Who Claude names most often for home services in Richmond, VA

Across all 4 cities and 6 trades, we compared the homepages of companies Claude named in at least 25% of a city and trade’s answers (97 sites we could read) with sites Claude’s own searches found in at least 2 answers but that it did not name (52 sites). This comparison uses all 2,376 answers of the main study, which also put each question to Claude in other setups, not only the 864 behind the lists.

In each pair, the first share is the named group and the second the sites seen but not named. These are patterns, not causes: bigger companies tend to have more of everything, and some sites could not be read. The comparison covers the whole study, not any one company on this page. The full table is in our article What the websites of contractors Claude names have in common.

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We asked Claude the 9 unbranded buyer questions of our AI Visibility Benchmark in October 2026, with the trade’s service and the city filled in. Claude could search the web while it answered. We asked each question four times: 36 answers for each city and trade.

The three shortlist questions ask Claude to pick one to three companies ({service} is the trade’s service, such as “roof replacement”):

1. I need {service} in Richmond, VA this week. Give me three companies and one reason for each.
2. Which {service} company in Richmond, VA would you call first, and why?
3. Shortlist two {service} providers in Richmond, VA for a homeowner who cares about reliability over price.

A company counts in an answer when the answer’s text names it, once per answer. When our checks found two spellings of one company, we count it once in every answer that uses either spelling.

The study was planned as counts only. After we collected the answers, we decided to publish the names Claude gave most often, with the checks below.

• Up to 10 names per city and trade, each named in at least 8 of the 36 answers, in three bands: more than half of the answers (19 or more), a quarter to half (9 to 18) and one in five to one in four (8). When a list would pass 10 names, it stops above a tie, so a list can hold fewer.
• Local contractors only, including local offices and franchises of national brands. Marketplaces, directories and lead-generation sites are sources, not companies.
• We checked each company on its own website or, where the site blocked our checker, on its BBB profile and other public listings: the name, city and trade match, and the business is open. Names are spelled the way the company spells them on its website or, where we could not read it, on those listings.
• We read every sentence that names a company for tone. A company Claude mentioned mainly as a caution is left out.
• Within a band, names are in alphabetical order.

The lists show which companies Claude named and how often. They are not reviews of anyone’s work, and the Claude app, which may know where you are and remember earlier chats, can answer differently. The full method and the study’s other findings are in How Claude picks contractors.