Does ChatGPT Recommend Your Business?

By Ryan Goering, founder and CEO of BaaDigi.

Last updated: September 2026.

Which questions should you test?

Start with the services you offer and the locations you actually serve. These are example prompts, not measured keyword-volume findings:

• “Which companies repair heat pumps in [city]?”
• “Who handles commercial roof maintenance in [city]?”
• “What should I compare before hiring a kitchen remodeler in [city]?”

Use a separate branded question, such as “What services does [company] offer?”, to check factual accuracy. Do not count that as evidence that ChatGPT discovered you without help. Keep research questions in the test if they represent real customer decisions; immediate buying intent is not the only useful visibility.

How can location and context change the answer?

ChatGPT search can use location and saved context. State the city explicitly and record whether relevant prior context was present. A fresh conversation can reduce conversation-specific clues, but it does not make every user's environment identical.

Record whether search ran and whether source links were provided. If the answer is about the wrong city, fix the question before treating the result as a business visibility problem.

What should go in your results sheet?

Open the sources. A business name in the answer is not proof that its own website was cited. The distinction matters when you later compare referral traffic with recommendation frequency.

What can you fix if the answer is wrong?

Correct the underlying information where you can identify it. Update inaccurate service pages, old contact details, or a profile you control. Request a correction from a third party when its information is wrong. Keep a record of the old source, the correction, and the next check.

Omission is the common case. In 254 free BaaDigi audits that ran a Perplexity check (Mar–Sep 2026), the business was named for its own service-and-city query 23.2% of the time, with a median of 3 competitors listed ahead.

If the answer simply omits you, avoid inventing a cause. There is no documented universal review count, directory quota, or publication schedule that guarantees selection. Do not create a separate city page unless you have useful, accurate information for that location.

Does website access guarantee a recommendation?

No. OpenAI's search guidance says placement is not guaranteed. Its documented access requirements include allowing OAI-SearchBot and the published searchbot IP ranges. Check the actual site and host settings through the crawler-access guide; access makes retrieval possible, not inevitable.

A helpful page should explain the real service, territory, price or quoting process, and customer next step. Use genuine project evidence. The LLM SEO guide shows that page format step by step. Ask customers for honest feedback without scripting claims about your service or location.

How should you measure progress?

Repeat the same core tests and compare the saved answers. Keep corrected information, recommendation frequency, citations, visits, and qualified inquiries distinct. Record failures separately. Neither an appearance nor an absence establishes what every prospective customer will see.

The visibility checker guide explains how to turn results into work. The tool-selection guide explains what to demand from a monitoring product.

What does a starting check cost?

You can run manual tests within the access and usage limits of your ChatGPT account. BaaDigi also offers the free AI Search Visibility Checker. The separate AI Visibility Audit costs $497 for its published scope. Paying for an audit does not purchase a recommendation.

How can a contractor document recommendation checks?

The contractor ChatGPT recommendation checklist provides a related workflow for recording prompts, context and actual answers. Use the evidence to distinguish a named business, a linked source and an actionable factual error.