How Can I Check Whether ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity Recommend My Business?
Quick answer: Ask a customer question with your town included and your business name left out. Start a fresh conversation, request web search where available, and save the answer and any search activity shown. Record mentions, recommendations and source links separately, then repeat with the same conditions to compare.
Typing your business name into ChatGPT tells you what it says about you. It does not tell you whether a stranger looking for your service would hear about you.
A useful check copies what a customer does: they describe a need and a place. This guide gives you the questions, the steps, and a record sheet so your checks can be repeated and compared.
Which questions should you ask?
Use questions that describe a need, not your business. Replace [service] with the work you most want to be found for and [town, state] with a place you actually serve.
- Who is a good [service] provider in [town, state]?
- Who should I call for [service] in [town, state]?
- Which [service] businesses in [town, state] have strong reviews?
- I need [service] this week in [town, state]. Who would you recommend?
- What are my options for [service] near [neighborhood or landmark] in [town, state]?
Two filled-in versions:
- Dental: Who is a good family dentist in [town, state] for a first cleaning and exam?
- Plumbing: Who should I call to replace a water heater in [town, state]?
Write the town into the question. "Near me" lets the assistant guess your location, and that guess can change with your network or device. Save the exact wording so you can reuse it word for word.
How to run a manual check, step by step
Pick one service and one town. Then, in each assistant:
- Start a fresh conversation. Earlier messages in the same conversation can shape the answer. In ChatGPT, a Temporary Chat set to Unpersonalized does not use memory or custom instructions, according to OpenAI's Temporary Chat help page. A new regular conversation may still use saved memory.
- Turn on web search where the product offers it. ChatGPT may search automatically, and you can also choose Search from its tools. OpenAI explains both options. Perplexity searches the web and includes numbered citations, according to its help center. In any product, note whether sources were shown. Selecting Search requests it; a sources list alone is not proof of execution. Save any search activity the product shows. If you cannot confirm whether search ran, mark it unknown.
- Check in the Gemini app. At gemini.google.com, start a new chat and submit the same question with your town included. Open Sources when available and save the linked pages; Google notes that some responses have no Sources button.
- Record your settings. Write down the product, whether you were signed in, the device, and roughly where you were. OpenAI says ChatGPT may use an approximate location from your IP address, and a VPN can change it.
- Paste the question exactly and send it. Do not add follow-up questions before you record the first answer.
- Save the answer and its sources. Take a screenshot and copy the source links. Answers are hard to reconstruct later.
- Open the sources. Check whether each source supports what the answer says about each business, including yours. OpenAI's own help page warns that search results and citations "can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect."
A tracking sheet you can copy
Make one row per question, per product, per date. These are the columns, with a filled-in example.
Download the tracking sheet (CSV). The download includes the fictional example below; replace it with your own observations.
Fictional example. Not a customer result.
- Column
- Date
- What to write
- The day the check ran
- Example
- September 2, 2026
- Column
- Product
- What to write
- Which assistant, app or web, signed in or not
- Example
- ChatGPT, web, signed out
- Column
- Question
- What to write
- Exact wording, including location
- Example
- Who should I call to replace a water heater in Ridgeford, Colorado?
- Column
- Search evidence
- What to write
- Confirmed search, confirmed no search, or unknown; save the evidence
- Example
- Unknown: sources shown, but no search activity saved
- Column
- Named?
- What to write
- Was your business mentioned at all?
- Example
- No
- Column
- Recommended?
- What to write
- Was it presented as an option for the need?
- Example
- No
- Column
- Website cited?
- What to write
- Did any source link go to your own site?
- Example
- No
- Column
- Sources
- What to write
- The links shown, in order
- Example
- Two directory listings and one competitor's service page
- Column
- Accuracy notes
- What to write
- Anything wrong about you or the others
- Example
- One directory still lists an old phone number for Ridgeford Home Services Demo
- Column
- Completion
- What to write
- Completed, unavailable, or not run
- Example
- Completed; search execution unknown
| Column | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The day the check ran | September 2, 2026 |
| Product | Which assistant, app or web, signed in or not | ChatGPT, web, signed out |
| Question | Exact wording, including location | Who should I call to replace a water heater in Ridgeford, Colorado? |
| Search evidence | Confirmed search, confirmed no search, or unknown; save the evidence | Unknown: sources shown, but no search activity saved |
| Named? | Was your business mentioned at all? | No |
| Recommended? | Was it presented as an option for the need? | No |
| Website cited? | Did any source link go to your own site? | No |
| Sources | The links shown, in order | Two directory listings and one competitor's service page |
| Accuracy notes | Anything wrong about you or the others | One directory still lists an old phone number for Ridgeford Home Services Demo |
| Completion | Completed, unavailable, or not run | Completed; search execution unknown |
Keep observations and interpretations in separate places. "Not named" is an observation. "Not named because our water heater page is thin" is a guess until you have more evidence.
