AI visibility for HVAC and heat pump companies

The heat pump question that used to reach your phone is now going to a chat window first. A homeowner in Coquitlam asks which rebates she qualifies for, gets a patient, sensible answer, and the last line hands her a competitor's name and number.

An HVAC company gets named by an AI assistant when the assistant can find clear facts about it and check them in more than one place. Those facts come from sources it can read, and your website is the largest. In a Yext study of 6.8 million AI citations (October 2025), business websites made up 44%, more than any other single source.

So we start with your site. It should say what you install and service, where you work, which licences and certifications you hold, and how a quote visit works. Rebate questions should get a plain answer and a link to the official page. Then your Google profile, HomeStars and other listings need to match.

That's the short version. The free audit shows where your company stands today, on the questions BC homeowners actually ask.

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For some homeowners, yes, though nobody has measured HVAC on its own. The nearest figure is BrightLocal's: in its February 2026 survey, 45% of US consumers said they use ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations. That covers all local businesses, and it's from the US. We haven't seen a Canadian number.

Heat pumps are made for this kind of research. Which brand? What size for a 1970s split-level? Ductless or ducted? Will it keep up in a cold snap in Prince George? And the big one: which rebates can I still get?

Rebates are where homeowners get lost: programs change and the pages contradict each other. An assistant will try to untangle it at 11 at night. When we put questions like these to the assistants in an audit, the answer often finishes with a company to call.

The assistants aren't reading Google's first page and reading it back. They use their own mix of sources, and it barely overlaps. In Ahrefs' August 2025 analysis, only about 8% of the URLs ChatGPT cited ranked in Google's top 10 for the same prompt.

That's how a company with the top map listing for "heat pump installer Vancouver" can be missing when someone asks ChatGPT the same thing. The assistant may build its answer from a rebate explainer, a HomeStars profile or a "top HVAC companies" roundup. If your details there are thin or out of date, someone else gets the mention.

Your SEO work still matters; the ranking report just stopped being the full story. Book the audit to see your company's version.

Nobody outside the AI companies knows the exact recipe; be wary of anyone who claims to. We can tell you which sources the assistants tend to cite, and we test what agencies say matters in your audit. Worth checking:

• Details that match everywhere: company name, address, phone and service area, identical on your site, Google, HomeStars and every directory.
• Your licence class, shown plainly. According to Technical Safety BC, most heat pump installs need an electrical permit and a licensed electrical contractor. Most heat pumps in houses fall outside its refrigeration rules; larger systems, such as those over 5 kW in buildings with five or more homes, also need a refrigeration licence and permit. It runs a public lookup for licensed contractors, so a stated licence can be checked.
• TECA certification, if you hold it. The City of Surrey "highly recommends" a TECA-certified installer. That's exactly the kind of line an assistant can repeat.
• HPCN registration, if you're registered. CleanBC heat pump rebates through Better Homes BC require a Home Performance Contractor Network registered contractor.
• Reviews and area pages: recent, specific reviews on Google and HomeStars, and a page for each area you serve.

Then there are the questions. Sizing, ductless versus ducted, what happens at minus ten, and rebates. Answer them in plain words and link rebate details to Better Homes BC rather than repeating amounts that change. Old copy is a real risk here: the federal Greener Homes Grant and Loan are both closed, and many sites still mention them.

We call it the Found-to-Booked Method.

1. Audit. We put the questions BC homeowners ask about heating, cooling and heat pumps to the assistants, and record which companies get named, which sources get cited and where yours drops out.
2. Plan. A short list of fixes ranked by what each is worth to you, not by what's quickest to invoice. You say yes or no to each one.
3. Get found. Your site first: service and area pages, plain rebate and sizing answers, licence and certification details, consistent business details, structured data. Then mentions elsewhere: HomeStars and directory profiles, contractor lists where you qualify, local press when there's a story.
4. Convert. Pages that make the next step clear and, if you want one, an AI chat agent that takes the inquiry and books the visit.

Then we measure every month, on the same questions. The AI optimization page has more detail.

We need about an hour of your time at the start. Pick a week that isn't a cold snap. You'll deal directly with Nick Dudley-Jones (twenty years in search) and Terry Johnston (more than twenty in media and communications).

Most HVAC companies already pay for one or both of the first two.

Yes, for intake and booking. That's the job we set our SYNTRA-powered chat agent up to do on an HVAC site.

The agent says it's an AI in its first message. It sorts a no-heat emergency from a quote request first, because those go to different places on your schedule. Then it collects the home type, the current system (gas furnace, electric baseboard, oil, an older heat pump) and the address. SYNTRA booking forms take custom fields per business, so you pick the questions. It books the visit into the slots you've opened, all of them at once if forty people write in the same evening.

Some things it won't do. It never tells someone they qualify for a rebate or what it's worth; it links to Better Homes BC. Anyone reporting a gas smell is told to leave the house and call 911 or their gas utility, and nothing more. It makes no savings or emissions claims you can't back up. Since the 2024 Competition Act amendments, environmental claims need adequate and proper testing behind them, and the Competition Bureau published final guidance on 5 June 2025.

You approve the script before launch and every change after. Records are stored in Canada, in Montreal; the AI that writes the replies runs on US servers. The Go Digital home-services result above came from citations plus a rebuilt booking flow.

There's no single price. A three-tech shop in Vernon and a forty-person company running vans across Metro Vancouver need different amounts of work. What changes the quote:

• how much of your site needs rebuilding rather than tidying
• how many services and service areas need their own pages
• how crowded your area is in the AI answers
• whether you want the chat agent

The audit is free, and the findings are yours whatever you decide. If you go ahead, you get a fixed quote and the work runs month to month, so you can stop if it isn't paying its way. How our pricing works sets out the structure.

Nobody can promise a date, or that you'll be named at all. If someone does, ask them how.

Your market sets most of the pace. A company in Cranbrook faces fewer names than one in Richmond. For scale only: the Go Digital professional-services client above went from absent to named first in twelve weeks. That was one firm in a different industry, not a forecast for yours.

What you can count on is knowing where you stand. Each month we ask the same homeowner questions and report:

• whether your company was named, and by which assistant
• which companies were named instead
• which sources the assistants cited
• inquiries and booked visits, if the chat agent is running