How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business (free, 10 minutes)

Lucas Krawczak — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 20:20:48 +0000

Short answer: ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude a buyer-intent question like "best [your service] in [your city]", then ask each one directly what it knows about your business. Note whether you're named, whether your own site is cited, and which competitors show up instead. If you're missing, it's almost always because AI engines can't confirm who you are or find anything quotable about you — which is fixable.

The test

Run each of these and write down what happens. It takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.

1. ChatGPT

Who are the best [your service] in [your city]? List specific companies, then tell me what you know about [Your Business Name].

Look for: Are you named in the list? If you ask directly, does it describe you accurately — or confuse you with a different company, or say it has no information?

2. Perplexity

Best [your service] in [your city] — who should I contact?

Look for: Perplexity cites its sources inline. Check whether your own domain appears as a citation, and which competitor or directory pages it pulled from instead.

3. Google AI Overviews

Search Google for: best [your service] in [your city]

Look for: If an AI Overview appears at the top, see whether your business is mentioned and which sites are cited as sources. No mention means the engine didn't consider you a confident answer.

4. Claude

I'm looking for [your service] in [your city]. Who would you suggest, and what do you know about [Your Business Name]?

Look for: With web search on, Claude will cite pages. Note whether it can confirm who you are from your own site, or only from third-party mentions.

For each engine, record four things: are you named, is your own site cited, which competitors appear, and which sources the engine trusted. That table is your starting scorecard.

Why you might be invisible

No clear entity. AI engines need to confirm which business you are. Without Organization structured data and links to authoritative records (your government registry, LinkedIn), they can't tell you apart from same-named businesses — so they stay silent.
Nothing extractable to quote. LLMs lift short, self-contained answer sentences. If your pages open with a slogan instead of a plain answer to the buyer's question, there's nothing safe to quote.
No citable proof. Vague claims ("fast", "trusted") don't get repeated. Specific, dated, verifiable facts do — and competitors who have them get cited instead.
No third-party footprint. Engines corroborate. If no directories, profiles, or independent pages mention you, a single website is thin evidence.

FAQ

How do I check if ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask ChatGPT a buyer-intent question like "best [your service] in [your city]" and see whether you're named, then ask it directly what it knows about your business. Repeat the buyer query in Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude and note whether you're named, whether your own site is cited, and which competitors appear instead.

Why doesn't ChatGPT know my business exists?
Usually one of four reasons: no Organization structured data linking you to authoritative records; no short extractable answer to quote; no citable, dated proof; or little third-party mention to corroborate. Fixing these is what answer-engine optimization (AEO) does.

Is being in ChatGPT different from ranking on Google?
Yes. Classic SEO optimizes for ranking in blue links. Answer-engine optimization (AEO) optimizes for being named and cited inside AI answers, which increasingly sit above the links and answer the question directly.

Written by Advance Labs Inc., a Canadian software studio in London, Ontario. We run fixed-price AI-visibility audits — the 51-rule check plus live AI-answer tests, with a prioritized fix list.

DEV Community: Lucas Krawczak