying to make impact as much as we can.
B
Yeah, it's. It's really. It's really interesting the way it's about to go. We have, like, this little channel we call it Big and Small Wins, and anytime something good happens with a client, the team, like, posts in it. And this morning, one came in that we have one of our clients listed on the LLM, which basically means when you search for our client within, like, chat, GPT or something like that, it.
A
Shows, like, H Vac near me. Yeah, right.
B
It's showing up, which was huge. Right. Because that is really even for me. Like, when I go to search, I'm like using Chad GPT or like Google's AI search to go search for things. And so, like, I think that's where the trend is going and you got to start trying to figure that out.
A
Yeah, I think so. Something that we talk about a lot and this is just like getting more and more reinforced is like AI search is search. And we can like make this look, we can like try to complicate it as much as we want, but the people that are doing well at AI search, they're showing up in alarms, they're showing up as relevant. It seems like there's a couple, like, core things, which I don't know if anybody asked this question, but like the core things are, hey, was your SEO good to begin with? Yes. No. Yeah, you know, it's kind of like inarguable. Like, let's pull a Semrush or an Ahrefs or something like, did you have good stuff? And. And if it was like, did you have robust, frequently asked questions? That seems to be like the next big thing that AI is looking for. But a Ahref. I don't know if, I don't know if SEMrush is doing this, but the. I don't know if it's AHREF or how to put a ref. I don't know. I don't know how.
B
I've always done ahrefs.
A
Like, they have this thing, I'll even see if I can screen share really quick. So they have this thing now where they show are you showing up well for AI, so they have your number of citations and number of pages. So like for Google AI overview, we have 206 citations and we're like growing. We're doing well in Google, we're doing well in ChatGPT. Obviously we need to do better with the citations, but. And that to me seems like backlinks or like number of things we would show up for sure. Pages, like doing really well with ChatGPT, which this just resonates. Like, we show up a lot. Like, I get texts from friends being like, hey, you showed up in my search for this.
B
Yeah.
A
Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot. And what it, what it seems like is we had good SEO before we started. We had a lot of backlinks, we ranked for a lot of keywords. I mean, less keywords than usual or used to be. Traffic seems to be down. I actually don't know if that actually resonates with reality. That is one of the Downsides of Ahrefs or Semrush, like use your Google console to check actual traffic. But we had good SEO to begin with and like a domain rank of 36, 30. Our industry is like, good, right? Like, it's not amazing, but it's good. So I think what we've seen is we've shown up in a lot of different things where I think someone that had less would, would show up less. Does that make sense?
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. If your SEO is already good, you're a little bit of ahead of the game.
A
Yeah.
B
And I will go one, one step further. It's not just your SEO, it's also your Google business profile, which is SEO. I get it. Don't come at me but like, yeah, yeah, yeah. They are two different things actually.
A
I'll share my local. Yeah, yeah, do it. It's like local SEO and on page SEO is how we think about it internally. So you have your local SEO, which that's going to be like listings, citations, gmb and on pages, like on page, like our website.
B
Look at this little AI mode right here. So, yeah, we can come in here and we can search for, you know, anything that you want. And I think this is kind of where the future of like the AI search is kind of going there. So if I wanted to find, you know, find me three H VAC companies in Charleston, South Carolina, and I want to find a local company, I want a local company, not a big chain, right. It's going to go through and start searching, start looking at what it's searching for. Look, it's going after maps. It's looking at 49 different sites.
A
That's interesting.
B
And it's now found three different options. Now if you look over here to the right, this is SEO.
A
Yes.
B
So like, you know, go preferred.com anchor like this is all SEO. So they're still, you know, they're pushing the SEO. But then the rest of this is maps. This is your gmb. But, you know, because I'm a cheap scape, right? Like, I'm not going to just go spend all just because you're local. I'm not going to spend as much money as possible. Let's find something that's, you know, relatively competitive.
