A UK tradesperson sits in a work van checking a handheld device, with a paper A-Z map, an old mobile phone and a notepad listing jobs on the dashboard, terraced houses visible outside the window.

From 5.8% Visibility to a Top-Two Share of Voice: A UK Trades Software Case Study

AI visibility5.8% → 36.7%First audit to latest completed weekly window
Share of voice1.2% → 13.5%Second in the current category view
Category rank17th → 6thRank by visibility among 27 companies

Start: first completed audit, 30 June 2026. Current window: 3 to 10 August 2026. The audit set later tightened into daily tracking. Source: daily multi-engine AI search tracking.

Industry

UK trades job management and gas compliance software

Key result

AI visibility reached 36.7%, share of voice reached 13.5%, and the company moved from about seventeenth to sixth by visibility and second by share of voice.

Challenge

A content vacuum (zero comparison, alternative-to or category pages), no FAQ or product schema, no llms.txt, and an old brand domain still live and unredirected, splitting years of authority across two web addresses.

What we built

Comparison pages, alternative pages and trade-specific buyer guides, plus cleaner crawl access and a consistent story across owned, editorial, Medium, YouTube, LinkedIn and community sources.

Tools connected
Owned blogComparison and buyer guidesTechnical crawl fixesEditorial and MediumYouTube and community

A UK trades job management and compliance platform began with a clear organic discovery gap. In the first completed audit, it appeared in 5.8% of relevant AI answers, held 1.2% share of voice and sat about seventeenth in a 27-company category. By the latest completed weekly window, visibility had reached 36.7% and share of voice 13.5%.

TL;DR

  • AI visibility rose from 5.8% to 36.7%, a 6.3 times increase.
  • Share of voice rose from 1.2% to 13.5%, an 11.8 times increase on the unrounded baseline.
  • Category rank by visibility improved from about seventeenth to sixth.
  • The platform now ranks second for share of voice, 1.7 percentage points behind the leader.
  • Comparison pages, buyer guides, technical fixes and off-site organic sources drove the result.
UK trades software: start to nowStat chart titled UK trades software: start to now. AI visibility: 5.8% to 36.7%. Share of voice: 1.2% to 13.5%. Category rank: 17th to 6th.UK trades software: start to nowFirst audit to the latest completed weekly window5.8% to 36.7%AI visibility1.2% to 13.5%Share of voice17th to 6thCategory rankSource: Daily multi-engine AI search tracking
UK trades software: start to now
MetricValueCaption
AI visibility5.8% to 36.7%
Share of voice1.2% to 13.5%
Category rank17th to 6th

What was the starting position?

The first completed audit measured 5.8% visibility, 1.15% share of voice and a category rank around seventeenth. The company had a foothold in its specialist niche, but broad discovery belonged to better-documented rivals.

An audit of the platform's own site explained why growth was still available even from a reasonable starting point. There were zero comparison pages, zero alternative-to pages and zero category-level buying guides anywhere on the domain. The blog existed but never named a single competitor, which meant it never showed up for any of the comparison and alternative queries buyers actually type. There was no FAQ or product schema markup, no llms.txt file, and one product page was returning a server error instead of content. On top of that, an older brand domain the company had previously traded under was still live and had never been redirected, splitting years of accumulated authority across two separate web addresses instead of consolidating it on one.

Who else is answering these questions?

The wider category contained 27 companies. A neutral alphabetical selection includes BigChange, Checker, Commusoft, Fergus, Gas Certificate App, Gas Engineer Software, iCertifi, Jobber, Joblogic, Powered Now, QuickBooks, ServiceM8, simPRO, Tradify and Xero. The list does not identify which company this study covers.

What did we actually do?

The audit pointed at a content vacuum, not a quality problem, so the response was a straightforward content programme plus a set of technical fixes.

Filled the missing buying journeys. The programme covered head-to-head comparisons, rival alternatives, best-app guides for specific trades, compliance workflows, customer retention, quoting, invoicing and scheduling. Each format answered a real choice or task.

Fixed the schema and crawlability gaps. An llms.txt file went live, and Article and FAQPage structured data were added across the blog, so pages that previously had no machine-readable structure at all now render cleanly for an AI crawler.

Restyled the older content. Existing posts were brought in line with the new structural standard, rather than leaving a visibly two-tier blog where only the newest posts had comparison tables and FAQ blocks.

Built a wider organic source base. The owned blog remained the base. Medium thought pieces and LinkedIn posts added context. YouTube gave practical workflows a visual form. Editorial sources added independent support. Reddit and trade communities were used for direct answers where the topic already existed.

What actually moved, and by how much?

MetricFirst completed auditLatest weekly window
AI visibility5.8%36.7%
Share of voice1.2%13.5%
Category rankabout 17th6th

The current trailing 30-day view places the company sixth by visibility and second by share of voice. The share-of-voice gap to the leader is 1.65 percentage points.

How should the numbers be read?

AI visibility measures how often the company appears. Share of voice measures how much of the whole tracked category discussion it holds. Category rank compares visibility across the named market set.

The first audit set was later tightened into the stable daily monitoring set, so the start-to-now figures reflect the live market at each stage. The current rank uses the completed trailing 30-day view. No agent-traffic lift is claimed because a comparable start and current web-log series was not available.

What is the practical lesson?

A strong product can remain absent from AI shortlists if its public content does not help a buyer compare, switch or complete a task. In this case, the biggest gains came from the owned blog and category pages. Medium, LinkedIn, YouTube, editorial and community content worked best when they reinforced the same product story.

If you want to see where your own category stands, the free AI search audit shows your current visibility, share of voice and competitive position.

Frequently Asked Questions

Marco Lobo
Marco Lobo

Founder, Schmitdy

Marco builds AI search growth systems that turn prompts, sources, content, and agents into revenue.

See how AI search is presenting your businessGet the full ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI analysis, plus a prioritized 30-day plan to improve it.
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