The three prompts every trades business must win.
The short answer
Every local service business must win three prompts in ChatGPT: the emergency prompt ("emergency plumber Burlington right now"), the comparison prompt ("best HVAC company in Calgary for furnace replacement"), and the service-area prompt ("dentist near me in Vancouver"). If you're cited on these three, the rest is vanity. Prioritize them in every content, schema, and backlink decision.
We audit a lot of websites. 80% of owners obsess over the wrong prompts — usually some version of "best [trade] in Canada". That prompt doesn't convert. It barely even gets asked.
The three prompts below are the ones we actually target first in every Concierge engagement. Get named in these three, and your phone rings.
1. The emergency prompt
Pattern
"[problem happening right now] near me" / "24 hour [trade] [city]"
Highest-intent query on the internet. Someone's basement is flooding. They have 90 seconds of patience. The AI names three. You want to be one.
The schema play here is OpeningHours, AreaServed, and crystal-clear language about 24/7 availability on your homepage. Most sites bury this under a "Contact" link — so ChatGPT assumes you're 9-to-5.
2. The cost-comparison prompt
Pattern
"How much does [service] cost in [city] 2026" / "[service A] vs [service B] pros and cons"
Mid-funnel. The customer is 2–5 days from calling. They're price-anchoring. Whoever gives the clearest, most-cited breakdown gets named in the answer.
This is where 1,500-word articles with real numbers, tables, and cited primary sources pay off. AI models prefer structured price ranges over vague "depends on scope" hedging.
3. The local-authority prompt
Pattern
"Best [trade] in [neighbourhood]" / "Reputable [trade] [city]"
The classic "get a name" prompt. Lower volume than #1, higher lifetime value. The answer leans heavily on Reddit mentions, Google reviews volume, and sustained 12-month topical authority.
Note: neighbourhood, not just city. "Best plumber in Oakville" is three times easier to win than "best plumber in the GTA" — and the customer in Oakville is the one you actually want.
What we don't target (at first)
- "Best in Canada" — low intent, high competition, bad conversion.
- Brand-name prompts — if they already know your name, you've already won.
- Industry-jargon prompts — real customers don't type "HVAC VRF multi-split Ontario". Other HVAC people do.
The 90-day test
Our guarantee is calibrated against these three patterns. When we say "cited on at least three relevant local prompts," we're talking about one from each category above. You don't need to rank on all ten we audit. You need the three that pay the mortgage.