Step-by-step guide Get Recommended by ChatGPT: local service businesses →
Google's AI answers lean heavily on Google Business Profile. ChatGPT hardly uses it, and the largest study so far ties its picks to Yelp and Bing instead. Apple's place card feeds Apple's own apps. So one well-kept Google profile doesn't cover every assistant. For a local business, the listings worth an afternoon are your own website first, then Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business, and the directories your own industry uses, all showing exactly the same name, address and phone number. Below: what is documented, what is guesswork, and how to find and fix the details that don't match.
What the largest study found
On 16 September 2026, BrightLocal published a study of about 200,000 local AI searches in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google's AI Overviews, with 1.9 million citations: the links the assistants showed as their sources. Business websites made up 42% of those citations, Google Business Profile 28.6% and Yelp 9.5%. The split between assistants matters more than the totals:
| Assistant | What the study says it leans on |
|---|---|
| Google AI Mode and AI Overviews | Google Business Profile above all, plus Yelp, and Facebook to a significant degree |
| ChatGPT | Yelp, like the other two. On Google Business Profile, the study says "it's hardly used by ChatGPT" |
BrightLocal puts the difference down to ChatGPT's relationships with Yelp and Bing. It gives no separate figure per assistant for business websites, the largest source overall. The result is that the assistants pick different businesses: ChatGPT's choices overlapped with either Google surface by only 19 to 20%. The study adds that all three use industry directories in different sectors, and advises looking at the sources an assistant cites for your competitors and getting listed in the same places.
Two cautions. The study doesn't say which countries its roughly 1,300 business locations are in, and its examples are American cities, so Yelp's weight may be lower where you are. And Perplexity isn't in it. When we ran our own test in Amsterdam on 9 November 2026, the reasons the assistants gave came from the practices' own websites and from Google review counts, and Perplexity's one pick for a question came from a single Reddit comment. Your own audit beats any study.
What each company documents about its own listing
Vendor blogs make confident claims about which listing feeds which assistant. Here is what the owners of the four main listings say themselves, as read on 10 November 2026.
| Listing | Where its owner says it shows | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Local results in Google Search and Maps | Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and that you can't pay for a better local ranking |
| Bing Places for Business | Bing search results and Bing Maps | Moved to bing.com/forbusiness in October 2025, with an improved import from Google |
| Apple Business | Maps, Siri, Calendar, Messages and more | The new name for Apple Business Connect. Apple can edit your card after customer reports |
| Yelp | Your Yelp business page | Claimed through Yelp for Business |
The sources: Google's local ranking help page, Microsoft's launch post for the new Bing Places of 3 October 2025, Apple's Apple Business user guide and Yelp's support centre.
What nobody has documented
This is where honest advice and confident advice part ways.
- That Bing Places feeds ChatGPT directly. Microsoft's post lists Bing search results and Bing Maps, and describes deeper integration with Copilot as something planned. We found no statement from Microsoft or OpenAI that a Bing Places listing is passed to ChatGPT.
- That one data provider sits behind ChatGPT's local answers. Some blogs name a single supplier. We couldn't trace that to a primary source, so we don't repeat it.
- That matching details raise your mention rate. BrightLocal recommends keeping name, address and phone consistent across listings, but its study reports no measurement of the effect.
One thing we did see for ourselves: in our Amsterdam test, the map panel in ChatGPT's answers was drawn with Mapbox and OpenStreetMap, not Google Maps. That's a reminder that your Google profile isn't the whole story, and no more than that.
So why bother with Bing and Apple? Because it takes about an hour and the reasoning holds without a proven pipeline. Bing is the search side that the largest study links to ChatGPT. Apple's card reaches people on Apple devices whichever assistant they use. And every extra place that states your facts correctly is one fewer place for a wrong version to live.
Why mismatched details matter anyway
The case for consistency doesn't need an AI study. An assistant builds its answer from several sources. If your website says one phone number and an old directory says another, either can end up in front of a customer. When an assistant gives a wrong detail, such as old opening hours, the likely cause is a listing nobody remembered.
Google also asks for it. Its guidelines for representing your business say your name should reflect the real-world name used consistently on your storefront, website and stationery, with no extra wording added. They also note that Google uses information from other sources when it decides how to display your address, and can detect your category from mentions of your business across the web. What other sites say about you reaches your profile whether you manage those sites or not.
Find the mismatches
- Write down the one true version. Name, address, phone number, opening hours and web address, exactly as they appear on your door and in your website footer.
