Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Google's AI for a tradie and the answer names two or three businesses, not a page of links. That is the AI shortlist. Every Wombid audit measures whether you are on it for your trade and suburb, and every plan works the signals that decide it.
Why the shortlist forms
A search results page has ten blue links and paid slots above them. An AI answer has a sentence or two, so the engine commits to a handful of names and stops. The job goes to one of the businesses in that sentence, and the shortlist forms before you hear a word about the job.
AU, people aged 14 and over, March quarter 2026. Roy Morgan. Demand, not a Wombid Index finding.
Being ranked eighth used to mean page one. In an AI answer there is no eighth. There are the names in the answer, and there is everyone else.
How to measure whether you are on it
Guessing is free and wrong. Measuring means putting the questions a customer would ask to the engines that answer them, for your trade and your suburb, and reading who gets named. Wombid's free audit does exactly that across ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, checks your Google Maps positions in the same run, and scores the lot out of 100.
Find out in minutes. Run the free AI Visibility Audit and see which engines name your business, which name someone else, and where you land in the Google Maps local pack. No login, no card.
The signals that decide it
- Reviews, steady and recent. Volume and recency are the signals you control most directly. Ask every happy customer, ideally by text with a direct link.
- A complete Google Business Profile. Every category, every service, service-area suburbs, hours, photos from real jobs. AI reads what is there, not what you meant.
- One identity everywhere. Pick one exact version of your business name, address and phone, then make every directory match it.
- Pages that answer the questions a customer would ask. Write the question, answer it in the first sentence, name the suburb. That structure is what engines lift into answers.
- Keep measuring. Answers change as competitors gather reviews and models refresh. Re-check on a schedule and read what changed.
Wombid measures whether you are on the shortlist, works the signals that decide it, and shows whether the answer changed. That is the whole method: measure, fix, re-measure, in the engines' own words.
Wombid runs those signals for you. Starter at $129 a month re-checks monthly and ships a ready-to-paste Fix Pack. Growth at $399 adds weekly checks, the review engine and who AI named instead of you. Compare the plans, or start with the free audit below.
The shortlist is not your Maps ranking
Winning the Google Maps local pack does not carry over. Google Maps local-pack position is evidence beside the score, not a sixth scoring engine. Maps visibility and AI visibility are different games with different rules, which is why the audit measures both for your business.
Maps is recorded on the same run as the five AI engines. It is not a sixth scoring engine.
See who is on your suburb's shortlist
We put the questions a customer would ask to five AI engines for your trade and area, and email you the report with your number one fix.
Wombid is Australia's premier AI visibility operator for tradies: the AI answers and search results that decide who gets called, measured live across five AI engines and worked on a schedule.
Common questions
What is the AI shortlist?
How do I find out if I am on the AI shortlist?
How does a tradie get on the AI shortlist?
Is the AI shortlist the same as ranking on Google?
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