The AI Visibility Check

What this is for

Your customers are asking AI who to hire. In BrightLocal's February 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults, 45% said they had used ChatGPT or another AI tool for local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6% the year before. Even among adults over 60, 24% had done it.

Most owners have never looked at what those tools say. In a Squarespace survey of 1,041 owners, more than two-thirds had never checked, and 40% of the ones who did check found wrong information about their business. Only 13% of the small business owners Bluehost surveyed were actively working on how they show up in AI search.

This check takes about 20 minutes and gives you three answers:

• Whether AI tools recommend you when a customer asks for what you sell
• Whether the details they give about you are right
• Where those tools got their information, which tells you what to fix

There is no score at the end, on purpose. Every finding points to a specific fix.

Jump to: Tools · Step 1 · Step 2 · Step 3 · Step 4 · Worksheet · Reliable read

Before you start

Write down three things:

1. Your business name, exactly as it appears on your Google Business Profile
2. The two or three services customers most often call you for
3. Your two closest competitors, the ones you actually lose jobs to

Then open a private or incognito browser window. AI tools and search results shift based on your history, and you want to see what a stranger sees, not what a tool that knows you shows you.

Which tools to use

You need two: one AI chat assistant and Google.

Google Search AI is the one most local customers will see, because it appears when they search the normal way. An AI Overview doesn't show up for every search. If you don't see one, click the AI Mode tab.

If you use Claude and an answer comes back with no source links, add "Search the web and cite your sources" to the end of the prompt and run it again. If you have time for a third tool, Google's separate Gemini app is worth a pass too; different tools often recommend different businesses.

Step 1: Ask the way a customer asks

About 8 minutes. Run each prompt in your chat assistant and in Google. Replace the brackets with your details.

Prompt 1: The best in town

Who is the best [service] in [your city]?

Prompt 2: The urgent job

I need [a specific job, e.g. a water heater replaced] in [your city]
this week. Who should I call?

Prompt 3: The trusted name

What are the most trusted [service] companies near [your
neighborhood or zip code]?

Prompt 4: Your best customer

[Service] in [your city] that is good for [your best customer type,
e.g. older homes or small offices]

Then run Prompt 1 two more times in your chat assistant, in a new chat each time.

Three runs, because AI answers change from one run to the next. In a September 2026 test by Steady Demand, Gemini's web-searching answers named the same top local business on repeat searches only 5.1% of the time, while Google's regular map listings kept the same top business 83.3% of the time. That test measured Gemini through Google's developer tools, not the chat assistant you're using, and nobody has published a comparable figure for ChatGPT or Claude. So test it yourself. One answer is a snapshot. Three answers are a pattern.

For each prompt, write down: were you named, who was named instead, and did the answer link to anything?

Step 2: Ask about you by name

About 5 minutes. Run these in your chat assistant and in Google's AI Mode tab, since a search for a business name rarely triggers an AI Overview.

Prompt 5: What it knows

What can you tell me about [business name] in [city]?

Prompt 6: The basics

What are [business name]'s hours, phone number, and service area?

Prompt 7: The reputation

What do customers say about [business name]?

Prompt 8: Head to head

[Business name] or [competitor name]: which should I hire for
[service]?

Check every fact against reality: hours, phone, address, services, prices if they come up, the owner's name, how long you've been open. Note anything wrong, out of date, or missing.

Step 3: Find where the answers came from

About 4 minutes. Most AI answers show sources or links. List every one you see. They usually fall into five groups:

• Your Google Business Profile
• Review and directory sites: Yelp, Angi, Nextdoor, BBB, the directories for your trade
• Your own website
• "Best of" list articles from local media or blogs
• Forums like Reddit

This is the step that matters most, because AI tools mostly repeat what these sources say. BrightLocal analyzed about 1.97 million AI citations for local businesses across Google's AI Overviews, Google's AI Mode, and ChatGPT. Google Business Profile was the single biggest source, at 28.5% of all citations, and Yelp appeared in 80% of ChatGPT's answers about local businesses. For dentists, Google Business Profile was 57% of citations; for plumbers, 54%. Claude wasn't part of that study, but it reads the same public web, so the same listings are where to start.

Step 4: Read your findings

About 3 minutes. Every finding points to one fix.

What not to spend money on

You will see offers for "GEO" or "AI search optimization" packages. Before you buy one, read what Google itself says about the AI in its search results:

• Optimizing for its AI features "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."
• You don't need special AI files, markup, or an llms.txt file to appear there. Google Search ignores them.
• There is no special schema markup for AI search, and no need to chop your content into pieces for it.
• For local businesses, it points to Google Business Profile, and to Merchant Center if you sell products.

That guidance covers Google Search, not ChatGPT or Claude, but they read the same listings. The fixes that work are the plain ones: accurate listings, a clear website, steady real reviews, and replies a person wrote. That last one matters. In GatherUp's 2025 survey of more than 1,000 consumers, 70% said they trust a business less if they realize its review responses are AI-generated.

Keep it in perspective

AI is one input to a customer's decision, not the whole decision. Of the people in BrightLocal's July 2026 survey whose last local search started in an AI tool, 43% went back to Google for more information. And in BrightLocal's March 2026 survey, 97% of people who use AI for local recommendations at least sometimes check them against real reviews.

The work that helps you in AI answers is the same work that helps you everywhere else.

The worksheet

Print this page or the PDF, or copy the tables into a note.

Setup

Steps 1 and 2: Were you named?

The facts check

Step 3: Sources I saw

Step 4: My top three findings and the fix for each

Re-run date, 30 days out:

Getting a reliable read

• Run it three times. A single answer, good or bad, can be gone on the next run. Run Prompt 1 three times before you decide anything.
• Check as a stranger. Your own browser knows you own the business. Use the incognito window so you see the answer a customer gets, not the one a tool gives its owner.
• Fix the source, not the chatbot. Telling ChatGPT it got your hours wrong changes nothing for the next person who asks. Correct the listing or page the answer came from.
• Look again in 30 days. Directories refresh, competitors add photos, a new "best of" list gets published. Put the re-run date in your calendar.
• Do the free part first. Most of what this check finds is a listing to correct or a page to write. Do those, then decide whether anything is left that needs paying for.

What this check does not tell you

This check covers whether a customer finds you. It says nothing about what happens after they call: who picks up, how long the quote takes, whether the invoice goes out the same week. For most owners of a business with a handful of employees, that is where the week actually goes, and no listing fix touches it.

If this made you curious about the rest of the business, Where the Week Actually Goes is the same kind of exercise turned inward: one week of notes on where work sits waiting for you.

The 2-minute version

Open an incognito window. Ask ChatGPT or Claude, and Google, "Who is the best [service] in [your city]?" Ask the chat assistant two more times in new chats. Then ask both what they know about your business by name, and check every fact. Look at the sources each answer links to, and fix the wrong detail where it lives, starting with your Google Business Profile. Run it again in 30 days.

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More where this came from. The resource library has 24 free guides like this one, written for people with real careers rather than developers.

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