A Google Maps Profile Is Not Enough Anymore (But It’s Still Important)

Last week, while researching how people find local businesses online, we stumbled on something that reframed the whole picture.

We were looking at a dental practice in Chicago. Solid business. 4.7 stars on Google, hundreds of reviews, fully optimized Google Business Profile with photos, services listed, Q&A section filled out. The kind of profile that SEO consultants point to as a model. And it was working. The practice was getting steady traffic from Google Maps.

Then we checked what happens when someone asks ChatGPT “best dentist in Lincoln Park Chicago.”

The practice wasn’t mentioned. Not once. Across multiple queries with different phrasing, it never appeared. Three competitors showed up every time. One of them had fewer Google reviews and a lower star rating.

The Google Maps profile was doing its job perfectly. But there was a whole separate channel sending potential patients somewhere else, and nobody at the practice had any idea.

Google Maps Still Works. That’s Not the Point.

One thing to get out of the way first. Google Maps and Google Business Profile are not going away. They still drive real customers to real businesses every day. Abandoning them would be a mistake.

When someone opens Google Maps to find “dentist near me,” the results are based on a well-understood system. Proximity, reviews, profile completeness, categories, keywords. Businesses that invest in their Google presence see returns from it. That part hasn’t changed.

The point is that Google Maps is no longer the only place where people look.

A Second Front Opened

Something shifted in how people search. It happened gradually and then all at once.

A growing number of people now start with ChatGPT or Gemini instead of Google, especially for recommendation-style queries. People still Google “dentist phone number,” but exploratory queries like “best dentist for nervous patients in Lincoln Park” or “which dentist in my area is good with kids” increasingly go to ChatGPT.

The difference matters. Google Maps returns a list of businesses sorted by algorithm. The searcher sees blue dots on a map and picks one. ChatGPT returns a paragraph with three to five names, often with brief explanations of why each one is good. The searcher reads the paragraph and trusts the recommendation.

These are different experiences that run on different signals. A business can be perfectly positioned for one and completely absent from the other.

What Google Maps Can See (and What It Can’t)

Google Business Profile has decent analytics. An owner can see how many people viewed the listing, how many asked for directions, how many called. It’s limited but functional.

What Google Business Profile analytics cannot show is what happens on ChatGPT. There’s no dashboard for that. No notification that says “ChatGPT recommended your competitor 47 times this week and mentioned you zero times.” It’s a blind spot.

And it’s a blind spot that matters more each month. Not because ChatGPT is replacing Google (it isn’t, not yet) but because it’s adding a new layer of discovery. Customers who find a business through ChatGPT might never show up in Google Maps analytics at all. They don’t click a Google listing. They don’t ask for directions through Maps. They just show up, because ChatGPT told them to.

For a business owner looking at Google analytics and seeing steady numbers, everything looks fine. But those numbers don’t include the customers that ChatGPT sent to the competition instead.

The Sources Don’t Fully Overlap

Most business owners don’t expect this next part.

Google Maps rankings are heavily influenced by the Google Business Profile itself. Reviews on Google, profile completeness, photos, posts, categories, response to reviews. A business can focus almost entirely on its Google profile and do reasonably well in Google Maps.

ChatGPT pulls from a wider and less predictable set of sources. Review sites beyond just Google. Blog posts and editorial mentions. “Best of” lists. Reddit discussions. News articles. Social media references. Local directories like Yelp and TripAdvisor.

A business with a perfect Google profile but zero presence on Yelp, no blog mentions, no editorial coverage, and no Reddit discussions has given ChatGPT very little to work with. It’s like having a beautiful storefront on a street that ChatGPT doesn’t walk down.

The businesses that show up consistently in ChatGPT recommendations tend to have broad online footprints. Not just one strong profile, but many mentions across many different sources.

This is where Google Maps optimization and ChatGPT visibility actually complement each other. The work that makes a business visible on ChatGPT (getting reviewed on multiple platforms, earning editorial mentions, being discussed in online communities) also tends to strengthen Google presence. It’s not either-or. It’s both-and, with the second part being the one most businesses haven’t started yet.

Real Numbers, Real Gaps

In our research on pizza recommendations in New York City, we found dramatic examples of this disconnect.

Lucali, one of the most famous pizzerias in NYC with a stellar Google presence, showed up in 88% of ChatGPT recommendations but only 12% of Gemini recommendations. A customer asking Gemini would almost never hear about it.

Mama’s Too appeared in 100% of Gemini responses and 0% of ChatGPT responses. Complete dominance on one platform, total invisibility on the other.

All of them have strong online profiles, loyal customers, and plenty of reviews. The gap comes down to which sources each platform happens to weight most heavily.

The Practical Takeaway

None of this means a business should stop working on its Google Maps profile. The opposite. Google Maps is still the highest-volume discovery channel for most local businesses. Keep the profile updated. Keep responding to reviews. Keep adding photos.

But treating Google Maps as the complete picture is increasingly risky. It’s like a restaurant that only advertises on one street. The food might be great. The sign might be perfect. But if half the neighborhood is walking down a different street now, that sign isn’t reaching them.

The extra work isn’t complicated. On top of existing Google Maps efforts, a business benefits from building presence across the sources that ChatGPT and Gemini draw from. More review platforms. More editorial mentions. More online conversations. More places where the business name, its specialties, and its reputation appear in natural, organic context.

And then actually measuring whether it’s working. Not guessing. Measuring.

Reachd.ai tracks how a local business appears across ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI platforms, the discovery channels that Google Business Profile analytics can’t see. It shows which competitors get recommended, how often, and where the gaps are between a business’s Google presence and its AI visibility.

Because the question for most local businesses isn’t “is my Google profile good enough.” The question is “what’s happening on all the other places where customers are now looking.”

And for most businesses right now, the honest answer is that nobody knows. That’s exactly the problem worth solving.