How ChatGPT and Gemini decide which businesses to recommend
AI doesn't rank businesses the way Google ranks links. When someone asks, it brings forward the businesses it understands well enough to match to what that person actually wants, and its answers are personalized to each conversation. The businesses it knows in detail, with trustworthy sources, get put forward; the ones it can't understand, it leaves out.
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Want directions or their online booking link?
Supporting every major AI assistant
There are three kinds of questions, and AI answers them differently
Local questions come in three shapes. The first two lean on what others say about you — reviews, lists, and mentions. The third is where being understood wins, and getting it right lifts the other two.
"[Service] near me"
AI leans on location, hours, and the listings and maps it can pull from. It wants to know you're close, open, and real before it brings you up.
"Best [service] in [city]"
Now it weighs reviews, mentions, and the roundups it's read, alongside how clearly it can describe you, much of it shaped by third parties.
The deeper the question, the more AI has to understand
Real customers rarely stop at "near me." They add requirements like insurance, availability, and specifics, and refine as they go. AI can only bring you forward for these if it truly understands what you offer.
This is where being understood wins — and the same detailed knowledge lifts your "near me" and "best" answers too.
You can't control what others say. You can control what you're telling AI.
Reviews, lists, and mentions come from other people. When AI wants your services, hours, images, pricing, and policies, it prioritizes that coming from you (if you provide it) — and it's what decides which businesses stay in the conversation. These are just some of the details AI often wants:
Services & pricing
What you actually offer, and roughly what it costs.
Availability & schedule
When you're open, and whether you're taking new customers.
Location & contact
Where you are and how a customer reaches you.
Policies & specifics
Booking, cancellations, dietary options, and the fine print.
Certifications & insurance
Credentials, licenses, and what you accept.
Photos & images
What your space, work, or menu actually looks like.
Different assistants know you through different places
ChatGPT and Gemini build their understanding of you from different places, so a business one knows well can be a blank to the other. Being understood everywhere means covering both. (As of 2026.)
SOCi 2026 Local Visibility Index — 1.2% of locations recommended by ChatGPT
Watch AI pick businesses, in real markets
Every week we put 24 real customer questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode (288 answers per market) and publish which local businesses each assistant brings forward, and how accurately it describes them, across 50 US and Canadian markets.
Explore the AI Visibility IndexGive AI what it needs to know
You can't pay your way in, and you can't game it. What you can do is give every assistant an accurate, current source of truth about your business, so it understands what you offer and can bring you forward when a customer's need matches.
That's what Courtyard does. It publishes and maintains a live, AI-readable knowledge base for your business: your services, hours, images, pricing, and policies, in a form ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity can read. As things change, you can easily tell AI what's new, so it's never guessing from outdated or conflicting sources.
No new website. No tricks or guarantees. Just the detail AI needs to understand you and put you forward.
See how Courtyard worksQuestions owners ask
The real questions behind "how do I get ChatGPT to recommend my business?"
Become the small business AI understands the best
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