Report 11, September 2026

The Plumbing AI Visibility Index.

Published by KKV Labs LLC. First published 16 Sep 2026, last updated 16 Sep 2026.

The Plumbing AI Visibility Index records the companies Google AI Mode named in 60 US cities, then reads 409 plumbing company homepages to see what those sites carry.

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The finding, in three sentences

Google AI Mode named 305 plumbing companies across 60 cities. Only 144 of the 305 named companies, 47 percent, resolved to a real website at all, and 126 named sites were read and counted.

We then opened 443 plumbing homepages and read 409 of them, 11 behind a bot wall and 23 that failed for another reason. Every one of the 409 showed plumbing work on the page, so none was dropped by the relevance gate.

The separations are about what a homepage writes down, not what it runs. Every comparison on this page is a same day reading rather than a cause.

Your plumbing company result

From this report, answers captured September 15, 2026.

60 of 60

Cities where the answer is still open

No single plumbing company owns the AI answer there yet

5.1

Plumbers named in the average city answer

Everyone the answer leaves out is invisible to that buyer

378

Plumbers screened

Websites read by machine across 60 US cities

The findings

What the named list is missing.

Each one is checked against the run log. Every share is read from the 409 homepages we counted on September 15, 2026.

144 of 305

Fewer than half of the named plumbers even had a findable website

Google AI Mode named 305 plumbing companies across the 60 cities (one individual freelancer excluded as not a company). Only 144 of them, 47 percent, could be matched to a real website at all: 105 were already in our screened list and 39 more were found by a verified hostname guess. The other 161 have no domain on record. A plumbing company's name is built almost entirely from category words, "plumbing", "plumber", "drain", "rooter", "water", "service", so a guessed hostname usually has nothing distinctive left to test, and 47 percent is the lowest resolution rate of the six trades this series has run, below HVAC at 57, chiropractic at 55, law firms at 63, dentistry at 69 percent.

Source: kkvlabs-outreach/research/PLUMBING-INDEX-FINDINGS-2026-09-15.md.

126

126 named sites were actually read and counted

Of the 144 resolved domains (143 unique, one business named twice under two names in the same city), all were crawled. 126 were read and counted, 7 sat behind a bot wall, 9 failed for another reason and 1 was an unreadable stub. An audit then tested every resolved row for a name match, a city match and enough plumbing content: 23 failed the letter of that test, 8 turned out to be real wrong-domain matches and were blanked, and 15 were kept with the evidence written down because the failure was in the audit's own name-matching (an apostrophe, an ampersand, a franchise page that never repeats the named city) rather than a wrong site. Every named-versus-unnamed comparison on this page rests on these 126 sites, about 41 percent of the 305 companies the answer actually named.

Source: kkvlabs-outreach/research/PLUMBING-INDEX-FINDINGS-2026-09-15.md.

31% and 13%

Named plumbers run dispatch software at more than double the rate

Field service and dispatch software (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Schedule Engine) shows on 31% of the named companies' homepages against 13% of everyone else. An online booking route runs 56% against 33%. The tools that make a plumber bookable and the tools that make it visible to an AI answer move together on this one day of reading.

Source: KKV Labs crawl, 409 homepages counted, September 15, 2026.

The answers

How many companies make the answer.

We asked Google AI Mode the same question in every city: who is the best plumber here. It came back with names in all 60 of them, and the list ran 3 to 8 names every time, the cleanest tier split of any index in this series so far.

A short list is the finding. The companies on it hold the whole answer for that question on that day, whatever anyone else spends on ads, and fewer than half of them can currently be checked against a real website.

5.1

Companies named, on average

Across 60 cities

8

Named in a single city answer, at most

Never fewer than 3 in any city

305

Company names across every answer

In 60 city answers

Source: KKV Labs, Google AI Mode answers captured September 15, 2026 in 60 cities.

How long the list was, by city

  • 3 named2 cities
  • 4 named15 cities
  • 5 named28 cities
  • 6 named10 cities
  • 7 named1 city
  • 8 named4 cities

The stack

What the sites actually run.

Read from the homepage on September 15, 2026. A site runs on one platform, so these rows do not overlap and the column adds up to the sites we counted.

45%

of the homepages we counted are on WordPress, at 186 of 409 sites.

Website platform, share of the sites we counted

  • WordPress45%186 sites
  • Custom or unknown21%87 sites
  • Duda19%77 sites
  • Wix5%20 sites
  • Squarespace4%16 sites
  • GoDaddy Website Builder3%12 sites
  • Webflow2%7 sites
  • Other or not detected1%4 sites

Page builders are read on WordPress sites and reported as a share of every site we counted: Gutenberg blocks 41%, Elementor 18%, Divi 5%, WPBakery 3%, Beaver Builder 2%. A site can carry more than one.

Plumbing website or marketing vendors named on the homepage, share of the sites we counted

  • Thryv6%24 sites
  • HighLevel agency site2%10 sites
  • RYNO Strategic Solutions1%4 sites
  • Scorpion0%2 sites
  • iMarket Solutions0%2 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Software and booking

How the first call actually gets booked.

