Blog, sample article rebuilt in the v5 design
A customer in Hamilton asks ChatGPT for the best furnace repair company near them, or a good hair salon in Burlington, and your competitor's name comes back. Yours does not. That is not a tech problem. It is a visibility problem, and it is fixable with a short checklist, not a rebuild.
Before you fix anything, find out exactly where you stand. Open ChatGPT and Google AI and ask the questions your customers actually ask, the way they would ask them. Try a few of these, swapping in your own trade and town:
“Who is the best plumber in Hamilton for a burst pipe?”
“What hair salon in Burlington does balayage?”
“Who can fix a furnace in Stoney Creek tonight?”
“Best dentist near Ancaster that takes new patients?”
Write down which businesses get named and which do not. 45% of US consumers used AI for a local recommendation in the past year (BrightLocal), so this test is now a real picture of how a share of your customers are choosing. If your competitor appears and you do not, look at what they have that you do not: a page that names the service, reviews that name the job, a profile that lists the town. That gap is your checklist.
ChatGPT does not guess what your business does. It reads your website, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and your listings, then matches that text against the question. If your best service only appears in a photo, a logo, or a vague line about quality work, AI has nothing to connect to the question. Write each service out by name, in the words a customer would use: furnace repair, drain cleaning, balayage, teeth whitening, snow removal. Give each major service its own page, and name the towns you cover on that page. A page that says we serve the GTA tells AI nothing. A page that says furnace repair in Hamilton, Stoney Creek, and Burlington tells AI exactly who to name. Keep the writing short and true: a page that reads like an answer gets quoted.
AI answers are built from the same public sources a customer would check, so start with those three: your website, your Google Business Profile, and your reviews. Your website should say what you do, where you do it, and how to reach you, on the first screen. Your Google Business Profile should be complete: every service listed, hours up to date, the towns you serve named, and real photos of real work. Your reviews should name the exact job and the town, because that is the language AI repeats back. And your name, phone number, and address must match exactly on your site, your profile, and every directory listing. One different phone number or an old address is enough for AI to doubt which business is yours.
A review that says great service tells AI almost nothing. A review that says fixed our burst pipe in Stoney Creek the same night tells AI your trade, your town, and your speed in one sentence. After a good job, ask the customer to name the job in the review: what you did, and where. Make it easy by sending the review link while the job is still fresh, right after you finish. One honest, specific review does more for AI visibility than ten generic five star reviews. Never write reviews for yourself, and never pay for them: a caught fake costs you more than no review at all.
Work through this list in order. Most of it takes an afternoon, and you can check your progress by running the 10 minute test again when you finish.
Search your business in ChatGPT and Google AI with the questions your customers ask, and write down who gets named instead of you.
Give each major service its own page, written in plain words, with the towns you cover named on the page.
Complete your Google Business Profile: every service listed, hours current, towns named, and real photos of real work.
Make your name, phone number, and address match exactly on your website, your profile, and every listing.
Ask happy customers for reviews that name the exact service and the town where the work happened.
Add a service area page for each town you cover, such as Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Burlington, and the rest of the GTA.
Put your phone number at the top of every page, and answer it, because a business AI names is only useful if the call gets picked up.
If you work through the list and your competitor still shows up while you do not, the gap is usually depth: more pages, more specific reviews, or more listings saying the same true story. Keep going. Nobody can guarantee rankings on Google or mentions in AI answers, and anyone who promises that is selling you something. What you can control is whether AI has enough clear, honest material about your business to name you at all.
The Minimum is a complete website, built first before you pay anything, for a $2000 one time build fee that is due only when you love it and it goes live, then $200 a month maintenance. The growth packages are priced whole, website included: Get Named by AI is $399 a month and Get Found Everywhere is $499 a month. The two growth packages are free for the first 3 days. There is no contract, and you can cancel anytime.
One honest note: nobody can guarantee rankings on Google or mentions in AI answers, and anyone who promises that is selling you something. What this work does is make sure your business can actually be found, read, and chosen when people ask.
Run the free AI Search Visibility check. It looks at what AI and Google can read about your business today and shows you the gaps, in plain language, with no obligation.