What happens when someone who has never heard of your company asks ChatGPT or Google for a business like yours?
That’s a much more interesting question than searching your own brand name. A branded search mostly tells you whether the search engine already knows you. A customer who has never heard of you starts somewhere else. They have a problem, a budget, a location, maybe a deadline, and they want somebody who can help.
There isn’t a single report that gives you a neat answer to this. You have to test it yourself. Ask realistic questions, see which businesses appear, follow the sources, and come back later to see whether anything has changed.
And yes, the results can move around. Change the wording slightly and you may get a different answer. Change the location and it can shift again. That’s normal. OpenAI also says search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect, so a citation should be treated as something to inspect, not a stamp of approval.
First, Work Out What “Showing Up” Means
Before opening a spreadsheet, decide what you’re actually counting. Otherwise the audit gets messy very quickly.
A company name appearing somewhere in an answer isn’t necessarily a useful result. Neither is a link sitting at the bottom of a page that nobody notices.
A Mention Is Useful, But It Isn’t A Lead
Imagine someone asks, “Who are the best commercial photographers in Birmingham?” Your business gets a brief mention.
Fine. But did the answer recommend you? Did it explain what you do? Was your website linked? Did the person get enough information to take the next step?
Those are very different outcomes.
For a practical audit, I’d separate four things: a simple mention, a citation to the company website, an actual recommendation, and an opportunity to take action such as visiting the site, calling, booking, requesting a quote, or buying something.
That little distinction saves a lot of nonsense later. A directory could get your company mentioned while your own website never appears. You might have plenty of mentions and very few useful recommendations.
One Screenshot Tells You Almost Nothing
This is probably the easiest trap to fall into. You run one search, your company appears, and it feels like a win. Then someone else runs a similar search the next morning and gets three different businesses.
I wouldn’t worry about that. Not yet.
The useful thing is repetition. Run enough realistic searches to see whether your business keeps appearing for the kinds of questions that actually matter. You’re looking for a pattern, not a trophy screenshot.
Ask the Questions a Customer Would Actually Ask
This part sounds obvious, but it’s where a lot of audits go off track. An SEO team might test a phrase because it has search volume. A customer may never use that phrase at all. They might ask a much clumsier question because they’re sitting at the kitchen table trying to sort something out before dinner.
That’s the search you want.
Start With Problems, Choices And Local Needs
Build a list of around 20 to 40 questions. There’s no magic number here. A small local business may need fewer. A company selling into several markets will need more.
Mix the questions up. Something like, “Which accounting firms are good for small businesses in Bristol?” tells you more about discovery than simply searching the company name. So does “Who repairs commercial boilers in Leeds?” or “Which IT provider would suit a 50 person company?”
Then throw in a few branded questions and competitor searches. Those act as useful controls. The important bit is that the list should sound like something a person might actually type or say.
Make The Searches A Little Untidy
Real customers don’t always search neatly. Someone may mention a budget. Someone else may be in a rush. One person may care about experience, while another wants somebody nearby. Try those variations.
For a local company, location deserves special attention. “Best dentist near me” is not the same test as “best dentist in Leeds.” Even if the service is identical, the answer may not be.
Keep the original wording in your notes. Also save the date, location, device and whether search was enabled. You don’t need a complicated system. A basic spreadsheet will do the job.
The reason is simple: three weeks later, when the answer changes, you’ll want to know whether the search changed too.
ChatGPT Is Only Half the Job
Run the questions in new conversations. If the question needs current information, web search makes sense. If you’re testing local recommendations, use the location you actually want to evaluate. Then read the answer properly.
Not just the company name.
Pay Attention To The Description
Suppose ChatGPT says your business is a commercial electrician serving Leeds and Bradford.
Is it?
Maybe you only cover Leeds. Perhaps you stopped taking commercial work. Maybe you specialise in industrial installations and don’t handle the type of jobs the answer suggests.
Those small details matter more than they first appear to. I’d write down what the system actually says about the company. Then compare it with the information on the website and other public sources. If a competitor keeps appearing, take a look at them too. There may be something very ordinary behind it, such as clearer service information or stronger local evidence.
Follow The Source Instead Of Trusting The Label
This is the slightly boring part, but it’s where you often find the real problem. If ChatGPT cites your service page, open it. If it cites a directory, open that instead. Read the page itself.
