Why look at all
More and more people ask ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of googling, and those answers name only two or three businesses. Either you are one of them or you are invisible for that person. The good news is you do not have to guess: you can check in five minutes, for free, exactly what the AI says when someone looks for a business like yours.
The five-minute test
- Open Perplexity (or ChatGPT) in a private window. A logged-out, incognito window gives you a neutral result, not one shaped by your own history.
- Ask the question a customer would ask. Not your business name, the need: "good breakfast in Lüneburg", "roofer near Lüneburg for a roof renovation", "florist in the old town".
- Read who gets named, and where. Note the businesses in the answer and their order. The first one or two get the attention.
- Repeat for your two or three most important searches. Different needs, different answers.
What the result tells you
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| You are named | Your groundwork is working | Keep reviews and content fresh, hold the spot |
| A competitor is named, not you | They give the AI clearer signals | Close the gap: schema, content, reviews |
| A generic "how to choose" answer, no names | The field is wide open | Be the one who does the groundwork first |
Remember that AI answers vary from day to day, so run each query a couple of times. And a warning: what Google shows and what the AI answers are two different realities, so do not judge your AI visibility from a normal Google search.
What moves the needle
If you are not named, the fix is the same groundwork that helps everywhere: clear, quotable content, clean structured data, a complete profile and real reviews. It is the four levers of AI visibility, and none of them is a trick.
Or let us run it
Doing this properly, across your key searches and with an honest read of where you stand, is exactly what our free short check is. We run real Perplexity queries for your business and tell you plainly whether the AI recommends you, and what would change that.
Frequently asked questions
Why a private window?
Logged in, the tools personalise answers to your history, which hides how a new customer would see you. An incognito, logged-out window gives you a neutral result.
Which is better to test, ChatGPT or Perplexity?
Both are worth checking; they draw on similar signals but can answer differently. Perplexity is the easier one to test anonymously. Checking both gives the fuller picture.
The answer was different when I asked again. Is that normal?
Yes. AI answers vary between runs and over time. Ask each query a couple of times and look at the overall pattern rather than a single answer.
Can I just look at Google instead?
No. Google results and AI answers are genuinely different realities. A business ranking on Google can be absent from the AI answer, and the other way round. Test the AI itself.