“How do I get ChatGPT, Grok and Claude to recommend my business?”
Here is a test you can run right now, free: open ChatGPT and ask it to recommend a business like yours, in your town, the way a customer would. Were you the answer? Most owners have never asked - and in a 2026 study covered by Search Engine Land, 37% of consumers said they now start some searches with an AI tool instead of Google. The unsettling part is not being outranked. It is that these answers name two or three specific businesses, the customer never sees a results page at all, and if you are not in the answer you were never in the running.
What modern businesses do instead
Modern businesses treat AI answers as a second front door. The engines do not guess - they read: your website’s structure, business directories, review platforms, forums, local press. When that trail is thin, inconsistent, or names a similarly-named competitor, the engine either skips you or, worse, confidently describes someone else. Getting recommended is called generative engine optimization, and it is concrete work: declaring who you are in the formats machines read, fixing the sources engines actually cite, and checking back the way you would check a listing.
The first step is not optimization at all - it is measurement. We learned this the embarrassing way: shortly after launching this very site, we ran the scan on it. Score: zero. One engine, asked directly, confidently described a different company with a similar name. You cannot fix what you have never seen, and almost nobody has looked.
The prescription
What The AI Says
See exactly what ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude say when customers ask about your kind of business - starting with a free scan.
Why for this problem: Start with the free scan: it asks ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude the questions your customers ask and shows you word for word who gets recommended - plus the exact sources each engine read to decide. That source list is your to-do list, whether you fix it yourself or have them do it.
The honest downside: Visibility work takes weeks to show up in AI answers - engines recrawl on their own schedule, and anyone promising a guaranteed ranking is lying. The scan tells you where you stand today; improving it is real work, theirs or yours.
The scan is free, no email required for results. A full written report is $149; done-for-you visibility plans from $299/month.
Try What The AI Says → Our full take Disclosure: What The AI Says is our own service, built by the same team behind The Biz Checkup. We list it because nothing else in this catalog covers AI visibility; we earn from it directly rather than by commission.
Common questions
Is AI search really big enough to matter for a small business?
The numbers say yes, and they are recent. A 2026 study covered by Search Engine Land found 37% of consumers now start some searches in an AI tool rather than Google. Yext’s March 2026 survey (1,120 US adults) found 47% had used AI to find a local business in the past month. And G2’s 2026 AI Search Insight Report found a third of B2B buyers purchased from a vendor they had never heard of before an AI suggested it. The behavior shifted first among exactly the customers most businesses want.
What is GEO (generative engine optimization)? Is it just SEO again?
Related, but not the same. SEO earns you a position on a results page the customer still has to read. GEO is about being the answer itself when an engine composes a recommendation. The engines read different sources than Google ranks - forums, review platforms, and directories carry surprising weight, and each engine reads differently - so a business can rank fine on Google and be completely absent from AI answers. The two compound: the same clean structure helps both.
Can I improve my AI visibility myself, without paying anyone?
Yes, and a good scan makes the do-it-yourself route easier, not harder, because it shows which sources each engine actually read. The free moves: declare your business clearly on your own site (consistent name, what you do, where), keep your Google Business Profile and major directories accurate and matching, collect reviews on the platforms the engines cited, and answer the real questions customers ask in plain text on your site. The paid service exists for owners who would rather hand that list to someone else.
How fast do results show up in AI answers?
Weeks, not days - engines recrawl and refresh on their own schedule, and anyone promising a specific ranking or a specific date is making it up. The honest pattern: fix the machine-readable basics, strengthen the sources engines cite, then re-scan on a monthly rhythm and watch the answers move. Treat it like reviews or referrals - a compounding asset, not a switch.
Is this really your biggest leak?
Take the 2-minute checkup and find out what to fix first - the answer surprises most owners.
Start the free checkup →