Your Business Has a Reputation With AI. Here's How to Check It.

# Your Business Has a Reputation With AI. Here's How to Check It. Your business has a reputation with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI. You just don't know what it is yet. Right now, someone could be asking "best accountant for small business owners" or "reliable plumber near me" and AI is either recommending you, recommending your competitor, or saying it doesn't have enough information to help. Here's how to find out where you stand. ## Test Your AI Reputation in 5 Minutes Open ChatGPT and ask it about your industry in your area. Don't mention your business name. Try these prompts: - "Best [your profession] in [your city]" - "Who should I hire for [your service] in [your area]" - "Recommend a good [your business type] near [your location]" Look at the results. Is your business mentioned? Are your competitors there instead? Now try the same test with Perplexity and Google AI Overview. This isn't about rankings or SEO metrics. This is about whether AI thinks you exist. ## What AI Actually Knows About Your Business AI forms opinions about businesses the same way humans do. It reads everything it can find about you online. Your website. Your Google Business Profile. Local news mentions. Review sites. Industry directories. But here's the thing most businesses miss: AI doesn't just count mentions. It evaluates them. A 2019 blog post about your "grand opening" doesn't carry the same weight as a 2026 article about your expansion. Old information signals to AI that you might not be actively operating. ## The Three Signals AI Looks For **Recent Activity:** When was the last time anything new was published about your business? AI checks timestamps on everything. **Authority Mentions:** Does anyone besides you talk about your business? Local publications, industry sites, or customer testimonials that aren't on your own website carry more weight. **Consistency:** Do all your online profiles tell the same story? AI gets confused when your website says one thing and your directory listings say another. ## Why Some Businesses Are Already Winning Some businesses figured this out early. They're not just hoping AI will find them. They're making sure AI has good information to work with. They publish fresh content regularly. Not because Google told them to, but because AI needs current information to make confident recommendations. They get mentioned in local publications. Not for vanity, but because third-party mentions build credibility with AI systems. They keep their information consistent everywhere online. Because mixed signals make AI less likely to recommend them. ## How to Check Your Mentions Search for your business name plus your city in regular Google. Look beyond your own website and social media. What shows up? Local news articles? Industry publications? Customer reviews on third-party sites? If the only information about your business comes from sources you control, that's a red flag for AI systems. ## The Information AI Can't Use AI can't recommend what it can't access or understand. Images without alt text are invisible to AI. It can't read what's in your photos. Information buried in PDFs often gets overlooked. AI prefers web pages with clear structure. Phone-only information never gets seen. If important details about your business are only available by calling, AI doesn't know about them. ## What Fresh Information Actually Means "Fresh" doesn't mean changing everything constantly. It means showing ongoing activity. A new blog post about industry trends. An updated service page reflecting current offerings. Recent customer reviews mentioning specific projects. AI interprets recent activity as a signal that your business is operational and engaged. ## Testing Your Competitors Do the same reputation check for your main competitors. Are they showing up in AI recommendations when you're not? What information is AI finding about them? This isn't about copying what they're doing. It's about understanding what information AI has access to in your industry. ## The Opportunity Is Right Now Most businesses don't know this is happening yet. They're still focused on traditional SEO while customers quietly start using AI for recommendations. The businesses building their AI reputation now will be the ones customers find later. Winter 2026 is early days for AI business discovery. But it won't stay that way. ## Start With What You Control Check your Google Business Profile. Is it current? Are all the details accurate? Look at your website. When was the last update? Is there a clear description of what you do and who you serve? Review your directory listings. Do they all have the same business information? These basics matter more than any advanced strategy. Your reputation with AI is building whether you're paying attention or not. The question is what story the information tells about your business.