Mentioned, recommended, cited or visited: what is the difference?
These are four separate observations. Record each one rather than combining them into a score.
- Result
- Mentioned
- What it means
- The answer names your business, even in a negative or incidental reference.
- Where you see it
- In the answer text
- Result
- Recommended
- What it means
- The answer offers your business as an option for the stated customer need. Save the wording.
- Where you see it
- In the answer text
- Result
- Cited
- What it means
- The answer links to a page, yours or someone else's, as a source.
- Where you see it
- In the source links or citations
- Result
- Website visit
- What it means
- A person clicked through to your site.
- Where you see it
- Only in your own website analytics, if it is recorded
| Result | What it means | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Mentioned | The answer names your business, even in a negative or incidental reference. | In the answer text |
| Recommended | The answer offers your business as an option for the stated customer need. Save the wording. | In the answer text |
| Cited | The answer links to a page, yours or someone else's, as a source. | In the source links or citations |
| Website visit | A person clicked through to your site. | Only in your own website analytics, if it is recorded |
An answer can name you while citing only a directory. It can cite your site for a fact without recommending you. And neither one shows that anyone visited, called, or booked. If you want to know whether AI tools send you customers, that needs its own evidence from analytics and intake.
Why your app can differ from a recorded check
What you see in the ChatGPT app depends on your account, memory, device, and location. A recorded check made through a developer interface is set up differently. OpenAI's web search tool for developers returns answers with source citations and lets the developer supply an approximate location. OpenAI web search tool documentation. Google's Gemini API offers a similar option called Grounding with Google Search, which connects the model to current web content. Enabling a search tool is not proof that it ran for a particular answer. Check the returned execution evidence.
Both kinds of check are useful, but they are not interchangeable. A recorded check is easier to repeat under the same conditions. Your own app check shows one real experience, shaped by your account. Neither is the answer every customer sees.
To see how a recorded report can lay this out, look at our fictional plumbing sample report. Its businesses and results are example data, not a real check.
If another business appears, compare the evidence
Choose one business the answer actually recommends. Open the visible sources for it and your own business. Record a useful difference without pretending it explains the selection.
- Compare
- Service and place
- What to record
- Does the source actually say the business does this job in this town?
- Compare
- Current facts
- What to record
- Check hours, contact details and availability against current business information.
- Compare
- Source support
- What to record
- Save the page URL and the passage supporting the answer. Mark missing or inaccessible evidence unknown.
- Compare
- Your next action
- What to record
- Correct a verified error or answer a useful customer question. If no gap is confirmed, record that.
| Compare | What to record |
|---|---|
| Service and place | Does the source actually say the business does this job in this town? |
| Current facts | Check hours, contact details and availability against current business information. |
| Source support | Save the page URL and the passage supporting the answer. Mark missing or inaccessible evidence unknown. |
| Your next action | Correct a verified error or answer a useful customer question. If no gap is confirmed, record that. |
A competitor appearing first does not establish a stable ranking or reveal the cause. Different review counts, page lengths or citations are observations, not proof of what made the assistant choose.
What to do with what you find
- Something is wrong about you: check the cited page first. Correct your website or profile only if its information is wrong. If the source is correct or no source is shown, save the answer and use the product’s feedback option.
- Another business was named instead: use the comparison above. Treat the reason for selection as unknown unless you have evidence.
- Results change between checks: save both answers and compare the exact questions, dates, products and settings. Do not assume a website edit caused the difference.
- You were left out and nothing looks wrong: work through the five checks in Why Doesn't ChatGPT Recommend My Local Business?.
One check is a snapshot, not a verdict. Keep a completed answer with no confirmed search separate from a failed or unavailable check. Do not count unavailable or unrun checks as missing recommendations. Compare only checks that match the question and conditions you intended to test.
Sources
Common questions
Get a dated, recorded answer
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