Does ChatGPT recommend your business? A 10-minute test and what to fix first

Somebody, somewhere, is typing "who's the best [your trade] near [your town]?" into an AI tool right now. Does your name come back?

More people are asking. Ofcom reports that ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same period a year earlier. About 30% of searches now show an AI overview, and 53% of adults say they often see them. In the US, BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 45% of consumers had used AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before. We couldn't find an equivalent UK figure, so treat that as a sign of the direction rather than a UK number.

The good news is that you can check where you stand in ten minutes without paying anybody.

The 10-minute test

Step 1: Write five questions a real customer would ask. Don't use your business name. For example:

• Who's the best [your service] in [your town]?
• I need [specific problem solved] near [area]. Who should I call?
• What are the most reliable [your trade] in [your county]?
• [Your service] for [your typical customer] in the UK: who's good?
• How do I choose a [your service]?

Step 2: Ask each one in three places. Try ChatGPT, Google (looking at any AI overview at the top) and one other tool, such as Gemini or Perplexity. Use a private browser window where you can, so your own history has less influence.

Step 3: Then ask about you directly. "What do you know about [your business] in [town]?" You're looking for mistakes. An old address, a service you dropped in 2019 or a wrong phone number are all well worth knowing about.

Step 4: Write it all down. A simple spreadsheet will do:

The "who did?" column is the gold. Those are the businesses to look at.

Don't read too much into a single test

AI answers change from one question to the next. They can vary with location and with how you phrase the question. So don't panic over a single miss or celebrate a single win. Repeat your test once a month with the same questions and look for a trend.

Be wary of anyone guaranteeing you a place in ChatGPT's answers. We know of no official rulebook from these companies explaining how local businesses get recommended. Good practice is based on what's been observed, not a published formula.

What to fix, in order

Most advice gives you a list and leaves you to it. Here's the order we'd tackle things in, starting with what's cheapest and most likely to matter.

1. Get your facts straight

AI tools can only repeat what they can find. Check that your name, address, phone number, services and opening hours are correct and consistent everywhere. Start with your Google Business Profile, as it's central to how you appear on Google. Then check Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and the directories relevant to your trade.

It's dull, it's free and it fixes the "AI says we're somewhere else" problem.

2. Say what you do, in plain words

Look at your website through the eyes of someone who's never heard of you. Can they tell within seconds what you do, for whom and where? "Delivering bespoke solutions" tells a machine nothing, and it doesn't tell a person much either. "Emergency boiler repairs across Stockport, usually within four hours" does the job, provided it's true.

Give each main service its own page, and make sure your location is clear. More location-specific copy was part of the website work behind White House Dental Surgery's 208% uplift in genuine enquiries in its first six months.

3. Answer the questions customers ask

Take the questions from your test, plus the ones your team hears every week, and answer them directly on your site. Cover prices if you can, how long things take and who you're not right for. Clear answers help people and they're easier for AI tools to use.

4. Build up your reviews

Ask every happy customer, and reply to what they say. In BrightLocal's US survey, 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 89% expect owners to respond, while 50% are put off by generic replies. So don't paste the same "Thanks for your review!" under every one.

5. Get mentioned elsewhere

AI tools draw on more than your own site. Local press, trade associations, supplier pages, awards and "best of" lists are all reasons to believe you exist and are good at what you do. Look at where your competitors from the "who did?" column get mentioned, and start there.

6. Then look at the technical side

Structured data (schema markup) and making sure AI crawlers can read your site are worthwhile, but they won't rescue a business with poor information and no reviews. That's why they come last. Do them when the rest is in decent shape.

What this looks like in practice

Finding and getting recommended by AI tools is part of the digital marketing work we do at Just Creative People, and it sits alongside the usual search work rather than replacing it. It helps when it's built on real substance. Beehive Legal, for instance, came to us as a startup. We built the brand from A to Z, then moved on to lead generation, paid campaigns, social content and a long-term digital marketing roadmap. All of that gives people, and machines, more to find and more reasons to trust what they find.

Your 10 minutes start now

Run the test today and fix one thing from step one this week. Then put a monthly reminder in your diary. Plenty of your competitors have never even looked, and that gives you a head start.