A homeowner with a leaking roof used to type “roofer near me” and scan a list. Many now ask AI assistants instead and get three names with a short reason for each. If yours is one of the three, the call comes to you. If it isn’t, you never learn the search happened.

Nobody outside OpenAI, Anthropic and Google knows exactly how those local businesses get picked, and none of them has published a recipe for local recommendations. That hasn’t stopped plenty of articles from quoting exact review counts and star ratings as fact. We couldn’t trace those numbers to any of the companies.

This guide sticks to what the companies say in their own documentation, labels our reasoning as reasoning, and ends with an afternoon of work that pays off however the answers change.

What the companies say about recommending local businesses

Google: AI Overviews, AI Mode and Maps

Google’s guide to its generative AI search features (last updated July 2026) says its answers come from retrieving pages with its core Search ranking systems and showing links next to the response. A Google Business Profile can help a business appear in those answers. No special optimization is required. You don’t need a new file or special markup, and Google says its search doesn’t use llms.txt files. The same guide tells site owners to be skeptical of services selling “AEO” or “GEO” work.

On the local side, Google’s help page on local ranking says results come mainly from relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence is how well known a business is. It draws on reviews and on how many other sites link to it. Google also says nobody can pay for a better local ranking.

Two newer pieces matter for local businesses.

Ask Maps. In March 2026 Google announced Ask Maps, a conversational feature in Google Maps. Google says it draws on information about more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors. At launch it was rolling out in the U.S. and India on Android and iOS, with desktop listed as coming soon.

AI Overviews on Business Profiles. In September, Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google appears to be turning the local Business Profile panel into an AI Overview, with a button that opens a follow-up chat. Ben Fisher spotted it first and Barry reproduced it. The article doesn’t say whether Google has confirmed it, so treat it as a test Google appears to be running. Barry also noted that most of what the AI said about his own company was right, and one description was out of date. He traced that to old content on his own website.

ChatGPT

OpenAI’s crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that surfaces websites in ChatGPT’s search features. Block it and your site won’t appear in ChatGPT search answers, though it can still show up as a plain link. OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt file. Changes take about 24 hours to apply.

GPTBot is a separate crawler that collects content for model training. You can allow one and block the other. The documentation doesn’t describe how ChatGPT ranks local businesses against each other.

Claude

Anthropic’s help article on web search says Claude searches the web when a question benefits from current information and includes citations with its answers. It may use a location inferred from your IP address for localized results. The article doesn’t name the search provider and says nothing about ranking businesses.

What this suggests (our reading of it)

Google says its AI answers rest on the same ranking systems as regular search, and its local ranking runs on your Business Profile, your reviews and links from other sites. For Google’s AI features, the groundwork is ordinary local SEO.

ChatGPT and Claude both search the web. The pages and listings they can read about you are the likely inputs. That’s an inference, and the companies can change how any of this works. It also gives you a short list of things you can check, and every item helps regular search and the customers who read your site directly.

What to be skeptical about

  • Exact thresholds. Any claim that you need a specific number of reviews or a specific star rating to be named.
  • Guaranteed placement. No one can promise you a spot in an AI answer, and that includes us.
  • Files and markup made for AI. Google says its features need none.
  • Dozens of near-duplicate pages written for every phrasing of a question. Google’s guide warns this can break its policy on scaled content abuse. Our guide to service area pages that avoid doorway problems shows the safer way.
  • Bought or invented reviews and mentions. Google’s guide tells owners to ignore chasing inauthentic mentions.

A one-afternoon checklist

1. See what the AI assistants say about you (15 minutes)

Open ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s AI Mode. Ask each one: “Who should I call for [your service] in [your town]?” and “What do you know about [your business name]?” Use a private or logged-out window where you can. A chat that remembers you can answer differently from one that doesn’t.

Write down which businesses get named, which sources are linked, and anything wrong about you. Answers change from one ask to the next, so ask twice.

