When homeowners ask Gemini 'what furnace brands should I buy' or 'best water heater for my home', our service company never appears—only big-box retailers. How do we get recommended?

You're competing in product recommendation queries where Gemini favors established retail brands and manufacturer sites over service providers. This is a positioning problem, not a visibility problem. Your brand needs to own the "where to buy" and "who installs" layer of those conversations.

Start by auditing what Gemini actually returns for 5–10 high-intent queries your customers use: 'best furnace for cold climate', 'energy-efficient water heater brands', 'HVAC system replacement cost'. Screenshot them. Notice whether Gemini recommends products, installers, or both. If it's only products, you're in the wrong conversation.

Shift your content strategy. Create comparison content that ranks for "furnace brands compared", "water heater buying guide", and "HVAC maintenance checklist"—but frame it around installation and local service, not just specifications. Use schema markup (LocalBusiness + Service + Product) to signal that your brand both sells and installs these systems. Link service pages to product guides so Gemini understands the relationship.

Test whether this works by re-running those queries in 2–3 weeks. You're looking for either a direct mention of your brand in the answer, or a citation of your buying guide content. If you still don't appear, your content may not be authoritative enough yet—that's a content depth problem, not a technical one.