On 2 October 2026 I asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode for the best plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, landscapers and kitchen fitters in each of the four counties: four ways a homeowner phrases it, ten times each, per engine. Then I matched every firm named against every trade firm Google Maps lists in that county. Of 9,759 firms, 861 were recommended at least once; 8,898, or 91%, were never named.
ChatGPT sends nine answers in ten to a directory. Gemini sends one in four.
Every engine cites what it read. For a tradesperson, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode read Checkatrade first and the firms second; Gemini reads the firms’ own sites.
| Engine | Any of the six | Checkatrade |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 90% | 85% |
| Gemini | 23% | 17% |
| Google AI Mode | 75% | 74% |
What it means: if you are not on Checkatrade, you are not on the page two of the three engines read first.
Essex has nearly half the firms and under a tenth of the mentions.
Then I asked for the region instead of a county: 720 more answers, measured against the four county lists merged, 9,598 firms. 498 were named, one in nineteen, and Norfolk firms took 45% of the mentions.
| County | Share of firms | Share of mentions | Firms named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suffolk | 16% | 30% | 149 of 1,564 |
| Norfolk | 19% | 45% | 164 of 1,799 |
| Essex | 46% | 9% | 95 of 4,446 |
| Cambridgeshire | 17% | 15% | 79 of 1,650 |
| More than one county | 1% | 1% | 11 of 139 |
Firms listed in more than one county are 1% of the list and 1% of the mentions, and are left off the chart. If you are an Essex roofer, the regional question is not one you will be found by.
Under ten reviews, one firm in thirty is named. Past 150, six in ten.
I split all 9,759 firms by Google review count, and the naming rate rises with every band. Rating barely moves it: named firms average 4.85 stars, unnamed 4.59.
| Reviews | Firms | Named | Share named |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3,286 | 44 | 1% |
| 1–9 | 4,183 | 188 | 4% |
| 10–49 | 1,772 | 393 | 22% |
| 50–149 | 416 | 176 | 42% |
| 150+ | 102 | 60 | 59% |
Website or not: 14% of firms with their own site were named, 2% of firms with none. Past fifty reviews it is 45% with a site (495 firms) and 48% without (23 firms, a small group). The reviews get you found; the site is what the engine reads once it has, and where the customer lands. If you have none, start there.
Kitchen fitters are the only trade where one firm in four is ever named. For plumbers and builders it is one in fifteen.
The engines name 21 to 52 firms per trade per county, whatever the size of the trade. A trade with thousands of firms gets much the same short list as one with hundreds.
| Trade | Firms | Named | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen fitters | 501 | 125 | 25% |
| Roofers | 1,032 | 121 | 12% |
| Electricians | 1,966 | 170 | 9% |
| Landscapers | 1,557 | 128 | 8% |
| Plumbers | 2,289 | 157 | 7% |
| Builders | 2,414 | 160 | 7% |
Essex is last in every trade: one firm in eighteen is ever named.
The same 720 questions in each county. Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire sit within two points of each other, 11% to 12% of trade firms ever named; Essex, with nearly as many trade firms as the other three together, 6%. More firms to choose from does not mean more firms chosen; it means the same handful from a bigger pool.
S Suffolk · N Norfolk · E Essex · C Cambridgeshire
| Trade | Suffolk | Norfolk | Essex | Cambridgeshire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 10% | 7% | 5% | 9% |
| Electricians | 12% | 11% | 6% | 12% |
| Builders | 12% | 9% | 4% | 7% |
| Roofers | 17% | 15% | 9% | 11% |
| Landscapers | 8% | 11% | 6% | 11% |
| Kitchen fitters | 35% | 29% | 16% | 35% |
Problem-led questions pull Gemini towards the directories and ChatGPT away from them.
