You can find out whether ChatGPT and Google’s AI recommend your business in about 30 minutes, with a notepad. Ask them the questions your customers ask, in a chat that knows nothing about you, three times each, and write down who they name and what they say about you. The record you end up with shows where you stand and which sources to fix.
Most owners check once, by asking “Is Smith Plumbing any good?” That tells you little. A customer doesn’t know your name yet. They ask for a plumber.
Step 1: write the questions your customers ask
Write ten questions in your customers’ words, with your town in each one. Three kinds cover most of what homeowners ask:
- Who to call: “Who’s the best roofer in Mesa, Arizona?”, “Who can fix a leaking roof in Mesa today?”, “Top rated roofing companies near Mesa”
- What it costs: “How much does a roof replacement cost in Mesa?”, “Is it worth repairing a 20-year-old roof or replacing it?”
- How to choose: “What should I ask a roofer before I hire them?”, “Does a roofer in Arizona need a license?”
Price belongs on the list. Assistants sometimes name local businesses in a price answer, so it’s a second chance to be mentioned.
Name the town every time. Without it, the assistant guesses your location, and the guess may not be where your customers live.
Step 2: ask in a clean chat, in four places
An assistant that has talked with you before can lean on what it remembers, and so can one signed in to your account. Ask the way a stranger would:
| Assistant | How to ask cleanly |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Start a Temporary Chat, which doesn’t use or save memories, or use a browser window where you’re signed out |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Search in a private browser window; the AI Overview appears above the results for many questions, and the AI Mode tab gives the conversational version |
| Gemini | A private window, signed out if it lets you; otherwise turn off Gemini Apps Activity first |
| Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot | A private window, signed out |
Four assistants is enough to see a pattern. ChatGPT and Google matter most because the most people use them, but they read different sources, so a business can do well in one and be missing from the other.
Step 3: ask each question three times
The answers change from one run to the next. In BrightLocal’s study of local AI search, asking the same question again returned a list that overlapped only 20 to 33% with the first (BrightLocal). One run can make you look better or worse than you are.
Start a fresh chat for each run, so the earlier answer doesn’t steer the next one. Ten questions, four assistants and three runs comes to 120 answers. Doing the who-to-call questions in every assistant first and the rest only in ChatGPT and Google cuts that down if time is short.
Step 4: write down who gets named
Keep a simple table as you go:
| Question | Assistant | Run | Named you? | Who else was named | Sources it showed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best roofer in Mesa | ChatGPT | 1 | No | Competitor A, Competitor B | Yelp, Competitor A’s website |
| Best roofer in Mesa | ChatGPT | 2 | Yes, 3rd of 5 | Competitor A, Competitor C | Yelp, BBB |
At the end, count the runs that named you out of all the runs, for each assistant. “Named in 4 of 30 ChatGPT answers” is a number you can track. Note the competitors who keep coming up; they’re getting something right that the assistants can see.
Step 5: ask what it knows about you
Now use your name. Ask each assistant:
- “What do you know about [your business name] in [town]?”
- “What are [your business name]’s hours and phone number?”
- “What services does [your business name] offer, and which towns do they cover?”
Check every fact against reality: phone number, hours, service area, services, years in business, license. A wrong answer nearly always comes from somewhere, such as an old directory listing with a previous phone number, or a Facebook page with hours from three years ago. If the assistant shows its sources, the culprit is usually in the list.
Step 6: look at the sources
ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode and Perplexity can show the pages behind an answer. Look at the ones behind your competitors’ mentions. If the same sites keep appearing, such as Yelp, the BBB, Angi or a competitor’s own service pages, those are the places the assistants read for your trade and town, and they’re your to-do list.
What the results mean
- Named in most runs, facts right: keep your listings and website current, and recheck every month or two.
- Named sometimes: the assistants know you but don’t trust the picture. Fill gaps in the sources they cite, and make your details match everywhere.
- Never named: first check that the assistants can read your website at all. Some sites block ChatGPT without the owner knowing (Is your website blocking ChatGPT?). Then work through the sources in How to show up in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews.
- Named with wrong facts: fix the facts at the source the assistant cited. Correcting the assistant in a chat doesn’t change what it tells the next person.
What a check like this can’t tell you
It’s a sample: one town, one day, the questions you thought of. Results vary by the asker’s location, and the assistants change how they answer often. Run the same questions again in a month and compare the counts; the trend tells you more than any single check.
Frequently asked questions
Why does ChatGPT give a different answer every time I ask?
Assistants build each answer fresh, from searches they run at that moment, and the wording varies by design. In BrightLocal's study, repeating a local question returned a list that overlapped only 20 to 33% with the first. That's why each question should be asked several times.
Can I tell ChatGPT to recommend my business?
Not in a way that reaches other people. Corrections in your own chat don't change the answers strangers get. What changes them is what your website, listings and reviews say.
How often should I check?
Every month or two, with the same questions, so the counts are comparable. Check again a few weeks after any big fix, such as unblocking a crawler or correcting your listings.