Field service, dispatch and booking tools, read off the homepage. A tool that only appears after a button click is not counted, so this is the floor rather than what the trade runs.

19%

Show a field service or dispatch tool on the homepage

409 homepages counted

11%

Run ServiceTitan

45 of 409 sites

31%

Of the companies AI named show one of these tools

Everyone else 13%

Field service, dispatch and scheduling software, share of the sites we counted

  • ServiceTitan11%45 sites
  • ServiceTitan scheduler8%31 sites
  • Housecall Pro5%21 sites
  • Schedule Engine4%16 sites
  • Jobber2%7 sites
Field service tool named versus unnamed
Field service toolNamed companiesEveryone else
ServiceTitan13%10%
ServiceTitan scheduler10%6%
Housecall Pro13%2%
Schedule Engine6%3%
Jobber2%1%

How the homepage takes the enquiry

40%

Offer a booking route on the homepage itself

Named companies 56%, everyone else 33%

4%

Run a live chat, text or answering widget

Named companies 5%, everyone else 3%

Form plugins, share of the sites we counted

  • Contact Form 711%47 sites
  • Gravity Forms10%39 sites
  • WPForms5%21 sites
  • Formidable Forms2%8 sites
  • JotForm1%4 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

The marketing stack

What the market pays to install.

Tracking, advertising and call tracking scripts, read off the homepage.

Tracking and advertising tags, share of the sites we counted

  • Google Tag Manager39%159 sites
  • Google Analytics 433%135 sites
  • Meta pixel13%54 sites
  • Google Ads tag13%52 sites
  • CallRail7%28 sites
  • Microsoft Clarity3%11 sites
  • Bing UET2%9 sites

Google Tag Manager runs on 50% of the named companies against 34% of everyone else, one of the widest technology gaps in the index, and it is not a ranking factor by any mechanism: it is a proxy for a company that has someone running its marketing. Google Analytics 4 runs 41% against 29%.

Social and map profiles linked from the homepage

  • Facebook71%291 sites
  • Google Maps54%219 sites
  • Instagram32%130 sites
  • YouTube20%80 sites
  • Yelp18%74 sites
  • LinkedIn15%61 sites
  • TikTok3%13 sites
  • Nextdoor2%10 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Reviews and badges

What the homepage puts a number on.

Review widgets, directory badges and the numbers a homepage prints about itself.

35%

Show a review widget or a directory badge on the homepage

Named companies 42%, everyone else 32%

12%

Print a review count on the homepage

Named companies 14%, everyone else 11%

8%

Print a star rating with a number on it

Named companies 3%, everyone else 10%

Review widgets and directory badges, share of the sites we counted

  • BBB seal19%79 sites
  • Trustindex8%34 sites
  • Angi or HomeAdvisor7%30 sites
  • Elfsight6%23 sites
  • Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave badge2%10 sites
  • Google reviews badge1%3 sites

A video is embedded on 16% of the homepages we counted, 17% of the named companies against 15% of everyone else.

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Fixture and water heater brands

What the homepage names.

A brand counts when the homepage writes its name. Unlike HVAC, no plumbing fixture or water heater manufacturer runs a factory dealer-tier program, so this line is structurally thin.

11%

Name at least one fixture or water heater brand

Named companies 11%, everyone else 11%

0%

Claim a manufacturer dealer tier

No manufacturer in this trade runs one

0

Brands named on the median homepage

The median named company names the same

Brands named on the homepage, share of the sites we counted

  • Bradford White named3%14 sites
  • Navien named3%14 sites
  • Rinnai named3%12 sites
  • Rheem named3%12 sites
  • Moen named2%9 sites
  • A.O. Smith named2%8 sites
  • American Standard named2%7 sites
  • Noritz named1%4 sites
  • InSinkErator named1%4 sites
  • Delta Faucet named1%3 sites
  • Kohler named1%3 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Offers and money

What the page says a job will cost.

What the homepage says about cost, financing and guarantees before anybody calls.

29%

Offer financing

Named companies 35%, everyone else 27%

32%

State coupons or specials

Named companies 35%, everyone else 31%

16%

State a maintenance plan or membership club

Named companies 20%, everyone else 15%

4%

Name rebates or tax credits

Named companies 5%, everyone else 4%

Named consumer lenders, share of the sites we counted

  • Wisetack2%8 sites
  • GreenSky1%6 sites
  • Synchrony0%2 sites

Credentials, service promises and licensing

65%

State emergency or 24/7 service

Named companies 63%, everyone else 65%

34%

Offer a free estimate or quote

Named companies 25%, everyone else 38%

36%

State licensed and insured

Named companies 35%, everyone else 37%

19%

Print a licence or registration number

Named companies 19%, everyone else 19%

17%

State a Master Plumber on staff

Named companies 18%, everyone else 16%

26%

State backflow or cross-connection certification

Named companies 27%, everyone else 25%

A price of any kind, or a link to a page with prices on it, sits on 21% of the homepages we counted, 17% of the named companies against 23%.