A
What I think is kind of interesting about this, which I, I feel like. So one of the existential threats with AI and search is like, what happens if you are the company with 20,000 Google reviews, right? Like, how do you still have alpha in this search? Because at this point you own the map. Like if you have 20,000 Google reviews. You own the map. But like your search, like there's companies in Your market with 5,10,000 Google reviews, but the ones that showed up are the, there's 108, 46 and a 990. Like what, what's your take on that? Because that feels almost like a flaw, like validity of search, I guess is what I'm trying to get to. So if like Google's job is to give you a service provider that is likely to make you happy so that you go back to Google and search again. Right. Like Google's in the job of, they're in the business of making you happy. So typically when you search the, the best SEO, the highest rated, like they're going to use some metric to show up. In this case, the ones that they sent were all very small businesses that didn't have a lot of reviews, which on one hand is good for those small businesses, but on the other it seems almost like the opposite of what Google wants. Where Google wants to send you who has the most Google reviews because they have the most satisfied customers, that's a safe bet. So. So that seems like a flaw, but I guess I'm curious what your take is.
B
My take is this is going to kind of turn into, in a lot of ways the way LSA works is the same way your SEO is going to work or your gmb. It's not just about what you've done in the past, it's what you've done recently. And so like yeah, you have 2,000 reviews, but that's like four from 20 years ago. Like that's not happening. What have you done in the last 90 days? So I could see that like that's the same thing with lsa, right? Like if you're not getting verified reviews within the last 30 to 90 days, it, @ some point you can start seeing that tick go down and it's going to be yeah. So I think, I think obviously the reviews volume is going to be a big deal, always has been. But I think there's a secondary tier of when is the most most recent reviews been coming through.
A
Okay.
B
But to keep going on this, like the next thing I wanted to search was like, hey, can you tell me what the best price one is out of the three that you sent me and what are the most common issues that you're seeing? If you look at this Max mechanical heating, anchor heating and air. Both are described as affordable work inside of their reviews. The second one, air, or this third one, Holy City Air heating and air has a review that's pooling that basically says hey, they charged me 600 to replace the 50 cent fuse. So like, and then also says the quote was half less than half of price of that competitor. But like someone may or may not read that. So I'm more inclined to click one of these two and you can come again. See like the most common problems that people are happening. I think reviews are again like your, your gmb, your Google business profile is about to matter a whole lot more than it did quite frankly like three months ago.
A
Yeah, that's. Well which to me and this is because we have a good, like we've invested sort of a dumb amount into our GME profile. Like to me that's a win. Like I, I think that's great and I think that's what everyone was afraid of is that hey, this wouldn't matter because I'm thinking Back to like 10 years ago and GMB was just starting to become a thing and reviews were just starting to become a thing. And like that was a moment where. And I think we have a similar moment here now.
B
Yeah.
A
Where hey, with technology adoption you have a chance to pass the current winner.
B
Yeah.
A
And that's, that is like if I summarize the last 10 years of our story, that's the last 10 years of our story is with technology adapt, like adaptation, we passed the market winners. But I know other people that are like 40, $50 million providers that are not adapting to technology and they will lose market share because there's going to be some fricking 30 year old or 25 year old or whatever that starts like hammer at home AI search.
B
Yeah. I mean and one of the things you noticed there, there was no paid there, you know, and that's going to change. I think that's going to change. You know, we're going to get into a QA section here in a second. But like one of the questions is like is PPC dead? The answer is no. But like I thought SEO was going to take a downturn. I actually kind of like corrected when I started playing with this because of the whole, I think it's going to be the most relevant. It's going to be reviews based. It's going to be the who's what, who's done what for me lately. And how is this changing? Because yeah, I think it's going to get really interesting. You're going to have to be much better at SEO than you were in the past because you're not going to have, you know, a thousand Pages, people. First off, people used to never go past the first page and now people aren't going to go past like three results. You're going to be at the top three to actually even matter.
A
If your books say you're making a lot of money, but there's nothing in the checking account. Let's talk about CFO Made Easy. Most home service businesses hit a point where the money's coming in, but it's still unclear where it's all going. You've got a bookkeeper logging the past and a CPA filing your taxes, but no one helping you plan the future. And that's where CFO Made Easy comes in. They provide part time CFO services specifically for trades and home service businesses. H vac, plumbing, electrical, roofing, you name it. They help you improve cash flow, maximize profit per tech, and make growth decisions with confidence. If you're tired of winging it financially and you want to see that bank balance grow, schedule a free financial insight session@cfomadeasy.com or click the link below. We'll uncover what's holding you back and lay out a path forward. No fluff, no corporate finance speak. Cfomadeeasy.com is it's time to grow with clarity. Yeah, I, I, I mean I think that's been right for, I think that's been right for a while.
