When a homeowner asks Claude for a contractor, Claude often searches the web before it answers. In our study every page it cited had come back from one of those searches, so we counted the words in every search it ran.
Original study · v1.0
What Claude searches for when you ask for a contractor
Before Claude names contractors, it searches the web. We counted the words in every search it ran: what it adds to the buyer's question, what it leaves out, and how often the same search comes back.
By Found ClearlyPublished October 31, 20265 min read
Part 5 of 6 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. Claude searched the web in all 864 answers: 1,741 searches, two in 851 answers and three in 13. Eight of the nine questions did not use the word “best”. Claude still searched for “best” in 605 of the 768 answers to them (78.8%), and its most common search had the shape “best [service] companies [city] [state]”. Asked which companies offer same-day appointments, it searched for same-day appointments instead: none of those 96 answers searched for “best”. 41.4% of the searches added “reviews” and 12.6% added “BBB”, while Houzz came up in 12, Angi or HomeAdvisor in 11, Google in 1 and Yelp in none. Every page Claude cited had come back from one of its own searches.
Key points
- “Best” without being asked: eight of the nine questions did not say it, and Claude still searched for “best” in 605 of the 768 answers to them (78.8%).
- The most common search had the shape “best [service] companies [city] [state]”: 145 of 1,741 searches, in all 24 city and trade pairs.
- A specific question got a specific search. Asked about same-day appointments, Claude searched for same-day appointments, and none of the 96 answers searched for “best”. On transparent pricing, 47 of 96 did.
- 41.4% of the searches added “reviews” and 12.6% added “BBB”. Review sites themselves were rare: Houzz came up in 12, Angi or HomeAdvisor in 11, Google in 1 and Yelp in none.
- Asked the same question again, 73.6% of the pairs of answers shared at least one identical search, but the two sets of searches overlapped by a median of 0.33. The pages they brought back overlapped more: 0.64.
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
Web searches
A couple of searches before every answer
The numbers on this page come from 864 answers: each question asked four times in each city and trade, 36 answers for each.
Claude could search the web while it answered. A search here is one search as Claude typed it. We counted the words in each, and we show them as shapes, with the service, the city and the state in brackets.
1,741
web searches in 864 answers: two in 851 answers and three in 13
17.7
pages came back per answer on average, and Claude cited 7.49 of them
42.1%
of the pages that came back got cited, in the median answer
0
cited pages that had not come back from one of Claude’s own searches
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
The word in the search
“Best”, without being asked
The first of the nine questions asks for the “best” companies; the other eight do not use the word. Claude still searched for “best” in 605 of the 768 answers to those eight (78.8%).
78.8%
of the answers to questions without the word “best” searched for “best” anyway (605 of 768)
0 of 96
answers about same-day appointments searched for “best”: their searches asked for same-day appointments
Answers that searched for “best”, by question (96 answers each)
| Question | Searched for “best” |
|---|---|
| Who are the best {service} companies in {city}? | 96 of 96 |
| I need {service} in {city}. Which local companies should I look at? | 96 of 96 |
| Recommend three reliable {service} providers serving {city}. | 96 of 96 |
| I need {service} in {city} this week. Give me three companies and one reason for each. | 85 of 96 |
| Which {service} company in {city} would you call first, and why? | 96 of 96 |
| Shortlist two {service} providers in {city} for a homeowner who cares about reliability over price. | 96 of 96 |
| Which {service} companies in {city} offer same-day appointments? | 0 of 96 |
| Who does {service} in {city} and is transparent about pricing? | 47 of 96 |
| Which {service} providers near {city} are licensed and well reviewed? | 89 of 96 |
Where the question asked for something specific, the search did too. On same-day appointments, none of the answers searched for “best”. On transparent pricing, 47 of 96 did. The licensed and well-reviewed question stayed close to the rest: 89 of 96.
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
Search words
What else went into the searches
Nearly every search named the city, and most added a word about reputation: “reviews”, “best” or “BBB”. Review sites themselves rarely came up.
