Special Thanks
To Lily Ray — the godmother of modern SEO, whose extraordinary generosity in educating the industry through her public research, conference presentations, and candid analysis of AI search has shaped every framework in this document. Her annual MozCon presentations alone have become essential viewing for anyone serious about understanding where search is headed.
To Neil Patel — the most generous educator in digital marketing history, whose relentless commitment to demystifying search, content, and growth strategy has empowered millions of marketers and business owners worldwide. His willingness to share proprietary methodologies publicly — expecting nothing in return — remains the gold standard for industry leadership.
We stand on their shoulders. Any clarity in this document is inherited from their teaching. Any errors are entirely our own.
Prepared for: Institutional Investors, Private Equity, Enterprise Software Platforms, Multi-Location Service Brands Classification: Pre-Publication — Executive Summary Date: September 2026
Ten months ago, the industry’s most respected search strategists were explaining why AI search would transform commerce.
Today, the infrastructure exists. It’s deployed. It’s generating revenue. And the companies that control distribution — home service brands, franchise networks, enterprise platforms — haven’t noticed yet.
We built it. They’re about to come.
Acknowledgment of Intellectual Inspiration
This framework — and the ProPlum methodology it catalyzed — stands on the shoulders of two luminaries whose public research and educational content have shaped our understanding of the AI search transition:
Their independent research, published publicly, inspired us to build what they described.
We are indebted to their generosity in educating the industry — and we submit this work as proof that their frameworks were not merely theoretical.
Lily Ray, Principal at Amsive Digital and widely regarded as the godmother of modern SEO, outlined the trajectory in her 2025 analysis of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO).
Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most influential content marketing strategists of the past two decades, has similarly evangelized the convergence of search visibility, answer-first content, and AI-driven discovery across his platforms reaching millions of marketing professionals.
Their independent conclusions converge on a singular insight, paraphrased: AI search is not the death of traditional SEO — it is the next chapter. Traditional search remains the cardiovascular system of the internet. AI models depend on it to ground their answers.
This was the theoretical framework. The strategic implication was clear but unacted upon:
If AI models retrieve answers from traditional search infrastructure, then businesses optimized for search are already optimized for AI. The investment compounds across both channels.
No one in the home services vertical built for this. We did.
The data is unambiguous:
For home service businesses — plumbing, HVAC, electrical — this is existential.
The customer journey for emergency services has fundamentally changed:
Old model: Google → Click website → Read → Call New model: Ask AI → Get answer + recommendation → Call the recommended business directly
If your business isn’t the recommended answer, you don’t exist. There is no page two of an AI response.
We audited a 57-location national plumbing franchise — 1-Tom-Plumber, a portfolio company of The Riverside Company — using our proprietary AI visibility assessment framework.
Finding: 56.2/100 AI Visibility Score. $500,000+ in annual leaked revenue.
The franchise had invested millions in traditional SEO. Rankings were strong. Traffic was stable. But AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Claude — either didn’t know they existed or recommended competitors.
The leak wasn’t in their SEO. It was in the layer above their SEO that no one was monitoring.
| Finding | Impact |
|---|---|
| Missing LocalBusiness schema on 100% of location pages | AI models can’t verify legitimacy |
| No llms.txt guidance file | AI crawlers receive no site instructions |
| No Q&A schema / answer-first content | AI models can’t extract service information |
| Not registered in AI training datasets | Competitors recommended instead |
| Bing Webmaster unverified | 33% of AI model retrieval sources blocked |
This is not a 1-Tom-Plumber problem. This is a systemic vertical failure. We estimate the total addressable revenue leak across US home services franchises at $3–8 billion annually.
ProPlum Network is not a concept. It is deployed infrastructure:
Rule-based JSON-LD schema generator that transforms raw job transcripts — photos, voice memos, service notes — into structured AI-readable content. Zero API dependencies. Works offline. Generates LocalBusiness schema, FAQPage schema, and answer-first content capsules automatically.
Deployed: https://proplum-aeo-demo.pages.dev/
Progressive Web App installed on plumber home screens. Three-step flow: photos → voice memo → generate. 60 seconds per job. Offline queue with automatic sync. Hands-free activation via Gemini Spark voice commands.
Deployed: https://proplum-aeo-app.pages.dev/
Complete Google Business Profile optimization data for 200 US plumbing markets — descriptions, target keywords, competitor analysis, GBP checklists. Infrastructure for programmatic local directory deployment at scale.
