Generative engine optimization for local businesses

Per BrightLocal's 2026 survey, use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45%. Per the SOCi Local Visibility Index 2026, "ChatGPT recommends 1.2% of brand locations, compared to an average 35.9% appearance rate" in Google's local 3-Pack. Those figures describe locations of multi-location brands, not every business, but the gap shows why the map results alone are no longer enough.

An assistant builds an answer from sources it can read and from what other sites say about a company. A roofer with a thin website and no mentions elsewhere gives it little to work with. A roofer whose name, services, and service area match across the web is easier for anyone, person or assistant, to describe correctly.

Access is the first thing to check, and the rules differ by assistant. OpenAI states that "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Its other crawler, GPTBot, covers training, and OpenAI says that "Disallowing GPTBot indicates a site's content should not be used in training generative AI foundation models." The two are controlled separately, so a business can choose to appear in ChatGPT search while declining training use.

Perplexity works the same way. PerplexityBot is "designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity" and "is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models." We read your robots.txt rules for AI crawlers before anything else, because a blanket block put in place by a template or a plugin can keep a company out of these answers without anyone noticing.

Our work starts with an entity audit: how your business is named, described, and categorized on your site and in the places that repeat it. Gaps and contradictions in that picture are what an assistant stumbles over. The entity building service covers the fixes and the off-site mentions that reinforce them.

Next is the citable asset and original-data program. A page an assistant can cite has something specific to say: a real price range explained, a process described step by step, or numbers from your own jobs. We help you decide what your company can publish that others do not already say, and we never invent figures. Everything on the page has to be true and sourceable.

Then comes structured data implementation, which states your services, hours, and service area in a machine-readable form that search engines use to understand a business. We do not claim it makes ChatGPT or Perplexity cite you.

After that we build an off-site citation and digital PR plan: the local directories, trade associations, and press mentions that are plausible places for your company to appear. The ChatGPT visibility page goes into how recommendations in that assistant are shaped.

Last is measurement. With AI mention and citation-rate tracking, we check a set of customer questions on a schedule and record whether your company is named and which sources are cited. The AI citation tracking page describes the reporting.

Everything above concerns mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, one line of our wider services. Pages written to be pulled into Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode belong to answer engine optimization. The map results and the profile behind them are the work of local SEO, which also covers keeping your listings consistent. Our practical guide on getting cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity is a good read even if you never hire us.

These trade pages show how the questions differ. Details are on the AI search pages for HVAC, roofing, electrical, and restoration companies. To see how an assistant-ready site compares with yours, the free audit scores your AI assistant readiness.