A UK trades job management and compliance platform wanted to know one thing: when a gas engineer or an electrician asks an AI engine which app to use, does the platform get named. Over four weeks, tracked against 27 platforms in the category including Tradify, Commusoft, Joblogic, Powered Now, simPRO, BigChange, ServiceM8, Fergus, Payaca, Checker and Jobber, its AI search visibility rose from 21.4% to 29.9%, roughly a 40% relative gain.
TL;DR
- Visibility up roughly 40% relative in four weeks: from 21.4% (week of 22 June 2026) to 29.9% (week of 20 July 2026), through a dip to 19.6% along the way.
- Mentions grew from 1,285 to 2,265.
- The category itself changed shape during this exact window: AI search answers in this space carried sponsored placements for the first time.
| Metric | Value | Caption |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | 21.4% to 29.9% | |
| Mentions | 1,285 to 2,265 | |
| Platforms tracked in category | 27 |
What was the starting position?
In the week of 22 June 2026, the platform held 21.4% visibility against the 27 tracked platforms and was named 1,285 times.
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?
| Platform | Category |
|---|---|
| Tradify | All-in-one trade job management |
| Commusoft | Field service management |
| Joblogic | Job management and compliance |
| Powered Now | Job management, quoting and invoicing |
| simPRO | Enterprise trade job management |
| BigChange | Job management and CRM |
| ServiceM8 | Job management for small trades teams |
| Fergus | Job management for trades |
| Payaca | Quoting and job management |
| Checker | Gas safety and compliance certification |
| Jobber | Job management and scheduling |
Twenty-seven platforms in total. A long tail beyond the eleven listed here fills out the rest of the category.
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.
Published new pages in four waves. The first wave targeted the clearest gaps the audit had flagged: head-to-head comparison pages against named competitors, "best app for" category guides for specific trades, and alternative-to pages for buyers already using a rival platform and searching for a switch. A second wave followed, then a third, then a fourth. The first two waves fall inside the measurement window covered by the numbers in this case study. The third and fourth continued the same work past it, so their full effect is not yet reflected here.
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.
Added off-site presence. The programme also included one editorial placement, a published YouTube video and a Medium article, extending the platform's presence beyond its own domain.
What actually moved, and by how much?
| Metric | W/C 22 June 2026 | W/C 29 June 2026 | W/C 20 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visibility share | 21.4% | 19.6% | 29.9% |
| Mentions captured | 1,285 | not separately measured that week | 2,265 |
The dip in the second week is worth sitting with rather than skipping past. New content does not get crawled, retrieved and cited on the day it publishes, and the audit itself, plus the first wave of new pages, took most of that early window to land. Visibility fell before it rose.
Why was this exact window unusual for the category?
The content programme was not the only thing changing shape in this category during these four weeks. Sponsored placements began appearing in AI search answers for UK trades software for the first time during this exact period: zero ad-bearing answers across the first two tracked weeks, then a rapid acceleration by the end of the month. Tradify, Powered Now, Commusoft, Joblogic and Jobber were all bidding on competitor-alternative queries such as "best joblogic alternative uk" (we cover the ad activity itself, in more depth, in our separate reporting on this category's sponsored placements).
What does this mean for a trades platform thinking about AI search?
Three takeaways. First, a content vacuum is the easiest gap to close and usually the first place to look, comparison pages, alternative-to pages and category guides do the heaviest lifting when a domain has none. Second, expect a dip before a rise: new content needs to be crawled and retrieved before it can be cited, and judging a programme at the two-week mark rather than the six-week mark will make good work look like it failed. Third, watch for paid placements arriving in a category that did not have them before: this exact window was also the first time sponsored placements appeared in AI search answers for UK trades software, and earned visibility now has to hold up next to paid slots, not just other organic competitors.
If you want to see where your own category stands, the free AI search audit shows your current visibility across the AI engines your buyers actually ask.
