When a customer asks AI, be the one they can book
How people and their AI assistants find a local business today, and where the path to a booked job breaks. Every fact on this page carries its source.
People now ask AI, and more ask it to recommend a local business
45%, up from 6%
BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 45% use generative AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier.
Source: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults.
49% and 44%
Pew Research Center found that 49% of US adults use AI chatbots and 44% use ChatGPT.
Source: Pew Research Center, "Americans and AI 2026", 5,119 US adults, February 2026.
Assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity answer questions using live web results.
Source: OpenAI and Perplexity bot documentation; Google AI for Developers, Gemini API documentation on Google Search; Microsoft Support, Copilot web search documentation.
Showing up in AI answers
Showing up in AI answers means two things: whether assistants mention you at all, and whether what they say about you is right.
Your website is the starting point
Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on Google Search's own index and ranking systems, that a page has to be indexed to be eligible, and that no special AI files or markup are required.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and generative AI optimization guidance.
Your listing counts too
Gemini can draw on Google Maps data covering more than 250 million places, including addresses, opening hours and reviews, and when it does, your listing, not just your website, is what it reads.
Source: Google AI for Developers, "Grounding with Google Maps".
Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that businesses with complete, accurate information are more likely to show up.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, guidelines and local ranking guidance.
It's not only Google
What Apple reads from the web powers Siri, Spotlight, Safari and Apple Intelligence, and the place card you claim in Apple Business Connect is what appears in Apple Maps, Siri, Messages and Wallet.
Source: Apple Support, "About Applebot"; Apple Newsroom, "Introducing Apple Business Connect".
Yelp's business content is used inside ChatGPT and other assistants, and Yelp says its data helps people request quotes from service providers.
Source: Yelp Official Blog, August 2026.
Your audit shows how assistants describe your business.
Being named is step one. Being booked is the job.
Once an assistant names you, the next question is whether the customer, or an assistant acting for them, can get all the way to a booked appointment.
And AI doesn't stop at answering questions. Google already phones local service businesses such as auto repair shops, hair salons and pet groomers on a consumer's behalf, to check price and availability and book appointments, and says it is expanding coverage.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, automated calls from Google on behalf of customers; Google Search Help, checking pricing for local businesses with AI in Google Search; Google blog, July 2025.
Customers can book a local service business directly from Google Search and Google Maps, through Google's Actions Center or through a booking link on the Business Profile.
Source: Google Actions Center documentation; Google Business Profile Help, local business links.
Google's guidance for agent-friendly websites says AI agents don't see your site the way you do: they read a machine-readable version of it, such as screenshots and the code behind the page. It recommends real buttons and links rather than look-alikes, stable layouts and properly labelled form fields. Chrome now ships a check for this in Lighthouse, its site-testing tool.
Source: web.dev, "Build agent-friendly websites"; Chrome for Developers, agent-ready toolkit.
Your audit follows that path for your business: your phone, your listings, your website and your booking path.
Where the path breaks
There are two ways to lose a job here. The assistant never mentions you. Or it mentions you, the customer or their assistant tries to act, and nothing happens.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, automated calls from Google on behalf of customers; Google Actions Center documentation; web.dev, "Build agent-friendly websites".
An assistant is shut out of your site
Every major AI company sends out its own named bots, called crawlers, to read websites, and your site can let each one in or keep it out separately. So a site can let Google in and still keep out the bot an assistant uses for search.
Source: OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Perplexity and Apple bot documentation; Google Search Central.
OpenAI says sites that opt out of its search bot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers," and Perplexity recommends letting its bot in so your site appears in its results.
Source: OpenAI and Perplexity bot documentation.
The page isn't in Google's index, or it opted out
A page has to be in Google's search index to be eligible for its AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and generative AI optimization guidance.
And Google gives site owners a switch to opt out of its generative AI features, and says sites that opt out get no traffic or impressions from them.
Source: Google, "New opportunities, control and insights for website owners".
The words only appear after code runs
If your site only shows its words once JavaScript runs in the browser, here is what Google says: it renders JavaScript in a separate, deferred stage, it only indexes what appears in the finished, rendered page, and not all bots can run JavaScript.
Source: Google Search Central, JavaScript guidance.
Your details aren't spelled out in your site's code
There's even a label for your trade: schema.org, a shared vocabulary for describing a business in a website's code, defines an HVACBusiness type for heating, ventilation and air conditioning businesses. For that label, Google's local business documentation lists business name and address as required, with phone number and opening hours among the recommended details.
Source: schema.org, HVACBusiness; Google Search Central, local business documentation.
The listing is out of date
Wrong hours, an old address, a service area that stops short, a number that no longer rings through: when an assistant draws on your listing, that's what it reads. Google says businesses with complete, accurate information are more likely to show up.
Source: Google AI for Developers, "Grounding with Google Maps"; Google Business Profile Help, guidelines and local ranking guidance.
There's no way to book
Google documents two ways to book a local business on its own surfaces: its Actions Center, or a booking link on your Business Profile. With neither, there's no booking route there for a customer or an agent to use. What's left is your phone.
Source: Google Actions Center documentation; Google Business Profile Help, local business links.
The buttons aren't real buttons
A "Book now" that's really a styled box inside a third-party widget looks fine to a person. Google's guidance says to use a real button or link instead.
Source: web.dev, "Build agent-friendly websites".
The phone rings out
Getting found only matters if a customer can reach you and book. You know how a no-heat call goes: if nobody picks up, the homeowner calls the next contractor on the list and books with whoever answers.
That's the call the voice agent is built for. Once it's set up for you, it answers every call in your company's name, day or night, and books jobs like this one on your schedule.
What your free audit checks
We run every check below on what's public about your business, so there are no logins and nothing to install.
| Area | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Phone path | The path a customer takes to call you, from your listings and website to your line. |
| Listings | Your Google Business Profile and Apple place card: name, address or service area, hours, phone. |
| Reviews | Whether reviews exist and show where assistants read them. |
| Access for AI bots | Which AI and search bots your website lets in, and which it keeps out. |
| Google AI eligibility | Whether your pages are in Google's index, which Google's AI features need. |
| Words on the page | Whether your words make it into the finished, rendered page. |
| Business details | Business type, name, address, phone and opening hours, labelled in your site's code. |
| Buttons and forms | Real buttons and links, a stable layout, labelled form fields. |
| Booking path | Whether a customer or an agent can reach a way to book you at all. |
| How assistants describe you | How AI assistants describe your business. |
Every check comes back Pass, Fail or Unknown. Unknown means we couldn't check it. We tell you why, and it never counts against you.
You get every finding in writing, with the reason behind it, and a plain list of what to fix first.