How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business

By Joshua Albanese, the King of AI SEO · Founder of Spearleaf · Updated 16 October 2026

Ask the question your customers ask

Open a new chat in ChatGPT (signed out, or with memory turned off, so your past chats do not shape the answer). Ask the questions a customer would ask, naming your service and your city:

• "Who would you recommend for [service] in [city]?"
• "What are the best [service] companies in [city]?"
• "I need [specific job] in [neighborhood]. Who should I call?"

Ask each question two or three times. Answers vary from try to try, so one answer tells you little; three tell you a pattern.

How to read the answer

• Recommended: your business is on the list, by name.
• Mentioned: your name appears, but not as a recommendation, or with a caveat.
• Not named: other businesses hold your land.

Look at the sources ChatGPT cites under the answer. Those sites are where it learned about the businesses it named. If you are not on them, that is your first job.

Keep a record

Write down the date, the exact question, the businesses named and the sources cited. Do it every week, the same way. Answers move, and a record is the only way to know whether your work is landing.

Or let the King check for you

Claim your plot: tell the King your business, your service and your city, and you get the ChatGPT answer for that question, word for word, with what it would take to claim your land.

Questions