Will ChatGPT recommend your business? A 5 minute check for NZ small businesses
More Kiwis are asking AI for recommendations. Here’s a free 5 minute check to see whether ChatGPT and friends know your business.
The Big Idea
Think about the last time you needed a plumber, a hairdresser or somewhere new for lunch. A few years ago you’d have typed it into Google. More and more, people are asking ChatGPT instead.
Kiwis now send close to 10 million messages to ChatGPT every day, according to OpenAI, and the number of weekly users here grew by more than 20% in the past year. Plenty of those messages sound a lot like "who’s the best electrician in Rolleston?"
Here’s the uncomfortable bit. When someone asks an AI tool for a recommendation, it gives them a handful of names, not ten pages of results. If yours isn’t one of them, you never get a look in.
The good news is you can check where you stand in about five minutes, for free.
If the internet can’t agree on who you are, an AI tool won’t either.
Ask Elizabeth
If people are using ChatGPT now, do I still need to worry about Google?
Yes. Both matter. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is what helps Google and the other search engines find you. AI search, sometimes called AEO, is what helps the AI tools understand you. They feed off a lot of the same information, and Google has AI answers built into its own results now too.
The more places you put clear, correct words about you and your business, the more consistent your message is for anyone, or anything, looking for what you offer.
