How do homeowners find a renovation firm now? SEO for AI search
People now give Google AI Mode or ChatGPT the whole job: the flat, the rooms, a budget, a move-in date, the licence they want and the channel for the reply. The firm that answers states, in plain words, its flats, its registration, a price, a timeline and a quote route. On 36 sites we read, we found a licence on 10 and a price on 7.
Mr Salleh asked for a kitchen by Chinese New Year
Mr Salleh stands in the empty kitchen of his new resale flat, tape measure in hand. He opens Google AI Mode and, thinking of the deposit he cannot afford to lose, spells out the job:
Resale flat, new kitchen and two bathrooms, budget around the middle, done before Chinese New Year, contractor registered with HDB, reply on WhatsApp.
Every clause there is a worry: the cost creeping up, the date slipping, the crew that takes the deposit and stops answering. Google AI Mode weighs the firms whose pages settle those worries in plain words, and it never phones a firm to ask.
Somewhere in Singapore that afternoon, a renovation firm did resale kitchens, held the registration and had a crew free in November. If its site never said so, Mr Salleh never saw its name, and no enquiry came in. Is that your firm? Are the contractors across town already booking jobs like his?
Not long ago he would have typed "renovation company near me" and phoned the first few names. Now the brief is the query. Google reports that US AI Mode searches average three times the length of traditional ones, and that its planning queries grew 80% faster than AI Mode as a whole 1. No Singapore figure is published, but a renovation brief is a plain planning query.
His brief, clause by clause, and the line that answers it
HDB tells owners that contractors in its Directory of Renovation Contractors know its requirements for renovating a flat, and that it does not endorse the quality of their work 2. CASE, the Consumers Association of Singapore, says its CaseTrust renovation scheme requires a 12-month workmanship warranty and caps the initial deposit at 20% of the total cost 3.
| Part of the brief | What the site must state | How we read it |
|---|---|---|
| "a resale flat" / "a condo" | The home types the firm works on, by name | Text read: BTO, resale, condo, landed |
| "a new kitchen and bathrooms" | The kind of work, as a page or heading | Text read: work named; headings that load without a script |
| "registered with HDB" | The registration or accreditation, in words | Text read: HDB wording, CaseTrust, BCA |
| "on a tight budget" | A package or from-price, with what it covers | Text read: a dollar figure with package context |
| "before Chinese New Year" | How long a job takes, in weeks | Text read: a duration |
| "reply on WhatsApp" | A quote route and a number that works | Text read: WhatsApp, tel link, quote wording |
| The AI itself | The firm declared as a business | Declared as a business in markup |
Google's guide says structured data is not required for its generative AI features 4.
On 36 sites we found a licence on 10 and a price on 7
Google Maps listed 210 renovation and interior firms with a website across 18 Singapore queries on 2 October 2026. We scanned 40 of them, and 35 earned a published AI score. Across those 35, the middle Search score was 69 and the middle AI score 68. Singapore only, and 40 sites is a sample.
We also read the sites as text: the homepage and up to four linked pages. It reached 36 of the 40.
Firms say what they build. They say far less about who stands behind it, what it costs and when it ends.
The reply channel is solved; the licence is not
31 of 36 sites offer WhatsApp. The licence is the opposite. Our read found HDB registration wording on 8 sites and CaseTrust on 3. It cannot say the others are unregistered, only that it found nothing the AI could repeat.
Our read found a price on 7 sites and a timeline on 3. Prices vary with the flat, so the honest form is a from-price with what it includes. As a customer, I would want that first.
A firm the machine can name: median 73; one it cannot: 61
One check splits the sites clearly: whether the firm is declared as a business in markup (EN1). Of 35 published sites, 16 pass it and 19 do not. The 16 had a median AI score of 73; the 19, a median of 61. In the text read, 11 sites carry a business block in the page code and only 1 uses a contractor type.
A correlation in 35 sites, not a cause. The full list of checks sits in the rubric.
What to put on the site, in this order
- Write down the licence. If you are in HDB's directory, say "HDB-registered renovation contractor" in plain words on the homepage and the services page. If you hold CaseTrust, say so. 10 of 36 state any licence.
- Give a price range. A from-price or package for each common job, with what it covers. 7 of 36 do.
- Give a timeline. Weeks from start to handover for a typical flat. 3 of 36 do.
- Name the flats and the work. BTO, resale, condo, landed, and the rooms, each as a heading. 28 name the work; 21 name the flat type.
- Make asking easy. A free-quote line beside the WhatsApp and tap-to-call numbers. 16 of 36 have a quote route.
- Declare the firm. One business block with name, address, hours and the registrations.
"Renovation company near me" still works, a little less every year
A firm that has ranked for years on the short query can keep taking calls from it. Each year fewer do. In early 2026, 68% of Google searches in the United States ended without a click, against 49% in 2019 5. A homeowner with a deposit at stake increasingly takes the written answer and stops there.
Turning a site that ranks into one that can reply to a clause like "done before Chinese New Year" is the work we do. A free scan of your own site is the quickest way to see which of the six lines in the list above it already states.
Questions people ask
Should a renovation firm publish prices at all?
Your call. Only 7 of 36 sites we read gave a price with package context. A from-price with what it covers is honest about variation, and it answers the budget clause.
Is the HDB directory listing enough to prove I am registered?
It helps, but the AI reads your pages. HDB says contractors in its directory know its renovation requirements 2. State your registration in words on your own site, because only 8 of 36 sites we read did.
Does CaseTrust need to be on the website?
If you hold it, yes, in words. CASE lists a 12-month workmanship warranty and a deposit cap of 20% as part of the scheme 3. 3 of 36 sites we read mention CaseTrust, so stating it sets a firm apart.
Do I need special markup for AI?
No. Google's guide says structured data is not required for its generative AI features 4. The facts a brief asks for still have to be written in the page text itself.
Will this get my firm recommended?
Nobody can promise that, and we do not. The checks show whether the AI can read the facts a brief needs. That measures readiness to be read, not a ranking, and no check can promise one.
Next: How does AI read your website, and what can it see?
Sources
- Google, How AI Mode is changing and expanding the way people search, 19 May 2026. Accessed 2 October 2026.
- HDB (Housing & Development Board), Looking for Renovation Contractors, undated. Accessed 2 October 2026.
- CASE (Consumers Association of Singapore), CaseTrust Accreditation for Renovation Businesses, 14 April 2026. Accessed 2 October 2026.
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, 10 July 2026. Accessed 2 October 2026.
- SparkToro, In 2026, less than one third of Google searches still send a click, 9 June 2026. Accessed 2 October 2026.
Our own counts come from our renovation batch of 2 October 2026, 40 sites, one scan and one text read each, scored with the published rubric. Not a market survey.