What the homepage says about the company, share of the sites we counted

  • Years in business stated56%231 sites
  • Family owned or locally owned stated41%168 sites
  • Licensed and insured stated36%149 sites
  • Backflow certified or cross-connection control26%106 sites
  • Satisfaction guarantee stated17%69 sites
  • Master Plumber on staff17%69 sites
  • Background checked or drug tested technicians8%34 sites
  • Journeyman plumber stated2%7 sites
  • Veteran owned1%6 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Named versus unnamed

What the named companies had that day.

This is a comparison on the day of the crawl, not a cause. It shows what the named companies happened to have, not what got them named.

The ten checks the companies Google AI Mode named carried furthest ahead of everyone else, September 15, 2026
SignalNamed companiesEveryone else
An online booking route on the homepage56%33%
Any field service or dispatch software detected31%13%
Google Tag Manager installed50%34%
A YouTube link30%15%
A Facebook link81%67%
An Instagram link41%28%
Google Analytics 4 installed41%29%
A form plugin detected32%21%
A services page linked55%44%
Housecall Pro for dispatch or scheduling13%2%

Named companies are the 126 crawled sites Google AI Mode listed in their own city answer. Everyone else is the other 283.

The checks that read the other way round

Checks that everyone else carried more often than the named companies, September 15, 2026
SignalNamed companiesEveryone else
Same day service stated10%25%
Commercial plumbing stated43%57%
A free estimate or quote offered25%38%
Plumber schema exactly23%32%
FAQPage schema10%18%
Leak detection stated42%50%
Plumbing or contractor schema specifically26%34%
A numeric star rating shown on the homepage3%10%

15 checks sat within two points of each other in both groups, including the credentials most buyers actually look for: years in business, licensing, and family or locally owned. On September 15, 2026 they did not mark out the companies the answer named.

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Schema and AI access

What a machine is allowed to read.

What the homepage tells a machine about the business, and whether the site lets an AI crawler read it at all.

81%

Carry structured data of some kind

Named companies 86%, everyone else 79%

31%

Say in that markup that the business is a plumbing or contractor business

128 of 409 sites

95%

Serve a sitemap an answer engine can reach

Declared in robots.txt on 88%

Structured data on the homepage, share of the sites we counted

  • Any JSON-LD structured data81%332 sites
  • Business or local business schema52%214 sites
  • LocalBusiness schema25%102 sites
  • Plumbing or contractor schema specifically31%128 sites
  • Plumber schema exactly29%120 sites
  • Person schema for an owner or technician13%55 sites
  • Review or AggregateRating schema14%56 sites
  • Only boilerplate schema (WebSite or Organization, no business type)29%118 sites
  • FAQPage schema15%63 sites

81% of the homepages we counted carry structured data, and 29% carry only the website record the theme ships, with no business type on it. The plumbing or contractor types sit on 31% of sites, a real jump over the equivalent shares in HVAC and chiropractic, because Schema.org's own Plumber type is a much closer fit for this trade. Named companies are on 26% of that line against 34%.

AI crawlers named in a rule that blocks them, share of the robots.txt files we read

  • Bytespider1%5 sites
  • CCBot1%2 sites
  • GPTBot1%2 sites
  • anthropic-ai0%1 sites
  • Applebot-Extended0%1 sites
  • ClaudeBot0%1 sites
  • Google-Extended0%1 sites
  • PerplexityBot0%1 sites

A robots.txt was reachable on 94% of the sites we counted, and a partial disallow sits around 43 to 45 percent for every crawler in our list, the ordinary WordPress admin-folder rule rather than a decision about AI.

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Words and proof

How much a homepage actually says.

How much there is to read on a plumbing homepage, what it weighs, and which facts it hands a customer before they call.

1,003

Words on the median homepage

Named companies 962, everyone else 1,045

7%

Have fewer than 300 words on the homepage

31% have more than 1,500

180 KB

Weight of the median homepage

409 homepages counted

10

Services named on the median homepage

Named companies 9, everyone else 10

What the homepage links before anyone calls

74%

Link an about or team page

Named companies 72%, everyone else 75%

37%

Link a testimonials or reviews page

Named companies 41%, everyone else 35%

34%

Link a service area page

Named companies 40%, everyone else 31%

29%

Link a commercial plumbing page

Named companies 25%, everyone else 30%

Content and proof on the homepage, share of the sites we counted

  • A click to call phone link92%377 sites
  • An online booking route on the homepage40%163 sites
  • Any field service or dispatch software detected19%77 sites
  • A live chat, text or answering widget4%15 sites
  • An about or team page linked74%303 sites
  • A services page linked47%193 sites
  • A service area page linked34%138 sites
  • A commercial page linked29%117 sites
  • A testimonials or reviews page linked37%150 sites
  • A blog or articles section linked51%209 sites
  • An FAQ on the homepage32%131 sites
  • A review count shown on the homepage12%50 sites
  • A video embedded on the homepage16%64 sites
  • A price of any kind shown or a pricing page linked21%85 sites
  • Copyright year 2026 in the footer50%203 sites

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

The service list

What the homepage says it does.