- Search for yourself. Put your business name in quotation marks, then your phone number, then your street address. Repeat with any old phone number or previous address. Do it in Google and in Bing, and list every page that shows your details.
- Ask the assistants. In a fresh chat, ask for your address, phone number and opening hours by name, then ask which sources were used. The sources often include listings you didn't know existed.
- Compare each one with the true version, character by character.
These are the usual culprits. The example is Kade Fysio, the fictional practice from our guide:
| Detail | How it drifts | What to settle on |
|---|---|---|
| Name | "Kade Fysio" on the door, "Kade Fysiotherapie Amsterdam" in a directory | The name on your door, with nothing added |
| Address | "Linnaeusstraat 12-H" on one site, "Linnaeusstr. 12h" on another | One spelling, including the suffix |
| Phone | Local format here, international format there, an old mobile number somewhere else | One number in one format |
| Opening hours | Evening hours on the website but not on the profiles | The same hours everywhere, changed on the same day |
| Web address | An old domain, or a link to a page that no longer exists | Your current homepage or booking page |
Hours deserve the attention. In our Amsterdam test, one practice was picked for an evening-appointment question because of the late evening hours stated on its site. In the guide's worked example, Kade Fysio starts with matching details on 6 of its 11 listings and ends the month on 11 of 11. Those figures are illustrative, because the practice is invented. Count your own.
Fix them in this order
- Your website. It is the source the others should copy, and the largest single source of citations in the study. Put the details in the footer and on the contact page, and state the same facts in schema markup.
- Google Business Profile. Exact primary category, every service, opening hours including evenings, languages and a booking link.
- Bing Places. Import your Google profile at bing.com/forbusiness, then read the import summary for missing fields.
- Apple Business. Claim the place card for each location at business.apple.com and enter the same facts.
- Your industry's own directories. Professional bodies, insurers and booking platforms first, then Yelp and Facebook where your customers use them.
- Everything else on your list, including any site an assistant cited for a competitor where you are missing.
From then on, change everything on the same day. New hours on Google but not on your website and Bing recreates the mismatch you just removed.
Keep it from drifting
Listings change without you. Apple's guide says it reviews customer reports and can edit your card's name, status and hours, with an email to tell you. Check one listing every month against your true version, and watch for those emails.
One open point: we couldn't confirm from Microsoft's own pages whether a listing imported from Google stays in step afterwards. Until that is clear, check Bing by hand whenever you change your Google profile.
Where listings fit in the bigger job
Listings make your facts consistent. They don't make an assistant choose you. That takes pages that say plainly what you do, for whom and where, and reviews that back it up. Start by measuring: check whether ChatGPT recommends your business, and confirm that your website isn't blocking its crawler. Our guide, Get Recommended by ChatGPT, local service businesses edition, puts the listings work into week 1 of a 30-day plan, after a one-week audit that produces your source-gap list: the sites the assistants read where you're absent or out of date.
None of this is glamorous, and that's the point. An afternoon of matching details removes a whole class of wrong answers about your business. Neurova AI builds AI systems to healthcare standards from Eindhoven, and getting a business's facts straight across the web is part of what we do for practices and service businesses. If you'd rather hand it over, tell us what you need.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Bing Places listing help you appear in ChatGPT? Nobody has documented a direct link. Microsoft's own launch post of 3 October 2025 says Bing Places listings appear in Bing search results and Bing Maps. BrightLocal's September 2026 study ties ChatGPT's local picks to its relationships with Yelp and Bing. Claiming the listing is quick because you can import your Google profile, so it is a reasonable bet, not a proven route.
What is NAP consistency? NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Consistency means those three read exactly the same on your website and on every profile and directory that lists you, down to abbreviations and the format of the phone number. Mismatches can look like two different businesses, and an assistant can repeat the wrong version to a customer.
Is Apple Business Connect still the place to manage an Apple Maps listing? It has a new name. Apple's support guide now says Apple Business Connect is Apple Business, at business.apple.com. You still claim a place card for each location, and Apple says the card appears in Maps, Siri, Calendar, Messages and more.
Do I need a Yelp page for AI answers? It depends on where you are. In BrightLocal's study, Yelp made up 9.5% of all citations in local AI answers and all three assistants relied on it, but the study does not say which countries it covers and its examples are American cities. Run your own audit and see whether the assistants cite Yelp for your competitors before you spend time on it.