Central Texas
Which plumbers do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini recommend in Central Texas?
It depends on the town and on the assistant. In 200 answers across Round Rock, Georgetown, Hutto and Taylor, Round Rock's went to 36 different shops and Taylor's to just 14, and one shop with a Round Rock office came first in 36 of the 200.
Updated 14 November 2026
On 14 November 2026, we asked 50 times per town across the four Williamson County towns (about 17 each on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini). We asked the exact same five homeowner questions in every town:
- A leaking water heater that needs a Thursday visit
- The best fairly priced plumber for a clogged drain
- A local owner-operated plumber
- A leaking toilet and slow kitchen sink, typed the short way a busy homeowner types
- A water heater leak "near" the local zip code
We don't put shop names on public pages. If you run a plumbing company in the area, our free check will show you whether your shop was one of the ones named.
Bigger towns are crowded. Small towns have clear favourites.
The smaller the town, the fewer shops share the calls. In Taylor, just seven shops ever made it to the first spot on the list.
| Town | Answers | Different shops named | Shops named first at least once |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round Rock | 50 | 36 | 21 |
| Georgetown | 50 | 33 | 15 |
| Hutto | 50 | 25 | 13 |
| Taylor | 50 | 14 | 7 |
Each town has its own page with the full numbers and how the assistants compared with Google Maps: Georgetown, Hutto and Taylor.
Being in a crowded town does not mean every local shop gets a turn. Two owner-run Round Rock shops we looked at were named 0 times in 50 answers. (For a deeper look at Round Rock, see our 13 November Round Rock study.)
Each assistant picks a different winner
If you only check your shop on ChatGPT, you are only seeing part of the picture. The three tools rarely agree on who goes first.
Look at Taylor's 50 answers:
- ChatGPT put one shop first in 11 of its 17 answers.
- Gemini put a different shop first in 6 of its 16 answers.
- Perplexity put a third shop first in 11 of its 17 answers.
One Round Rock shop took the top spot across the county
Perplexity reaches past town lines more than the other two. It took one shop with a Round Rock office and put it first in:
- 11 of 17 Taylor answers
- 9 of 17 Hutto answers
- 6 of 17 Georgetown answers
Across all four towns and all three tools, that single Round Rock shop was named first in 36 of the 200 total answers.
What surprised us in the answers
1. Plain words from the owner beat a high review count
In Taylor, one shop had only 13 Google reviews and a short website. That site told the owner's story in plain English: born in town, and the owner does the work. Gemini named that shop in all 16 of its Taylor answers and retold that exact story to the homeowner. Overall, that shop was named in 29 of Taylor's 50 answers. You can read more about how this works on what AI assistants look for.
2. No website did not rule a shop out
In Georgetown, a plumber with no website at all and an unclaimed Google listing was still named in 16 of 50 answers, and named first in 6 of them. All three assistants recommended them.
3. Asked by zip code, Perplexity named nobody
When we asked for a plumber "near 78626", "78634" or "76574" (the zip codes for Georgetown, Hutto and Taylor), Perplexity named no plumber at all in all 9 of those answers.
4. Assistants do not check the state licence board
In Round Rock, ChatGPT recommended a shop in 3 of 50 answers whose owner's master plumber licence expired in 2023, per the state licence board. Nothing in the answers showed a licence check.
Limits of this test
We pulled all 200 answers in one afternoon from one network near Austin. Fifty answers per town is enough to show which shops dominate the list, not small day-to-day differences.
Check your own shop and town
If you work in Williamson County or anywhere in Central Texas, you do not have to guess who gets recommended when a homeowner asks for a plumber. Ask for a free check. We will run 50 homeowner questions for your trade and town, see if you get named, and look at what the named shops have on their pages. You get the report by email in 5 business days, with no card and no contract.
If you want our help after that, we build a clear page per job and town plus a booking page or tracked phone line. You only pay per new customer who books through it. Never for rankings or monthly reports.
Common questions
Why aren't the shops named?
We don't put shop names on public pages. If you own a shop in Central Texas, ask for the free check and we'll tell you straight where yours landed.
How do you make money if the check is free?
If you want more of those calls after seeing your report, we build clear pages for your jobs and towns with a booking page or tracked phone line. You pay per new customer who books through it. Never for rankings or monthly reports.
Can a small shop get named over the big outfits?
It happened in Taylor: a shop with 13 Google reviews was named in 29 of 50 answers. Its short site says the owner was born in town and does the work.