A service counts when the homepage names it. A company that does the work and does not write it down is counted as naming nothing for that question.

Services named on the homepage, share of the sites we counted

  • Water heater work89%366 sites
  • Drain cleaning or clog removal75%305 sites
  • Emergency or 24/7 service65%265 sites
  • Commercial plumbing53%216 sites
  • Leak detection48%195 sites
  • Water treatment, filtration or softener45%184 sites
  • Sewer line repair or replacement43%176 sites
  • Garbage disposal work39%159 sites
  • Gas line work39%159 sites
  • Upfront or flat rate pricing stated38%154 sites
  • Faucet or fixture installation35%144 sites
  • Free estimate or quote offered34%139 sites
  • Sump pump work33%137 sites
  • Hydro jetting33%136 sites
  • Coupons or specials stated32%131 sites
  • Residential plumbing32%131 sites
  • Sewer or drain camera inspection31%126 sites
  • Backflow testing or prevention31%125 sites
  • Financing offered29%119 sites
  • Repiping or repipe29%118 sites
  • Toilet installation or repair29%117 sites
  • Warranty language21%87 sites
  • Water line installation or replacement21%86 sites
  • New construction work21%85 sites
  • Trenchless sewer or pipe lining21%85 sites
  • Same day service stated21%84 sites
  • Remodel or renovation plumbing18%73 sites
  • Maintenance plan or membership club stated16%67 sites
  • Septic system work11%43 sites
  • Rebates or tax credits named4%18 sites

The service lines that separate the two groups furthest

Service named versus unnamed
ServiceNamed companiesEveryone else
Financing offered35%27%
Sump pump work39%31%
Water line installation or replacement26%19%
Trenchless sewer or pipe lining25%19%
Maintenance plan or membership club stated20%15%
Warranty language25%20%
Coupons or specials stated35%31%
Water treatment, filtration or softener47%44%

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

Readiness by state

Where the market is already awake.

Readiness is the mean of four shares: business or local business schema, a booking route, a maintenance plan stated and a review count. States with fewer than 8 sites counted are left out.

Plumbing homepage readiness by state, September 15, 2026
StateSites countedSchemaBooking routeMaintenance planReview countDealer tierBrand namedReadiness
Idaho1385%54%23%38%0%15%50
Indiana1573%53%27%20%0%7%43
Oklahoma956%89%22%0%0%11%42
Ohio2050%60%35%15%0%10%40
New York1765%65%12%12%0%12%38
Oregon875%50%0%12%0%25%34
Colorado1942%42%26%21%0%0%33
North Carolina1567%40%13%7%0%20%32
California1354%31%15%23%0%15%31
Arizona944%44%11%22%0%0%30
Georgia2759%30%7%19%0%15%29
Alaska1145%45%27%0%0%9%29
Maryland850%38%25%0%0%25%28
Florida2357%30%13%9%0%9%27
South Carolina1547%33%20%7%0%7%27
Tennessee1547%33%13%7%0%7%25
Louisiana1155%36%0%9%0%9%25
Iowa967%11%22%0%0%11%25
Alabama838%38%0%25%0%12%25
Texas2650%23%12%12%0%8%24
Wyoming1656%25%6%6%0%6%23
Michigan850%25%12%0%0%0%22
Washington825%25%38%0%0%12%22
Montana1631%25%6%12%0%6%18
Virginia1421%36%7%7%0%0%18

Readiness runs from Idaho at 50 down to Virginia at 18, across 25 states with at least 8 sites counted. Most of these states are a single index city, so a state row here is usually a city row wearing a state label. Read the row before you read the ranking.

Source: KKV Labs crawl of 409 plumbing company homepages, of 443 opened, September 15, 2026.

The city table

Every city, and who AI named.

Plumbing sites screened in each city, the companies the answer named, and the day it was captured. Biggest lists first. The company lists are a dated snapshot of one answer on one day. They are not rankings, not endorsements, and not a judgement of anybody's work.

