Google added a filter that can erase you from the results.
A chip labeled Online estimates started showing up at the top of local contractor searches, in some layouts above the ads and above the map pack. Tap it and the page narrows to businesses that show pricing or estimates online. Everyone else disappears. Not ranked lower. Gone.
Half of what you have read about this is wrong.
The version going around is that Google announced it will only rank companies whose websites give online estimates. That is not what happened, and the real version matters more, so here is the line between them.
A ranking drop is survivable.
Slide from three to seven and you are still on the page. Still in the pack if you were in it, still one scroll from the click. You lose some volume and you can see it happen in your reports, which means you can fix it.
A filter is binary.
Applied, you are not on the page. Twenty years in business, four hundred reviews, the number one pin: none of it is a tiebreaker, because there is no tie. You were excluded before the ranking was consulted, and nothing in any dashboard will tell you it happened.
I will build the site and the estimator for free. Three of them.
I am building an instant estimator for exterior cleaning work and I want it tested against three real pricing structures before I charge anybody for it. So: a full website with a working estimate tool on it, at no cost, for three pressure washing companies. No contract, no card, no catch I have not written down.
You own the domain and the content. What I want back is a call after a few weeks telling me what is clumsy about it, and permission to point at the results if it works. If it does not work, that is the more useful call.
Four things and a rough price list is genuinely the whole intake. If your pricing lives in your head rather than on paper, say so and we will get it out of your head on the call, which is usually the most valuable hour of the build anyway.
The filter is new. The reason to do this is not.
Every site we ship already carries an instant estimate, and it predates this filter by a long way. Solaris has one on its homepage, and homeowners get a price range in about twenty seconds. It was built because a number beats a contact form, not because Google added a chip.
That is the useful way to read this whole story. Google did not invent a new requirement. It put a button on top of a preference homeowners already had, which is that they want to know what it costs before they talk to a stranger. Companies that were already answering that question are about to get sorted into a shorter list. Everyone else is about to find out how long the list was.
Fair questions.
Did Google actually announce this?
No. There has been no formal announcement from Google. The filter was spotted in the wild by marketers and SEO professionals, first around late 2025, and has been written up by several contractor marketing firms through 2026. Anyone telling you Google made a statement is repeating a rumor. The filter itself is real and easy to see for yourself: search a trade plus your city and look at the chips above the results.
So does this change my rankings?
No, and be suspicious of anyone who says it does. Your position in the map pack and the organic results is unchanged. What changes is that a searcher can now apply a filter that removes every business without online estimate signals from the page. You do not drop from three to eight. You drop off entirely, for that searcher, in that moment. Nothing in your reports will label it.
How many people actually tap the filter?
Nobody knows, and any number you see quoted is invented. Google does not publish filter usage. What we do know is that Google put it above the ads and the map pack, which is the most valuable real estate on the page, and Google does not spend that space on features people ignore. Treat it as a signal about where local search is going, not as an emergency.
What is the catch on the free build?
Honest answer: I am building the estimator and I want three real pricing structures and three owners telling me what is wrong with it before I charge anyone for it. You get the site and the estimator at no cost with no contract, and you own the domain and the content. What I want back is a call after a few weeks and permission to reference the results if it works. If it does not work, I want to know that too.
- Footbridge Media, New Google Search Filter Could Hide Contractors Without Online Estimates, February 11, 2026.
- Demand IQ, Google's New Online Estimates Filter Is Deciding Which Contractors Show Up in Search.
- Roofle, Google Just Changed Roofing Search, which dates the first sightings to December 2025.
Google has published nothing on this filter as of the revision date in the title block below. Everything above is either directly observable in search results or labeled as observation. If Google documents an official requirement, this page gets updated rather than quietly left up.