B
Yeah.
A
But yeah, I, I agree, I mean we, I agree. I think SEO becomes more important and more important and like we made like with you guys, like you obviously know this but like for the audience. We started working with Sam and his team back in like 21 or 22. So we're on like year three or four of this, which is awesome. And I think 22 and early on in 23, like we embarked on a really big SEO project and it was called Programmatic. And the idea is like we wanted to show up more, we wanted to be more and we, you know, as AI started to become a thing and like sort of mass content started to become a thing, we were a really early adopter with you guys, so. And I think because of that, like I showed our ahrefs, but it's good. Like we won. Like we, like we made a huge investment in SEO and like it worked. We're showing up in LLM. Our SEO is good. Like we had to do a lot of work on backlinks and all that stuff. But like that was two or three years ago, work and investment and like we are more relevant than ever today because of it.
B
Yeah.
A
And I guess my point Is like, I totally agree. Like, I think that SEO has always been the gift that keeps giving. And in an AI world, it is like, even more the gift that keeps giving because it's just so important.
B
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's because of how powerful the AI search is. Like, you just saw. I just searched. Hey, give me three local companies. Boom, I got three local couples. Okay, give me someone who's affordable.
A
All right.
B
It pulled directly from your website. So who is actually affordable. Now I want to ask, well, who. How many reviews actually pertain to what I need. I need it. I need an install. I don't, I don't need someone who's just good at, you know, you know, H vac in general. I want someone who can specifically give me a unit for my house that's two stories. It's a, you know, split, whatever that is. Like, someone can ask specific things that the AI can then go pull from their reviews going, hey, this person have the same situation. They could pull that data right here. It's gonna be a pool from Facebook groups and Twitter and all these other search forums about how good you are at your job. I think it's gonna be, you know, huge.
A
Gonna be wild. Yeah, I think it's gonna be wild. Yeah. I, I, the, the review thing I think is really interesting. Like drawing from reviews. Yeah, that is interesting because I think, you know, that there was, it's kind of at a funny time. So, like, this is a tough year for a lot of companies, especially like H vac driven companies, like, very odd summer. And it was either really cool or summer started late, or it's still really cool. But there's a company, I'm in a group chat and there's a company in, I think Denver or something like that, and big company, like 40ish, 30ish somewhere in there. And they just underwent a massive price decrease, which I thought was like, kind of interesting for a number of reasons. One, that's just not something you typically see now. Maybe they drove a ton of efficiency and they were like, hey, this is a way to like, claim market share, which, like, that's something we're thinking about because we've done, we've been really effective at managing our overhead through growth. So we're like, hey, maybe we do. Maybe over the next year, maybe we do think about, like leaning up on these items. But I, I also, I think about like in the industry forever being too expensive has never been a bad thing. That's never been, like, we don't even consider that A bad review. Like if somebody leaves us a one star review and they said, hey, the pricing was a lot in our mind that is a good review because it self selects customers a way that, that we wouldn't want to deal with anyways. So for us it's like, okay, one star review, we're too expensive. Okay. I'm not going to call them great, but if you read the other 6,000 Google reviews that say we do a good job, then like those hundred that say we're too expensive, you know, equal out so our. But now like with AI, I think what is said inside the reviews like, like you just demonstrated is even more important and suddenly that does become like, hey, are they affordable? Well, okay, well how many of my Google reviews say I'm affordable or the price? I don't know because we haven't really cared much about whether or not our price was the best. That hasn't been our focus and that, that hasn't been anyone's focus in the industry. No one focuses on that. So that's going to be, that'll be really interesting. Another version of this that I find I, I saw like an article on, on I think Home Pros or something which is like an awesome newsletter, really does a great job. And it was, I, I don't think they're doing this in home service yet, but they're doing this for like restaurants where I will actually call the business and like ask about things like availability and pricing.
B
Yes.
