Why assistants don't know about you yet
AI assistants get their knowledge in two broad ways. Some of it was learnt during training, from a very large collection of text gathered up to a certain date. Some assistants also search the web while answering. A new business is often missing from the first and thin in the second: there just isn't much written about you yet.
The same applies if you've recently renamed, moved premises or changed what you do. The assistant may still describe the old version of you, or nothing at all. That's not a penalty. It's a gap, and gaps can be filled.
The first five things to do
- Publish a clear website. Even a few pages: what you do, where, for whom, how to contact you, and your opening hours, all in text.
- Set up your Google Business Profile. Choose the right category, add your hours, services and photos, and make the details match your website exactly.
- Get listed where your customers look. Add the main directories and trade or professional bodies for your sector, using identical details.
- Collect your first reviews. Ask happy customers to say what you did and where. A handful of specific reviews is a real start.
- Record a starting point and re-check. Note what ChatGPT and Gemini say now, then ask the same questions again in a few weeks.
None of these are tricks. They're the same steps that help customers find and trust you, which is exactly why they help assistants too. Our guide on how AI assistants choose local businesses explains the thinking behind them.
See where you stand first. It's free.
We ask ChatGPT and Google's Gemini the kind of questions your customers ask, then email you whether you were named, roughly where, and who was suggested instead. A person reviews your check before we send it, usually within 2 working days.
Get my free checkWhat to avoid in the first months
- Changing your name or number again. Every change creates another set of details to clean up. Settle on one and stick with it.
- Buying reviews or swapping them. It breaks the review sites' rules and can get genuine reviews removed too.
- Paying for "guaranteed AI placement". Nobody outside the AI companies controls their normal answers.
- Only posting on social media. It's great for customers who already follow you, but assistants don't reliably read social posts. Put the facts on your website too.
Why a starting check helps
Our free check asks ChatGPT and Google's Gemini the kind of questions your customers ask and emails you what they said: whether you were named, who was suggested instead, and anything that looks wrong. For a new business, the "who was suggested instead" part is often the most useful. It shows you who you're up against in AI answers from day one. It doesn't cover Perplexity or other assistants.
Then, after a few weeks of the steps above, you can ask the same questions yourself, or use our question builder to keep a simple record.
Questions people ask
Why doesn't ChatGPT know my business exists?
An assistant answering from what it learnt in training only knows what was published before its training data was gathered. If you opened after that, it may simply have no information about you. Assistants that search the web can find newer information, but only if it exists and is clear.
Does Gemini behave differently from ChatGPT here?
They're built differently and can look things up differently, so they may not know about you at the same time. It's normal for one to mention a new business before the other. That's why our check asks both.
Is there a way to submit my business to ChatGPT?
Not as a listing service. There's no form that puts a business into an assistant's answers. Anyone selling that as a guaranteed service is overpromising. See our answer on whether you can pay to be recommended.
Is a free check useful if we've only just opened?
Yes, as a starting point. Knowing exactly what the assistants say on day one, even if that's nothing, gives you something to compare against later.