I also asked by town, three towns per county, plainly (“plumber in Ipswich”) and with the problem in the question (“emergency plumber Ipswich boiler not working”): 2,160 answers. The town answers named 43 firms per trade against 36 for the county question, 90% of them in or near the town asked about.
| Engine | Plain | Problem-led |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 76% | 65% |
| Gemini | 10% | 28% |
| Google AI Mode | 72% | 79% |
And the names change: 55% of the firms the town questions named had never come up for the county question. Ask the way a homeowner asks and you meet a different shortlist.
ChatGPT and AI Mode read Checkatrade. Gemini reads the firms’ own sites and Houzz.
Asked for East Anglia rather than a county, ChatGPT cited a directory in 63% of answers, against 90% for the county question. Checkatrade still tops two of the three lists.
| Engine | Source | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | checkatrade.com | 387 |
| ChatGPT | trustatrader.com | 84 |
| ChatGPT | niceic.com | 60 |
| ChatGPT | yell.com | 56 |
| ChatGPT | trustedtraders.which.co.uk | 45 |
| ChatGPT | labc.co.uk | 42 |
| Gemini | met-allroofing.co.uk | 83 |
| Gemini | glenigan.com | 69 |
| Gemini | houzz.co.uk | 61 |
| Gemini | ukplumbingcompany.co.uk | 59 |
| Gemini | mgbuilderseastanglia.co.uk | 53 |
| Gemini | eastanglianbuilders.com | 51 |
| Google AI Mode | checkatrade.com | 595 |
| Google AI Mode | niceic.com | 40 |
| Google AI Mode | trustatrader.com | 34 |
| Google AI Mode | fmb.org.uk | 21 |
| Google AI Mode | glenigan.com | 20 |
| Google AI Mode | barbour-abi.com | 16 |
Trade by trade, and who gets named.
Each block is 120 answers to the regional questions: four phrasings, ten repeats, three engines, measured against every firm listed in the four counties. The bars are the share of answers naming the firm; the county chip says where the firm is listed.
Plumbers: 95 of 2,255 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 32 of its 40 answers. Named plumbers across the four counties have a median of 57 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 3.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 72 (3%) | 32 of 40 | checkatrade.comtrustatrader.comtrustedtraders.which.co.uk |
| Gemini | 29 (1%) | 5 of 40 | ukplumbingcompany.co.ukthecleanplumber.co.ukrussellandsonplumbing.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 34 (2%) | 32 of 40 | checkatrade.comtrustatrader.comtrustmark.org.uk |
Who gets named: the 10 plumbers named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Electricians: 98 of 1,943 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 26 of its 40 answers. Named electricians across the four counties have a median of 27 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 1.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 70 (4%) | 26 of 40 | checkatrade.comniceic.comwebbelectrical.co.uk |
| Gemini | 32 (2%) | 6 of 40 | electriciansup.co.ukeclipseelectrical.co.uktrustedtrader.team |
| Google AI Mode | 34 (2%) | 37 of 40 | checkatrade.comniceic.comtrustatrader.com |
Who gets named: the 10 electricians named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Builders: 74 of 2,361 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 11 of its 40 answers. Named builders across the four counties have a median of 9 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 1.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 46 (2%) | 11 of 40 | labc.co.ukfmb.org.ukcheckatrade.com |
| Gemini | 17 (1%) | 0 of 40 | glenigan.commgbuilderseastanglia.co.ukeastanglianbuilders.com |
| Google AI Mode | 31 (1%) | 9 of 40 | fmb.org.ukglenigan.comcheckatrade.com |
Who gets named: the 10 builders named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Roofers: 78 of 1,018 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 33 of its 40 answers. Named roofers across the four counties have a median of 28 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 2.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 60 (6%) | 33 of 40 | checkatrade.comtrustatrader.comyell.com |
| Gemini | 26 (3%) | 1 of 40 | met-allroofing.co.ukawroofingeastanglia.co.ukeastangliaroofingservices.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 35 (3%) | 30 of 40 | checkatrade.comnfrc.co.uktrustatrader.com |
Who gets named: the 10 roofers named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Landscapers: 86 of 1,540 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 13 of its 40 answers. Named landscapers across the four counties have a median of 19 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 1.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 60 (4%) | 13 of 40 | adriangriffiths.co.ukvandenberg-hider.co.ukyell.com |
| Gemini | 38 (3%) | 4 of 40 | houzz.co.uktopratedlandscapers.co.ukrogergladwell.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 34 (2%) | 4 of 40 | checkatrade.comsuetownsendgardendesign.co.ukchrisdeakin.co.uk |
Who gets named: the 10 landscapers named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Kitchen fitters: 67 of 481 ever named.