2. Tidy your Google Business Profile (30 minutes)

Google’s help page lists the basics: verify the business, keep the address, hours, category and attributes accurate, add photos and videos, and reply to reviews. Check your hours, including holidays, and fill in every field that fits your business. Inaccurate information can keep a profile from showing for relevant searches, according to Google.

3. Make your name, address and phone match everywhere (20 minutes)

Compare your website, your Google Business Profile and any directory listings. An old number or a former address in one place sends customers to the wrong spot and gives every tool something to contradict. Our guide to websites with visitors but no calls covers the number check in more detail.

4. Say what you do and where, in plain words, on your own site (30 minutes)

Put your service and your town in the first line of your home page and your main service pages. Then read the rest for anything stale: old prices, discontinued services, a retired phone number. Barry Schwartz’s example shows the risk. Old website content can end up in an AI description of a business.

5. Check that crawlers can read your site (10 minutes)

Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser. If you see “Disallow: /” under “User-agent: *”, or any line that names OAI-SearchBot, your site may be hidden from ChatGPT search. Security plugins and some hosts can block bots on their own, so ask whoever manages your site if you aren’t sure. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about a day to apply.

Whether to allow GPTBot is a separate decision. Per OpenAI, it covers training use and doesn’t affect whether you appear in ChatGPT search.

6. Keep earning reviews from real customers (ongoing)

Ask after a finished job and send the direct link to your Google review page. Ask everyone, and never pay for a review or screen who you ask. Reply to each one, since Google says replies show you value feedback. Specific reviews that mention the service and the town also help the next customer decide, whichever tool they used to find you.

7. Get mentioned where real people talk (ongoing)

Local chambers of commerce, supplier and manufacturer directories, local news and community groups all publish pages that name businesses. Google’s guide says AI features can reflect what’s said across the web, including blogs, videos and forums.

If you take part in Reddit or a neighborhood forum, use your real name, say which business you work for, answer the actual question and follow the community’s rules. Many ban promotion. Never write fake threads or fake reviews.

How to tell if it’s working

Repeat the questions from step 1 once a month and keep a dated note of what each assistant says. Look at trends across several asks, since one answer proves little. Google’s guide also points to the Generative AI performance report in Search Console for measuring how your site shows up in its AI features.

Small changes can take weeks to show. The robots.txt change is the fastest, at about a day according to OpenAI.

When it’s worth getting help

You can do most of this yourself. It costs nothing, and it tells you what customers and assistants see when they look for you.

Outside help makes sense when your site is hard to edit, out of date, or tells a stranger on a phone very little. That’s the job our Website Remediation service was built for. We take the site you already have, keep your real content, and reformat it so a customer can understand it on the phone in their hand. It’s a fixed $497.

If you’d rather see the difference first, request a free homepage preview. We rebuild your home page with your real business on it, and you decide what happens next. For the wider picture on AI search, our guide to getting recommended in AI search engines covers the basics.

Common questions

For Google’s local ranking, Google says no. Advertising inside AI products is a separate and fast-moving topic, and we’d read the platform’s own documentation before spending anything.

Does my Google Business Profile affect ChatGPT answers?

OpenAI doesn’t say. Google says Business Profiles can help in its own AI features. A complete, accurate profile is worth having for Google’s sake, and it’s one of the public pages other tools can read.

Do I need llms.txt or special schema markup?

Google says its AI features need no special markup and that its search doesn’t use llms.txt. According to the guide, creating one makes no difference to your visibility in Google.

How often do the answers change?

Often. The same question can get different answers on two asks, between assistants, and between people. Track patterns over time and keep each check dated.

Should I block AI crawlers?

That’s a business decision. Per OpenAI, blocking OAI-SearchBot removes your site from ChatGPT search answers, and blocking GPTBot limits training use. Most local businesses want to be found, so check with whoever manages your site before changing anything.