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How AI assistants decide which local businesses to recommend

September 9, 2026

More customers now ask ChatGPT, Claude or Google's AI answers questions like "where can I get a good haircut near me?" instead of scrolling through search results. The assistant names a few businesses, and those are often the only ones the customer looks at. Here is what helps your business be one of them.

Where do AI assistants get their information?

Assistants answer local questions by reading the web: business websites, map listings, review sites and directories. When an assistant searches the web for an answer, it reads your pages the way a fast, literal visitor would. If your website clearly states what you do, where and when, the assistant can quote it. If those facts are hidden in images, scattered across pages or missing, it will pick a business whose facts are easier to find.

What should my website say plainly?

• What you do and for whom, in the first sentence of your home page, not only in a logo or a photo.
• Where you are: your full address, or the towns you serve if you travel to customers.
• Your opening hours as text, not as a picture of your door sign.
• How to reach you: a phone number and email written out, plus a contact form.
• Your services, each with a short description, and prices if you are comfortable sharing them.

Write these the way a customer would ask. A heading like "Do you take walk-ins?" with a one-sentence answer is easier for an assistant to quote than a paragraph of marketing copy.

Can AI assistants read my site at all?

Not always. Some websites block AI crawlers in their settings, sometimes by accident through a security plugin or a hosting default. Others load their text with scripts that some crawlers do not run. If an assistant cannot read your pages, it cannot recommend you from them.

A quick way to find out is our free website check. It grades your AI visibility from A to F, including whether assistants like ChatGPT and Claude may read your site and whether it states the facts they quote.

Does my Google Business Profile matter too?

Yes. Map listings and reviews are some of the most common sources for local answers. Keep your profile complete, and make sure its hours, phone number and address match your website exactly. When two sources disagree, an assistant may trust neither.

How Lentil helps

Every Lentil site is written answer-first: what you do, where and how to reach you, stated plainly on the page. Each published page also has a clean Markdown version that AI assistants can read, and the site publishes an llms.txt file that points them to it. Weekly checks flag search, accessibility and AI visibility issues, and Lentil can fix them for you.