When a homeowner asks Claude for a contractor, the answer often comes with links. We sorted every link by where it went, to see whether Claude leans on Google's local results the way a Google search does.
Original study · v1.0
Does Claude use Google Maps for contractors?
None of the 6,472 citations in 864 Claude answers about local contractors went to Google Maps or a Business Profile. Here is where the links went instead.
By Found ClearlyPublished October 29, 20264 min read
Part 2 of 4 in our study How Claude picks contractors, with the method and the other parts.
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Abstract
In October 2026 we asked Claude 9 buyer questions about 6 home service trades in 4 US metros, each question four times in each city and trade: 864 answers, 36 for each city and trade. Those answers carried 6,472 citations to 1,330 different pages. None was a Google Maps or Google Business Profile page, and a wider count of 12,740 citations in 1,944 of the main-study answers found none either. Directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB made up at least 36.6% of the citations, and the named companies' own websites 29.8%. This is about Claude's links and search results. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile.
Key points
- No Google links: none of Claude's 6,472 citations in 864 answers was a Google Maps or Business Profile page. A wider count of 12,740 citations in 1,944 of the main-study answers found none either.
- Directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB made up at least 36.6% of the citations, and the own websites of the companies the answers named 29.8%.
- In our website check, Claude searched the web for the profiles of 88 of the companies Claude named in at least 25% of a city and trade's answers (counting all 2,376 main-study answers). No Google Business Profile page came back for any of them.
- This is about Claude's links and search results. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile.
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude answers and company websites · Method →
Citations
Where the links go
Most of this page’s numbers come from 864 answers: each question asked four times in each city and trade, 36 answers for each.
Those answers carried 6,472 citations, 7.49 per answer, to 1,330 different pages. We put every citation in one group, checking in this order: Google, list page, directory or platform, a named company’s own website, media, manufacturer, other known sites.
0
Google Maps or Google Business Profile links among 6,472 citations
36.6%
of citations went to directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB, as a lower bound
Where Claude linked: 6,472 citations in 864 answers
| Group | Citations | Share of citations | Answers with at least one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google (Maps, Business Profile or any other Google page) | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% (0) |
| List pages (several local companies on one page), first-pass rule (corrected by the hand check) | 790 | 12.2% | 51.2% (442) |
| Directories and platforms (Yelp, Angi, Houzz, BBB and others) | 2,368 | 36.6% | 86.2% (745) |
| The own websites of companies the answer names | 1,928 | 29.8% | 79.5% (687) |
| News and media | 64 | 1.0% | 6.7% (58) |
| Manufacturers | 46 | 0.7% | 4.6% (40) |
| Other known sites (social, government, associations) | 81 | 1.3% | 6.4% (55) |
| Not sorted (a domain our dictionary does not know) | 1,195 | 18.5% | 73.0% (631) |
The Google group catches any page on google.com, Maps and Business Profile pages among them.
Our website check drew two groups from all 2,376 main-study answers: companies Claude named in at least 25% of a city and trade’s answers, and sites its own searches found in at least 2 answers but that it did not name there (more in What the websites of contractors Claude names have in common). When Claude searched the web for each company’s profiles, no Google Business Profile page came back for any of them (0 of 88 named often, 0 of 52 seen but not named).
This is about Claude’s links and search results. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile.
The groups come from a dictionary of known domains, so the 18.5% we could not sort is the main gap, and the other shares are lower bounds. The list-page row is the first-pass rule: the hand check in Who writes the “best contractors” lists Claude cites moved 17 of its 790 citations out, and the answers citing a list page from 442 to 433.
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude answers and company websites · Method →
0
Google Maps or Business Profile links among 12,740 citations in a wider count over 1,944 main-study answers
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
What this cannot tell you
- We asked Claude outside the Claude app. The app can answer differently: it may know where you are, remember earlier chats and use other settings.
- Claude and the way it searches the web change over time, so read this as a snapshot of October 2026.
- The study covers 4 metros and 6 home service trades. Other cities, trades and wordings can give other lists.
- Link groups come from a dictionary of known domains. Pages from domains it does not know are counted as not sorted, so the other shares are lower bounds.
- We measured where Claude's links go, not how buyers use Google Search and Maps.
How to cite this
Found Clearly. "Does Claude use Google Maps for contractors?", from "How Claude picks contractors", version 1.0. Published 2026-10-29. Data: Claude (Anthropic), October 2026.
The text and the figures on this page are under CC BY 4.0: quote, chart and republish them with credit to Found Clearly and a link to this page. That includes competitors.
Primary sources
FAQ
Related questions
Does Claude use Google Maps or Google Business Profiles for local recommendations?
In our data it did not link to them. None of the 6,472 citations Claude gave in 864 answers about local contractors was a Google Maps or Google Business Profile page (our data, October 2026). A wider count of 12,740 citations in 1,944 of the main-study answers found none either. It cited directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB, list pages, and the companies' own websites. This is about Claude's links and search results. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile.
What does Claude cite when it recommends contractors?
Directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB made up at least 36.6% of the 6,472 citations in our data, and the own websites of the companies the answers named 29.8% (our data, October 2026). List pages made up 12.2% on a first pass, and 18.5% came from domains our dictionary could not sort.
Does this mean a Google Business Profile does not matter?
No. The study measured where Claude's answers link, not how buyers use Google. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile.
Keep reading
Evidence you can check. Public prices, month to month.