Conversational AI voice agent built on Telnyx infrastructure. Answers emergency calls 24/7. Qualifies, dispatches, transcribes, and feeds job data into the AEO engine. Usage-based pricing at $0.30/minute.
Live demo: Call 1-727-382-8869
Hermes Agent kanban system managing onboarding, lead enrichment, and technical support workers. Self-correcting task dependency chains. Autonomous license verification, sanctions screening, and data enrichment at scale.
Live: Processing 169 lead enrichment, license verification, and background screening tasks
| Tier | Price | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | $499/mo | AEO engine + GBP optimization + schema deployment |
| Dispatch | $1,299/mo | + AI voice agent (Sam) 24/7 emergency answering |
| Full Stack | $2,300/mo | + AEO phone app + multi-agent ops + case study content |
Target: 200 exclusive market partnerships. One plumber per market.
The AEO engine, knowledge base architecture, and voice dispatch methodology are licensable as a platform layer for:
Structure: Upfront license fee + per-seat/per-location royalty. Negotiable based on exclusivity.
Anonymized AI visibility benchmarking across verticals. White-label audit tools for agencies. Speaking and advisory engagements.
The home services industry represents $600+ billion in annual US revenue. It is: - Fragmented (50,000+ plumbing businesses) - Undigitized (most run on paper + phone) - Invisible to AI search (92% failure rate) - Desperate for qualified emergency leads (their #1 revenue driver)
The businesses that win AI search visibility in the next 18 months will own their local markets for the next decade. This is a land grab with compounding returns.
Our defensibility is not in any single component — it is in the integration:
Each plumber partner adds market data. Each market adds knowledge base depth. Each audit adds competitive intelligence. The flywheel accelerates with scale.
We have built the infrastructure before the market recognized the need. The cost to replicate what exists today — 200-city knowledge base, deployed AEO engine, live voice AI, multi-agent operations, 40,000+ contractor database — is 12–18 months of development and $2–4M in engineering.
The cost to license it is a fraction of that.
This asymmetry is the opportunity.
License the AEO engine and voice dispatch methodology as a native feature for your home services vertical. Upfront fee + royalty. We handle implementation and maintenance.
Commission a portfolio-wide AI visibility audit. We quantify the revenue leak across your locations and provide the remediation infrastructure. Fixed-fee audit → ongoing per-location subscription.
Series Seed conversation. We have revenue, deployed infrastructure, a 200-market expansion plan, and a defensible data moat. The home services AI infrastructure layer is unclaimed territory.
Our call transcripts and job data represent the largest structured home services dataset in existence. Training data partnership or strategic investment conversation.
The search industry spent 2025 debating whether AI search was real.
We spent 2025 building for it.
The infrastructure is live. The revenue model is proven. The data moat compounds daily.
Lily Ray explained why. Neil Patel taught us how. We built it before anyone else did.
The only question is whether you participate — or read about it later.
Chris Koerner — The Koerner Office
Thank you for the belief, the candor, and the questions that made this stronger.
This executive summary is a pre-publication excerpt. The complete White Paper, including full methodology, competitive analysis, financial projections, and technical architecture, is available upon request.
Contact: jeffm7007@gmail.com
ProPlum Network — AI-Powered Home Services Infrastructure https://proplumnetwork.com
Lily Ray, “GEO, AEO, LLMO: Separating Fact from Fiction & How to Win in AI Search” — MozCon NYC / Amsive Digital, 2025. Available at: https://www.amsive.com/insights/seo/geo-aeo-llmo-separating-fact-from-fiction-how-to-win-in-ai-search/
Lily Ray, “You Are What You E-E-A-T” — Masters of Search Podcast, Episode 38, 2026. Available at: https://www.masters-of-search.com/podcast/you-are-what-you-eeat-lily-ray-founder-algorythmic-vp-seo-ai-search-amsive
Neil Patel, “SEO Strategy for 2025 — Rank on Every Platform” — NP Digital, 2025. Available on YouTube via Class Central: https://www.classcentral.com/course/youtube-neil-patel-s-seo-strategy-for-2025-rank-on-every-platform-472013
Neil Patel, “How to Make AEO/GEO Profitable: Lessons From 100 Campaigns” — NP Digital Webinar Series, 2026. Available at: https://advanced.npdigital.com/webinar/
Neil Patel, “Search Engine Trends 2025: How Will Search Evolve?” — NeilPatel.com Blog, August 2025. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/search-engine-trends/
ProPlum Network — AI-Powered Home Services Infrastructure https://proplumnetwork.com