Burst pipes, no-heat calls, heat pumps and panel upgrades

The no-heat call is a map result, the heat pump a page

A no-heat-tonight search is usually a map result, and it needs a phone number that gets answered. A heat pump or panel upgrade gets a week of comparison, and that is a page: financing, warranty terms and proof you have done the job before. Most sites in these trades cover one of those and leave the other out.

A property manager looking for a new vendor searches the same way, and lands on the same map result or the same page.

What people ask

We type questions like these into Google and ChatGPT for a plumber, an HVAC contractor or an electrician.

• “Who should I call for a burst pipe in Portland?”
• “Can you recommend a licensed HVAC contractor near Beaverton for a heat pump?”
• “Who is a good electrician for a panel upgrade in Vancouver, Washington?”
• “Who replaces water heaters in rental units in Clackamas County?”
• “Who installs ductless mini-splits in Washington County?”

The burst pipe needs a phone that gets answered tonight, and the rental water heater nearly as fast. The rest are research, and a search for a mini-split has nothing to land on when the page just says heating and cooling.

Boards, utility programs and equipment brands

• Oregon CCB and BCD, or Washington L&I. A buyer in Oregon can check the CCB record and, for a plumbing or electrical business, the BCD license. In Clark County, Washington, the record is L&I, where plumbing and electrical are their own licenses. BuildZoom republishes CCB data, so the CCB record turns up there too.
• Energy Trust of Oregon Trade Ally network. Heat pumps, furnaces and weatherization. Customers check the Find a Trade Ally Contractor directory.
• The Clark Public Utilities Contractor Directory. The Washington-side counterpart for Clark County's electric programs.
• ORPHCC and ACCA. ORPHCC for Oregon plumbing shops, and for HVAC the national ACCA, whose find-a-contractor tool returns Portland and Clark County results by zip code.
• Equipment and fixture programs. Lennox, Carrier, Trane, Mitsubishi Electric and Daikin for HVAC. For plumbing it is the water heater brands that run contractor locators a homeowner can actually search: Rinnai, whose PRO network shows an ACE PRO badge by zip code, Rheem's Pro Partner Plumbing list, and Noritz. Show the badge you hold, such as Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Contractor, and nothing you do not.
• Oregon-Columbia Chapter, NECA. If you are a member, its public directory at Powering Pacific Northwest lists residential shops with reviews.
• The listings every contractor needs. Google Business Profile, Apple Business, Bing Places, Yelp and Facebook, with the same name, phone, website and service area on every one. Angi, Thumbtack and BBB are paid channels, worth it or not depending on the size of job you want.

Half the license, and one page for every job

• Only half the license. A plumbing or electrical site that says CCB licensed and stops there. Show the CCB number, and show the BCD number too: that is the one that says licensed plumbing or electrical contractor. Write each license as text, with the trade and the state beside it, and add the L&I number if you work in Clark County. A number inside a badge image is not text Google or ChatGPT can count on reading.
• One page that says you fix everything. One services page and no page for water heaters, repiping, sewer lines, panels, EV chargers, heat pumps or mini-splits.
• A 24-hour number nobody calls back. The site says 24/7, the Google Business Profile hours say something else, and the answering service takes a message that does not reach anyone until morning. Make the profile's hours match the site, and say on the site what an after-hours call actually gets.
• Badges nobody can check. Energy Trust, utility or manufacturer logos with no matching listing in the actual directory.
• Tune-ups priced, replacements hidden. Maintenance-plan pricing is easy to find, and nothing on the site says how a system replacement gets quoted.
• An electrician with no photos. Many electrical sites are a text list and nothing more. Panel, EV charger and before-and-after rewiring photos are rare.

How the report reads for these trades

• Who you are. The CCB record, plus the BCD record that says licensed plumbing or electrical contractor, or the L&I record in Washington, and whether the site shows each number in text with the trade and the state beside it.
• Site basics. Whether service pages and the emergency number read as text for Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and how quickly the call button shows on a phone.
• Pages for the jobs people search. A page each for the jobs you do: drain cleaning, water heaters, repiping, sewer lines; furnaces, heat pumps, mini-splits, maintenance plans; panels, rewiring, EV chargers, generators.
• Google Business Profile. A primary category for your actual trade, listed services, service area, and hours that match what the site says about emergency service.
• Map results. Where you show for plumber, HVAC or electrician searches in the towns you serve.
• Search results. Which pages come up for your name and for jobs such as water heater replacement or panel upgrade, and who holds the first page.
• AI answers. Whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overview name you for both the emergency and the planned-job questions.
• Reviews. Count, recency and spread, and whether reviews name the job and mention response time.
• Listings, associations and brands. One phone number on the site and every listing, whether an answering-service number has crept in, and your Energy Trust or Clark Public Utilities listing, ORPHCC, and the equipment programs you install.
• Phone and estimate form. Whether the form asks job type, urgency, city and a photo, and for electrical work the home's age or wiring type, and whether financing and warranty terms are easy to find.

We test from one location on one day, and the report says which, so nobody reads a single check as the whole county.