Ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews for "the best roofer near White Plains" and you won't get ten blue links. You'll get three or four names, a sentence about each and a reason to call. If your business isn't one of those names, that customer never sees you.
This is the biggest change in how people find local businesses since Google Maps. The good news is that AI assistants aren't a black box. They pick businesses using signals you can control.
How AI assistants decide who to recommend
Assistants that answer local questions pull from the same places a careful customer would check: your website, your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories, local news and industry sites. They look for three things: a clear picture of what you do and where, proof that real customers are happy, and consistency, meaning the same name, address, phone number and services everywhere.
When those signals are strong and agree with each other, the assistant is confident enough to name you. When they're thin or contradict each other, it names someone else.
How to check where you stand
Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Ask each one the questions your customers ask: "best [your service] in [your town]," "who should I call for [problem]," and "is [your business name] any good?" Write down who gets named and what the assistant says about you. Repeat it monthly. Our free Growth Snapshot also grades your AI search readiness automatically.
What to fix first
Start with the basics that help both Google and AI tools. First, make sure your Google Business Profile is complete: categories, services, hours, photos and a steady flow of new reviews. Second, add LocalBusiness structured data (schema) to your website so machines can read your name, address, phone, hours and service area. Third, check that your robots.txt file isn't blocking AI crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot. Some website templates block them by default.
Next, answer questions in plain language. A good FAQ page, with clear answers about pricing approach, service areas, timelines and guarantees, gives an assistant something quotable. Then make sure your business details match on every directory, from Yelp and Bing to industry-specific sites.
The bottom line
AI search rewards the same things good marketing always has: being clear about what you do, being consistent everywhere and having real proof that customers like you. The businesses that tighten those up now will be the ones AI assistants recommend for years.
See where you stand
Our free Growth Snapshot grades your website, listings, reviews, social, tracking and AI search readiness in about a minute.