AI search visibility
AI visibility: do ChatGPT and Geminirecommend your business?
Someone in your town is asking an assistant who the best in your trade is, right now. Every month Rank Pilot asks the same kind of question, shows you the answer, and works on the profile that answer is read from.
Asked on ChatGPT
Who is the best commercial cleaner in Arlington, TX?“Three that come up often are Lone Star Facility Care, Metroplex Commercial Clean and Sundial Janitorial, all with strong reviews for office and post-construction work.”
Not there: your services are not listedMap © Google
- ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI and Ask Maps, monthly
- Named, mentioned or missed
- The questions your customers ask
- No made-up score, ever
See exactly where you stand in AI answers
People have started skipping the list of links and simply asking who is best nearby. Rank Pilot puts those questions to the assistants every month and shows you what came back, word for word, so you are looking at an answer rather than a metric.
- The questions customers in your trade and town ask, put again every month.
- Named, mentioned in passing, or not there at all, per question.
- The businesses the assistant named instead of you.
- How often you get named next to the businesses around you.
| The question asked | ChatGPT | Google AI |
|---|---|---|
| best janitorial service in Arlington | Mentioned | Not there |
| janitorial service near me | Not there | Not there |
| commercial cleaning in Arlington TX | Named | Mentioned |
- Named
- Mentioned
- Not there
- Your business4 of 18 answers
- A competitor nearby11 of 18 answers
- Another nearby3 of 18 answers
You were named in4 of 18
There is no secret list of local businesses
This is the part that surprises owners. An assistant asked for the best plumber in town is not reading a private directory. It is reading your Google profile, what your reviews say, and your own website, and weighing whether the three of them agree.
- No separate index to buy your way into, from anyone.
- Reviews count for the words in them, not only for the stars.
- Which means the work that lifts you here lifts you on Maps too.
- Your Google profileCategory, services, hours, the description
- Your reviewsThe words in them, not just the stars
- Your websiteThe services and the area you claim
Best described, obviously open, and consistent with itself
No assistant publishes how it weighs any of this.
Where ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI get local answers
Each assistant reads from a different place. These three facts come from the companies’ own documentation, and each one ends in a check you can make today.
Google’s AI answers: the same index as Search
Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need no extra markup and no special files: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and an up-to-date Business Profile is on its list of basics. Check: search your business name and see that your site and your profile both come up.
Gemini: what Google Maps knows
Google’s Gemini help names Google Maps among the services Gemini takes public information from. For a local question, that means your Business Profile: category, services, hours and reviews. Check: every field on the profile is filled in, and every one is true.
ChatGPT: your website, through OpenAI’s crawler
OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler surfaces websites in ChatGPT search, and a site that blocks it is not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Check: ask whoever runs your website whether robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot, and whether the site names your services and your area.
How to rank in ChatGPT as a local business
No assistant publishes how it chooses, so be wary of anyone who guarantees a method. These six steps work on what an assistant can actually read about you, and every one of them helps on Google Maps too.
Complete your Google Business Profile
Category, services, hours, and a description that says plainly what you do, who for and where. Rank Pilot fills the gaps and drafts the description; you save it.
List every service in your customers’ words
People ask an assistant for “an emergency dentist open on Saturday”, not for a category. Rank Pilot lists every service you offer and writes each one up the way it gets asked for.
Earn reviews that describe the work
Reviews that mention the job, the area and the result tell an assistant what you are known for. Here is how to get more Google reviews the honest way. Rank Pilot drafts a reply to each one.
Make your website say the same thing
The same name, address, phone, services and area as on your profile. Rank Pilot does not edit your site; it tells you which details to change there.
Update your directory listings
Directories, social pages and map apps that still show an old phone number or address make your business harder to trust. Those you update yourself.
Check what the assistants answer, then check again
Ask the questions your customers ask, and ask again after a change. Rank Pilot does this every month for ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI answers and Ask Maps, and shows you what came back.
The same work moves you on Google Maps
Assistants and Maps read the same profile, so fixing one helps the other. If you are missing from Maps too, start with why a business is not showing on Google Maps. For the weekly upkeep, see Google Business Profile management, done for you.
To see what your profile tells an assistant today, run the one-minute check of your Google profile.
Ask Maps: checked as well
Google has put Gemini inside Maps too, answering questions in plain words with a few suggested places. Rank Pilot puts your customers’ questions to Ask Maps every month and tells you whether you were among the places named. Read how Ask Maps picks the places it names.
$79per location, per month7-day trial
7-day trial
We will not invent a number for this
There is no stable, location-aware ranking inside an assistant the way there is on Maps, so anyone selling you an “AI visibility score” is selling you a figure they made up. What can honestly be shown is what an assistant actually answered, and what can honestly be worked on is what it read to get there.
- Cancel any timeFrom your account, no call
- No setup feeOne price, nothing added on
- Your data is yoursExports on request
Start with what is actually on your profile
The scan reads your Google profile, one of the records an assistant reads: your categories, your services, your reviews and what is missing. About a minute, no card.
- What your profile says
- What is missing from it
- Where your Maps rank sits
Straight answers
AI answers, asked plainly.Short replies.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Neither ChatGPT nor Gemini sells places in its answers to local businesses, and nobody can promise you one.
Why does the answer change when I ask again?
Assistants word each answer afresh, so two runs of one question can name different places. That is why Rank Pilot shows you the actual answers with their date, month after month, instead of a single score.
Does Rank Pilot change my website?
No. It works on your Google profile and drafts your review replies. For your website and directory listings, it tells you what to change.
What does an AI visibility tool actually measure?
An honest one puts the questions your customers ask to the assistants and records whether you were named, mentioned or missing. Rank Pilot does that every month for ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI answers and Ask Maps, and shows you the answers themselves.
Do I need schema markup or an llms.txt file to appear in Google’s AI answers?
Google says no: AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special schema and no AI text file. What counts is a page Google can index and a Business Profile that is complete and current.