When someone asks ChatGPT “who’s a good plumber near Greenville?” it doesn’t show ten links. It writes an answer and names a few businesses. If yours isn’t one of them, that customer may never see you.
The good news: you can check where you stand in about ten minutes, with no special tools.
Step 1: Ask the questions your customers ask
Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Google (look for the AI Overview at the top of the results). In each one, ask three kinds of questions:
- The service question: “Who’s a good [your service] near [your town]?”
- The problem question: “My [problem], who can fix it in [your town]?”
- The name question: “What do you know about [your business name] in [your town]?”
Write down which businesses get named, and whether yours is one of them.
Step 2: Check what it says about you
For the name question, read the answer closely. Is your phone number right? Your hours? Your services? Does it confuse you with another business that has a similar name?
AI tools build their answers from what they can find about you: your website, your Google Business Profile, review sites and directories. If any of those are wrong, the AI can repeat the mistake.
Step 3: Look for the source
Some tools show where an answer came from. If yours cites an old directory listing or a competitor’s site, that tells you exactly what to fix first.
Why businesses get left out
When we run these checks for local businesses, the same problems come up again and again:
- Listings that don’t match. An old phone number on Yelp, a different address on Facebook, a former business name on a directory.
- A vague website. The homepage says “quality service” but never clearly says what you do or which towns you serve.
- No answers. Customers ask about prices, hours and service areas, and the website doesn’t answer any of it.
- An incomplete Google Business Profile. Missing categories, services and photos.
What to do if you’re missing
Start with the basics: make your business name, address and phone number the same everywhere; fill out every field of your Google Business Profile; and add a clear FAQ to your website that answers the questions customers really ask. Those three fixes help with Google and AI search at the same time.
Want to know where your business stands? Request a free AI Visibility Check. We’ll ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google about your business and send you a one-page report within two business days.