You may find a perfect match. Great. You may also find something strange. Perhaps the cited page mentions your company but says nothing about the service the AI answer described. In that case, the business appearing in the answer isn’t necessarily evidence that the underlying information is strong.
OpenAI specifically advises users to review cited sources because search results and citations can sometimes be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect.
There’s A Crawler Check Worth Doing First
Before rewriting half the website, make sure ChatGPT search can actually access it.
OpenAI identifies OAI SearchBot as the crawler used to surface websites in ChatGPT search results. If a site opts out of OAI SearchBot, OpenAI says it won’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers, although it may still appear as a navigational link.
So have a look at robots.txt. Then look beyond it if necessary. Firewalls, CDN settings and bot protection can sometimes interfere with crawlers too.
It’s not exciting work. But there’s no point polishing a page that the relevant crawler can’t reach.
Then Take the Same Questions to Google
Use the same prompts in Google. That gives you a cleaner comparison because you’re not changing the question at the same time as the platform.
When an AI Overview appears, read it. If AI Mode is available, look at that too. Then glance at the ordinary results underneath.
Sometimes The Interesting Page Isn’t The Top Result
You might discover that your website ranks well but another business appears in the AI answer. That doesn’t automatically mean Google thinks the other business is “better.”
Maybe its page answers the exact question more clearly. Maybe a local publication talks about it. Perhaps its reviews are stronger. Maybe a trade organisation has information about the company that your own website never mentions.
This is where the audit becomes useful. You’re not simply asking, “Why didn’t I rank?” You’re asking, “What information is helping this other business make the cut?”
That’s a much better question.
Ai Results Can Reveal Gaps In Otherwise Good Pages
A service page can rank perfectly well and still be a poor answer to a specific question.
For example, a general commercial IT page might explain every service the company offers. But a customer asking, “Which IT provider can support a 50 person office?” may need something much more specific: team size, response times, support arrangements, locations served, typical customers, perhaps even pricing guidance.
The page isn’t necessarily bad. It just isn’t answering that particular question very well.
Google’s Advice Is Surprisingly Ordinary
There’s no special switch you turn on to make a page appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Google’s current guidance continues to point site owners toward the same basic search practices: pages need to be accessible and eligible for Search, important information should be available to Google, and content should provide something useful rather than simply being produced to manipulate search results. Google has also made clear that its spam policies apply to generative AI responses in Search.
Google’s current documentation also says AI Mode data is counted in the overall Search Console Performance totals. So don’t let the new terminology make the job sound more mysterious than it is. A lot of the work is still ordinary SEO.
Look Outside the Website Too
Here’s something that often turns up during an audit: the company’s own website is correct, but other websites are not. An old directory says the business moved. A review profile has an outdated opening time. A local listing still advertises a service that disappeared years ago.
Little scraps of information like that can make the public picture of a business rather messy.
Check The Places That Talk About The Business
Look at the Google Business Profile, directories, review sites, industry organisations, local publications, partner websites and other relevant profiles. Start with the obvious details: name, address, phone number, hours, service area and current services.
Then read the descriptions. If one site says the company works across Sheffield and another says Leeds, don’t just shrug and move on. Find out which one is correct. For a local business, I’d rather have a small number of accurate listings than dozens of forgotten profiles nobody maintains.
Make Service Pages Answer The Awkward Little Questions
A useful service page doesn’t need to sound impressive. It needs to answer what a customer is quietly wondering while they scroll. Is this service actually for my situation? Do they work in my area? What do they include? What do they not include? How does the process work? What happens after I contact them?
If the company has genuine proof, put it there. Qualifications, project examples, case details, product specifications, policies, photographs or other evidence can help a stranger understand what the business really does.
One concrete example from a real project can often tell a customer more than a paragraph full of polished claims.
Don’t Build A Separate Page For Every Possible Prompt
This is another place where AI search can send people in the wrong direction. Once you have a list of customer questions, it’s tempting to turn every variation into another article. I wouldn’t.
If twelve questions are really asking the same thing, one strong page may cover them better than twelve thin pages. Google’s current guidance warns against creating large amounts of content without adding value, including content produced mainly to manipulate Search or generative AI results.
