Guides · October 17, 2026 · Matthew Merrick

Questions to ask ChatGPT about your local business

Before you change the website, ask the assistants the questions a customer would ask. The useful part is not a score. It is the list of businesses they name and the links they show.

Do this in a private or logged-out window so your own history is less likely to steer the answer. Ask once, write it down, and ask again on another day. BrightLocal’s September 2026 study of about 200,000 local prompts found that repeating a prompt often returns a different short list. Overlap was about 23 percent on ChatGPT, 21 percent on Google AI Mode, and 33 percent on AI Overviews. One answer is a sample, not a verdict.

Ten questions

Replace the brackets with your trade and your town. Keep a question only if a real customer might ask it.

Who is a good [trade] in [town]?
Which [trade] near [neighborhood] can take a job this week?
Who do people recommend for [specific job] in [town]?
What are the hours for [your business name]?
What is the phone number for [your business name]?
Does [your business name] serve [nearby town]?
Is [your business name] open on Saturday?
What services does [your business name] list?
Which [trade] businesses in [town] have reviews that mention [specific job]?
Where did this answer get that information?

Ask the first three, and question 10, in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. Also type the first one into Google and note whether an AI Overview appears and who it names. Question 10 matters because some answers hide the sources unless you ask.

What to write in the notes

The date and the tool
The exact question
Whether your business was named
Whether the phone, hours, and towns were right
Every business that was named
Every link, listing, or directory the answer used

A wrong phone number is a fix on the listing that was cited, and on your site if the site is wrong too. A competitor named for a job you do is a sign that their page, profile, or reviews describe that job in text. Put the same kind of plain sentence on your site, using your real service area. Do not copy their claims.

How to read a disappointing answer

Not being named is common on a first pass. The ACS Creative write-up of a 30-question audit, and several other 2026 guides, treat a first result of “not mentioned” as a baseline. The cited sites are the to-do list: a directory you are missing, a Google profile with the wrong category, a homepage that never says the town.

Perplexity needs PerplexityBot allowed if you want it to read your pages. Perplexity’s crawler docs describe that bot. ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot. Copilot uses Bing, so a site you never submitted can be absent there even when Google already knows it. The Bing guide is that gap.

What not to do with the notes

Do not buy a review or write one yourself to “fix” an answer. Do not add a block of hidden text aimed at the assistant. Google says its AI features do not need a special file. Stuffing the town into the business name to match question 1 fights Google’s representation rules.

Do ask again after you have updated the Google profile, submitted the site to Bing, and put the facts in text. Keep the old notes so you can see what changed. Change is slow, and the short list will still move around.

Sources

The $25 guide

Get Recommended by AI is the checklist version of this work: update Google Business, submit the site to Bing, and fix the pages assistants can read. It includes the PDF and a private page after payment. Digital, sent right away. All sales are final.

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This page is educational. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it is not affiliated with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Apple, or Perplexity. No one can guarantee that any assistant will recommend, mention, or rank a business.