About 45% of the contractors who signed up with a home improvement financing marketplace in September 2026 said they found the company through ChatGPT. That month, contractor signups were double what they were a year before.
Visits from AI assistants went from 542 in July 2026 to 1,579 in September 2026. Since 2024, we've pushed our client to stop chasing loose keywords and go deep on its core business.
Our client came to us right after Google's helpful content update hit its site. A previous SEO vendor had done mostly good work, but had also built hundreds of near-duplicate pages on loose keyword variants, growing the site to thousands of pages about loan types outside the core business.
Those pages drove traffic for a while, and the company even launched products to make money from that traffic. Then they lost ground with that update and with nearly every update since.
So we aimed the program at the 2 groups that matter most to the business: contractors who offer financing to their customers, and homeowners ready to start a project.
We ran 4 pieces of work at the same time.
We pushed our client to stop chasing loose keyword variants and invest in depth on its core business lines. They acted on most of our recommendations and let the old pages bring in whatever they still can.
That meant fewer, better pages about paying for home improvement projects, written for the people paying for them.
It also meant writing for contractors, the side of the marketplace that brings homeowners in.
We write content for the contractors on our client's platform and send it by email. From May 2025 to April 2026, we wrote 34 of those emails. They averaged a 27% to 28% open rate, and the best one opened at 40.5%.
We surveyed 1,000 homeowners twice. The first report, published in June 2025, earned 36 links from 19 sites. The second, published in January 2026, asked homeowners how they use AI on home projects and earned 50 links from 33 sites. (More on how we run content-led PR.)
We audit the questions contractors and homeowners ask AI tools to see which companies get recommended, and we track AI visibility every month. Our client asks every new contractor how they found the company, and that question is where the ChatGPT number comes from.
We report AI visibility next to signups, so a dip in one number doesn't hide a gain in the one that pays. (Here's how our AI search and SEO work fits together.)
Our client asks every new contractor how they found the company. In September 2026, about 45% said ChatGPT. This number is client-reported, and we don't have a before number to compare it to.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| New contractor signups that found the company through ChatGPT | About 45% (September 2026) |
| Contractor signups vs. a year earlier | Doubled (September 2026) |
| Visits from AI assistants, July 2026 | 542 |
| Visits from AI assistants, September 2026 | 1,579 |
| Links from the June 2025 homeowner survey | 36 from 19 sites |
| Links from the January 2026 homeowner survey | 50 from 33 sites |
In September 2026, contractor signups were double what they were a year before. In January 2026, the company signed up about 710 contractors, up from about 400 in January 2025. Our client also launched a new homepage in that time, so we don't claim all of that growth.
Visits referred by AI assistants went from 542 in July 2026 to 1,579 in September 2026. Brand mentions in AI answers have moved up and down over the past year, so we report them next to signups and never on their own.
The first homeowner survey earned 36 links from 19 sites. The second earned 50 links from 33 sites. Link counts are as of September 29, 2026.
Ask every new customer how they found you. Our client only knows about the ChatGPT share because someone asks the question on every new contractor call. Analytics tools often miss AI referrals.
Go deep on the business you're in. Hundreds of loose keyword pages brought traffic, then lost it with each Google update. Depth on the core business is what held up.
Write for both sides of a marketplace. Content for contractors gave our client a reason to email them regularly, and those emails opened at 27% to 28%.
Give AI tools original data to cite. 2 surveys of 1,000 homeowners each earned 86 links between them. Original data gives other sites and AI answers a reason to mention you.
About the numbers: the ChatGPT share and contractor signup counts are self-reported by our client. AI assistant visits come from the client's analytics, link counts from our outreach tracking as of September 29, 2026, and email results from our client's email platform. We don't name clients without their written permission.
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