Does ChatGPT recommend your business?

Step 1, the six questions. Use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. If you're signed in, switch off memory or personalisation first, or use a private window where the tool lets you use it signed out, so it isn't answering from what it already knows about you. Ask each question in a new chat, word for word, with your details filled in:

1. "Who are the best {TRADE} in {TOWN}?"
2. "Can you recommend a {TRADE} near {TOWN} for {A TYPICAL JOB, E.G. A NEW BOILER}?"
3. "Which {TRADE} in {TOWN} have the best reviews?"
4. "I need a {TRADE} in {TOWN} who can {YOUR SPECIALITY}. Who should I call?"
5. "What do you know about {YOUR BUSINESS NAME} in {TOWN}?"
6. "How does {YOUR BUSINESS NAME} compare with other {TRADE} in {TOWN}?"

Questions 1 to 4 are what a new customer would ask. Questions 5 and 6 show what each tool says when someone asks about you by name, including anything it gets wrong (an old address, a service you don't offer, the wrong phone number).

Step 2, the scoring sheet. For each of the 24 answers (6 questions in 4 tools), write down:
- Score: NAMED (you're recommended by name), MENTIONED (you appear, but in passing, low down or with a caveat) or MISSING.
- The first three businesses it named instead.
- The sources it showed, if any. Perplexity usually lists them; the others show links when they search the web. Note the website names (for example a directory, a review site, a competitor's page).
- Anything it got wrong about you.
Lay it out as a grid, questions down the side and the four tools across the top. Answers change from week to week, so one check is a snapshot, not a ranking. Repeat it every month.