How Local Businesses Show Up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini

Ask ChatGPT "who's a good emergency plumber in North York?" and you'll get a short list of names, often with a line about why each one made it. For some customers, that list is now the first step: before Google, before reviews, before a phone call.

So it's worth knowing where those names come from.

Assistants answer from what they can find

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini can all search the web before they answer a question like that one. They read the pages that come back, then write a summary. Perplexity lists its sources under every answer, and ChatGPT and Gemini often show theirs too.

That has a practical consequence. An assistant can only recommend a business it found something about, and it leans on pages that answer the question it was asked. If someone asks what drain cleaning costs in Toronto, a local plumber's page that actually answers that, with real price ranges and what changes them, is the kind of page that gets read and quoted.

What gets a business named

There's no form to fill in and no fee to pay to get recommended. What helps is the same thing that has always helped in search:

• Pages that answer specific questions. What it costs, how long it takes, how to choose, whether it's an emergency, in plain words and with real detail.
• Your town in the text. Assistants are asked about places, and a page that says which neighbourhoods you serve gives them something to match.
• Consistent facts. Your name, services and area should read the same on your website, your Google Business Profile and anywhere else you're listed.
• Steady output. One good page helps. Fifty pages, each answering a different question customers ask, give an assistant far more chances to find you.

What doesn't work

Repeating "best plumber Toronto" down a page doesn't make an assistant believe it. Assistants summarise, so they favour pages that read like a straight answer from someone who knows the work. Thin pages written for a keyword rather than a person are easy to skip.

You also can't check once and be done. Answers change as the assistants search again, and the businesses that keep publishing keep giving them something new to find.

How to find out where you stand

Start by asking. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and type what your customers would: "best [what you do] in [your town]", "how much does [your service] cost in [your town]", "who should I call for [problem]". Note who gets named, and whether you're one of them.

Ask again in a month. If the same competitors keep appearing, look at their websites. You'll often find pages answering exactly those questions, where your site has none.

Where Rankside fits

Rankside does both halves of this for you. Every day it writes and publishes an article to your website that answers a question customers ask about what you do and where. Every Monday it asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini those questions and shows you whether you were named, next to where you rank on Google.

See what it costs, or read how a blog helps a local business rank on Google.