How to Show Up in ChatGPT as a Local Business

By Alan, CTO at Othex Corp 5 min read

Your work is good. Your reviews are fine. But fewer new people seem to find you, and you can’t say why.

Here is one reason it might be happening. People don’t only search Google anymore. They ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers or Perplexity something like “who’s a good dentist near me that speaks Spanish?” and get back a short list of names. If your business isn’t on that list, the customer never hears your name, and you may not know it happened.

This guide explains what AI tools read about a local business, and what you can check and fix yourself.

Do People Really Use AI to Find Local Businesses?

In a 2026 survey by SOCi, a company that sells local marketing software, 52% of consumers said they had used AI to find a local business in the past 30 days. Many of them also said the AI had some details wrong.

Google search is changing too. Google says AI Mode, its search that answers with AI, has more than 1 billion monthly users. And in SparkToro’s data for January to April 2026, about 68% of Google searches ended without a click to any website.

Put simply: the answer comes before the click. If the answer is right there on the screen, what matters is whether it names you. That is the problem our AI search visibility service works on.

Where Does ChatGPT Get Its Answers About Your Business?

AI tools pull their answers from your website, your business listings (like your Google listing), reviews and other sites.

That means the work starts with things you already control or can claim: your website and your listings. Usually that means stating your facts more clearly, answering the questions customers ask and making your listings agree. Small details count: an AI answer with your old hours or phone number points people to the wrong place.

Is this the same as SEO (search engine optimization, the work of ranking higher in Google’s list of links)? There is some overlap, but the goal isn’t a higher spot in a list of links. It is about what the AI tools read and say about you.

How to Show Up in ChatGPT: What You Can Fix

Nobody can promise you a spot in an AI answer. What you can do is make your business easy for these tools to understand and describe correctly.

Put clear facts on your website. Your services, the towns you serve, your hours, your phone number and the languages you speak should be easy to find, in plain words, on your site.

Make your details match everywhere. Your hours and phone number should be the same on your website and across your business listings. If your Google listing is wrong or missing, start there. Our Google listing fix page explains how.

Answer common questions in your customers’ words. Add a short questions-and-answers section to your site. Use the words customers really use when they call. If your customers ask in Spanish or Russian, consider adding answers in those languages too.

Put business details in a format search tools can read. Your web person can add your name, address, hours and services to your site in a standard format that search tools understand, out of sight of visitors.

Make sure AI tools are allowed to read your site. A setting or file on your website can tell AI tools not to read it. Ask your web person to check.

Nobody controls what AI tools say. Anyone who guarantees you a spot in ChatGPT is guessing. The tools decide their own answers, and those answers change.

AI answers can also vary from one check to the next, even when you ask the same question. Changes to your website or listings can take a while to show up, and some errors may stick around. Being named more often isn’t guaranteed.

That is why it helps to ask the same questions every month and keep a record. You can’t control the answer, but you can see how it changes over time and spot wrong facts and work on correcting them.

And if an AI answer does send someone your way, they may call you. Make sure someone answers. Our page on no more missed calls shows how to cover the calls you can’t take.

AI Search Checklist for This Week

Try this yourself. It needs only a phone or computer:

  • Write down five questions a new customer might ask, in their words. For example, “best AC repair near me” or “family lawyer in my town who speaks Spanish.”
  • Ask each question in ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers (AI Overviews and AI Mode) and Perplexity.
  • For each answer, note: Were you named? Who was named instead? Did it get any facts about you wrong?
  • Save the answers with the date, so you can compare next month.
  • Check that your hours and phone number match on your website and every listing you control.
  • Add or update a questions-and-answers section on your website.
  • Ask your web person whether anything on your site blocks AI tools from reading it.

Get a Free 5-Question ChatGPT Test

Don’t have time to run the questions yourself? Ask for a free 5-question ChatGPT test. We ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers and Perplexity five questions your customers might ask. The plain summary you get back shows whether your business came up, which names came up instead and what the answers got wrong. It costs nothing, and there is nothing to buy.

To see how the monthly checks, fixes and plain reports work, read more about showing up in ChatGPT and Google AI answers. Something else on your mind? Pick a free check.

Call 866-310-6011 Get a free check