Plumbing websites screened and companies named by Google AI Mode, by city
CityWho the answer namedCompanies namedSites screenedCaptured
Boise, IDPerfect Plumbing Heating & Air, Beacon Plumbing, Heating, Air-Conditioning, and Electrical, Inc, Wickstrom Plumbing Heating & Cooling3102026-09-15
Chattanooga, TNScenic City Plumbing, Riverside Plumbing, Williams Plumbing, Metro Plumbing, Heating & Air4102026-09-15
Alpharetta, GABenjamin Franklin Plumbing of Alpharetta, Anderson Plumbing, Good Ol'Boys Plumbing, 1-Tom-Plumber, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup592026-09-15
Cheyenne, WYAspen Mountain Plumbing, Bull Ridge Plumbing & Heating, Inc, Marv's Plumbing & Heating, J S Plumbing LLC, Merritt Plumbing & Heating Inc., Walter Plumbing & Heating692026-09-15
Akron, OHJ&J Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, & Electric, Jennings Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup, Buddy's Plumbing Excellence, Wilson Plumbing & Heating, Inc.592026-09-15
Anchorage, AKDiscount Mechanical Heating and Plumbing, Circle Plumbing & Heating Inc, Drain Masters, Alaska Sewer and Drain, Arctic Sewer and Drain592026-09-15
Bozeman, MTBob's Plumbing & Drain, Ranger Plumbing & Heating, Inc., Performance Plumbing and Drain, Williams Plumbing & Heating492026-09-15
Chandler, AZGround Zero Plumbing, AC and Electrical - Chandler, EZ Flow Plumbing, LLC, A Plus Plumbing, Plumbers Near Me - Water Heater & Plumbing Services, Emergency Plumbing Of Chandler592026-09-15
Athens, GAPlumber Pro Service & Drain, Remedy Plumbing, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup, After Hours Plumbing LLC, Chris Dawson Plumbing LLC582026-09-15
Boulder, COBernie's Plumbing & Heating Company, Canyon Plumbing & Heating, Inc, Jim Needham Heating Cooling Plumbing and Drain372026-09-15
Bradenton, FLRichard's Plumbing & Electric, Redemption Plumbing, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Peace of Mind Plumbing, Wyman Plumbing Inc572026-09-15
Charleston, SCLimRic Plumbing, Electrical, Heating & Air, Preferred Home Services, Palmetto Plumbing, Drain Cleaning & Water Heater Repair, Charles Towne Plumbing, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Greater Charleston572026-09-15
College Station, TXS.D.S. Plumbing LLC, Calm Waters Plumbing, Brothers Plumbing Co., Dynamic Drains Plumbing & Drain Experts, Tug's Maroon Plumbing562026-09-15
Aiken, SCKimballs Plumbing Heating-Electrical & AC LLC, Mr. Central, Help!! Plumbing Electrical Heating and Air, McNeill Plumbing Inc.482026-09-15
Augusta, GAUniversal Plumbing, Maxwells Plumbing & Drain, Busbee's Plumbing, RickyJay Plumbing, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Service, Flow Pro Plumbing, Brittingham Plumbing Co, Stark Plumbing LLC882026-09-15
Beaumont, TXPlumbing Solutions, Porter Plumbing Solutions LLC, Texas Lone Star Plumbing LLC, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Beaumont482026-09-15
Bend, ORCentral Oregon Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electrical, Sunset Plumbing of Bend, Deschutes Plumbing Company, Severson Plumbing, Stark Plumbing582026-09-15
Billings, MTRoto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Cleaners, G & T Plumbing & Mechanical, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Billings, Elk River Plumbing & Heating, Brown Plumbing & Heating582026-09-15
Birmingham, ALStandard Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, Mr. Drippy Plumbing, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup, Wilbur's Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing582026-09-15
Broken Arrow, OKSpot On Plumbing, Sargent's Plumbing & Drain, Tulsa Plumbing Experts, Aspen Plumbing LLC, Williams Plumbing & Drain Service, B&A Plumbing682026-09-15
Cedar Rapids, IAMaster Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Schaal Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, Above All Plumbing Service, Colony Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Evans Plumbing LLC, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Eastern Iowa682026-09-15
Chico, CAAccurate Plumbing, Earl's Performance Plumbing, Able Plumbing, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Northern California482026-09-15
Clearwater, FLLocalPro of Tampa Bay, Gulf Coast Plumbing Clearwater, Inc., Bearded Plumber, Able Plumbing, Inc482026-09-15
Annapolis, MDHoward Plumbing, David E. White's Plumbing, Heating & Repair Company, Staton Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, Catons Plumbing, Drains & Water Cleanup, Heidler Inc.572026-09-15
Baton Rouge, LABrotherHood Plumbing, Trinity Plumbing, Reliable Plumbing, Bayou Crew Plumbing, American Plumbing572026-09-15
Bellingham, WABarron Heating AC Electrical & Plumbing, CPI Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Marr's Heating, AC, Plumbing & Electrical, Gary's Plumbing & Heating, Sullivan Plumbing, Favinger Plumbing, Eagle Plumbing, Best Rooter Service872026-09-15
Charlottesville, VASunwave Plumbing, The Otter Guys, Beck Cohen, Speedy Rooter Plumbing, Fitch Services, Michael & Son Services672026-09-15
Asheville, NCFour Seasons Plumbing, Blue Planet Plumbing and Air, All About Plumbing - Mills River, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Buncombe & Henderson Counties462026-09-15
Appleton, WITureks Plumbing Services, Absolute Plumbing of Wisconsin, Tim Rausch Plumbing LLC, Fox Cities Plumbing, Besch Plumbing Inc572026-09-15
Carmel, INMr. Plumber by Metzler & Hallam, Paul Henderson Plumbing, Carter's My Plumber, The GOAT Plumbing Company, KPE Plumbing572026-09-15
Cary, NCBizzy Bee Plumbing, Inc., Cary Plumbing Company, Arcane Plumbing Solutions, LLC, Unlimited Plumbing & Drain Services, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup, Royal Flush Plumbing LLC672026-09-15
