ChatGPT does recommend local businesses, and it chooses them for the town the question comes from. Reachd asked the same barbershop questions from Hallandale Beach and from Aventura, two small cities on the Florida coast between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. They’re about three miles apart, and people cross from one to the other every day to shop and eat. At home in Hallandale Beach, ChatGPT and Google AI recommended one barbershop in 3 of 4 answers. In Aventura it didn’t come up once, and neither did any of the barbers named next to it.
That matters if your customers come from more than one town. Checking ChatGPT from your own phone shows the answer for the place you’re standing in. A customer across the city line may get a list without your name on it. And if your business drives to its customers, every town you serve is a separate race with its own leaders.
How ChatGPT recommends local businesses in two neighboring towns
The test changed one thing only, the place the question came from. Reachd took two questions the barbershop’s customers ask. One looks for a shop that cuts both men’s and women’s hair and has Spanish-speaking staff, and the other asks for a friendly barbershop nearby. Both went to ChatGPT and Google AI from Hallandale Beach, from Aventura and from Miami, a short drive further south.
In Hallandale Beach, ChatGPT put the shop first in one of its answers. The Aventura answers named other barbers, mostly shops in and around Aventura such as The Spot Barbershop at Aventura Town Center. The Miami answers didn’t include any of the Hallandale names either.
A specific need didn’t carry the shop across the line. Asked for Spanish-speaking staff from Aventura, ChatGPT recommended four other places nearby, led by a salon whose site lists Spanish among its languages.
AI answers vary from day to day, so some change is normal. Asked twice from Hallandale Beach, the two lists shared just over half their barbers. Asked from Aventura or Miami, they shared none.
Being recommended in your own town says very little about the next one. To AI, every town is a separate market with its own list.
Why your business shows up in ChatGPT in one town but not in the next
When a question names no place, ChatGPT and other AI engines answer for the area it comes from. They look for businesses they can tie to that area. In Aventura, AI quoted what it found about each shop there, such as its address, a page about that location or a booking profile.
Only one barbershop came up in two towns. The Spot Barbershop has locations in Aventura and in downtown Miami, with a page for each, and AI cited the Aventura page when answering from Aventura and the downtown page when answering from Miami.
The same happened with a business that travels to its customers. Reachd asked a moving company’s customer questions from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. The three cities sit on the same stretch of coast, within about an hour of each other. Asked twice from the mover’s home area, the lists shared about a quarter of their names. From each of the three cities they shared almost none, 3 to 4 percent, and each city got its own local movers. The one name in all three was Lugg, an app-based mover that each answer described as working in that city.
So a shop people visit competes mainly in its home town, and AI sends people in the next town to the shops on their side of the line. For a mover, a plumber or a cleaning service, every town on the service map has its own list to get into, and a recommendation at home doesn’t carry over.
Is my business on ChatGPT in every town I serve?
A check from your own phone answers that question for one town. For the next one, ask a friend or a customer who lives there to type the question the way a customer would. Leave your business name out and compare their list with yours. Ask a few times, because one answer can change by tomorrow. The five-minute test of whether ChatGPT recommends your business walks through how to ask.
Reachd does this for every location you add. It asks your customers’ questions from each town every weekday and shows each town on its own. You see whether AI recommends you there, who it names instead, your place among them and what to change for that town. You can check whether ChatGPT recommends your business for free, and the first full analysis needs no card.
How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business in more than one town
Start with the towns your customers come from. Your bookings, delivery addresses or service calls will show the two or three that matter most, and those are the races worth winning first.
Then give AI something that ties you to each of those towns. In the barbershop test, The Spot’s location pages did that. A business that travels to customers can describe the work it does in each town on a page of its own. The town also belongs on the profiles and booking pages AI reads about you.
A page alone doesn’t guarantee a place in the answer, so check that town again once the change is live, because only a new answer shows whether it worked.
A Florida cabinet maker that serves Tampa and Orlando saw in its own numbers how far apart two cities can be. In Tampa it was already fighting for the lead against its competitors in AI search, while in Orlando it had to start from the ground up. Each city had its own rivals, so each needed its own plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ChatGPT use my location to recommend local businesses?
Yes. When a question names no place, ChatGPT answers for the area it comes from, so two people a few miles apart can get different lists. In a Reachd test, the same barbershop questions asked from two neighboring towns three miles apart got answers with no barbers in common.
Why is my business showing up in ChatGPT in one town but not in the next?
AI recommends the businesses it can tie to the town the question comes from, such as a shop with an address there or a page about that location. A business that leads at home can be absent a few miles away, where the answer goes to the shops on that side of the city line.
How can I check what ChatGPT recommends in another town?
Ask someone who lives there to type the question the way a customer would, without your business name, and compare the list with yours. Ask a few times, because one answer can change by the next day. Reachd asks your customers' questions from each location you add every weekday and shows each town separately.
Does Google AI also change its recommendations from town to town?
In the same test it did. Google AI's answers from Aventura shared no barbers with its answers from Hallandale Beach, as ChatGPT's did.
Should a local business have a page for each town it serves?
It helps AI tie the business to that town. In the barbershop test, the one shop named in two towns had a page for each of its locations, and AI cited the page for the town it was answering. A page alone doesn't guarantee a place in the answer, so check that town again once the page is live.