How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

More homeowners now ask ChatGPT who to call before they search Google. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found that 45% of consumers have used AI tools to find a local business. When they ask, the answer names three or four companies. If yours is not one of them, that customer never sees you.

So we asked it ourselves, 27 times, and wrote down every business it named and every site it read. Then we ran the same searches on Google Maps to see how the two compare. Every answer is listed in full at the end of this page, and you can download the data.

What we tested

On October 24, 2026, we asked ChatGPT about three high-ticket trades (roofers, HVAC and fence companies) in three cities (Plano, Texas; Tampa, Florida; Columbus, Ohio). For each trade and city we asked three questions, worded the way homeowners ask them:

1. “Who is the best roofer in Plano, TX?”
2. “I need my roof repaired in Plano, TX. Who should I call?” (for HVAC: “I need my AC repaired…”; for fence: “I need a new fence installed…”)
3. “Can you recommend a reliable roofer near Plano, TX?”

How we ran it:

• ChatGPT: chatgpt.com in a desktop browser in the US, logged out, with a new chat for every question and no follow-up questions. Logged out means no saved memory or earlier chats could steer the answer.
• What counted as named: every business ChatGPT presented as a pick, in the order it listed them. We did not count businesses that only appeared inside a source’s title.
• Sources: ChatGPT searched the web live for every question and showed small source links next to what it said. We opened every one and noted the site, the page title and the date on the page.
• Google Maps: the same day, we searched “roofers in Plano, TX”, “hvac company in Tampa, FL”, “fence company in Columbus, OH” and so on, and noted the first six businesses that were not ads, with their star rating and number of reviews.

Answers change from day to day, so this is a snapshot of one day. That is also why we asked each thing three ways instead of once.

What we found

• 27 answers named 98 businesses, but only 64 different ones. Each answer named three to five companies.
• Rewording the question changed the answer. Only 8 of those 64 businesses were named in all three versions of the question. For HVAC, not one company was named all three times, in any of the three cities.
• Google Maps and ChatGPT mostly disagreed. Of the 27 businesses in Google Maps’ top 3 across the nine searches, ChatGPT named 10.
• The most-reviewed business was often left out. In four of the nine searches, the company with the most Google reviews among the first six on Maps was never named. One had 11,383 reviews.
• “Best of” lists did most of the work. 24 of 27 answers leaned on at least one ranking list or directory. One site, expertise.com, was cited in 16 of the 27 answers. In 18 answers, at least one source was a page dated October 2026, so ChatGPT was reading pages updated in the last few weeks.

So being in Google’s top 3 does not get you named by ChatGPT, and being named by ChatGPT does not mean you are in Google’s top 3. In Tampa and Columbus, not one of the top 3 roofers on Google Maps came up in any of the six roofing answers.

Where ChatGPT gets its answers

Every answer showed its sources as small links you can hover over. Across the 27 answers they fell into five groups.

1. “Best of” lists, most of them brand new

Pages titled “28 Best Plano, TX Roofers” or “10 Best HVAC Contractors in Tampa (October 2026)” were the most common source by far. expertise.com appeared in 16 answers, BestProsInTown in 9, Birdeye and Yably in 5 each. Many smaller list sites showed up too, including some local ones: Tampa Goes Local, columbustoprated.com, a Plano Community Spotlight page and DFW Outdoor Pros.

ChatGPT often repeated a list’s top picks almost as they were. The ratings it gave usually came from the list, not from Google. When we asked “Who is the best roofer in Plano, TX?”, it named a company first because it was “reported at 5.0 stars with 600+ reviews in recent roofing directories”. That company was not in the first six Google Maps results for roofers in Plano.

Old lists still count. For “Who is the best fence company in Tampa, FL?”, one of the three companies it named was backed by an expertise.com list dated February 2020.

2. Google listings, read directly

In 7 of the 27 answers, ChatGPT cited a business’s Google listing itself, marked “google.com”. In the Columbus HVAC answer below, every company it named had its Google listing as a source, next to a ranking site.