A
And I'm like, oh man, like that's wild because like for, for some businesses that makes total sounds like, hey, how much is a haircut? Like whatever. For home service that is going to be a shift and it does, it does start to become an advantage that's currently a disadvantage. But suddenly price transparency is an advantage where hey, if you can be the one that gives pricing, will you book more jobs? Yeah, that's never been a thing.
B
Yeah.
A
And that might be about to be a thing.
B
Well, I think everybody's gonna have their own like personal AI agent. You know, Sam's going to have his own agent. It's my va, if you will, that goes. And it sets appointments for me, it schedules things, it talks to people. You know, text my wife, I love you.
A
You know, helps me with my text that every 12 minutes.
B
Yeah, just good morning. Every morning air is saving Sam's marriage. But like the other part with that is now it's going to talk to the Wilson Co's AI agent and it's going to say, hey, you know, and this will Be great for members, people that have been with you for a while.
A
Yeah.
B
Because like I'm already a member of the Wilson Company Plumbing, you know, all of the different services y' all have. Hey, can y' all schedule somebody to come out and fix this thing? You know, I think membership would, will take an uptick because of that, but also for someone who's not a member, it'll just literally be able to go find you three quotes off the bat. So that's gonna be interesting.
A
That's gonna be interesting. I, I brought that up in a peer group and it was not. I mean, it, it's a shock. It's a shock. And that's, that's a, it's one of those things where, hey, if you've been operating in this industry your whole life and even if you're still young, like 30, 40, 50, and suddenly you have to be price transparent or you, you have to do something like, I mean, that's a sweeping change.
B
Yeah.
A
And, and, and frankly, like it's a sweeping change that the industry's not ready for. So I'm as in like they don't even have, they couldn't do it if they tried.
B
Right.
A
Like the industry just couldn't do it. So maybe for the 1% of companies that are able to do that, I'm like, I'm watching close because we, we do have the ability to do it. We're price transparent on a few things and like it's, it hasn't been a disadvantage.
B
Yeah.
A
So for us, I think this could turn into alpha. And I think what it could do, which is really interesting, is it starts to make web e commerce platforms even more valuable for your business because you can put the whole price book right online.
B
Yeah. I mean, roofing's already doing this. I've seen a couple companies out there that like, can look at your home on Google Maps and give you a basic price point and they use a little bit of an AI to give it a price point, but always in that price point.
A
We do this for H vac replacements and water heaters and generators.
B
Nice. So, but within that, I'm assuming y' all have some language that says this is such a change. Yeah. Once we come out there and actually take a look, which then you get out there and you upsell into, you know, to the good, better, best. The thing you've always been talking about like this is how you get in the door and then we can talk about, okay, well here's your three options. Let's take that to the Next level.
A
Yeah, no, I, I agree, but I, I think that one, I'm like, I'm kind of. I'm kind of interested in. Just to see.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
What happens.
B
So, you know, I think the, the question we should be asking is, okay, so at what level should, you know, business owners, home service business owners actually start, you know, partaking in this? Like, how. How should they start acting to get this started? And I would say one, don't start with AI agents. Like, don't just jump in. If you're big enough and you can dedicate somebody to fully going into this, sure, go for it. But if you're small enough, start small one, start doing some research. You know, just, just go to YouTube, learn about this stuff, Figure out how you can just keep up to date to start working with SEO in this. I think your SEO is going to matter even more than it does last year.
A
Yeah.
B
And reviews. Right. Get. Get into those two things. I think those are easy ones. Gmb. Like, those three things really should be a focus point for you going forward. Yeah.
A
Yeah.
B
And then maybe take a course. Like, I know there's like on school.com, there's, there's some good, like, courses you can get into in communities to learn about this stuff. I wouldn't let it take away from what you're doing this year, though. Like, this year is not going to be the make it or break it if you're small enough to where you just need leads and jobs done. But I would put a focus on reviews, so I think that's where I would start. What about you?
A
I mean, basically the same. Like, it was, it was a really pleasant surprise when our SEO performed for AI. Like, because you just. No one knew. Yeah, because everyone's guessing, like, no. And still no one knows the answer, guys. Like, no one knows the answer. But, like, it's. We have. We're starting to get early evidence and early evidence is we're showing up where we want to show up.
B
Yeah.
