More and more people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google itself to find a business: "a plumber open on Sundays near me", "a bakery with gluten-free bread near the station". These tools do not already know your business. They look up information at the moment they answer, and only repeat what they find written clearly somewhere on the web.
How these tools find information
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude do not have direct access to your Google Business Profile. When they answer a local question, they most often rely on a web search carried out at the moment the question is asked, and read the pages they find, including your website if it exists and is accessible. Google's AI answers, on the other hand, rely on Google's standard search index, which includes both your Google listing and your website. In both cases, the principle is the same: the more clearly an item of information is written in readable text, the more likely it is to be picked up, and picked up correctly.
The information these tools actually pick up
These tools do not guess anything. They extract text they can read directly. In practice, what matters for a local business is:
- Opening hours written out in full in the page text, not only shown in an image or an interactive calendar that a machine struggles to read.
- The complete address (number, street, town, postcode) present in the page text, not only on an embedded map.
- A list of services offered, named clearly (for example "boiler repair", "electrical callout"), rather than a vague phrase such as "all work undertaken".
- The phone number and email address shown as plain text, not only present within an image or a logo.
This information is usually already on your Google Business Profile. For an AI to pick it up, the challenge is to have it written, with the same wording, on your website as well.
Why consistency between your website and your Google listing matters
When opening hours or an address differ between your website and your Google listing, a tool that cross-checks both sources may pick up the wrong information, or decide not to cite your business at all for lack of certainty about the correct answer. This is one of the points covered in why keeping your Google listing updated matters for your business. On SiteServi websites, the opening hours, address and phone number of an active customer update automatically from their Google listing, usually within a week, which prevents a forgotten change on the website from contradicting the listing.
What does not work: stuffing the page with keywords
Repeating "best cheap plumber emergency Paris" several times on a page does not make your business more visible to these tools. They do not count how often a word appears, they look for facts they can verify and cite without risk of being wrong: a precise opening time, an address, a named service. A page that piles up keywords without concrete information is simply less useful to extract, for a human reader as much as for an AI. It can even come across as unprofessional.
What this channel realistically offers, and what it does not
One point is worth stating honestly: today, the large majority of local searches still go through Google Maps and standard Google search, not through ChatGPT or Perplexity. For a local business, being cited by a general-purpose AI remains a marginal channel in terms of volume. No tool can guarantee that a business will be cited, how often, or within what timeframe, and no provider should promise you otherwise. Preparing a website with clear information costs nothing extra: it primarily helps human visitors and standard Google search, and it also happens to be what helps an AI, when the opportunity arises, cite your business correctly.
Where to start in practice
A few simple checks, with no particular technical skill required:
- Write your opening hours as readable text on your homepage or contact page, not only in a widget or an image.
- Check that your complete address appears in the text of your website, matching the one shown on your Google listing.
- List your services using simple, precise words, the way a customer would describe what they are looking for.
- Compare your website and your Google listing regularly: same opening hours, same address, same phone number.
These are, in fact, broadly the six things a customer looks for on your business website. What helps a human visitor find their way around helps, just as much, an AI cite your business correctly.