How to get recommended by ChatGPT and Google's AI answers

On October 28, 2026, we typed “best electrician in Pleasanton CA” into ChatGPT and into Google, on the same afternoon. We picked a trade and city where WebByline has no clients, so we weren’t testing anyone we work with. Then we did the part most “get found by AI” posts skip: we traced where every name came from.

This post shows what came back, what the vendors say about how their AI finds sources, and what a local business can do about it. The businesses below are called Business A, B, C and so on. The point is the pattern, not the names.

Why does this matter for a local business?

Contractors are already hearing about it from customers. A February 2026 report from Scorpion, a home services marketing company, says 22% of homeowners now use AI tools such as ChatGPT to research or find recommendations. It also says 80% of home services business leaders are unsure how to appear in AI-driven search results.

Two cautions on those numbers. They come from two national surveys run with the research firm Dynata: 2,000 U.S. homeowners aged 25 and older who hired a trades professional in the past 18 months, and 944 home services business leaders. Scorpion says the surveys were done in late 2025 and doesn’t state the survey mode. And Scorpion sells marketing, so read the framing with that in mind. The sample is homeowners who recently hired a trade, not all homeowners.

What did ChatGPT recommend, and where did the names come from?

ChatGPT worked for about 22 seconds and returned four local electricians. It named each one’s rating and review count, and gave each a short label: best overall for residential work, best for EV chargers and panel upgrades, best for larger projects, best for emergencies.

What we could trace:

• Two of the four carried a Yelp icon beside their rating, which points to Yelp as the source of that rating.
• One was tied to the business’s own website. ChatGPT pulled a license number from the business’s own website and told us to verify it with the California Contractors State License Board. That’s good advice, and it’s a source type you control.
• Two of the four showed no source at all next to their names. We can’t say where those came from.

So even in one answer, the sources were uneven. Some claims had a visible source and some didn’t.

What did Google’s AI answer recommend?

Google showed paid ads above its AI answer, then the AI answer, then a map pack. The AI answer listed five electricians. For each it gave a star rating and a few services, such as panel upgrades, EV chargers and generators. Its sources panel listed these types of pages:

• A Yelp “best electricians in Pleasanton” list, updated October 2026
• A local directory of certified contractors
• One business’s own website
• Booking pages from two lead and scheduling platforms
• A neighborhood community post site
• Two Google Business Profile pages

The descriptions leaned on those sources. One business was described as a certified, long-established local contractor, which matches the directory’s wording. Another was described by its rating and a three-review count. That one was ranked fourth.

What did each answer rely on, side by side?

	ChatGPT	Google’s AI answer
Businesses named	4	5
Sources shown	Yelp icons on two ratings, one business’s own website, the state license board	Yelp list, a certified-contractor directory, a business’s own website, two booking platforms, a community post site, two Google profiles
Names with no visible source	2 of 4	Not broken out per name
Paid ads above the answer	None seen	Yes, two

The two columns don’t line up, which is the next finding.

What did the two answers have in common?

Less than you’d expect:

• Only one business appeared in both answers. ChatGPT named four, Google’s AI named five, and the overlap was a single name. Ask the same question in two places and you get two short lists.
• The same business showed different review counts. The business that appeared in both showed noticeably different review counts on Google and in ChatGPT’s answer. The number likely depends on which platform the answer drew from. We can’t say for certain which one each answer used.
• Review count didn’t decide the order. Google’s AI listed a business with three reviews ahead of businesses with dozens or hundreds.

We ran one query on one day. That’s an observation, not a ranking study. We can’t tell you how often this pattern holds.

What do OpenAI and Google say about how to appear?

Both are plain about it, and neither promises a result.

OpenAI. Its crawler page says OAI-SearchBot is the crawler for search, and recommends allowing it in your robots.txt file. OpenAI says sites that opt out won’t appear in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still show up as links. OpenAI’s help page adds that “there is no way to guarantee top placement.” It also says search sometimes uses partner providers, and that responses may show a sources panel. GPTBot is a separate crawler that controls whether your content may be used for training, and the two settings are independent.

Google. Its Search Central page says “there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” You don’t need special markup, and there’s no special schema. To appear as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. Google also says it may use “query fan-out,” issuing multiple related searches across subtopics.

For local results, Google’s ranking page says results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”

What can a business actually do?

None of the above is a guarantee, so here is what the sources support, no more:

1. Make sure the crawlers can reach you. Your site has to be indexed by Google, and OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot. Check your robots.txt, and ask your host whether a firewall or CDN is blocking OpenAI’s published IP addresses, since OpenAI recommends allowing both.
2. Keep every profile the AI might read accurate. In our test the answers drew on Yelp, a directory, the business’s own site and Google profiles. Names, phone numbers, hours and services should match everywhere.
3. Put the facts on your own site. ChatGPT pulled a license number from one business’s own website. Services, service area, license and years in business belong on a page of yours, in plain text.
4. Earn reviews on the platforms AI reads. Google says reviews affect prominence. In our test the two answers showed different counts for the same business, so a review gap on one platform can show up in one answer and not the other.
5. Don’t buy a “guaranteed AI ranking.” Both vendors say it doesn’t exist.

What to do about it this week

1. Run your own version of the test. Search “best [your trade] in [your city]” in ChatGPT and in Google, on your phone and signed out. Write down the date.
2. For each business named, note which source the answer used. Look at the sources panel or the small source icons.
3. Check whether you appear. If you don’t, look at which sources the winners had that you don’t.
4. Open your robots.txt (yourwebsite.com/robots.txt) and confirm OAI-SearchBot isn’t blocked.
5. Search your business name on Yelp and Google. Fix any wrong phone number, hours or category.
6. Add your license number, service area and services in plain text to your site if they aren’t there.
7. Repeat the test in a month. Answers change, so one result isn’t a trend.

If you’d like help with the profiles and site side of this, it’s part of our SEO and content marketing work. And for the Google profile basics, see why a business doesn’t show on Google Maps.

Sources

1. Scorpion · Feb 19, 2026Scorpion's New Industry Report Reveals a Disconnect Between Homeowners and Local Service Businesses
2. OpenAI · Oct 29, 2026Overview of OpenAI Crawlers
3. OpenAI Help Center · Oct 29, 2026ChatGPT search
4. Google Search Central · Oct 29, 2026AI features and your website
5. Google Business Profile Help · Oct 29, 2026How to improve your local ranking on Google
6. WebByline · Oct 28, 2026Our own test: "best electrician in Pleasanton CA" in ChatGPT and Google