Chesapeake, VARichardson Plumbing Co, Get Lit Electrical & Plumbing, Precision Plumbing & Drain Cleaning, Power Plumbing LLC472026-09-15
Cincinnati, OHApollo Home, 1-Tom-Plumber, HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Drains, Schlueter Plumbing, Halpin Plumbing Inc, Blue Chip Plumbing672026-09-15
Bakersfield, CACan Do Crew Plumbing Heating & AC, Forward Bound Plumbing, Hometown Plumbing Sewer & Drain Inc., The Plumbing Doc, Bakersfield Plumbing Company562026-09-15
Boca Raton, FLErica's Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Restoration, Cape Plumbing Inc., Hardenburgh Plumbing, Boca Raton Emergency Plumbing SFL, Watermen Plumbing562026-09-15
Colorado Springs, COOlson Plumbing & Heating Co., Smith Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning & Electrical, Bill's Plumbing & Drain Service, Rocky Mountain Plumbing Services LLC, Saint Joseph Plumbing, BullsEye Plumbing Heating & Air, Affordable Plumbing Heat & Electric, B&L Plumbing862026-09-15
Allentown, PASchuler Service, Inc., Moser Plumbing Services, Robinson Plumbing, Maitz Home Services452026-09-15
Bismarck, NDCapital Plumbing, LLC, Rivers Edge Plumbing & Heating, Inc., Timber Ridge Plumbing & Heating, Premium Plumbing & Rooter, Advanced Mechanical Inc., Clear Path Sewer Solutions, Dakota Sewer & Drain Cleaning762026-09-15
Bridgeport, CTThe Drain King, Joshua's Plumbing and Drain Cleaning LLC, Leak Off Plumbing & Heating, Bria Plumbing & Heating462026-09-15
Amarillo, TXFrank's Repair Plumbing Inc., Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Amarillo, 1-800-Plumber +Air & Electric, Route 66 Plumbing, Jasper Plumbing Services, LLC, Dependable Plumbing652026-09-15
Buffalo, NYShotwell Plumbing, LLC, T-Mark Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Cellino Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric, PCS Plumbing & Heating Inc, Roy's Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical, 716-PLUMBER652026-09-15
Ann Arbor, MIBenjamin Franklin Plumbing of Ann Arbor, Dynamic Drains Plumbing and Drain Cleaning, Z PLUMBERZ, Al's Water Heater Sales & Services, Lenox Plumbing, LLC, Mitch the Plumber, Mrs. Michael Plumbers, Haley Mechanical - Ann Arbor852026-09-15
Bloomington, INSummers Plumbing Heating & Cooling, Peterman Brothers Heating Cooling Plumbing, Commercial Service, Mother Plumber LLC, Riverway Plumbing and Mechanical552026-09-15
Casper, WYCasper Plumbing (formerly CK Mechanical), Living Water Plumbing, Oil City Plumbing and Heating LLC, Central Wyoming Drain Service, Pipe It Up Plumbing Service, LLC552026-09-15
Castle Rock, CONytech Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing, Allen & Sons Plumbing and Heating, Affordable Plumber CO LLC, Allen Service, Patriot Pros Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric552026-09-15
Clarksville, TNClarksville Plumbing Pros, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Clarksville, Hiller Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical, Mac Plumbing Heating & Air, Emerson Plumbing Repair & Drain Cleaning LLC552026-09-15
Abilene, TXMidway Plumbing, Black Plumbing Heating & Air, Earl's Plumbing, Bryant's Plumbing442026-09-15
Albany, NYE.W. Tompkins Plumbing Heating Cooling, Crisafulli Bros. Plumbing & Heating Contractors, Inc., RV Danza Plumbing, Muller's Plumbing, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Albany542026-09-15
Albuquerque, NMTLC Plumbing Heating Cooling Electrical, Albuquerque Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Day & Night Plumbing, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Albuquerque, Motherroad Plumbing Heating & Cooling, Rocketman Plumbing642026-09-15
Alexandria, LACenla Plumbing Repair LLC, Southern Air & Plumbing, Buckley Brothers Plumbing, ACA Air Conditioning Heating & Plumbing442026-09-15
Biloxi, MSBall Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electrical, High Tide Plumbing, LLC, Precise Plumbing LLC, Service Experts Plumbing and Drain Service442026-09-15
Bowling Green, KYThompson's Plumbing, Millard Martin and Son Plumbing, Angry Dave's Plumbing, Lee Company, Fayette Heating & Air, Hiller Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical642026-09-15
Brownsville, TXRoto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Service, Robert's Repair Plumbing, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Brownsville, Caleb's Plumbing442026-09-15
Burlington, VTBP Wastewater Services of VT, Lloyd Plumbing Heating Air Electrical, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup, Benoure Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Stanley Harris & Sons Plumbing & Heating542026-09-15
Champaign, ILLanz Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc., Mattex Heating, Cooling, Plumbing, Drain and Electrical, 217, Inc., Fred's Plumbing Heating Air Conditioning, C-U Trade Services542026-09-15
Columbia, MOMasterTech Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, 1-Tom-Plumber, Brian Wear Plumbing & Restoration, All Star Plumbing, A1 Columbia Plumbing Heating & AC Services542026-09-15
Binghamton, NYMr. Rooter Plumbing of Binghamton, A.J. Leto & Sons Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Arctic Bear Heating, Air, Plumbing & Water Treatment, Auchinachie Services Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup532026-09-15
Charleston, WVNexAir - Expert Plumbers, A&P Plumbing LLC, Truslow Plumbing Service & Home Improvement LLC, Mullen Plumbing, Heating & Cooling432026-09-15
Coeur d'Alene, IDPioneer Plumbing CDA, Straight Shooter Plumbing and Rooter, Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Coeur d'Alene, Honest Plumbing, Eagle Plumbing522026-09-15
Canton, OHQuickflow Plumbing, FlowPros Sewer, Drain, & Repair Service, Miracle Plumbing and Heating, K&K Plumbing LLC, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services522026-09-15

