Is AI Actually Recommending Your Business? How to Check in 10 Minutes (Free)

To find out if AI recommends your business, spend ten minutes asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and Gemini the exact questions your customers ask — "best [your service] in [your city]," "who should I hire for [problem] near me." Then score whether you're named, linked, and described correctly. If you're not showing up, the usual causes are weak entity authority, too few third-party mentions, and missing schema — all fixable.

Why a 10-minute AI check is worth your time

Your customers have quietly changed how they look for businesses. Instead of scrolling a page of blue links, more of them just ask an AI: "Who's the best [whatever] in San Antonio?" — and act on the two or three names it gives back.

Here's the uncomfortable part: most local businesses have no idea what those AI answers say about them. You can be #1 on Google and completely invisible in ChatGPT, because the two pick sources in totally different ways.

The good news — you can check exactly where you stand in about ten minutes, for free, with no special tools. Here's how.

The exact prompts to run (copy, paste, swap in your details)

Open each AI in a fresh window — logged out, or in a private/incognito tab — so your own history doesn't skew the answer. Run the same questions in all of them so you can compare:

The "best in town" test

• Best [your service] in [your city]
• Who are the top [your industry] companies in [your city]?
• I need [your service] in [your city] — who should I call?

The "problem-first" test (how customers actually talk)

• My [problem the customer has] — who in [your city] can fix it?
• Recommend a [your type of business] near [your neighborhood]

The "about you" test (do they know you — and do they get you right?)

• Tell me about [your business name] in [your city]
• Is [your business name] a good [your service type]?

Run these in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google (look for the AI Overview at the top of the results), and Gemini. That's your four-engine snapshot.

Run the same questions in all four engines so you're comparing apples to apples.

Score what you see: the AI Visibility scorecard

For each engine, score yourself on these five questions:

Signal	What you're checking	Score
Named	Does it mention your business at all?	0–2
Ranked	Are you in the first 3 names, or buried at the bottom?	0–2
Linked	Does it cite or link your website or a profile?	0–2
Accurate	Are the details — services, location, phone — correct?	0–2
Flattering	Is what it says about you actually good?	0–2

Add it up across all four engines. 0–10 = invisible. 11–25 = showing up but inconsistent. 26–40 = you're winning AI search (and you should protect that lead).

Write the numbers down with today's date. That's your baseline — you'll re-run it monthly.

What your score is really telling you

• You weren't named anywhere. AI doesn't know you exist as a "best in [city]" option yet. This is the most common result for local businesses — and the most fixable.
• You were named, but with wrong details. In one way this is worse than invisible: AI is confidently telling customers the wrong phone number, or that you do something you don't. It usually means your info is inconsistent across the web.
• You were named but never linked. AI knows you exist but isn't sending traffic your way. You need more citable, on-site content.
• A competitor showed up and you didn't. Go read what they have that you don't — they're almost always on more review sites, directories, and Reddit threads.

The 3 most common reasons you're missing — and the first fix for each

1. You're not a "known entity." AI trusts businesses it sees described consistently across many sources. First fix: make your name, address, and phone identical everywhere — your site, Google, Yelp, Facebook, every directory. One inconsistent listing is enough to make AI hedge.

2. Nobody else is talking about you. Brands are 6.5x more likely to be cited by AI from third-party sources than from their own website. First fix: get mentioned somewhere you don't own — a local press piece, an industry directory, or a genuinely helpful answer in r/sanantonio or your industry subreddit. Over half of all AI citations come from community platforms like Reddit and Quora.

3. Your site isn't machine-readable. AI pulls short, factual, clearly-structured answers. First fix: add a 40–60 word plain-English answer to the top of your key pages, and add Organization + LocalBusiness schema so AI can read your basics without guessing.

Make it a monthly habit

AI answers change constantly — a new competitor, a fresh Reddit thread, or a model update can move you overnight. Re-run this 10-minute test on the first of every month, log the score, and watch the trend. If the number climbs, your visibility work is paying off. If it dips, you'll know before your phone stops ringing.

FAQs

How often do AI answers change?

Frequently. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI all pull live web data, so a new review, article, or competitor can shift your result within days. Monthly checks catch the movement.

Why am I #1 on Google but invisible in ChatGPT?

Because they work differently. Google ranks pages; AI engines cite sources they trust based on entity authority and third-party mentions. Winning one doesn't automatically win the other — though the underlying work overlaps a lot.

Do I need a paid tool to track this?

No. The manual four-engine test is free and takes ten minutes. Paid trackers help once you're managing many locations or keywords, but every business should start with the manual baseline.

Will asking about my own business "train" the AI to recommend me?

No — querying yourself won't move your ranking. AI recommendations are earned through authority signals (consistent info, citations, reviews, schema), not by how often you ask.

What's the single highest-impact fix?

Consistency. Identical name, address, and phone everywhere online does more for AI (and Google) visibility than almost anything else — and it's free.

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Author: Roger Wong Won, founder of Capture That Media — San Antonio's AI Visibility specialist. Want to see your full picture? Run a free AI visibility audit.