So your Google profile matters for ChatGPT as well as for Google: the rating, review count, address, phone and category it shows were often the same as on Google. One Plano fence company with 74 Google reviews was named in two of the three answers, and in one of them its Google listing was the only source shown for it.

3. Review and directory sites

Yelp, Angi, HomeAdvisor, BuildZoom and the BBB came up throughout. ChatGPT quoted details from them: one Columbus fence company was “BBB-accredited, with an A+ BBB rating”, another had “an A+ rating, though the company is not BBB-accredited”. BuildZoom was used to say a contractor’s license had been verified.

4. Manufacturer directories

Roofing answers also used GAF’s and ARCO’s “find a contractor” pages. When we asked for “a reliable roofer near Columbus, OH”, all three companies it named were backed by GAF directory pages.

5. The businesses’ own websites

For “Can you recommend a reliable fence company near Tampa, FL?”, every source ChatGPT showed was a company website. It repeated what those sites said: family-owned since 2012, licensed and insured, a 10-year labor warranty, the fence materials offered, the areas served. In another Tampa answer it quoted one installer’s published starting prices per foot for wood, vinyl and chain link.

Why the business with the most reviews can still lose

Here are the most-reviewed businesses among the first six Google Maps results for the searches where they were not named:

Thousands of reviews at 4.7 stars or better, and not named once. The Tampa HVAC answers named companies with far fewer reviews instead. The same happened in Plano:

Four things explain most of what we saw.

1. You are not on the lists it reads

ChatGPT builds its shortlist from a handful of pages, and most of them are ranking lists. A business that is big on Google but missing from expertise.com, BestProsInTown, Yably or the local “best of” pages is easy for it to skip. The Tampa HVAC answers drew on ConsumerAffairs, RatingsNearMe, Tampa Goes Local and expertise.com, and the companies they named came from those pages.

2. The question changes the answer

Each wording pulled a different kind of answer:

• “Who is the best…” leaned hardest on ranking lists, and the list’s favorites came first.
• “I need my AC repaired. Who should I call?” favored companies that advertise 24/7 service, and gave phone numbers. One Tampa answer to this question showed no sources at all, just ratings, review counts, phone numbers and “24/7”.
• “Can you recommend a reliable…” brought in licensing, insurance, BBB ratings and warranties.

Answers also split by job type. In Plano, one fence company was the pick for wood privacy fences and another for automatic driveway gates. A business that says clearly what it is best at gives ChatGPT a reason to name it for that job.

3. Your details don’t match from site to site

ChatGPT pieces each business together from several sites. When those sites disagree, it shows the wrong details, or trusts the business less. We saw this again and again:

A 4.4 with 21 reviews was most likely an old or duplicate listing that was never cleaned up. The maps inside ChatGPT’s answers come from Mapbox and OpenStreetMap, not Google, and their ratings did not always match Google’s. You cannot control everything those sites show, but you can make sure every listing you own has the same name, address, phone number and website, and that old or duplicate listings are merged or removed.

4. Your website doesn’t give it anything to quote

When ChatGPT read company websites, it repeated plain facts: years in business, license and insurance, warranty length, materials, towns served, starting prices, emergency service. A website that only says “quality service you can trust” gives it nothing to work with. A page that says “10-year labor warranty, licensed and insured, serving Lutz, Wesley Chapel and Land O’ Lakes” does.

What we learned

Put together, the 27 answers say more than any single one. These are the lessons we took from them.

