How do I find out what ChatGPT is saying about my company?
Open a fresh ChatGPT chat and ask the questions a customer would ask, such as who to hire in your city and what your company is. Repeat each question a few times, because answers vary, and record whether you are named, what is said and which sources are shown.
What should I ask?
Two kinds of questions, because they test different things.
Questions about you: "What is [your company]?", "What does [your company] charge?", "Is [your company] any good?" These show whether the facts are right.
Questions about your category without your name: "Who is the best [service] in [city]?" or "What should I look for when hiring a [type of business]?" These show whether you are recommended at all, which is what customers actually do.
Write down five to ten of each. Use wording a customer would use, not your marketing language.
How do I run the check properly?
Start a new chat for every question, so earlier answers do not influence later ones. Ask each question at least three times. Note the date. ChatGPT's answers are generated each time and are not identical.
If ChatGPT shows sources, open them. The links tell you which pages it relied on, and a wrong fact usually traces back to one page. OpenAI says its search crawler is OAI-SearchBot, and that sites blocking it can still appear as plain links but not in search answers (OpenAI). If you are missing, check that first.
What should I record?
- The exact question and the date.
- Whether you were named, and in what position.
- What was said, and whether it was correct.
- Which competitors were named instead.
- Which sources were shown.
Put it in a spreadsheet. Ten questions asked three times is thirty rows, which is enough to see a pattern.
What are the limits of doing it by hand?
It is slow, it covers one engine, and it is hard to repeat the same way next month. Your own chat history and location can also influence results, so a colleague's check may differ from yours. That is fine for a first look and weak for tracking change.
How do I read the answers once I have them?
Look for patterns, not single sentences. If you are named in most runs, check that the description is right. If you are named in some runs, that is an unstable result and worth watching. If you are never named but competitors are, compare the sources. If the answer is vague, such as "there are many providers", the engine may have nothing specific to say about your category and city, which points to a missing page. Mark each answer as correct, wrong, missing or unclear. Wrong answers get fixed at the source; missing and unclear ones usually need a clearer page.
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT remember what I asked before?
Use a new chat for each question so earlier turns do not shape the answer.
Why does a friend get a different answer?
Answers are generated each time and can differ by wording, settings and search results. That is why repeating the question matters.
Can I see which pages ChatGPT used?
When it searches the web it often shows source links. Open them and record them.
Is checking only ChatGPT enough?
No. Your customers also use Perplexity, Claude and Google, and each can say something different.