Quick answer: Check what AI already says about you, complete your Google Business Profile, answer your customers’ questions plainly on your own site, make your business details identical everywhere, and earn a steady stream of recent reviews. None of it costs money. In one study of 1,851 local businesses, the ones AI named had a median of 444 Google reviews; those it passed over had 192.
Last updated: October 2026
Much of what is sold as AI visibility is, at bottom, housekeeping. Not all of it: earning your place in the articles and roundups that AI reads takes time and, often, help. But a surprising share of the gap between the businesses AI names and the businesses it ignores is closed by work that requires no budget, no developer and no agency. It requires only that someone actually do it.
The stakes justify an afternoon. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers found that 45% now use ChatGPT or similar tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before. And the bar is high: SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index, covering more than 350,000 locations across 2,751 brands, found that ChatGPT recommended just 1.2% of them.
More people ask AI. Few businesses get named.
Consumers using ChatGPT or similar tools for local recommendations
Local business locations ChatGPT recommended
Top: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US consumers. Source: BrightLocal. Bottom: SOCi 2026 Local Visibility Index, more than 350,000 locations across 2,751 brands. Source: SOCi, via National Law Review
1Run a prompt audit
Before fixing anything, find out what the machines already say. Open ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, and ask each the question a customer would ask: “Who’s a good [your service] in [your area]?” Then ask about you directly: “What do you know about [your business name]?”
Ask all four, because they disagree. When Zarla checked 1,851 local businesses in August 2026, ChatGPT confirmably named 35.6% of them and Google’s AI Mode 18.4%; only 9.8% were named by both. And ask more than once. Research cited by Metavert found that roughly 65% of the sources an AI engine cites for a query change from one day to the next.
Write down three things for each engine: whether you were named, whether what it said was accurate, and which page it cited. If it got you wrong, our guide Why Does ChatGPT Have Wrong Information About My Business? explains how to trace the error to its source.
2Complete your Google Business Profile
For local businesses, your Google Business Profile is less a listing than a source document, and AI quotes it. Zarla observed that the businesses AI assistants named arrived with their Google ratings and review counts attached to the answer.
AI also repeats your profile’s mistakes. In a September 2026 test of 600 small businesses, Herringbone found that 46 of the 59 businesses with no opening hours on their website had their Google profile set to “open 24 hours”, and the AI engines duly reported them as such. Fill in every field (category, hours, services, photos) and check that each one is true. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see our guide How Do I Get Gemini to Recommend My Business?
3Answer your customers' questions on your own site
AI fills silence with guesses. Herringbone’s most striking finding is the gap between businesses that state their details clearly and those that do not. Where a website was clear, ChatGPT answered accurately 89% of the time and Google’s AI Overviews 84%. Where it was vague or silent, accuracy fell to 73% and 63%, and Google stated invented specifics, without naming a source, 80% of the time.
The remedy is a page that answers the questions customers actually ask: what you offer, where, at what times, for whom, and at roughly what price. Put each question in plain words and answer it directly in the first sentence. You already know the questions. They are sitting in your inbox, your messages and your memory of every first phone call.
4Make your business details identical everywhere
To a machine, a discrepancy is a coin toss. Herringbone found businesses whose contact page, footer and structured data each gave different opening hours, leaving the AI to choose between them. It also found that phrases such as “available 24/7”, usually describing an answering service, were read as opening hours.
Names cause similar trouble. In Zarla’s study, 28.31% of businesses received a name-alike mention that could not be confirmed as theirs: a franchise branch, a near-identical name, a competitor across town. Use the same business name, address format, phone number and hours on your website, your Google profile, your social accounts and every directory that lists you.
5Earn reviews, and keep them recent
Reviews are the one signal on this list that customers and machines appear to weigh alike. In BrightLocal’s survey, 47% of consumers said they would not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% look for reviews written in the last three months. 32% look for reviews from the last two weeks, up from 20% a year earlier. Yext’s March 2026 survey of 1,120 US adults found that review signals made up five of the six biggest influences on what people buy.
The machines appear to agree. In Zarla’s study, the businesses AI named had a median of 444 Google reviews against 192 for those it passed over, while their star ratings were nearly identical. In a study of 804,491 AI responses carried out for Trustpilot, Seer Interactive found that brands with even one to thirteen reviews appeared alongside a Trustpilot citation in 53.5% of responses, against 1% for brands with no profile at all. Ask your last five satisfied customers for a review this week, and make asking a habit rather than a campaign.
The businesses AI names have more reviews
Median Google reviews of local businesses
AI responses citing a brand alongside Trustpilot
Top: median Google review counts of 1,851 local businesses checked against ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode, August 2026; star ratings were 4.9 (named) and 4.8 (not named). Source: Zarla. Bottom: median share of 804,491 AI responses on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity; study carried out by Seer Interactive on behalf of Trustpilot. Source: Seer Interactive
!What free won't do
These five steps fix what you control. They do not, by themselves, put you in the comparisons, roundups and review sites that AI reads before it recommends anyone. That work is slower and harder, and we cover it in Why Don’t Chatbots Recommend My Business? Nor do they help if AI cannot read your site in the first place. Our guide The Bouncer at the Door shows how to check in two minutes.
Start with the five. They are the foundation everything else rests on, and most of your competitors have not done them.
Want to know where you stand? Our free audit shows what ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity say about your business today, and what to fix first.
?Frequently asked questions
Can I improve my AI visibility without an agency?
Yes. Checking what AI says about you, completing your Google Business Profile, answering customer questions on your site, keeping your details consistent and earning recent reviews all cost nothing. Getting featured in the third-party articles AI reads is slower and often benefits from help.
How do I check what ChatGPT says about my business?
Ask it the questions your customers would ask, and ask it about your business by name. Repeat the check on Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, and over several days, because answers vary between engines and change from day to day.
Do reviews help my business show up in AI answers?
They appear to. In Zarla's study of 1,851 local businesses, those AI named had a median of 444 Google reviews against 192 for those it did not, with nearly identical ratings.
Does my Google Business Profile affect AI answers?
Yes, especially Google's. AI answers about local businesses often repeat profile details such as hours, ratings and review counts, including mistakes. In Herringbone's test, businesses whose profiles were wrongly set to "open 24 hours" were reported as open 24 hours.
How many reviews does a business need?
There is no official threshold for AI. Among consumers, BrightLocal found that 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and most look for reviews written in the last three months.
Sources
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (February 2026): https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
SOCi, 2026 Local Visibility Index, as reported in National Law Review (March 2026): https://natlawreview.com/press-releases/ai-search-recommends-only-12-local-businesses-rest-are-invisible
Zarla, AI Visibility Index (August 2026): https://www.zarla.com/guides/ai-visibility-index
Herringbone, Do ChatGPT & Google AI Get Your Business Details Right? (September 2026): https://herringbone.com/does-ai-get-your-business-details-right/
Yext, 2026 Consumer Search Behaviors Report: https://www.yext.com/resources/consumer-search-behaviors-findings
Seer Interactive, Study of 800K AI Responses (May 2026): https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/study-of-800k-ai-responses-how-reviews-shape-brand-presence-in-ai-search
Metavert, State of AI Search Citations: Q4 2026: https://metavert.io/state-of-ai-search-citations