More pages can look productive in a content calendar. That doesn’t mean they’re useful.
Measure What Happens After People Find You
A screenshot can prove that something appeared. It can’t tell you whether the business gained anything from it.
That’s where measurement gets more interesting.
Search Console Gives You Part Of The Picture
Google Search Console is still useful here because it provides first party search performance data. Google has continued updating its reporting as AI features change. In 2026, Google confirmed that AI Mode data counts toward the overall totals in the Search Console Performance report.
That helps with Google visibility. It doesn’t tell you whether somebody picked up the phone.
Follow The Search All The Way To The Enquiry
Connect the search data with website visits, calls, enquiries, bookings and sales where you can. You may find something slightly uncomfortable but useful. A page with lots of exposure might produce almost nothing. Another page with modest traffic could bring in several good enquiries.
I’d pay attention to the second one. The same principle applies to AI visibility. Saying “we appeared in 40 AI answers” sounds impressive until you ask what happened next.
Keep A Simple Record Of The Searches
There’s no need to turn this into a huge reporting project. Keep the prompt, date, platform, location, result and source in a spreadsheet. Add a note when something is wrong or particularly interesting.
After a few rounds, you’ll start seeing things that a one off check would miss. Maybe local questions work well but broad category searches don’t. Maybe a third party directory keeps appearing. Maybe your company is mentioned but described incorrectly.
Those patterns are where the useful work starts.
A Bad Result Doesn’t Automatically Mean You Need More Content
If the business isn’t showing up, don’t immediately order another batch of articles. First ask what went wrong. Was the question actually relevant? Does the company serve that location? Is the website clear about the service? Are third party listings accurate? Are competitors simply better represented in the sources being used?
Sometimes the answer is much simpler.
Fix The Thing That Is Actually Broken
If the address is wrong, fix the address.
If an old service is still listed, update it.
If customers can’t work out what the service includes, rewrite that part of the page.
If an important page is buried somewhere nobody can find, make the route to it easier.
If OAI SearchBot is blocked, deal with that before spending another afternoon rewriting headings.
These fixes aren’t glamorous. They’re just sensible.
Don’t Judge The Change The Next Morning
Search systems need time to process changes. A page being edited today doesn’t mean every search system has absorbed the new information tomorrow.
Keep a few of the original questions unchanged. Test those again later. And be careful when comparing results. If the first test was “best accountant in Bristol” and the second is “cheap accountant near London,” you haven’t measured improvement. You’ve asked two different questions.
The Real Goal Is Accuracy, Not an AI Screenshot
I wouldn’t make the goal “get mentioned by AI. That’s too shallow. The better question is this: when a potential customer asks something your business genuinely has a good answer for, does the information available on the web give Google or ChatGPT a fair reason to include you?
If the answer is no, find the weak spot. Maybe the website is vague. Maybe a directory is wrong. Maybe important information is missing. Maybe a crawler can’t access the site. Maybe another company simply has stronger evidence.
Fix that specific problem.
That’s a far more useful way to approach AI search visibility. You’re not trying to teach a machine to repeat your company name. You’re making sure the information a potential customer finds about your business is accurate, useful and easy to verify. And honestly, that was good advice before AI search became a talking point. It still is.
FAQs
1. How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?
Make sure your website is accessible to OAI SearchBot, clearly explains your services and locations, and has accurate information across relevant third party sources. Being crawlable makes your site eligible, but it doesn't guarantee a recommendation.
2. Why isn't my business appearing in ChatGPT search?
Your website may be difficult to crawl, your service information may be unclear, or other businesses may have stronger supporting sources. Test realistic customer questions and inspect the sources ChatGPT uses.
3. How can I check my AI search visibility?
Ask ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and other AI search tools the questions your customers actually ask. Record which businesses appear, which websites are cited, and whether your business information is accurate.
4. Do I need special SEO to appear in Google AI Overviews?
No. Google says there are no additional technical requirements specifically for AI Overviews. Your pages still need to be accessible, indexed, and eligible to appear in normal Google Search.
5. Can I guarantee that my business will appear in ChatGPT or Google AI results?
No. Neither platform guarantees placement. You can improve eligibility and the quality of information available about your business, but AI search results can vary depending on the question, location, sources, and other factors.
