GEO · 5 min read

How to Check Whether AI Assistants Recommend Your Business

You cannot improve what you never check. Many contractors have never asked an AI assistant who to hire in their own city, so they have no idea whether they appear, what is said about them or which competitors come up instead. A short monthly audit changes that. It takes about an hour, needs no special software and shows you exactly where to focus.

Why a regular audit helps

Homeowners increasingly use assistants to shortlist companies before they call. The answers can change from month to month as the assistants update and as the web changes. A routine check shows whether your reputation is reaching the places customers look and catches wrong information, such as an old phone number or a service you no longer offer, before it costs you a job.

Step 1: Write your prompt list

List fifteen to twenty questions that a real customer might ask, in everyday language. Cover different situations. Include urgent needs, such as who can fix a burst pipe tonight in your city. Include planned work, such as who installs a new furnace. Include price questions, such as how much a roof replacement costs in your area. Include comparison questions, such as which HVAC company is best for a small business. Include a few that name your business directly, such as is your company a good plumber in your city.

Step 2: Run them in the assistants your customers use

Test the main ones: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and the AI answers shown in Google search. Use a fresh session without a personal history where you can, since results are often personalized. Run each important prompt more than once, because the answers vary from run to run, and note the pattern rather than a single result.

Step 3: Record what you see

For each prompt and assistant, write down whether your business appears, where in the list it sits, how it is described, which sources are cited and which competitors appear. A simple spreadsheet works. Add columns for the date and for anything wrong or missing in the description. After the first round you will see patterns: the sources that matter in your market, the questions you are missing from and the competitors that keep showing up.

Step 4: Read the sources the assistants cite

When an assistant names its sources, open them. They show what the system trusts in your market. You may find a directory you never claimed, a competitor profile with more detail than yours or an old article with outdated facts about your business. Those are your starting points.

Step 5: Fix gaps in order

Fix wrong information first, at the source. Update the listing, correct the page or contact the site owner. Next, fill missing information. If assistants cannot say what services you offer or where, add clear service and service area pages. Then work on absence. If you never appear, strengthen the signals that support recommendations: consistent business details, detailed reviews, listings in respected directories and clear expert content on your own site.

Step 6: Check your analytics and ask customers

Look at your website analytics for visits from AI platforms, which some assistants send as referral traffic. Add a how did you hear about us question to your forms and your phone script, with an AI assistant as an option. These real-world signals are slower than a prompt test, but they show whether the visibility turns into calls.

Keep the results in perspective

Treat the audit as a guide, not a scoreboard. Answers vary by person, place and time, and one odd result is not a trend. No one can guarantee a spot in an AI answer, and the assistants change often. Look for direction over several months: whether you appear more often, whether the descriptions are accurate and whether the right sources cite you.

What good progress looks like

Progress is gradual and usually shows up in small ways first. Wrong details disappear from the answers. The description of your business becomes more accurate. You start to appear for a few of your prompts, then more of them. The sources that cite you grow from one or two to several. Over several months, look for the same direction across assistants rather than a perfect result in any one of them.

Who should run it

The owner or office manager can run the audit, since it needs no technical skill. What matters is consistency: the same prompts, the same sheet and the same person each month. If you hand it to an agency, ask for the raw prompts and answers, not only a summary, so you can see what customers would see.

Make it a monthly habit

Set a recurring reminder, run the same prompt list, update the spreadsheet and pick two fixes to make before the next check. Over time you will see which work moves the results and which does not. KNKO Global runs this kind of audit for home service businesses and turns the findings into a clear list of fixes.

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