August held a deep position and turned more of it into traffic. Backed by Lou Curley, Pennsylvania's first CSIA Master Chimney Sweep, and a team credentialed through CSIA, NFI, and F.I.R.E., the site ranked in the top 3 for 565 queries, up 17 from July, on the first page for 1,060 queries, level with July, and inside the top 20 for 1,622 queries, counted across every search the site appeared for. The movement this month is on the traffic side: clicks rose to 89 from 69, a gain of 29 percent, on 46,730 impressions, up from 42,491. The top 3 produced 58 percent of those clicks and the first page produced 90 percent, on 18,824 impressions. A stable base of top positions that is working harder than it was a month ago.
The head terms are where the gain shows most clearly. "Chimney repair" now averages position 1 on 1,345 monthly impressions, "chimney inspection near me" averages position 1 on 818 impressions, and "chimney cleaning" averages position 1 on 586 impressions. In the local 3-pack, core terms including "chimney sweep" (60,500 monthly searches), "chimney cleaning," "fireplace repair," and "fireplace inspection" all hold map pack position 1 in the Drexel Hill core, with map pack presence extending across the Main Line and the wider Delaware County service area.
AI search is the breakout story again, and it is now measured through four independent lenses that all point the same direction. The site is cited 3,668 times across the major AI search platforms, an increase of 996 over the prior month. Microsoft's Bing and Copilot feed tripled from 1,200 to 3,600 citations in the last 30 days. Google's own generative AI features served Lou Curley's pages 7,110 impressions, up from 6,130. Perplexity became the largest of the seven tracked answer platforms at 27 citations across 13 separate pages, and 8 of the 10 conversational chimney prompts we track now return a Lou Curley's page as a cited source. Next month's focus extends that content depth into the relining and liner topics where AI is already pulling from the site.
We pull from several sources so no single tool tells the whole story. The headline counts above come from Google's own reporting, which covers every search Lou Curley's appeared for. The city-by-city and map pack numbers further down come from a daily rank tracker checking each market separately on desktop and mobile. AI citations come from the platforms themselves. Each number comes from whichever source measures it best, and stays with that source month to month.
Queries where Lou Curley's currently appears on the first page of Google. These are the search terms actively bringing buyers to the site.
| Keyword | Position | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| chimney repair | 1 | 1,345 |
| chimney inspection | 4 | 1,033 |
| chimney repair near me | 2 | 832 |
| chimney inspection near me | 1 | 818 |
| chimney cleaning | 1 | 586 |
| chimney types | 5 | 175 |
| lou curley's chimney service | 1 | 174 |
| types of chimneys | 7 | 157 |
| chimney liner types | 5 | 130 |
| chimney repair company | 2 | 120 |
| chimney sweep dryer vent | 4 | 118 |
| can you burn particle board | 8 | 118 |
| chimney crown repairs | 3 | 101 |
| chimney lining types | 3 | 101 |
| chimney relining services | 2 | 100 |
| best day chimney service | 2 | 99 |
| chimney and fireplace services | 1 | 99 |
| ahren fire fireplace restoration | 7 | 95 |
| chimney cleaning near me | 1 | 85 |
| chimney liner installation | 2 | 84 |
Queries already ranking on page 2 where a small content or link push moves them onto page 1. These are the next wave of winsStriking distance keywords are search terms ranking close to page 1 (positions 11 to 20). They typically take less work to push onto page 1 than starting a brand new keyword from scratch..
| Keyword | Position | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| chimney relining options | 13 | 189 |
| seasoned wood meaning | 14 | 175 |
| chimney company laughing waters | 11 | 171 |
| chimney liner | 11 | 104 |
| certified chimney inspection | 15 | 103 |
| certified dryer vent maintenance | 13 | 82 |
| chimney repair brick | 20 | 67 |
| chimney company lefferts mill | 11 | 62 |
| chimney cleaning quaker gardens | 17 | 43 |
| chimney inspection yeadon pa | 14 | 38 |
| chimney cleaning mill hill | 17 | 37 |
| chimney inspection randolph | 17 | 37 |
| chimney relining near me | 12 | 37 |
| chimney inspection delaware county pa | 19 | 33 |
These specific pages are the foundation for everything ranking. Each one drives traffic across many related search terms. The number of ranking queriesA "ranking query" is a unique search term that this specific page shows up for on Google during the reporting month. One page often ranks for many related searches at once. shown next to each page is how many different Google searches each page is showing up for.
Real local 3-packWhen someone searches for a local service like "chimney sweep near me," Google shows a special box at the top with a map and three business listings. This is called the local 3-pack or "map pack" and ranking inside it is a major driver of calls. rankings checked across the Drexel Hill core market and the surrounding Delaware County and Main Line tracking locations. 69 top-3 map pack finishes this period, 54 of them in first or second place.
