The five places AI looks before it recommends a local business
When someone asks ChatGPT for a plumber, the AI does not know your business the way a neighbor does. It has to piece together who you are from what is written about you online.
Across our Florida studies of dentists, roofers, HVAC companies, and pest control companies, the same handful of sources came up again and again. Here are the five places AI looks, what good looks like in each, and a checklist you can run tonight.
1. Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is the listing with your name, hours, reviews, and map pin that shows up when someone searches for you on Google. Google's own AI tools lean on it.
In our Florida studies, Google AI Overviews pulled from Business Profile and map data when it named businesses. Gemini drew on Google's local data too.
What good looks like: the right main category for the work you want most, every service you offer listed, current hours, real photos of your work, and new reviews every month with your replies under them.
2. Your website
Your website is where AI goes to confirm what you do and where you do it. In our Florida Dental AI Visibility Study, Claude searched practice websites when it recommended dentists, and in our HVAC study it read HVAC company websites too.
What good looks like: a page for each main service, your city and the towns you serve written on the page in plain words, and your phone number and hours typed out as text a computer can read.
In our 600-query home services study, the businesses that showed up on every AI tool shared four things: strong reviews on several sites, BBB accreditation, matching business information across directories, and specific service pages on their websites.
3. Review sites
Review sites like Yelp, Angi, and Healthgrades are where AI goes to see what customers say about you. Which one matters most depends on your trade.
In our Florida Pest Control AI Visibility Study, Yelp was the top source AI cited, showing up in 216 searches. For HVAC, Angi led with 181. For dentists, ChatGPT leaned on Healthgrades.
What good looks like: a claimed, filled-out profile on the two or three review sites that matter in your trade. Recent reviews that mention the actual job. Your calm replies under the bad ones.
4. Directories like the BBB
Directories are the listing sites that hold your name, address, and phone number, and AI uses them to check that you are real. For some trades, they are the most cited source of all.
In our Florida Roofing AI Visibility Study, the Better Business Bureau was cited in 272 searches. That was well ahead of Angi at 170 and Yelp at 160.
Which other directories matter depends on your trade. HomeAdvisor showed up for roofers, and Healthgrades showed up for dentists. Look up your own business on the ones your customers use and make sure the listing is yours and is current.
Directories also let AI compare your details. If one site lists an old phone number and another lists an old address, the AI has less reason to trust either one.
What good looks like: the same business name, address, and phone number on every listing, written exactly the same way. A claimed BBB profile. Old listings from a past address fixed or removed.
5. Reddit and local forums
Reddit and local forums are where AI can find what real people say about you when you are not in the room. Today it is the smallest of the five.
In our roofing study, Reddit was cited only 4 times, compared with 272 for the BBB. We still include it because it is one of the few places where customers name a business in their own words, and AI tools that search the web can read those threads.
What good looks like: your business name comes up when someone in your area asks for a recommendation. You do not have to post yourself. Happy customers who know your name well enough to type it are what count.
The five-place checklist
Here is the whole list in one place. Every row you cannot check off is a place where AI has less to go on.
| Place | Good looks like |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Right main category, every service listed, current hours, real photos, new reviews with replies |
| Your website | A page per main service, your city on the page, phone and hours as text |
| Review sites | Claimed profiles on the sites your trade uses, recent reviews that name the job |
| Directories (BBB and others) | Same name, address, and phone everywhere, BBB profile claimed |
| Reddit and forums | Customers mention you by name when neighbors ask for a recommendation |
How do you know which of these is hurting you?
You can check each one by hand, and this list gives you a place to start. What it cannot tell you is which AI tools name you today and which ones name a competitor.
In the same studies, most businesses showed up on only one of the five AI tools we tested. Each tool weighs these five places differently, so you can look fine on one and be missing from the other four.
Our free scan does that part. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews for your business in about 60 seconds and shows where you appear.
See which AI tools know your business.
Run Your Free AI Visibility Check