Source: KKV Labs screening and Google AI Mode answers captured September 15, 2026. 60 cities, 305 company names. Download the city data (CSV). What we do for plumbing companies. How we measure this is the method behind this index and every other one on this site: the prompts, the tier rules and the limits.

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Method

How to check our work.

Citation

Use any figure on this page. We ask for one thing: name the source and link to this page, so a reader can see the date and the method.

Download the city data (CSV). Every city, every company the answer named, and the date.

The city sample
60 US cities across 36 states. We found 405 plumbing websites in them and screened 378. The per-city spread runs 2 to 10, most cities carrying 7 to 10 and Canton, OH the thinnest market at 2 candidates. A company with offices in two cities is listed once, in the city we found it in first, and this run needed no widening pass: the list was already above the 400 site minimum before the crawl started.
The AI answers
One question per city, asked in Google AI Mode from a fresh logged out session on September 15, 2026, with the companies recorded in the order they were given. One throttle event and one stale browser tab were caught and re-run cleanly; no city needed a second retry beyond that. Answers change. This is a dated snapshot, not a ranking and not an endorsement of any company on it.
The technology crawl
On September 15, 2026 we opened 443 plumbing homepages and read 409 of them. 11 answered and turned the crawler away, and 23 did not hand back a page we could read. Detection reads the homepage HTML for known scripts, links and markup, so a company can use a tool without it showing here. Every share is a floor.
The named-domain resolution
Google AI Mode names a company, not a website. We match each of the 305 named companies to a domain by a live fetch, never a search engine (Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo all throttle or block this kind of automated lookup). 144 matched, and an audit script then tested every match for a name, a city and enough plumbing content before it was kept. The full reasoning for every row that failed the audit is in PLUMBING-INDEX-FINDINGS-2026-09-15.md.
Named versus unnamed
The named set is the 126 crawled sites Google AI Mode listed in their own city answer, verified by the audit above. The other 283 are everyone else. Comparing the two shows what the named group happened to have that day. It does not show that any of it is why they were named, and we do not claim that anywhere.
What we are not claiming
Nothing here says a company with better markup will be named. This page says what this market looked like on September 15, 2026 and September 15, 2026, and which of the cheap signals are still open.

Caveats

What this data cannot tell you.

Read these before you quote a number from this page. They are the honest limits of the run, and we would rather print them than have somebody find them later.

A same day comparison, not a cause
The named companies were named for many reasons this crawl cannot see, including reviews, how long they have been open and who links to them. Nothing on this page is a ranking factor.
161 named companies have no website we could resolve
Google AI Mode gave those company names with no link, and no first-party record we hold maps the name to a site. They are counted in the city table, which is built from names, and left out of the named versus unnamed comparison, which is built from websites. Plumbing company names are made almost entirely of category and shared-trade words ("plumbing", "drain", "rooter", "water", "service", plus "heating"/"cooling"/"mechanical" borrowed from HVAC), so a guessed hostname has little distinctive left to test, and this is the lowest resolution rate of the six trades this series has run.
8 websites were thrown out before we published
Every match has to pass three tests: a distinctive word of the company name in the title, og:site_name, first h1 or a JSON-LD name field, address shaped evidence for the city it was named in, and at least five plumbing words on the page. 8 rows failed and lost their website, including a domain-for-sale parking page and a dinnerware brand that happened to share a name with a plumber. 15 more rows failed part of the test and were kept anyway with the evidence written down, most of them because an apostrophe, an ampersand or a franchise page that never repeats the named city tripped the audit's own name-matching rather than pointing at a wrong site.
16 resolved domains could not be re-fetched live at audit time
A TLS handshake failure, a live-network artefact rather than a dead domain, the same class of noise the HVAC run's DNS-resolver incident described. Those rows keep the domain the resolver found, unverified by the audit's own live re-check.
1 named result was a person, not a company
One individual freelancer plumber, named by the answer in one city, was excluded from the worklist as not a company, so the 305 rows counted on this page are 305 companies, not 306 names.
No dealer-tier claims to compare
A manufacturer dealer tier (the kind Rheem, A.O. Smith or Bradford White might offer a top installer) is claimed on 0 percent of the homepages we counted. Plumbing fixture and water heater manufacturers do not run a factory-authorized-dealer program the way HVAC equipment makers do, so this line is structurally thinner than HVAC's and should not be compared to it city to city.
Homepage only, so every share is a floor
A certification on an About page, a price on a financing page or a brand named only on a products page is not counted. Detection is by known scripts, links and text, so a new or self built tool reads as nothing at all.
No speed numbers, on purpose
The crawl ran from India. Response times were recorded and are not reported here, because from that distance they measure the length of the wire rather than the speed of the site.
Small bases on some rows
The named side is 126 sites, so several rows in the comparison rest on a handful of companies, and the site counts are printed next to every share. Quote the counts. Never say twice as likely.
City tiers do not discriminate this round
Every one of the 60 cities came back GREEN (three or more names). The tiering formula produced no YELLOW or RED cities, so the tier column is not useful for ranking these cities against each other; the readiness inputs (schema, booking route, insurance and licence language, review count) are the more useful comparison.

