Why this matters now
When a property owner asks ChatGPT for a good manager in their city, or a general counsel asks Perplexity which firms handle a certain kind of appeal, the answer names a few businesses and links to a few pages. If you are not in that short list, the buyer may never reach your website.
The tools also disagree with each other. One large study found that 89% of the websites ChatGPT cited for a question were never cited by Perplexity for the same question. Another found the tools agree far more on which businesses to name than on which pages they cite. So checking one tool once tells you very little.
Step 1: Write down the questions your buyers ask
Use the words buyers use. The best source is your own sales calls and inbox: the questions people ask before they hire you. Aim for 10 to 20 questions, such as:
- "Who are the best property managers for small apartment buildings in Tacoma?"
- "How do I find an appellate lawyer for a business dispute?"
- "What should a landlord know about the new rent increase notice rules?"
Mix three kinds: questions that ask for a recommendation, questions that compare options, and plain how-to questions in your field.
Step 2: Ask each tool, one at a time
Run every question in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google (look at the AI summary at the top). Use a private window and do not sign in, so your own history does not shape the answer. For each answer, write down:
- Whether your business is named, and where in the answer
- Which competitors are named instead
- Which pages are linked as sources, yours or anyone else's
- Anything the answer gets wrong about you
A simple spreadsheet with one row per question and one column per tool is enough.
Step 3: Read the gaps
Three patterns show up again and again:
- Named, but described wrong. Your services, prices or service area are out of date somewhere. Fix your own site first, then your listings.
- Not named, and the cited pages are directories or review sites. The tools trust those sources for your category. Get listed there, and ask happy clients for reviews.
- Not named, and the cited pages are a competitor's own articles. They answered the question on their site and you did not. Write a better answer.
Step 4: Make your answers easy to quote
AI tools pull short, self-contained passages. Pages that get quoted tend to:
- Answer one question per page, in the first two sentences
- Use real numbers: prices, timelines, service areas, how many clients or properties
- State the same facts the same way everywhere: your site, your Google listing, your directory listings
- Include a short questions-and-answers section in plain language
Then get mentioned elsewhere: trade associations, local business directories, podcasts, client stories you have permission to share, and posts on LinkedIn that answer the same questions.
Step 5: Check again every month
Keep each tool on its own line. They change on different schedules, and one combined score hides which one moved. Track two things separately: how often your business is named, and how often your own pages are cited.