| Keyword | Search Volume | Map Pack Position |
|---|---|---|
| chimney sweep | 60,500 | 1 |
| chimney cleaning | 20,100 | 1 |
| chimney inspection | 14,800 | 2 |
| fireplace repair | 8,100 | 1 |
| chimney sweeps | 6,600 | 2 |
| chimney cap installation | 5,400 | 2 |
| fireplace inspection | 2,400 | 1 |
| chimney leak repair | 810 | 2 |
| chimney repairs | 810 | 1 |
| fireplace services | 660 | 1 |
| chimney crown repair | 540 | 1 |
| chimney relining | 480 | 1 |
| chimney cleaning services | 470 | 2 |
| fireplace and chimney services | 390 | 2 |
| chimney and fireplace services | 390 | 2 |
| furnace chimneys | 320 | 1 |
| fireplace repair services | 180 | 1 |
| chimney cleaning sweep | 180 | 1 |
| chimney crack repair | 170 | 1 |
| fireplace repairs | 140 | 1 |
| flue repair | 110 | 1 |
| chimney repair company | 70 | 2 |
| chimney leak repairs | 60 | 1 |
| flue heating | 50 | 1 |
| chimney crown repairs | 40 | 1 |
| heating chimney | 40 | 2 |
| chimney relining services | 30 | 2 |
| leaky chimney repair | 20 | 1 |
| chimney liner installation | 20 | 1 |
| gas furnace chimney sweep | 20 | 2 |
| chimney flue repair | 10 | 1 |
| chimney tester | 10 | 2 |
| gas furnace chimney cleaning | 10 | 2 |
Lou Curley's continues to hold the strongest AI search footprint we manage. In the August 31 seven-platform snapshot, the site is cited 68 times, with Perplexity now the single largest surface at 27 citations spread across 13 different pages. Microsoft's own reporting tripled over the last 30 days, from 1,200 citations to 3,600. Google's own reporting shows 7,110 impressions inside Google's generative AI features, up from 6,130. And 8 of the 10 conversational chimney prompts we monitor daily now return a Lou Curley's page as a cited source.
A single-day snapshot of how Lou Curley's is currently cited across the seven tracked AI answer platforms. This is the cross-platform view.
Last month's 72 citations were concentrated on a small number of pages. This month's 68 are spread across a far larger set: 12 pages on Google AI Overview, 14 on Google AI Mode, 13 on Perplexity, and 6 on Gemini. That breadth is the more durable signal. It means the AI platforms are reaching deeper into the site rather than returning to the same two or three guides, which is exactly what the content depth work is built to produce. The Grok drop to zero is a platform-level change in how Grok cites sources, not a loss of Lou Curley's content.
We monitor ten conversational chimney questions every day across Google AI Overview and ChatGPT, set to the Drexel Hill area. These tell us whether real buyer questions return a Lou Curley's page, and where the next citation opportunities will open up.
| Conversational prompt | Google AI Overview | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Can you recommend a reliable service for chimney inspection near me? | Cited, 1st source | Cited, 1st source |
| Can you recommend a local service for chimney cap replacement? | Cited, 2nd source | Cited, 1st source |
| I'm looking for an affordable service to install a new chimney cap on my house. | Cited, 2nd source | Cited, 1st source |
| What are the average costs for chimney repairs in my area? | Brand present, no link yet | Cited, 7th source |
| What should I look for when choosing a chimney cleaning company? | Brand present, no link yet | Cited, 3rd source |
Every one of the five conversational prompts we track on ChatGPT returned a Lou Curley's page as a source on August 31, three of them in the first source slot. On Google AI Overview, three of five returned a link and the remaining two show the brand inside the answer without a link yet. Those two are both cost and evaluation questions, which is precisely where the next round of content depth should go: chimney repair cost, chimney relining cost, and what a homeowner should look for when hiring. Expanding into those topics is the most direct path to converting the remaining brand mentions into full citations.
Google's own reporting now breaks out impressions served specifically inside Google's generative AI features. This is Google's own count of how often a Lou Curley's page appeared inside an AI-generated answer, and it is the most direct measure of Google AI visibility available.
| Page | Generative AI impressions | Role |
|---|---|---|
| loucurley.com/how-to-tell-if-wood-is-properly-seasoned/ | 1,529 | Deep how-to guide, the top AI page on the site |
| loucurley.com/pros-cons-3-different-types-chimney-liners/ | 632 | Liner cluster anchor |
Microsoft's own reporting shows how often Bing and Copilot chose Lou Curley's as a source over the last 30 days. This is a rolling window and, unlike the seven-platform snapshot, covers only the Microsoft AI ecosystem.
The dryer vent cleaning frequency pillar at /how-often-clean-dryer-vent/ remains the source content Microsoft Copilot returns to when answering user questions about dryer vent cleaning frequency, and it is the page that has carried this footprint since it went live. The supporting Dryer Vent Fire Risk blog post and the Dryer Vent Cleaning service page rewrite we also delivered feed the same intent cluster. The site is credentialed to answer these questions too: Lou Curley is a C-DET Certified Dryer Exhaust Technician in addition to being Pennsylvania's first CSIA Master Chimney Sweep, with a second CSIA Master Sweep on staff.
Microsoft tripled its citations. Google's own generative AI reporting is up 16%. Perplexity went from 8 citations to 27 and now spans 13 pages. Gemini went from 1 page to 6. And on daily conversational tracking, 8 of 10 buyer questions return a Lou Curley's page. No single platform is carrying this: the depth of the content library is being picked up independently by every major answer engine, which is the most durable position a local service business can hold in AI search.
August moved the measures that matter forward: top 3 rankings up 17, first page rankings holding level at 1,060, Microsoft AI citations tripled, Google generative AI impressions up 16%, and Perplexity and Gemini both expanding into far more pages of the site. The plan for next month continues the work that produced those results and pushes it into the relining and cost topics where the data says the next wins are sitting.
Refining titles, content depth, and internal linking across the service pages and guides already driving traffic, with attention to striking-distance items like "chimney relining options" (position 13, 189 impressions), "chimney liner" (position 11, 104 impressions), and "certified chimney inspection" (position 15, 103 impressions). The relining cluster is the clearest single opportunity on the page 2 list.
Publishing new pillar guides and supporting articles that expand the topics already ranking, with extra emphasis on the cost and evaluation questions where the AI answers currently mention the brand without linking to it: chimney repair cost, chimney relining cost, and what to look for when hiring a chimney company.