Case Study: Locksmith
Dominating AI-Driven Local Search in a High-Urgency Trade
Industry: Locksmith / Security Services
Services: Emergency locksmiths, mobile locksmiths, car locksmiths, commercial, industrial, safes, key cutting
Locksmith services sit in one of the most urgent, decision-driven local markets. Customers often need help immediately — and increasingly rely on AI-powered search to decide who to call first.
Search behaviour for emergency and trade services has fundamentally changed.
Customers are no longer calmly browsing search results. Instead, they are asking AI-powered platforms questions like:
- “Who’s the best emergency locksmith in “location”?”
- “Cheapest locksmith near me right now?”
- “Who does car key replacement locally?”
AI platforms summarise options, prioritise trust signals, and often recommend a single business.
The challenge was to ensure the Locksmith business was:
- Understood, trusted, and recommended by AI —
- especially for urgent, high-intent local queries.
- Traditional SEO alone was not enough.
Digitaldoor implemented a next-generation local business marketing framework, balancing human trust with AI understanding and visibility.
1. Human Creativity (Trust & Clarity)
We refined and structured the website to clearly communicate:
- Full range of locksmith services
- Emergency availability and responsiveness
- Strong local coverage across multiple suburbs
- Professional credibility and reassurance
This ensured customers could instantly understand who they were, what they did, and why they should call them now.
2. AI Visibility (Understanding & Recommendation)
We then engineered AI-Ready Digital Architecture, including:
- Structured service pages for each locksmith offering
- Localised service-area pages
- Clear entity and topical signals for locksmith services
- Optimisation for Google AI Mode and ChatGPT interpretation
This allowed AI platforms to accurately interpret, summarise, and recommend our client at the moment of decision.
Google Search & AI Mode Performance
Google Search (Mobile):
- 4 keywords ranked Position #1
- 10 keywords ranked Positions 2–5
- 6 keywords ranked Positions 6–10
- 100% of tracked keywords ranked inside the Top 20
- Zero keywords beyond Position 20
Google AI Mode:
- 4 keywords ranked Position #1
- 5 keywords ranked Positions 2–5
- Only 1 keyword ranked Positions 6–10
- No keywords beyond Position 10 once ranked
This confirms strong AI-driven visibility for high-intent locksmith searches.
Exceptional ChatGPT Visibility
ChatGPT performance showed particularly strong authority:
- 5 keywords ranked Position #1 in ChatGPT
- 8 keywords ranked Positions 2–5
- 2 keywords ranked Positions 6–10
ChatGPT directly referenced and linked to:
- Emergency locksmith pages
- Car locksmith services
- Mobile locksmith services
- Commercial and industrial locksmith services
This confirms our client is being actively recommended, not just indexed.
Confirmed AI-Driven Traffic
- ChatGPT referral traffic recorded
- Users arrived directly from AI-generated recommendations
- AI visibility was achieved despite very low domain authority (DA 3) — highlighting the effectiveness of structure and relevance over backlinks.
Website Engagement & Local Intent
- 26.3K total impressions
- 171 total clicks
- 161 engaged sessions from organic search
- 56.3% organic engagement rate
This case study highlights a crucial shift for trade businesses:
In urgent markets, AI doesn’t just rank options — it decides who gets the call.
Despite competing against locksmiths with significantly higher domain authority, our client achieved strong AI and search presence, securing visibility where it matters most: at the exact moment customers need help and AI is making the recommendation.
By combining:
- Human-centred clarity and reassurance
- AI-Ready Digital Architecture
- Next-generation local AI optimisation (AIO)
Our Locksmith client positioned themselves as a default recommendation across Google AI Mode and ChatGPT for locksmith services in their local market and surrounding areas.