What does ChatGPT say when someone asks about your business? Here’s how to check.

This summer, right after I rewrote every page on my studio’s website, I asked an AI bot to describe us. It mixed my studio up with other organizations named Monarch. I wrote about why that happens in an earlier piece. This piece is the practical half: how to check what these tools say about you, and what to do about it.

The first look takes about twenty minutes. Open a blank document before you start, because you will want the exact wording of every answer later.

Here’s what’s inside:

• The four questions. Prompts you can copy and paste.
• How to read the answers. The four problems that show up and how to tell them apart.
• What to fix first. The order that saves you the most time.
• Where this check falls short. What twenty minutes can’t tell you.

Ask four questions, in this order

Most people check by typing their own name. If the answer looks decent, they stop there. That is the least useful test you can run, because the person who already knows your name was never the problem.

1. The name question. What is [your organization] and what does it do? This shows whether the AI bot knows who you are at all, or has you confused with someone who shares your name.
2. The category question. Who are the best [what you do] for [who you serve] in [your city]? Watch for whether you appear without being named. The names that do appear are your real competition in these tools.
3. The problem question. Write it the way a customer would on a bad night, in their words instead of your service names. For example: Our website looks outdated and nobody on our team can update it. Who can help?
4. The comparison question. How does [your organization] compare to [a competitor]? It is uncomfortable to read. It is also the fastest way to learn what the internet thinks your weak spot is.

Run all four in ChatGPT and at least one other AI bot. They pull from different sources and often disagree. Write down where they do.

Then run them again in Spanish

In my testing the two languages often return different names for the same question. There is much less Spanish-language material about most organizations and businesses, so the AI bot leans on whatever it can find. Sometimes that is a directory listing from 2019.

If your audience includes Spanish speakers, testing in Spanish is important. Here are the same four questions, written the way a Spanish speaker would actually type them:

• ¿Qué es [tu organización] y a qué se dedica?
• ¿Quiénes son los mejores [lo que haces] para [a quién sirves] en [tu ciudad]?
• Nuestro sitio web se ve viejo y nadie del equipo lo puede actualizar. ¿Quién nos puede ayudar?
• ¿Cómo se compara [tu organización] con [un competidor]?

Sort every answer into one of four problems

When you read the answers back, each problem you find will be one of these. They need different fixes, so it is worth naming them correctly before you change anything.

1. Absence. You are not in the answer at all. This is rarely a problem with your website. It usually means nobody else online has written about you, so there is nothing for the AI bot to find.
2. Staleness. You are there, but described the way you were two years ago. Your site moved on and the rest of the internet did not. This is the most common problem and the easiest to fix.
3. Confusion. You have been mixed up with another organization that shares your name. The fix is one consistent name everywhere, plus links to profiles that are clearly yours.
4. Invention. The AI bot says something about you that is not true anywhere. It happens less often than people fear. It is also the hardest to correct, because you are up against a confident guess.

Paste the exact answer, with the date

Copy each reply word for word into your document. Note the date, the AI bot and the exact question next to it. Don’t summarize, because the wording is the thing you are tracking.

Then run the same check a month later. One round is noisy. Three or four rounds show you which way things are moving, and that is the only honest way to know whether anything you changed worked.

Fix staleness first and absence last

Start with staleness because it is the cheapest fix. Make sure a plain, current description of what you do sits on your site where an AI bot can find it.

Next, fix confusion. Use one spelling of your name and one main web address everywhere, and link out to the profiles that already exist for you. It is about an hour of work, and most organizations have never done it.

Absence takes the longest because it depends on other people. AI bots mention you when other sites talk about you: partner pages, directories, local press and client stories. That builds over months, and nothing you add to your own site replaces it.

What twenty minutes won’t tell you

This check has real limits. Answers change from one run to the next, so a single test tells you very little. AI bots also tailor answers to the person asking, so what you see is not exactly what a stranger sees.

What you do get is a written record of what these tools are telling people about you today. If you would rather not run it yourself, Monarch does a free AI visibility check and sends you the results within 48 to 72 hours.

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