Why ChatGPT recommends your competitor: 7 fixable reasons
If AI assistants name other businesses instead of yours, it's usually one of seven things. Most take an afternoon to fix.
Ask ChatGPT for "the best physio in Bristol" and you'll get four or five names. If yours isn't one of them, it's tempting to assume the AI is a black box. It mostly isn't. These are the reasons we see most often, roughly in order.
1. It can't read your site
A robots.txt rule or CDN setting blocks the AI's crawler. Fix: check your robots.txt and your CDN's bot settings.
2. Your content only exists in JavaScript
Many crawlers read raw HTML. If your page is an empty shell until scripts run, they see nothing. The SEO Health Snapshot counts the words in your raw HTML.
3. Your site doesn't say what you do in plain words
"Helping you move better" isn't a service. "Sports physiotherapy in Clifton, Bristol" is. Models match questions to explicit statements.
4. Your facts are inconsistent
Different addresses, hours or names across Google, Yelp, Facebook and your site make models hedge. Pick one version and fix the rest. Add LocalBusiness schema so there's a machine-readable source of truth.
5. Nobody else mentions you
Models favour businesses that other sources talk about: reviews, local news, directories, "best of" round-ups. The competitor you keep losing to is probably on three lists you're not on.
6. You're not in Bing
Several assistants lean on Bing for live results. Check Bing Webmaster Tools and use IndexNow when you publish.
7. There's no page for the question
If customers ask "how much does a root canal cost in Leeds", the business with a clear pricing page gets cited. Write the page that answers the question.
Curious where you stand? The AI Visibility Quick Scan asks the questions and shows who gets named.
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