ChatGPT cited a trade directory in 37 of its 40 answers. Named kitchen fitters across the four counties have a median of 24 Google reviews when asked for their own county; the rest, 2.
| Engine | Firms named | Cite a directory | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 56 (12%) | 37 of 40 | checkatrade.comnorfolkkitcheninstallations.co.ukeastangliankitchens.co.uk |
| Gemini | 23 (5%) | 6 of 40 | angliafactors.co.ukjnkitchens.co.ukdavidraynerkitchens.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 24 (5%) | 26 of 40 | checkatrade.comtrustatrader.commybuilder.com |
Who gets named: the 10 kitchen fitters named most often
Named by all three engines. The bars are the share of each engine’s answers that named the firm.
Is Checkatrade worth it? Common questions.
Is Checkatrade worth it for getting recommended by AI?
For ChatGPT, the data points that way. Asked for tradespeople in East Anglia's four counties, it cited checkatrade.com in 85% of 960 answers, and one of six trade directories in 90%. Google AI Mode cited a directory in 75% and Gemini in 23%, so a listing matters less there.
How many East Anglia tradespeople does AI search name?
861 of 9,759 trade firms with a Google listing across Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire were named at least once by the county questions. That is about one firm in eleven.
Do Google reviews matter more than a Checkatrade listing or a website?
Review count is the strongest signal in this data. Under ten Google reviews, 3% of firms were named; past 150, 59%. The directory decides where ChatGPT looks; the reviews decide who it picks.
How I counted, and what it cannot tell you.
- The denominatorEvery Google Maps listing in each trade’s categories, pulled through DataForSEO’s Business Listings data and filtered to each county’s postcodes. A listing counts on its primary Google label: drainage firms only if Google also lists them as a plumber, “Construction Company” only when the name says builder, kitchen shops only when the name says kitchen. Merchants, DIY chains and volume housebuilders are dropped by name. The regional denominator merges the four county lists: 9,598 firms once those listed in more than one county are grouped.
- The county prompts“Best X in [county]”, “recommend an X in [county]”, “X near [county town]” (Ipswich, Norwich, Chelmsford, Cambridge) and “who are the top X in [county]”, each run ten times per engine, logged out, UK location: 2,880 answers.
- The town promptsThree towns per county, a plain question and a problem-led one per trade, five runs each per engine: 2,160 answers. “In or near” means a listing in that postal town or within 15 km of its centre.
- The regional promptsThe same four questions with “East Anglia” in place of the county: 720 answers.
- The enginesChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, collected through DataForSEO’s scrapers on 2 October 2026. ChatGPT with web search on.
- A mentionThe firm’s name, or its website, in the answer. Trade names are generic, so place words and trade words never match on their own; matching was automatic, then checked by hand at the top and bottom of every table. The directory measure is the share of answers whose cited sources or links include Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People, TrustATrader, Yell or Bark.
- What it cannot tell youIt is one day’s snapshot and the engines move. Trade firms with no Google listing at all, and sole traders listed only on Checkatrade, are not in the count. That is also the point. The list of firms that were not named is deliberately not published.
The per-firm data is available to journalists and trade bodies on request: [email protected]. If you cite the study, link to this page. I will re-run it quarterly and keep the URLs.
Each county has its own report, with the town questions and every trade’s named firms: Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. The same study for solicitors, accountants, estate agents, recruiters, architects and IT firms is East Anglia’s professional services.