A
And that is awesome. Something else that I'm like a big fan of is I like that Google came out with like, I don't want to. I personally don't want Google to be disrupted. That doesn't help me. Like, that doesn't help anybody in home service. And if you think you want to be disrupted, like, Google's probably most of your leads. So, like, why on Earth. Like, I've seen people like, yeah, disrupt Google on Twitter and I'm like, dude, like, if Google, if, if Google actually gets disrupted, your business is fucked for, like, One whole year. Like you will not know how to get leads. Like, you don't want that. So like, let them be. Yeah, like, just keep charging my card. But so, but I do like that they came up with a product that looks and feels like AI or ChatGPT, because then people will, people will use it, they'll go back to Google. Like it makes a lot of sense to still be in Google. So big fan of that. But yeah, SEO, really, I'm pumped up that Maps and Google Reviews has a place inside search because that is like, hey, this is like 10 years. You know, people work hard to get those reviews and like keep their GMBs accurate and like, it's a lot of money and time and energy. So for like a year I've been like, dude, you gotta like make our GMB profiles like worth the energy for the last five years. So I was really excited to see that in there. I'm fascinated to see what happens with paid, but that's sort of like next step. So I, I basically agree with you. Like, SEO should be top of your mind and none of this like one article a month bullshit. Like, I'm talking some real SEO and then a lot of reviews. Yeah, like just a lot. Just. And just sort of keep that emphasis. And I think if you do the core things right, like we're showing it in our business currently. If you do the core things right, like, you will continue to be okay, yeah, 100%.
B
I wouldn't change anything there.
A
Yeah, I think I even said we did, we did a. We're almost on every 90 days of like an AI, an AI in search. I mean it is a high, high change environment. But you know, last time I think we were talking about, hey, our, our Google leads are still going up. Like everyone's like, oh my God, chatgpt, like, whatever. Our Google leads are still rising.
B
Yeah.
A
And something we didn't talk about is, hey, what is this? There's a. It's, there's like search and there's discovery. Maybe you'll do a better job at this than me. I'm probably using the wrong words, but the idea is people are going to chat GPT and they're typing in a question like, hey, H Vac companies near me. Oh, it's a discovery, then verify. So they're, they're going into chat GPT and they're like searching for service providers, plumbers, whatever, and they're, they're discovering the different options that they have and they're using AI to like formulate, you know, a Little bit more of a conversational search, but then they're using Google to verify that search. So there's like people are ChatGPT then to Google. Now the only reason that's happening is because people like Chat GPT doesn't really offer a great solution to give you the best service providers yet. Like maybe they will soon, but like currently that is the best way to do it is, hey, I'm going to use Chat GPT to discover all my options. I'm going to jump onto Google, I'm going to verify that they do in fact have good reviews and then I'm going to call them. But both of them, both of those involve great SEO and great gmb. It's no secret that my office here in Nashville is almost completely empty. So how do I support my team as well as have great growth metrics? Well, the answer is international contractors with Quick Staffers. So Quick Staffers is a premier staffing agency which will place top tier talent in your business, built by the trades for the trades.
B
So if you need a csr, they'll.
A
Be placing a CSR that is highly trained in your business, that knows service titan and can book calls effectively. Day 1 Call 1. Affordable, reliable and trained in all of the industry best practices. Quick Staffers can help you cut that overhead, boost conversions and scale your business fast. So don't waste another lead. Visit quickstaffers.com and transform your business today.
B
Well, one of the big reasons why it's still lagging behind a little bit is because ChatGPT is using Bing as their search and not a lot of people are using Bing to make sure that everything's optimized there for the LLM. Which is why we're such a big fan of like, hey, we're showing up on chat and it's because we are optimizing for Bing and for Google.
A
Yeah.
B
To make sure that we do show up and it will catch up. It just will.
A
Yeah. Our Google traffic is still going up on a per lead basis and I think that. And that's been like consistent, like that hasn't changed at all. So we're still continuing to see that. So we feel, I feel comfortable with just what we've done, which is SEO and GMB focus.
B
Yeah, keep doing it, man.
A
Well, this was a, this was a like good discussion on AI. I really feel like it's sort of nothing happened with AI and Home Service and search for like 90 days or four months. And then in the past couple weeks it's like they're going to Start calling you for pricing. And now here's this new AI mode. And like, it seems like a lot happened quick.
