AEO guide 02
Each AI assistant draws local answers from a different mix of listings, review sites, and websites. Keep your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Business listings claimed and accurate, because together they feed most of the assistants your customers use.
← All answer engine optimization guidanceCustomer asks
Listings are checked
Reviews are weighed
Websites are read
Options are shown
Why this matters
When someone asks an assistant for a plumber, a salon, or a dentist nearby, the assistant does not invent a list. It pulls from sources it trusts: Google uses your Google Business Profile, reviews, and websites; ChatGPT shows business details from partners such as Yelp; Copilot relies on Bing; Siri and Apple Maps use Apple's own business listings. A business missing from one of those sources can be missing from that assistant's answer.
Customers are starting to use these answers. BrightLocal's 2026 consumer survey of 1,002 U.S. adults found 45% had used AI for local recommendations, most often ChatGPT and Google AI Mode. The same self-reported survey found 88% of those users check the recommendation before acting. If the assistant's answer and your listing disagree, you lose that customer's trust.
Responsible practices
Google says keeping your Business Profile information current helps you appear in both AI responses and regular search results. AI Overviews and AI Mode also draw on websites and reviews. Ask Maps, a Gemini chat inside Google Maps that launched in March 2026 in the U.S. and India, draws on Google's place data and reviews from more than 500 million contributors.
OpenAI says ChatGPT search runs its own crawler and sometimes partners with other search providers, and its privacy links name Microsoft. For nearby business listings it may share an approximate location with third-party providers, and restaurant reservations come through OpenTable, Resy, or Yelp. In August 2026, Yelp said its reviews, business details, and service quote requests now appear in ChatGPT. OpenAI has no listing program for local businesses.
Microsoft Copilot answers are grounded in Bing's index, and Bing Webmaster Tools reports when your pages are cited in Copilot. Microsoft relaunched Bing Places in October 2025 with a faster import from Google Business Profile and says it plans deeper integration with Copilot. Claiming it takes a few minutes if your Google profile is already accurate.
Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Connect) launched in April 2026 and controls the place card customers see in Apple Maps, Safari, Spotlight, and Siri. Apple does not publish how Siri ranks local recommendations. Industry reporting also says Yelp licenses data to Apple Maps.
Amazon has announced Alexa+ integrations with Yelp for reviews and home services, Angi for quotes from trades, and Square for salon and spa booking. Perplexity added Yelp data to its local results in 2024 and does not publish its current local sources. For many businesses, Yelp is now a source for several assistants at once, not just a review site.
Across assistants, the same four things keep coming up: claimed listings, genuine reviews, a clear website, and mentions on other trusted sites. One industry test of 2,880 ChatGPT prompts in August 2026 found Yelp supplied the business details in most runs, though ChatGPT's behavior changes often. Rather than chase one assistant, keep all four accurate and consistent.
Worked example
Hypothetical example: a three-chair hair salon wants to know which of its accounts affect which assistant. The owner maps each assistant to the source it most likely reads.
Five assistants, five slightly different sources. The salon keeps one set of facts and copies it into each account.
Listing check
Claim or confirm your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Business listings.
Import your Google Business Profile into Bing Places, then check every imported field.
Make sure the booking or quote link on each listing works.
Ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode for your service in your town, and note which sources they cite.
List the trade directories and booking platforms customers in your industry actually use.
Keep a single list of every listing you own, with login owner, last update date, and the details shown.
Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools and share its AI Performance report with you each month.
Confirm your website allows the search crawlers used by ChatGPT, Bing, Google, and Apple.
Avoid these mistakes
AI assistants decide what to show, change often, and can give different answers to different people, so mentions, citations, and recommendations are not guaranteed.
Questions business owners ask
Not as a listing. OpenAI has no business listing program for local businesses. ChatGPT finds businesses through its own search crawler, search partners, and data partners such as Yelp, OpenTable, and Resy, so keep those sources accurate and let OpenAI's search crawler reach your site.
Assistants weigh what they can find: how complete and consistent your listings are, your reviews, and what your website and other sites say about you. Answers also change from one run to the next. Check whether your listings are claimed and complete before assuming something is wrong.
It is worth claiming. Yelp's data now appears in ChatGPT, is part of Amazon's Alexa+ plans, and has fed Perplexity's local results. Yelp's own rules still say businesses should not ask customers for Yelp reviews.
Usually yes. It is free, Microsoft lets you import from your Google Business Profile, and Bing is behind Copilot and is one of the search providers OpenAI names for ChatGPT.
Primary guidance
Show up where customers ask