09.01Lesson5 min

AI search in five minutes

Your customers ask ChatGPT and Google's AI who to hire, and get two or three names back. What changed, and why your agency is working on it.

More and more customers start by asking an AI assistant: “Who's the best roofer near me?” or “Which dentist in Ankeny takes new patients?”. ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity answer with two or three businesses, often with a reason for each.

There's no page 2 in an answer. A business that's named gets the call. One that isn't never knew it was in the running.

Perplexity Perplexity · Des Moines, IA

Who can replace my furnace this week?

Northbeam Heating & Air is well reviewed for furnace replacements, with same-day estimates and financing [1][2]. Oakline Comfort Co. is another option [3].

  • [1] northbeamhvac.com/furnace-replacement
  • [2] google.com/maps · 312 reviews
  • [3] yelp.com/biz/oakline-comfort

Sample data

An AI answer names a few businesses, with a reason for each.

How the assistants choose

There's no list to pay your way onto. The assistants read what the web says about businesses like yours, then name the ones their sources agree on. They look at:

  • What your website says you do, and where.
  • Your Google Business Profile, its reviews, and how recent they are.
  • Whether the sites they trust mention you: directories, review sites and “best of” lists.
  • Whether your name, address, phone and services match everywhere.

Why it's work, not a setting

None of this has a switch to flip. It's many small things done steadily: pages that answer your customers' questions, listings that match, reviews that keep coming, and being mentioned on the sites AI reads. That's the work your agency does, week by week.

Do this before the next lesson

  • Ask ChatGPT, or Google's AI Mode, the question your customers would ask: “Who's the best [your trade] in [your town]?”
  • Note who it names, and whether you're one of them. Ask again tomorrow: the answer often changes, which is why your agency checks many times.
Go deeper: AI search, explained (free course)

In Groow

If your agency uses Groow, it asks your customers' questions every week, on each AI assistant and several times over, and tracks how often you're named.

Is your agency on Groow?

Agencies use Groow to do this work for every client each week, and to show what it moved in a monthly report written in plain words.

See a sample monthly reportGroow for agencies