B
Yeah. And I feel like that'll continue to happen. Like we're just going to keep getting announcements of things coming out, but then it won't actually hit the market for the next like 12 months. There'll be early adopters, but then I think it'll take a little bit and I think we'll look back in two years going like, hey, the. The way people searched and how they found your business, it's very different than what it is now, even though it's still all through search.
A
Yeah.
B
So I think it's gonna be fun. Right? Things change. You know, we went from MySpace to Facebook and Facebook to Tick Tock and whatever we have now. So, like, things change. The marketplace changes. You have to be adaptable to going and finding your audience. You know, I remember having a conversation with some of my business partners. Partners. And kind of being nervous about like, hey, AI is going to change the game. And they're like, Sam.
A
Yeah.
B
Like this has always happened, like the market, we're marketers. This is like the game's always changing.
A
It's the nature of it.
B
You're just running ads on Facebook or now you're doing on TikTok, or it was on Google Ads, now It's on Google AI search and on ChatGPT. Like it's the same thing. Get in front of your audience, drive intent based traffic to your website. Get more leads.
A
Yeah.
B
And focus on things that are going to get you more and more of those things.
A
Yeah, no, totally agree. Great conversation on how AI is changing search.
B
That was fun.
A
Thanks for coming in. If people want to get a hold of you, where can they contact you?
B
Hey, Sam Preston on TikTok, not TikTok. Well, I guess. Yeah, Tick Tock too. That is true. But I'm never on there.
A
So all. All those. All those dancing videos. Nice.
B
And yeah, you got to grow somehow. And I'll do whatever it takes. Really?
A
Yeah. Yeah.
B
So X. I guess I meant to say Twitter, but I guess it's x and then LinkedIn. And I guess the question you gotta ask yourself was, was this really real or was this all just AI, Sam and John?
A
Yeah. I think I hit my nose a few times so we know it's real. Yeah. All right. If you like what you heard, make sure you give us a five star wherever it is that you listen to podcasts and make sure you check out owned and operated dot com.
Owned and Operated - Episode #231: How AI Will Change Home Service Marketing Forever
Release Date: August 7, 2025
In Episode #231 of Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast, hosts John Wilson and Sam Preston delve into the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on home service marketing. This in-depth discussion explores the integration of AI in search strategies, the evolving importance of SEO and Google Business Profiles (GMB), the emergence of personal AI agents, and the future landscape of marketing for plumbing, electrical, and HVAC businesses.
The episode kicks off with a brief exchange about the ubiquity of AI in daily operations. Sam Preston envisions a future where every individual has a personal AI agent handling tasks like scheduling appointments:
Sam Preston [00:07]: "I think everybody's going to have their own, like personal AI agent. Sam's going to have his own agent. It's my VA, if you will, that goes. And it sets appointments for me. It schedules things."
John Wilson shares his excitement about the evolving AI landscape and introduces Sam Preston, CEO of Service Scalers, highlighting their collaborative efforts in SEO and marketing success.
John and Sam discuss the rapid advancements in AI search and its implications for home service businesses. They emphasize the critical need for businesses to adapt to AI-driven search algorithms to maintain and enhance their market presence.
John Wilson [04:07]: "AI search is search. With technology adoption, you have a chance to pass the current winner."
Sam underscores the significance of AI in leveling the playing field, allowing smaller businesses to compete effectively:
Sam Preston [04:32]: "It's showing up, which was huge. Right. Because that is really even for me... I think that's where the trend is going and you got to start trying to figure that out."
A substantial portion of the conversation centers on SEO's enduring importance and its heightened relevance in the age of AI. John shares his company's impressive growth metrics, attributing much of their success to robust SEO strategies implemented with Service Scalers' assistance.
John Wilson [01:40]: "We just are finishing the best April we've ever had. 55% year over year organic growth."
Sam elaborates on how continuous SEO efforts, particularly focusing on backlinks and citations, have enabled their clients to appear prominently in AI-driven searches:
Sam Preston [06:38]: "They [Ahrefs] have this thing now where they show are you showing up well for AI... We're doing well in Google, we're doing well in ChatGPT."
