The situation

Crockett Heating & Air is an established Wichita HVAC company. Same-day AC and furnace repair, a strong local reputation, and a business that lives on being found the moment something breaks.

In mid-July 2026 the calls dried up. No penalty notice. No outage. Active users fell 42.58% and new users fell 42.95% in four weeks.

"The phone just simply stopped ringing."Crockett Heating & Air, on the July drop

The diagnosis

More and more "furnace repair near me" searches now run through AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. These read a site differently than a person does.

The GetEEAT scan showed a site that looked fine to people and was easy for AI to skip:

  • Broken title tag.Hardcoded by the theme and the wrong length.
  • Images with no alt text.Nothing for a machine to read.
  • No llms.txt.No plain index telling AI what the business is and does.
  • Weak security signals.Missing headers that erode trust.

To be straight about it: the timing plus the failing scan is the diagnosis. It is not a lab-proven single cause. What is proven is the fix and the recovery that followed.

The fix

We fixed the live site in place with one plugin. No rebuild, no theme surgery, no downtime.

  • July 14, 2026
    The low point. New visitors down about 43%.
  • Diagnose
    Full GetEEAT scan. AI readiness, domain security and web exposure, every failing signal listed.
  • Late July
    Fixes deployed. Title corrected, alt text on every image, a clean llms.txt, security headers. Traffic started climbing within the week.
  • August 6, 2026
    Verified. A+ on all three scans. AI readiness 11 of 11.

The recovery

New visitors did not just level off. They climbed past where they were before the drop.

613new users (+462.4%)
621active users (+444.7%)
3.0Kevents (+368.4%)
Red: last 30 days. Dashed: previous period.Black square: the fix

The chart shows the shape of the client's Google Analytics trend. The percentages are the exact Google Analytics figures.

The proof

Scan grades for crocketthvac.com on August 6, 2026:

AI readinessA+100 of 100. 11 of 11 checks.
Domain securityA+97 of 100.
Web exposureA+100 of 100.

Today's stricter scan

In October 2026 we added two stricter email checks: DKIM key strength and BIMI. A scan today grades Crockett's domain security A-. DMARC is at reject, SPF is locked down and they are on no blacklists. Closing those two new items puts it back at A+.

Run crocketthvac.com through the free scan and check every number yourself.

Why it worked

  • Fixed in place.One plugin. The business kept running.
  • Written for AI readers.Title, alt text, structured data and llms.txt give ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity a clean read of who Crockett is.
  • Trust restored.HTTPS, security headers and locked-down email. The signals both AI and buyers weigh.
  • Measured.Their analytics, our scan, your own re-check.

Is your phone quieter than it should be?

Get the same scan Crockett got. Free, about 10 seconds.

Scan my domainCall 316-712-4006

By Steve Fortine, founder of Click Techs, Inc., Wichita, Kansas. Published August 8, 2026. Updated October 10, 2026.