What the searches held: 1,741 searches in 864 answers
| The search held | Searches | Answers with at least one |
|---|---|---|
| The city | 99.3% (1,728) | 100.0% (864) |
| The state | 79.9% (1,391) | 99.9% (863) |
| “reviews” | 41.4% (721) | 83.4% (721) |
| “best” | 40.4% (703) | 81.1% (701) |
| The current year | 13.1% (228) | 26.3% (227) |
| “BBB” | 12.6% (220) | 25.5% (220) |
| “licensed” or “license” | 9.6% (168) | 18.2% (157) |
| “accredited” | 6.2% (108) | 12.5% (108) |
| Houzz | 0.7% (12) | 1.4% (12) |
| Angi or HomeAdvisor | 0.6% (11) | 1.3% (11) |
| 0.1% (1) | 0.1% (1) | |
| “near” | 0.1% (1) | 0.1% (1) |
| Yelp | 0.0% (0) | 0.0% (0) |
The most common searches, as shapes (477 different shapes in all)
| Search shape | Searches | City and trade pairs |
|---|---|---|
| “best [service] companies [city] [state]” | 145 (8.3%) | 24 of 24 |
| “best [service] company [city] [state]” | 66 (3.8%) | 20 of 24 |
| “best [service] contractors [city] [state]” | 64 (3.7%) | 14 of 24 |
| “[service] [city] [state] same-day appointment” | 52 (3.0%) | 14 of 24 |
| “best [service] contractors [city] [state] reviews” | 51 (2.9%) | 15 of 24 |
| “[service] [city] [state] transparent pricing” | 39 (2.2%) | 13 of 24 |
“BBB” came up in 220 searches, more than Houzz, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Google and Yelp together. These are the words Claude typed, not the pages it cited: directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB made up at least 36.6% of its citations (more in Does Claude use Google Maps for contractors?).
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
Repeat searches
Asked again: other words, similar pages
We compared the searches of each pair of answers to the same question, asked again: the same 648 pairs as the company lists in Ask Claude twice, get a partly different list of contractors. Overlap is the Jaccard index: the searches in both answers divided by the searches in either.
73.6%
of the pairs shared at least one identical search (477 of 648)
26.4%
ran exactly the same searches (171 pairs)
0.33
median overlap of the two sets of searches
0.64
median overlap of the pages those searches brought back
The words changed more than the pages they found. The companies Claude named sat in between: the two lists overlapped by a median of 0.55.
Our data · Oct 2026 · Claude · Method →
Your company
Run the same searches yourself
Every page Claude cited in our study had come back from one of its own searches. You can see the same kind of results for your trade and city in a few minutes:
- Search “best [service] companies [city] [state]”, with your service, city and state filled in.
- Search it again with “reviews” at the end.
- If you offer same-day appointments or publish prices, search for your service and city with those words too.
Look at what comes back: list pages, directories, BBB profiles and company websites. Check whether your company is on them, and whether what they say about you is current.
One more number from the same answers: Claude cited a page that lists several local companies in 433 of the 864 (50.1%). We show it next to the searches for “best” and claim no cause. Who writes those pages is in Who writes the “best contractors” lists Claude cites.
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.
- The search counts were added after the answers were collected. They describe the data and test no hypothesis.
- We counted the words in Claude's searches, not why it chose them or which search led to which company.
- We show searches as shapes, with the service, city and state taken out. A few follow-up searches named a company, so we print no search as Claude typed it.
How to cite this
Found Clearly. "What Claude searches for when you ask for a contractor", from "How Claude picks contractors", version 1.0. Published 2026-10-31. 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
What does Claude search for when you ask it to recommend a contractor?
In our data Claude searched the web in all 864 answers, 1,741 searches in all (our data, October 2026). The most common shape was “best [service] companies [city] [state]”. 99.3% of the searches named the city, 41.4% added “reviews” and 12.6% added “BBB”.
Does Claude search for “best” even when the question doesn't say it?
Mostly, yes. Eight of the nine buyer questions we asked did not use the word “best”, and Claude still searched for “best” in 605 of the 768 answers to them (78.8%; our data, October 2026). The two exceptions were the questions about same-day appointments, where none of the 96 answers searched for “best”, and about transparent pricing, where 47 did.
Does Claude search Yelp, Google or Angi for contractors?
Its searches rarely named a review site. Of 1,741 searches, Houzz came up in 12, Angi or HomeAdvisor in 11, Google in 1 and Yelp in none, while “BBB” came up in 220 (our data, October 2026). This counts the words Claude typed, not the pages it cited: directories and platforms such as Yelp, Angi, Houzz and BBB made up at least 36.6% of its citations.
Does Claude run the same searches if you ask the same question again?
Partly. Asked the same question again, 477 of 648 pairs of answers (73.6%) shared at least one identical search, and 171 (26.4%) ran exactly the same searches. The two sets of searches overlapped by a median of 0.33, and the pages they brought back by 0.64 (our data, October 2026).
Keep reading
Ask Claude twice, get a partly different list of contractorsDoes Claude use Google Maps for contractors?Who writes the “best contractors” lists Claude citesWhat the websites of contractors Claude names have in commonThe sites Claude cites and the details it repeats, by tradeHow Claude picks contractors: the study and its methodAll research
Evidence you can check. Public prices, month to month.