Does ChatGPT Recommend Your Business? Check in 5 Minutes

Someone in Poznań needs a carpenter for a custom kitchen. They don't open Google. They open ChatGPT and type: "Which carpenters in Poznań make custom kitchens? Give me three." They get three names, a sentence explaining each, and a phone number. They call the first or the second one.

This isn't a forecast. It's already how a slice of your customers search — and that slice grows every month. The only question is whether your business shows up in that answer, or your competitor does.

Why This Changes the Rules

On Google, a customer gets ten links and picks one. Eighth place still earns clicks — someone scrolls, someone opens page two. An AI answer has no page two. There are three names, sometimes one. If you're not among them, the customer never learns you exist.

Google is moving the same way. More and more often it shows an AI-written answer above the list of links. The customer reads it and frequently stops searching right there — without clicking through to anyone's website.

The 5-Minute Test: What Does AI Say About Your Business?

You don't need an agency or a tool for this. A phone and five minutes will do. Run the test now — the result will tell you more than any audit.

Step 1: Ask the Way a Customer Would

Open chatgpt.com and ask a question without mentioning your company name. The point is to see whether the assistant brings you up on its own. Ask several versions — the way real customers phrase it, sometimes short, sometimes very specific.

• "Which [your service] in [city] would you recommend? Give me 3 companies and say why."
• "I'm looking for [your service] in [city] — who has good reviews?"
• "Who does [a specific, narrow service] around [neighbourhood or city]?"
• "What do you know about [your company name]?"
• "Does [your company name] do [service]? What are their hours and phone number?"

The first three questions check whether you're in the running at all. The last two check whether the assistant knows the truth about you.

Step 2: Repeat It in Perplexity

Go to perplexity.ai and ask exactly the same questions. Perplexity shows its sources — next to each claim you can see which page it came from. That's the most valuable part of the test: if the sources are a business directory, a competitor's profile or a local portal, and your own site isn't there, you know exactly where the gap is.

Step 3: Check What Google Answers

Finally, type the same question into Google and look above the list of links. If an AI summary appears there, read it carefully: that's the answer your customer gets before seeing anyone's website. Note whose names show up in it.

What You'll See and What It Means

The result almost always falls into one of three scenarios:

• You appear and the facts are right — you're in the game. Now the job is keeping it that way and re-checking every month.
• You don't appear at all — the assistant has nothing to name you from. This is the most common result for small businesses, and the most fixable.
• You appear, but with errors — an old phone number, a former address, services you don't offer, or prices pulled out of thin air.

The 4 Most Common Reasons AI Can't See You

1. Your Website Has No Structured Data

Structured data (schema.org) is a description of your business written into the page's code in a format a machine reads without guessing: name, address, phone, hours, list of services, service area. Without it, an assistant has to infer everything from prose — and if the prose is vague, it will simply pick a business it doesn't have to guess about.

2. Your Content Doesn't Answer Any Question

A page that says "professionalism, experience, an individual approach" gives an assistant nothing to quote. A page that says "We build custom kitchens in Poznań and the surrounding area. Quote within 48 hours, installation in 4–6 weeks, from PLN 12,000" gives it several usable sentences. The second one ends up in the answer.

3. Your Company Details Differ Depending on Where You Look

One phone number on your site, a different one in your Google listing, an old address in a trade directory, a name with "sp. z o.o." on Facebook and without it elsewhere. To a human that's trivia. To an assistant it's a signal that it can't be sure which business this is — and uncertain information gets left out.

4. You Have No Google Business Profile — or an Empty One

A Google Business Profile is one of the most reliable sources of data about local businesses, and AI models lean on it. A profile with no hours, no service list and no reviews is nearly as useless as no profile at all. It's also the fastest fix on this entire list — and it costs nothing.

Where to Start Today

• Run the test above and save the answers — in a month you'll have something to compare against.
• Fill your Google Business Profile in completely: hours, services, photos, description, service area.
• Make your name, address and phone number identical everywhere your business is listed — website, Google profile, directories, social media.
• Add concrete sentences to your website: what you do, where, in what timeframe, in what price range.
• Ask a few recent customers for a Google review. Reviews are the raw material an assistant uses to justify recommending you.