How to check whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI recommend your HVAC company

Why one search proves nothing

The most common thing owners do is open ChatGPT, type "best HVAC company in Mississauga", and either celebrate or panic. Both reactions are premature.

AI answers vary far more than a page of search results. A September 2026 study by 8ight.AI, reported by PPC Land, asked ChatGPT the same local questions twice, 39 minutes apart: at the median, fewer than a third of the names overlapped. Across the two AI engines it compared, only 28% of the businesses named by either one were named by both. The study included 17 GTA places. It's vendor research, but it matches what anyone who repeats a question sees.

So the goal isn't one answer. It's a pattern you can track.

How each engine finds local businesses

Knowing where answers come from tells you what to look at when you're missing.

• Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google's AI features documentation says there are no extra requirements beyond normal Search: a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. It describes "query fan-out", where one question becomes several related searches. Its generative AI guide adds that Business Profiles can help your services appear in AI responses, and that you don't need special AI files or markup.
• Gemini. Google's Maps grounding documentation says it draws on Maps data, including places, reviews, photos, addresses and hours, and that results can vary with location accuracy and available Maps data. Your Business Profile is the main input.
• ChatGPT. OpenAI's crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites should allow it in robots.txt to appear. OpenAI's help article on ChatGPT search says it uses an approximate location and third-party search providers. Users on OpenAI's community forum have reported outdated business details that appear to come from business listings, which is one more reason to keep every listing current.

Step 1: write your question list

Write 10 to 15 questions, in homeowners' words, covering your main services and the cities you serve. Mix the short and the specific:

• "Who is the best HVAC company in Brampton?"
• "Furnace making a clicking noise and not starting, who can come today in Etobicoke?"
• "Who installs cold-climate heat pumps in Oakville?"
• "Is it worth replacing a 20-year-old AC in Markham? Who should I call?"
• "Reliable furnace repair near Square One?"

Take them from real calls and emails where you can. Our guide to how homeowners ask AI explains why the longer ones matter.

Keep the list fixed. If you change the questions every time, you can't compare results.

Step 2: run each question properly

• Use a clean session. A private browser window for Google; for ChatGPT and Gemini, a fresh chat, and ideally an account that hasn't been talking about your company.
• Say the place. Engines guess location from your connection. Unless you're testing your home city, name the city in the question.
• Run each question at least three times per engine, at different times. A business named once in three runs is in a different position from one named every time.
• Turn on search where needed. In ChatGPT, make sure the answer is using web search (it shows sources). An answer without sources is drawn from the model's memory and is a different thing to measure.

Step 3: write it down

A spreadsheet is enough. For each run, record:

Column	Example
Date	2026-10-18
Engine	Gemini
Question	Who installs heat pumps in Oakville?
Named (in order)	Company A, Company B, you
You named?	Yes, third
Sources cited	Google Maps, company websites, HomeStars
What it said about you	"Known for fast emergency service"

The last two columns are the most useful. Sources tell you where the engine looked. The description tells you what it believes about you, and whether it's accurate.

Step 4: read the pattern

After a round, look for:

• Your mention rate per engine. Named in 2 of 15 Gemini runs and 9 of 15 Google runs points at different fixes.
• Who beats you, and what they have. Compare their review counts, service pages and city pages with yours.
• Which sources keep appearing. If a directory or local news story shows up again and again for your trade, that's where to look next. Our guide to HomeStars and Google reviews covers how to act on it.
• Wrong facts. Old phone numbers, wrong hours or services you don't offer usually trace back to a listing you can fix.

What Search Console can and can't tell you

Google's documentation says traffic from AI features is counted in Search Console under the "Web" search type, together with regular results. So Search Console can't tell you which clicks came from an AI Overview. Practitioners on the Local Search Forum confirm the same limitation. It's still worth watching impressions and clicks for your service and city pages over time; just don't read a change there as proof about AI answers.

ChatGPT and Gemini don't offer owners a report of how often they name you. Some traffic from ChatGPT shows up in website analytics as referrals, but many people read the answer and call without clicking.

How often to check

• Every season, before the heating and cooling peaks. Our Ontario HVAC calendar has the timing.
• A few weeks after a big change, like new service pages or a Business Profile fix, to see if anything moved.

Expect movement to be gradual and noisy. Nobody can guarantee a position in these answers, and anyone who does is guessing.

The short version

Fixed questions, every engine, every main city, several runs, written down. That turns "ChatGPT doesn't like us" into a list of specific gaps you can fix. If you want this done for you, the free scan below runs real homeowner questions for your trade and city across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google and shows who gets named.