Try this right now. Open ChatGPT and type the question your customers would ask: "Best physiotherapist in Indiranagar for a sports injury" or "Good accounting firm for startups in Pune". You'll get three or four names. Are you one of them?
Most owners I ask have never checked. Those short lists are quietly becoming the new first page of Google.
What the assistants look at
Each one works a bit differently, but in practice it comes down to three things:
- Clarity. Can it tell from your website what you do, who it's for and where you are?
- Mentions. Do other sites talk about you: reviews, directories, articles, Reddit threads?
- Consistency. Do your name, address and services match everywhere?
Five things to do this month
- One page per service. "Sports injury physiotherapy in Indiranagar" beats a single "Services" page listing twelve things.
- A plain-language FAQ. Assistants often quote direct answers. Write them the way a customer would ask.
- Fix your listings. Google Business Profile, Practo or Justdial, and the main directories in your industry.
- Ask for specific reviews. "Great service" helps less than "They fixed my shoulder after a cricket injury".
- Get mentioned somewhere useful. A local guide, an industry roundup, a helpful answer in a community thread.
Track it like any other channel
Write down the ten questions that matter most to your business. Once a month, ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and note who gets mentioned:
| Question | ChatGPT | Gemini | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best sports physio in Indiranagar | Not mentioned | Mentioned, #3 | Not mentioned |
| Physio for back pain open on Sundays | Mentioned, #2 | Not mentioned | Mentioned, #1 |
After a few months you'll see the trend, and which competitors keep showing up instead of you.
Questions people ask me
Is this different from SEO?
It overlaps a lot. Good SEO helps. But assistants lean more on clear answers and what other people say about you than on rankings alone.
How long does it take?
Listings and page fixes can show up within weeks. Mentions and reviews build over months.
Learn about our AI search visibility service.
Founder of Overtake. I was a founding engineer at four startups, two of them in Y Combinator. I write about the AI systems I build for small businesses: what works, what doesn't, and how to start.
About meFollow on X