Cite this report

KKV Labs (2026). The Plumbing AI Visibility Index, September 2026 edition. KKV Labs LLC. https://www.kkvlabs.com/research/plumbing-ai-visibility-index-2026

Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22765584 (all versions: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22765583)

GitHub: dataset and crawl code. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

Data

60 US cities, crawled September 15, 2026, 409 plumbing company homepages read. Columns: cityState, state, sitesScreened, noSchema, noViewport, staleCopyright, companiesNamed, namedCompanies, tier, tierNote, aiCheckedOn.

Licence: CC BY 4.0. Download the CSV GitHub folder DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22765584

Questions

What people ask about this data.

What is the Plumbing AI Visibility Index?
A first-party count of plumbing AI visibility: which companies Google AI Mode named in 60 US cities, and what the crawler could read on 409 plumbing company homepages on September 15, 2026. Nothing is bought, licensed or estimated.
Why do only 144 of 305 named plumbers have a resolved website?
Because Google AI Mode names a company, not a link, and a plumbing company's name is built almost entirely from category words: "plumbing", "plumber", "drain", "rooter", "water", "service". Once those are stripped out, a guessed hostname usually has nothing distinctive left to verify against. We resolved 144 of the 305 named companies (47 percent), read and counted 126 of those, and left the other 161 with no domain rather than guess one.
Is there a city where AI has no answer yet?
Not in this index. Google AI Mode named at least 3 companies in every one of the 60 cities. The most common answer is 5 names, in 28 cities. So the work here is joining a list rather than starting one.
What did separate the plumbers AI named?
Mostly whether the homepage is bookable. Field service and dispatch software shows on 31% of the named sites and 13% of everyone else. An online booking route runs 56% against 33%. That is a comparison on one day, not a cause.
Do licences and certifications help a plumber get named by AI?
We cannot see that in this data. Years in business is stated on 53% of the named companies and 58% of everyone else. A licence or registration number is printed on 19% against 19%, and a Master Plumber on staff is stated on 18% against 16%. All three sit within a few points of each other, even though every one of these companies is required to hold a licence by the state it operates in. On this day, in this market, credentials were not what told the two groups apart, and printing the number you already hold is a free, one-line fix.
Which field service and dispatch software do plumbers run?
On the 409 homepages we counted on September 15, 2026, 19% showed a field service or dispatch tool we could detect. The most common were ServiceTitan at 11%, ServiceTitan scheduler at 8%, Housecall Pro at 5%. A single vendor, Thryv, runs the homepage for 24 of the 409 sites read, the single largest vendor concentration this series has found. A tool behind a button is not counted, so these are floors.
Do fixture and water heater brands matter for AI visibility?
Barely, and the category is structurally thin. Only 11% of the homepages we counted name a brand at all (Rheem, Moen, Kohler, A.O. Smith, Bradford White and the rest each run 1 to 3 percent), and no manufacturer runs a dealer-tier program the way Trane or Carrier do for HVAC, so this line is not comparable to that trade's 44 percent brand share.
Do plumbing websites block AI crawlers?
Almost none of them do. Of the sites that served a robots.txt, every crawler in our list is blocked outright on 1 percent or less. A partial disallow sits around 43 to 45 percent for all of them, the ordinary WordPress admin-folder rule rather than a decision about AI. A sitemap is reachable on 95%. Access is not what decides who gets named here.
Can I cite these numbers?
Yes, free of charge. Name KKV Labs as the source and link to this report, so your reader can see the date and the method. The city table is on the page as a CSV file as well.
Is a company named in the answer better than one that is not?
No, and we do not say that anywhere. The lists are a dated snapshot of what one AI answer said on one day. They are not rankings, not endorsements, and not a judgement of anybody's work.
How often is this updated?
We re-run the city answers and the crawl as we work these markets. Every figure on this page is computed from the data files at build time, so the report updates the moment the files do.

Your plumbing company result

From this report, answers captured September 15, 2026.

60 of 60

Cities where the answer is still open

No single plumbing company owns the AI answer there yet

5.1

Plumbers named in the average city answer

Everyone the answer leaves out is invisible to that buyer

378

Plumbers screened

Websites read by machine across 60 US cities

Next step

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