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AI Visibility Checklist: 10 Things AI Can Read Before Naming a Local Business
Check 10 things AI assistants can read about your business: matching contact info, a full Google profile, helpful reviews, clear website pages, and mentions on other local sites. Answer yes or no to each one, add up your score out of 10, and you'll know what to fix first.
Last updated October 16, 2026
PickCheck is a free AI recommendation checker for local service businesses, made by Hive Asset Group, LLC.
How to use this checklist
Grab a coffee and your phone. Each question takes under a minute.
- Answer yes or no. If you're not sure, that's a no for now.
- Give yourself 1 point for every yes.
- Add it up and check the scoring key below.
AI assistants answer "who should I call?" questions by reading what's out there about your business. This list covers the signals they can read. AI answers vary run to run, and nothing on this page can promise you a recommendation. It just shows you where the gaps are.
New to this? Read Does AI recommend my business?
The 10 checks
Do your name, address and phone number match everywhere?
Check: Search your business name plus your town. Open your Google Business Profile, your website footer and the first few directory listings. Is the name, address and phone number the same on all of them?
Why it matters: When the details disagree, an AI assistant has to guess which business is the real one.
How to fix it: Pick one exact version of your name, address and phone. Edit every listing and your site to match it, letter for letter.
Is your Google Business Profile filled out?
Check: Does it have a primary category, your services, hours, a service area or address, photos and a business description?
Why it matters: This profile is one of the main places people and software look first for what you do and where.
How to fix it: Pick the most specific primary category Google offers for your trade, not a broad one. Add every service you offer. Make the first sentence of your description say what you do and what town you're in.
Do your recent reviews mention the service and the town?
Check: Read your newest reviews. Do some of them say what job you did and where, like "replaced our water heater in Prior Lake"?
Why it matters: Review text is words about you written by other people. Reviews that name the service and town tell a reader exactly what you're known for.
How to fix it: Ask happy customers right after the job. Send a short text with your review link. Suggest, don't script: "If you can, mention what we did and your town."
Does your website have a page for each main service?
Check: If you offer drain cleaning, water heaters and repiping, is there a separate page for each one?
Why it matters: One page that lists everything is hard to quote. A page about one job answers one question clearly.
How to fix it: Make one page per main service. Put the service in the page title and the top heading. Say what's included, who it's for and how to book.
Does your site name the town or towns you serve?
Check: Can a visitor find the towns you work in, in plain text, in under 10 seconds?
Why it matters: "Serving the area" tells a machine nothing. A town name tells it where to point someone.
How to fix it: Write your service area in words on your home page and your service pages. Name each town. Add a short page for any town that matters most to you.
Does your site have LocalBusiness structured data?
Check: Paste your home page address into Google's Rich Results Test. Does it find a LocalBusiness (or a more specific type, like Plumber) with your name, address and phone?
Why it matters: Structured data is a small block of code that states your business facts in a format software can read without guessing.
How to fix it: Add LocalBusiness structured data to your site with the same name, address, phone, hours and service area you use everywhere else. The Fix Kit includes a ready-to-paste version written for your business.
Does your site answer real customer questions in an FAQ?
Check: Is there a page or section that answers questions customers actually ask you, in plain words, like "How much does a water heater swap cost?" or "Do you come out on weekends?"
Why it matters: Clear question and answer text is easy for people and for software to quote.
How to fix it: Write down the last 8 questions customers asked you by phone or text. Answer each in two or three short sentences. Put them on your site. Don't invent prices you can't stand behind.
Are you listed on the big directories for your trade?
Check: Search "[your trade] [your town]" and look at which directories show up. Are you listed on the main ones, plus the trade-specific ones for your field?
Why it matters: Directories are places other sites point to, and places assistants may read. A listing is also one more spot where your details should match.
How to fix it: Make a list of the directories that show up for your trade and town. Claim each one, fill it out, and copy your exact name, address and phone.
Are you mentioned on other local sites?
Check: Do local news sites, your chamber of commerce, trade associations, sponsor pages or neighbor blogs mention your business by name?
Why it matters: Mentions on other sites are evidence about you that you didn't write yourself.
How to fix it: Join the local and trade groups that list their members. Sponsor a local team or event that publishes a sponsor page. Send a short, true story to a local paper or newsletter when something real happens.
Can your site load fast and be read by AI crawlers?
Check: Does your site load on a phone without errors? Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. Do you see rules that block bots like GPTBot, PerplexityBot or ClaudeBot (a line that says Disallow: / under one of those names)?
Why it matters: If a crawler can't load your pages, it can't read them. Some sites block these bots without the owner knowing.
How to fix it: Ask whoever built your site to remove blocks you didn't choose on purpose. Keep key pages as plain text, not just images or pop-ups. Fix pages that error out or take forever to load.
Need words for checks 4, 5 and 7? Paperboy, our sister tool, helps with writing website and FAQ content.
Scoring key
Count one point for every yes. Your total is out of 10.
| Score | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | Lots of gaps. AI assistants have little clear, matching information to read about you. | Start with checks 1, 2 and 5. They're quick and they come first. |
| 5 to 7 | A decent base with real gaps. | Fix your "no" answers, one a week. Reviews and service pages usually take the longest. |
| 8 to 10 | Most signals are in place. | Keep them matching and fresh. Re-check this list every few months. |
A high score doesn't mean an AI assistant will name you. A low score doesn't mean it won't. AI answers vary run to run, and nobody controls what an assistant says. This list shows what you can work on.
Want the bigger picture? Read What is AI visibility?
The scan takes about 30 seconds. No account, no card, no email. It asks one AI assistant, Kimi (with live web search), three questions a customer might ask for your trade and town. You see your score, whether you were named, the top 3 businesses it named instead, and one full sample answer. If you want the written fixes, the Fix Kit is $29, one time.
Get the printable one-page scorecard
Tick yes or no for all 10 checks, add up your score, and tape it where you'll see it.
FAQ
What is an AI visibility checklist?
It's a short list of things AI assistants can read about a local business: matching contact details, a complete Google profile, reviews, website pages, structured data and mentions on other sites. You answer yes or no to each one and count your yeses.
Does a high score mean AI will recommend me?
No. AI answers vary run to run, and nobody can promise a recommendation. The checklist shows which signals you have in place and which you don't. It's a to-do list, not a prediction.
Which AI assistants does PickCheck check?
One. The free scan asks Kimi, an AI assistant with live web search. We do not query ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. The checklist itself is general, so it applies no matter which assistant a customer uses.
How long does the checklist take?
About 10 minutes. Each question can be answered yes or no in under a minute. Fixing the "no" answers takes longer, so pick one a week.
What if I score low?
Start with the quick ones: matching name, address and phone, a full Google profile, and your towns named on your site. Then run the free scan to see who an assistant names instead of you. If you want the written fixes, the Fix Kit is $29, one time. It includes ready-to-paste structured data, 8 FAQ answers, review request texts and a 30-day plan.
AI answers change from run to run. A scan shows what one assistant said at one moment. It can't promise a recommendation.