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AI search check · published August 31, 2026

How to Check What ChatGPT Says About Your Business

You can run a useful first check in about fifteen minutes. The goal is to find wrong or missing facts and see which sources support the answer. One run cannot prove a stable ranking, a recommendation, or the cause of an answer.

By Christopher Buchner, founder of PruneQ

Before you start

Use an AI product that can search the web, and record whether web search is turned on. Results can vary by product, account, location, wording, and time, so keep the setup and wording as consistent as you reasonably can.

OpenAI says public pages can appear in ChatGPT search when OAI-SearchBot can access them. Treat crawler access as an eligibility check, not a promise that a page will appear, rank, or be cited in a particular answer.

Do not grade the answer with a made-up score. Save the answer, check the facts, and record the cited pages. That gives you evidence you can compare later.

Run these three checks

01

Check your exact business name

What is [business name], who runs it, and what services does it offer?

Look for the correct company, founder, service, location, price, and website. Write down anything that is missing, stale, or attached to a different business.

02

Check the service facts

What does [business name] help customers with, and who is the service for?

Compare the answer with the homepage, service pages, About page, and current public profiles. The goal is factual consistency, not a flattering summary.

03

Check a buyer question

How should a [buyer type] choose help with [specific problem]?

This shows the sources and language used for the category without forcing the answer to mention you. Absence from one answer is an observation, not a stable rank or proof of lost business.

Record enough to repeat it

  • The exact prompt
  • The date and AI product used
  • Whether web search or browsing was enabled
  • The answer or a screenshot
  • Every factual error or missing fact
  • Every cited page and domain
  • The matching page or profile you control

If you want a deeper method, use the five-prompt AI search baseline. It adds a frozen prompt set, source tracking, and a repeatable 30 to 45 day check.

Fix the clearest source problem first

  1. Correct the visible fact on your own website if it is wrong or unclear there.
  2. Make the business name, founder, service, location, and website agree across profiles you control.
  3. Give each important service one useful page with a clear buyer, problem, scope, proof, and next step.
  4. Link important pages from crawlable navigation or relevant page copy.
  5. Add structured data only when it matches facts people can see on the page.
  6. Ask search engines to recrawl meaningful changes, then allow time for their systems to process them.

Google's own guidance says AI search features use the same core website and search fundamentals as the rest of Google Search. Clear, useful, crawlable pages matter. No markup, file, or vendor can guarantee that a search or AI system will cite or recommend a business.

Primary guidance