Does your Google Business Profile affect ChatGPT?

Very likely, yes. In WhereInAI's scans, ChatGPT printed one business's Google listing word for word (category, star rating, review count and address) in 37 of 63 answers. OpenAI hasn't said where its local business data comes from, so I can show you the match but not the pipe it came through.

The business is SEOBurf, my own consultancy, which is why I can check the listing against the answers.

The match

On 1 October I opened SEOBurf's listing on Google Maps. It shows:

• SEOBurf
• 5.0 stars, 4 reviews
• Marketing agency
• Byfields, Wells Rd, Radstock BA3 3US

Here's how SEOBurf appeared in ChatGPT's answers on 30 September, when asked about SEO consultants in Bath:

SEOBurf
Open now · Marketing agency · 5.0 (4 reviews)
Byfields, Wells Rd, Radstock BA3 3US, United Kingdom

Same category. Same rating. Same review count. Same address, down to the first line. "Open now" means it had the opening hours as well.

That card appeared in 37 of the 63 ChatGPT answers WhereInAI collected between 21 and 30 September 2026. In the earlier scans, ChatGPT also linked each business it named to a Google Maps search for that business.

What would disprove it

If another public source showed the same 5.0 from 4 reviews, the same category wording and the same hours, ChatGPT could be reading that instead. I haven't found one. A review count of 4 is very specific to one platform, and "Marketing agency" is Google's category name, word for word.

So, measured: the data matches the Google listing exactly. Inferred: ChatGPT's local results draw on Google's business data, directly or through a provider that copies it.

What about Google's own AI?

Google AI Overviews didn't name SEOBurf in any of the 19 answers we could read for these questions. Some of its answers showed businesses as map cards, and the data WhereInAI receives for those cards leaves out the business names, so we can't tell you whether SEOBurf was among them. We leave those answers out of the score.

Google says there are no special requirements to appear in AI Overviews beyond being indexed and eligible for a normal search snippet. For local questions, that means your profile and your website both count.

What to check on your own profile

Each of these showed up in ChatGPT's answers, so each one is worth 5 minutes:

1. Primary category. ChatGPT printed it as the first word of the card. If yours is wrong or vague, that's what people read first.
2. Opening hours. "Open now" appeared because the hours were set. Missing hours give an assistant less to say.
3. Address or service area. Every question was about Bath and ChatGPT printed a Radstock address. It still recommended SEOBurf for Bath, so name the towns you serve on your website as well.
4. Website link. By 30 September ChatGPT was linking SEOBurf's website from the card. Make sure yours points at a page that says what you do.
5. Reviews. The count and rating go straight into the answer. 4 reviews was enough to be named here; more would read better to the person choosing.

Google's guidelines for business listings are worth reading before you change your name or category, because a name stuffed with keywords can get a listing suspended.

Beyond Google

Your Google listing is one record. Directories are the others, and assistants like Claude and Gemini lean on them more than ChatGPT does. I go through which pages they cited in Why AI recommends your competitors and not you.

Keep the name, address and phone identical everywhere. TownDirectory gives you a free UK listing. CitationHQ submits you to the main UK directories for you. Both are run by the same company as WhereInAI.

The limits of this

One business, one listing, one town, 10 days. The match is exact, and still only one example. I'll add more businesses to this guide as WhereInAI's scans cover them.

For how ChatGPT builds the rest of its answer, see How ChatGPT decides which local businesses to recommend. To see what the assistants say about your own business, run a free scan.