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Quick answer
Ask the AI assistants the exact questions a customer would, such as best roofer near Rutland, and write down who gets named and which pages they cite. Then check that your site lets their search crawlers in and that your business details are clear and consistent.
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At a glance
All outcome figures are estimates from cited sources, not independent verification by us.
- What it is allowed to do
- Read-only
Only reads, researches, or summarizes. It never drafts outbound content or changes anything.
- Time saved (estimate)
- About 40 minutes for the first check, 15 minutes monthly.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Tools needed
- ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity
- Typical cost
- Free tiers can run the checks. Prices: Not stated in sources.
Reviewed Nov 2, 2026
Basis (estimate): Estimate only: based on the steps above, not timed.
What does this setup do?
Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, record who they recommend and which pages they cite, then fix what keeps you out of the answers.
Who is it for?
Local and small businesses wondering whether AI assistants mention them when customers ask for a recommendation.
How do you set it up?
Tools
- ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity
- A simple sheet to record results
- Access to your website's robots.txt
Steps
- Write 5 questions a real customer would ask, with your town, like who is the best plumber in Rutland VT.
- Ask each assistant every question in a fresh chat with search turned on. Record who is named, in what order, and the pages cited.
- Check your site allows the search crawlers you want. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is used for ChatGPT search results and is set separately from GPTBot, its training crawler.
- Compare your pages with the pages that got cited: do they state services, area, hours and prices plainly?
- Make your business details clear and consistent. Google documents LocalBusiness structured data with name and address required.
- Re-run the same 5 questions monthly and compare.
Example output
Illustrative. Your results will differ.
- Q: best plumber in Rutland VT
- ChatGPT: named 3 businesses, not us; cited Google Business Profiles and 1 local news page
- Fix 1: our services page does not say Rutland
- Fix 2: robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot
Where to paste this prompt
ChatGPT → Project instructions, or ChatGPT Tasks for scheduled reminders (once a day on Free)
Copy-paste prompt
Adapt bracketed fields to your situation.
I want to see whether AI assistants recommend my business. Help me plan the check.
Business: [NAME], [SERVICE], [TOWN, STATE]
Website: [URL]
Competitors I know: [NAMES]
Give me:
1. Five questions a real customer would type, using my town.
2. A simple table to record, per assistant and question: who was named, in what order, and which pages were cited.
3. After I paste my results: the three most likely reasons I was missing, based only on what I pasted, and one fix for each.
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What usually goes wrong?
Where agents tend to stall on this job. More patterns in Where AI gets stuck.
- Asking with your business name in the question, which proves nothing.
- Blocking a search crawler in robots.txt by accident.
- Changing many things at once, so you cannot tell what helped.
Which chat tools work with this prompt?
Paste the prompt into any of these assistants (free or paid tiers).
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Perplexity
Common questions
- Does ChatGPT recommend local businesses?
- With search on, it can name businesses and cite pages. Ask it the questions your customers ask and record what it says.
- How do I get ChatGPT to mention my business?
- There is no guaranteed method. Let its search crawler in, state your services and area plainly, and keep business details consistent.
- How often should I check?
- Monthly is enough. Use the same questions so you can compare.
What tips make it smoother?
- Use fresh chats so earlier conversations do not steer the answer.
- Record the cited pages; they show what kind of page the assistants trust.
- Run it from a phone too; answers can differ by device and location.
Where do the claims come from?
Summaries use public sources linked below, not independent verification. How setups are picked.
- Read OpenAI’s write-up (developers.openai.com)
OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search results, GPTBot for training, ChatGPT-User for user actions, set independently (read 2026-10-31 through a page fetch tool, not a direct browser open)
- Read Google’s write-up (developers.google.com)
Google: LocalBusiness structured data: name and address required, recommended properties, JSON-LD (read 2026-10-31 through a page fetch tool, not a direct browser open)
Related setups
- Make your website readable by AI
Check which AI crawlers your site allows, add an llms.txt file, and make sure your key pages read as plain text, then re-check with the free AI-ready check.
- Add business schema to your site
Write LocalBusiness JSON-LD from your real name, address and hours, add it to your site, and test it with Google's Rich Results Test.
- Optimize your Google Business Profile to show up locally
Work through a one-time optimization pass on your free Google listing so it is complete, accurate, and review-active, with the AI drafting the description and review replies.