1. There is no single ChatGPT ranking for your town. Each trade and city had a pool of five to nine businesses, and the wording of the question decided which three or four came out. Had we asked once, we would have had the wrong picture. The goal is to be in the pool, so you come up whichever way the question is asked.
2. Google Maps rank does not carry over. Only 17 of the 64 businesses ChatGPT named were in the first six on Google Maps, and only 12 of the 27 businesses it named first. Doing well on Maps and being named by ChatGPT are two jobs, and they need checking separately.
3. Whoever wrote the latest list has a big say. ChatGPT preferred pages updated in the last few days, and it often repeated a list’s picks in the same order. The sites writing “best roofers in Plano” pages are, in effect, choosing who gets named.
4. It repeats what it reads, mistakes included. Wrong ratings, an old business name and two phone numbers for one company all went straight into answers. It does not check them against Google. Any wrong detail about you on any site can end up in front of a customer.
5. Your town is not a hard limit. It named a roofer based in Carrollton for Plano and a fence company based in Groveport for Columbus. If the lists and directories cover you for a nearby town, you can be named there too.
6. The kind of question sets what counts. “Best” leaned on lists, “who should I call” on 24/7 service and phone numbers, and “reliable” on licenses, BBB ratings and warranties. A business that shows all three gives itself more ways in.
7. Every trade behaved differently. Roofing answers used manufacturer directories such as GAF’s. HVAC was the least predictable, with no company named in all three answers in any city. Fence was the steadiest: in Columbus, Superior Fence & Rail was named first in all three answers. It was only sixth on Google Maps, but it led the lists, had an A+ BBB rating, and the rating and review count ChatGPT showed matched Google’s. Where the sources agree, the answer stays the same.
8. Google still feeds it. Most answers showed a star rating and a review count, and 7 cited Google listings directly. A strong Google profile does not get you named on its own, but a weak one makes it harder.

How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business

Nobody can promise ChatGPT will name you. These six steps fix what we saw holding businesses back in this test, in the order we would do them, and most of them help you on Google Maps too.

1. Find the lists for your trade and town. Search Google for “best [your trade] in [your town]” and open the first two pages of results. Note every list site, especially expertise.com, BestProsInTown, Yably, Birdeye and any local “best of” pages. See whether you are on them and what they say about you. Some let a business claim or update a profile; others choose from public reviews and listings, which is one more reason the next steps matter.
2. Make your details match everywhere. Use the same business name, address, phone number and website on Google, Yelp, the BBB, Angi, HomeAdvisor, BuildZoom, Facebook and every directory you can find. Search your phone number and any old business names to find stray listings, then fix, merge or remove them.
3. Claim the directory profiles it reads. Yelp, the BBB, Angi and BuildZoom came up again and again. A claimed profile with your license, insurance, services and towns is something ChatGPT can quote. Ask a few happy customers to review you there as well as on Google.
4. Get listed by your suppliers. If you install GAF or Owens Corning roofs, Carrier or Trane systems, or a fence brand with a dealer finder, make sure your listing there is current. Roofing answers used those pages directly.
5. Put the facts on your website. One page for each main service and each main town. On them: years in business, license number, insurance, warranty, materials or brands, starting prices if you are comfortable sharing them, and whether you offer emergency service. Your phone number on every page.
6. Keep your Google reviews coming. Almost every answer showed a star rating and a review count, and many came straight from Google. A steady flow of recent reviews keeps those numbers strong wherever they are copied.

The Google Business Profile checklist covers your profile in detail, and how to get more Google reviews covers the reviews.

How to check what ChatGPT says about you

1. Open ChatGPT in a private browser window, so your own history doesn’t affect the answer.
2. Ask the three questions above with your trade and your town. Start a new chat for each one.
3. Write down every business it names. Hover over the small source links next to each name and write down those sites too. Those are the sites you need to be on.
4. Repeat it for the two or three towns around you where you want more work.
5. Check again every month. The lists it reads are updated every few weeks, so the answers change.

Our free Google report runs this test for you, and shows where you appear on Google Maps in each town you serve.

Every answer, in full

All 27 questions, the businesses ChatGPT named in the order it named them, and every source it showed. Names in bold were also in the first six non-ad results on Google Maps for the same search. Asked on October 24, 2026. Download the data (CSV).