How Can a Toronto Small Business Get Found on Google and in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini?
Start with the same three foundations for all four: a complete, verified Google Business Profile, a website these tools are allowed to read that answers your customers' questions on clear service pages, and accurate information about your business on other sites. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking, and OpenAI says advertising does not influence ChatGPT's own answers, so the work is making your business easy to find, read and check.
Google Search and Google Maps
Google's local ranking help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that you cannot request or pay for a better local ranking. What you control:
- Complete every field of your Business Profile you honestly can, including hours and special hours.
- Verify the profile so you can edit it and reply to customers.
- Reply to reviews, and add real photos of your work.
- If customers do not visit your address, follow Google's service-area guidance: remove the address from the profile and list the areas you serve by city or postal code (Google allows up to 20). For a GTA business that might be Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and Markham.
- Follow Google's guidelines: your real-world business name with no added keywords, one profile per business, and no virtual office or mailbox address.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it ranks results "using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information" and that placement is not guaranteed. To be eligible, allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl your site and make sure your host or content delivery network allows OpenAI's published search crawler IP addresses. If your business is eligible for OpenAI's new Business Hub, you can also claim and manage your listing there, which OpenAI says does not guarantee more visibility.
Perplexity
Perplexity's crawler documentation recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt and allowing its published IP ranges. Perplexity has also written that its search system breaks pages into "self-contained spans" that are ranked on their own, and filters out "clearly non-responsive or stale content" (Perplexity research, September 25, 2025). In plain terms: write each section of a service page so it answers one question on its own, and keep dates and facts current. We found no way for a local business to claim a listing on Perplexity or to pay for a place in its answers.
Gemini and Google's AI features
Google's AI features documentation says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being eligible for Google Search, and no special files or schema markup are needed. Google also says its Google-Extended setting, which controls use of your content for Gemini training and grounding, does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search (Google's crawler documentation).
A one-page checklist
| Step | Helps with |
|---|---|
| Complete and verify your Google Business Profile | Google Maps and local results |
| Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot in robots.txt and your firewall | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google and Gemini |
| One clear page per main service, each section answering one customer question | All four |
| The same name, phone and service area everywhere you are listed | All four |
| Real reviews, answered | Google; other tools may read review sites |
| Claim your listing in Business Hub, if eligible | ChatGPT |
What no one can promise
None of these companies lets a business buy or claim a guaranteed place in its unpaid answers, and OpenAI warns that search results and citations "can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect." Anyone who promises you a ranking or an AI recommendation is promising something these companies say they do not offer. For a deeper look at the AI side, read how AI answer engines choose which businesses to mention and our local SEO checklist.
How Schkovl can help
Our Gap Analysis checks each of these steps for your business and ranks what to fix first. The ongoing work sits in our SEO & Answer Engine Optimization and Digital Growth Services. Tell us what you are seeing.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your service areas
- OpenAI Help Center: Searching the web with ChatGPT
- Perplexity docs: Perplexity crawlers
- Perplexity: Architecting and evaluating an AI-first Search API (September 25, 2025)
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website