More homeowners now ask an AI assistant who to call before they ever open Google. So when a young joinery business in Winsford, Cheshire came to us with no real website, the first thing we did was ask the assistants the question its customers ask.
The answer, the day after the new website launched, was the same from all three: plenty of joiners, none of them Hale’s.
This is the story of the 26 days that changed it, told with Hale’s permission and with the real numbers. We count the days from launch day. You can also see it laid out in the full case study.
The question
Every month we ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini the same question, word for word:
Who’s a reliable joiner in Winsford, Cheshire, UK that can fit bespoke carpentry in my home?
It doesn’t name the business. It’s simply what a homeowner with an awkward alcove or a dropped gate would type. Here’s how the answers changed.
| Check | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 (before) | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Day 27 | Named 2nd | Named 2nd | Named 4th |
| Day 33 | Named 3rd | Named 1st | Named 3rd |
On day 33 we asked some new questions too. Asked who could repair fence panels that blew down in Winsford, Gemini named Hale’s first. Asked who could build a pergola near Northwich, Perplexity named Hale’s first.
Where Hale’s started
Hale’s Carpentry & Joinery does careful, made-to-measure work. Indoors that means fitted wardrobes, alcove units, shelving and doors. Outdoors it means fencing and gates, fence repairs, sleeper borders and garden structures, across Winsford, Northwich and the villages around them.
What it didn’t have was anything for a search engine or an AI assistant to read. AI assistants answer from what they can find on the web. With no website, there was simply nothing to find.
What we built
A website made for Google and for AI
The new website went live on launch day, built from Hale’s Google profile and his own photos of real jobs, in his colours and his typefaces. It has:
- a page for every service: Fencing & Gates, Fence Repairs, Sleeper Borders, Bespoke Joinery and Garden Structures;
- pages written for his towns, so a page is titled "Fence Repairs in Winsford & Northwich" rather than just "Fencing";
- an about page and a journal, where the articles live;
- an enquiry form that takes photos, so a customer can show him the job.
Marked up, top to bottom
Structured data is the part of a web page written for machines rather than people. It tells a search engine or an AI assistant, in a format it can trust, who a business is, what it does and where. Every page of Hale’s site carries it:
- the home page has LocalBusiness data, with opening hours and the area served, plus FAQPage data for its six questions;
- every service page has Service, BreadcrumbList and FAQPage data;
- every article has BlogPosting, BreadcrumbList and FAQPage data.
Around that: an XML sitemap listing all 22 pages, a robots.txt that points to it, a canonical tag and a unique title and description on every page, share cards for social media and descriptive alt text on images.
In Google’s own Lighthouse test, run on a phone, the site scores 100 for SEO, 100 for best practices and 96 for accessibility, with zero milliseconds of blocking time.
An article every three days
The Search Agent published three articles on launch day and a new one every three days after that: 13 in the first month, each about 1,500 words, on Hale’s own journal. Each one is built around a real local search and a real job:
- Fence Repairs vs Replacement: When a Single Panel or Post Fix Saves Money in Winsford
- Fitted Wardrobes & Alcove Storage in Northwich: Bespoke vs Flat-Pack
- Dropped Gates & Sagging Hinges in Northwich & Weaverham
- Carpenter vs Joiner: What’s the Difference & Which One Do You Need in Winsford?
Between them they name Winsford, Northwich, Hartford, Davenham and Weaverham, and 37 links join the articles to each other and to his contact form.
Inside one of the articles
Take the fence repairs article. It opens as "the honest guide" to fence repairs in Winsford and Northwich, then works through the questions a homeowner actually has, in the order they have them:
- why Cheshire gardens are tough on timber fences;
- what gets checked when a damaged fence is assessed;
- how to decide between a repair and a full replacement;
- the types of repair Hale’s carries out;
- a set of frequently asked questions, from who’s responsible for a broken fence to whether fencing contractors charge by the hour or by the job;
- the area it covers, and how to get a quote.
That shape matters. An AI assistant asked about fence repairs in Winsford finds a page that answers the question directly, names the town, covers the follow-up questions and ends with who to contact. The FAQ section carries its own structured data, so the questions and answers are machine-readable too.
It also reads well to a person, which is the point. Every article is written to be useful to the homeowner first: what to look for, what it usually involves and when a repair beats a replacement. The search engines and assistants follow the people.
What happened next
The website went live on launch day and the first AI check ran the next morning, on day 1: not mentioned anywhere. By day 27, 26 days later, ChatGPT and Perplexity were naming Hale’s second and Gemini fourth. By day 33, Perplexity had him first.
It shows up beyond AI too:
- Google Maps: for "joiner winsford", Hale’s shows in the top three at 20 of the 25 points we check across the town, with an average position of 2.6. That’s what rank tracking measures.
- Enquiries: four real enquiries came through the new website between day 17 and day 32: a side gate and shed door, a pair of 1950s sliding doors, two bathroom vanity units and a door, with photos attached.
- Visits: UK page views grew from four in the launch week to 34 in the fifth.
Why it worked
None of this is a trick. AI assistants recommend businesses they can read about, and they trust what’s clear, consistent and current.
- Clear pages, one per service. An assistant asked about fence repairs in Winsford can find a page called exactly that.
- Structured data everywhere. It turns "we fix fences" into a fact a machine can be confident about: this business, this service, this area.
- Fresh, specific, local articles. Thirteen useful articles in a month gave Google and AI plenty of new reasons to mention Hale’s, in the places he works.
- Everything joined up. The articles link to each other and to the contact form, so readers and crawlers can follow the thread.
What you can take from it
You can start the same way Hale’s did, by finding out what the assistants say about you today. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the question your customers would ask, with your town in it, and note who they name.
Or let us do it for you. Our free visibility report checks what ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity say when someone asks for what you do, where you show on Google Maps, and what we’d do first. For the whole story, with the graphics, read the Hale’s case study.
