How to check whether ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews name your local business
If you own or market a clinic, a law firm or a service company in a UK or US city, your next client may ask ChatGPT or Google for the best [your type of business] in that city and get a short list of names. If you have never checked whether your business is on that list, this post shows you how to check it yourself with a browser and a spreadsheet. Below is the method I use and what it showed on a real med spa on 23 October 2026.
Why one question asked once tells you very little
AI answers change. Ask an engine the same question twice and it can name different businesses. Engines also guess where you are from your connection when the question has no place in it. So use fixed questions with the place name in each one, ask them the same way every week and log every answer in the same columns.
Step 1: write 10 fixed buyer questions
Write the questions a real client would type: 8 general ones and 2 that use your business name. Here is the template I use. Fill in the brackets once and then never change the wording, because a reworded question can't be compared with last week's answer.
- What are the best [type of business] in [city]?
- Where can I get [main service] in [neighbourhood], [city]?
- Which [city] [type of business] offer [service] packages?
- [Service] near [neighbourhood], [city]: which ones are good?
- Which [city] [type of business] have [something you offer, such as a monthly membership]?
- Where can I get [second service] in [city]?
- Best [service] for [problem] in [city]: which [type of business]?
- I want a top rated [type of business] in [neighbourhood], [city] for a first visit. What do you recommend?
- What is [business name] in [city] known for?
- What is the address, phone number and opening hours of [business name] in [city]?
Put the city in every question. In my med spa run, question 8 named two neighbourhoods and left the city out. Both ChatGPT and Google answered it for places with the same names in another state, so that answer said nothing about the business I was checking. My connection was in Bulgaria, which is one more reason the engine can't be left to guess the place.
Step 2: run them the same way every week
- Open a private browser window and stay logged out.
- Start a new chat for every question in ChatGPT, and never ask a follow-up. In my run ChatGPT searched the web on its own, without a toggle.
- In Google, search the question exactly as written and read the AI Overview at the top. If no Overview shows, write that down, because that is a result too. Stay out of AI Mode, since it is a different product.
- Paste each question from your list instead of retyping it, and save the full answer and a screenshot.
Step 3: log the same columns for every answer
One row per answer. Here is the table, with three real rows from my med spa run. Names are left out.
| Date | Engine | Question | Named? | Site cited or linked? | Position | Named instead | Facts right? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Oct | ChatGPT | 3, laser hair removal packages | yes | yes | 1st | 5 others | n/a | |
| 23 Oct | Google AI Overviews | 2, Botox in a neighbourhood | no | no | 4 others | n/a | first in the map pack under the Overview | |
| 23 Oct | Google AI Overviews | 10, address, phone and hours | yes | yes | no, Saturday hours wrong | hours match a directory site |
Fill in "Facts right?" for questions 9 and 10 only. Check every fact the answer states against your own website and your Google Business Profile. Write the names in "Named instead" in the order the engine gave them.
What one run on a real med spa showed
I ran this list for a med spa that is not a client, logged out, in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
- Of the 8 general questions, ChatGPT named the med spa in 3 and the Google Overview named it in 1. In one of the 3 ChatGPT answers it appeared only as a pin on the map, with no mention in the text.
- In one Google search the med spa was missing from the Overview but came first in the map pack under it. Log the map pack in your notes column, because it is a separate result from the Overview.
- Both engines named it for both questions asked by name and linked its website each time.
- ChatGPT got the address, phone and hours right. The Google Overview said Saturday was 11 AM to 4 PM. The med spa's homepage says Saturday is by appointment only, its own contact page showed a different Saturday time again, and the hours in the Overview matched a third-party directory listing.
- For "What are the best med spas in [city]?", the sources ChatGPT showed were three med spa directories, Yelp and Google. The business's own website was not among them.
That is one run. The plan for this sample is 3 runs on 3 different days, and I'd want all three before calling anything a pattern.
What to do with the log
Start with the facts column. If an engine gets your hours wrong, compare the hours on your homepage, contact page, Google Business Profile and directory listings, and make them all match. Then check your listing on the directories the engines cite.
Check your own site's code too. In a check of 50 med spa homepages in October, at least 27 gave no street address in their structured data and 11 got the business name wrong there. That study asked no AI engine anything, so it shows missing facts on sites and says nothing about who gets named.
Get the full audit
If you run a clinic, a law firm or a service company in a UK or US city and want this done properly, the AI Visibility Audit is the same method run in depth. I write your city into every prompt and run each prompt 3 times in each engine in your package, on 3 different days, with a fresh browser session and a new chat each time. You get screenshots of what the engines answered and which businesses they named instead of you, a check of your Google Business Profile and how you show in the map pack, your reviews compared with 3 local competitors, a technical check of up to 50 pages of your site and a list of the questions clients ask that your site never answers. All of that becomes a prioritized list of fixes, and each fix says who should do it. The report arrives 3 to 5 business days after you answer the intake email, and if it is late or has fewer than 10 specific, prioritized fixes, you get a full refund and keep the report. The audit is read-only, so I never ask for passwords or access to your accounts.
If you want a quick first look before that, the free AI city check asks ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews 3 client questions with your city in each, once in each engine, and I email you who they named.