How to check where your business shows up in AI search, in ten minutes

You do not need software to find out whether AI assistants recommend your business. You need ten minutes, your phone or laptop, and a willingness to see an answer you might not like.

Step 1: Write your three questions

Write them the way a customer would say them out loud, not the way you would type a keyword.

• The best-of question. "Who is the best [your service] in [your town], [state]?"
• The hiring question. "Who should I hire for [a specific job you do] near [your town]?"
• The regional question. "[Your service] recommendations in [your region]."

Step 2: Ask three assistants

Ask each question in ChatGPT, in Google’s AI Mode, and in Perplexity. Use a private or logged-out window where you can, so your own history does not shape the answer. For each one, write down which businesses are named and in what order, and whether you are one of them.

Do not panic over one answer. Look at the pattern across nine. If you appear in most, you are in good shape. If you appear in none, that is useful too: the names that keep coming up are the businesses to learn from.

The list of who gets named instead of you is the most useful competitive research you will do this year.

Step 3: Look at why they were named

Open the websites of the two businesses that came up most. Look for a page about your town, case studies with town names, a reviews page, and a clear first paragraph saying what they do and where. Most of the time, you will spot the difference within a minute.

Step 4: Check five things on your own site

• Your homepage title. Visible in the browser tab. Does it name your service and your town, or just say "Home"?
• Your first paragraph. Could someone who read only that know what you do and where?
• Your schema. Paste your homepage into Google’s Rich Results Test. Is there a LocalBusiness type with your service area, or only WebPage?
• Your town pages. Is there a page for the town you are based in?
• Your proof. Is there any page that shows a specific job, in a specific town, in words?

Or let us run it for you

The free audit on this site does all of the above automatically. It asks an AI assistant the three questions for your business and town, reads your site the way a model does, measures it on a phone, and emails you the full report as a PDF. It takes about a minute.