A customer who used to type "best accountant in La Jolla" into Google might now ask ChatGPT the same thing. The answer is a short list of names, not ten blue links. If you're not on that list, you don't get a second look.
Check for yourself in ten minutes
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI results. Ask each one the questions your buyers would ask:
- "Who's the best [what you do] in [your city]?"
- "Recommend a [what you do] near [your neighborhood] that [does the thing you're known for]."
- "Is [your business name] any good?"
Write down who shows up, what each tool says about you, and where it says it got the information. Run the same questions again in a week. The answers move around, so one check isn't enough.
Where the AI tools get their picks
Nobody outside these companies knows the exact recipe, and the tools aren't consistent about their own sources. What we can see is that they lean on the same signals a careful person would: reviews, listings, and what your own site says.
One useful clue: research from Whitespark looked at Bing Places results across 17 business types in 9 US cities. Facebook was the most common review source, followed by Yelp, with TripAdvisor, Porch, Yellowpages and Angi showing up in their niches. If your reviews live only on Google, AI tools may be missing most of your reputation.
What to fix
- Get your listings right outside Google. Claim Bing Places and Apple Business Connect. Make sure Facebook and Yelp have your current name, hours and phone.
- Spread your reviews around. Keep asking for Google reviews, but send some customers to Facebook or the review site that matters in your trade.
- Say what you do in plain words on your site. AI tools quote pages that answer questions directly. A real FAQ in plain HTML, not hidden in a widget, helps.
- Add schema. Structured data tells machines your business name, location, services and hours without guessing.
- Let the crawlers in. Some sites block AI crawlers without knowing it. Check your robots.txt for GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot.
- Consider an llms.txt file. It's a plain summary of your business for AI systems. It's cheap to add.
Want the full picture?
Our AI search visibility audit runs 10 buyer questions across 4 AI engines and sends a 6-page report in 72 hours, with a fix list. It's $197. Or start with the checklist above and see what you find.