John highlights the strategic investment in SEO over the past few years, which has positioned his business favorably in AI search results:
John Wilson [16:54]: "SEO has always been the gift that keeps giving. And in an AI world, it is like, even more the gift that keeps giving because it's just so important."
The hosts explore the concept of personal AI agents managing customer interactions, setting appointments, and enhancing customer relationships. This technological shift promises increased efficiency and personalized customer service.
Sam Preston [21:28]: "Everybody's gonna have their own like personal AI agent... It talks to people. You know, text my wife, I love you."
John reflects on the potential disruptions and advantages this technology brings, noting that while AI can streamline operations, it also necessitates transparency and adaptability in marketing strategies.
A critical discussion unfolds around the increasing importance of price transparency and the nuanced role of customer reviews in AI-driven searches. John articulates concerns about how AI might prioritize certain metrics over the quantity of reviews, potentially affecting businesses with extensive positive feedback.
John Wilson [10:50]: "If you have 20,000 Google reviews... but the ones that showed up are the, there's 108, 46 and a 990. What is your take on that?"
Sam responds by emphasizing the shift towards recent reviews and consistent customer engagement as key factors AI will consider:
Sam Preston [11:39]: "What have you done in the last 90 days?... Your most recent reviews have been coming through."
Both hosts agree that businesses must focus on maintaining fresh and relevant reviews, along with transparent pricing structures, to stay competitive.
John and Sam offer actionable advice for home service businesses aiming to thrive in the AI-dominated marketing landscape:
Invest in Robust SEO: Continuous SEO efforts are crucial. Utilize tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to monitor and enhance your SEO performance.
Sam Preston [25:06]: "Start doing some research, start working with SEO and reviews."
Enhance Your Google Business Profile (GMB): Regularly update your GMB with accurate information and encourage recent customer reviews.
John Wilson [23:23]: "We're price transparent on a few things and like it's, it hasn't been a disadvantage."
Embrace AI Tools Gradually: While not mandatory for smaller businesses, exploring AI tools for managing appointments and customer interactions can provide a competitive edge as resources allow.
Sam Preston [25:22]: "Don't start with AI agents. If you're small enough, start small... focus on reviews and SEO."
Prioritize Price Transparency: Clearly display pricing information where possible to attract customers seeking upfront costs.
John Wilson [20:53]: "Price transparency is an advantage where hey, if you can be the one that gives pricing, will you book more jobs?"
Looking ahead, John and Sam anticipate continued evolution in AI and its integration into search and marketing strategies. They predict that AI will further refine how customers discover and engage with home service providers, making adaptability and proactive marketing essential for sustained growth.
Sam Preston [31:50]: "We'll look back in two years going like, hey, the way people searched and how they found your business, it's very different than what it is now."
John expresses optimism about the resilience of SEO and GMB in maintaining lead generation, despite rapid technological changes:
John Wilson [28:06]: "Our Google traffic is still going up on a per lead basis... we're still continuing to see that."
The episode concludes with John and Sam reaffirming the critical role of SEO and GMB in navigating the AI-driven marketing landscape. They encourage home service businesses to stay informed, invest in foundational marketing strategies, and remain adaptable to leverage AI's full potential.
John Wilson [32:39]: "If you do the core things right, like we're showing it in our business currently. If you do the core things right, like, you will continue to be okay, yeah, 100%."
Sam Preston [32:22]: "Get in front of your audience, drive intent based traffic to your website. Get more leads."
For those interested in harnessing the power of AI in their home service businesses, the hosts recommend engaging with their platforms and resources:
John Wilson [33:00]: "So all those dancing videos... grown somehow. And I'll do whatever it takes."
Key Takeaways:
AI Integration: AI is revolutionizing how customers search for and interact with home service providers, making traditional SEO and GMB strategies more critical than ever.
SEO and GMB: Strong SEO and an optimized GMB are foundational to appearing in AI-driven search results, driving significant organic growth.
Price Transparency and Reviews: Transparent pricing and up-to-date, relevant customer reviews are becoming essential for competitiveness in AI-enhanced search environments.
Adaptability: Home service businesses must remain adaptable, continuously updating their marketing strategies to keep pace with AI advancements and changing customer behaviors.
For more insights and resources on growing your plumbing, electrical, or HVAC business, visit www.ownedandoperated.com.