Field notes and plain answers on how AI answer engines recommend businesses. By Nameworthy (Whitley Row LLC).https://nameworthy.ai/https://nameworthy.ai/research/field-study-api-vs-app/https://nameworthy.ai/research/field-study-api-vs-app/We asked the same 40 buying-intent questions three ways — the ChatGPT app, the bare OpenAI API, and the API with web search — across four local verticals. The bare API agreed with the app on about 8% of the businesses it recommended. Here are the numbers, per vertical, and what they mean if a tool measures your 'ChatGPT visibility' through the API.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/the-api-is-not-the-app/https://nameworthy.ai/research/the-api-is-not-the-app/Every major AI engine ships two different products under one name: a developer API and a consumer app. They browse differently, remember differently, and recommend different businesses — so a tool that measures the API and calls it 'what AI says' is measuring a surface no customer uses. Here's the evidence, engine by engine, and the one exception.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/when-people-ask-ai-to-hire-a-professional/https://nameworthy.ai/research/when-people-ask-ai-to-hire-a-professional/The objection every professional raises — 'nobody asks a chatbot for a lawyer' — is now contradicted by the engines' own data. High-consideration categories like legal, medical, and financial are where AI-assisted hiring is heaviest, and much of it happens after hours. Here's the evidence, and what it means for a firm that isn't in the answer.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/which-sites-ai-cites-most/https://nameworthy.ai/research/which-sites-ai-cites-most/Analyses in 2026 ranked the domains AI engines cite most across AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity, and the top of every list looks the same: giants. Here's what that means for a local or professional-services business, and why the winnable game is being cited in your niche rather than on the national leaderboard.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/ai-search-ads-vs-earning-the-recommendation/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/ai-search-ads-vs-earning-the-recommendation/ChatGPT and Google's AI answers now carry ads — so can you just buy your way in? You can buy a slot next to the answer. You can't buy being the answer. Here's the difference between a paid placement and a recommendation, and when each is worth the money.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/allow-block-or-charge-ai-crawlers/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/allow-block-or-charge-ai-crawlers/The main AI crawlers — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, and Google's renamed NotebookLM bot — can be allowed, blocked, or, as of 2026, charged. Here's how to decide deliberately, and why a local business's real danger is going invisible without meaning to.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/best-ai-visibility-tools-for-small-business/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/best-ai-visibility-tools-for-small-business/An honest guide to AI visibility tools for small businesses, grouped by the job you're hiring for: monitoring, content automation, and done-for-you. Real tools, real strengths, and when each is the wrong call — including ours.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/chatgpt-api-vs-app/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/chatgpt-api-vs-app/The ChatGPT API and the ChatGPT app share a name and a model family, but they are not the same product. The app wraps the model in a hidden system prompt, live web search, memory, and personalization; the API is the bare model. That's why a visibility tool querying the API can report something your customers never actually see.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/citations-arent-recommendations/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/citations-arent-recommendations/Being cited, being mentioned, and being recommended are three different things — and only the last one sends you a client. Most AI-visibility numbers measure the wrong one, and a single check measures nothing at all. Here's the metric that matters and why it has to be measured across repeated runs.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/do-you-need-an-llms-txt-file/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/do-you-need-an-llms-txt-file/llms.txt is a simple text file that lists your site's key pages for AI crawlers, and in 2026 it went from obscure proposal to talking point. It's cheap, harmless hygiene worth ten minutes — but there's no strong evidence the major AI engines currently use it to decide who they recommend, so don't let anyone sell you a strategy around it.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/does-schema-markup-help-ai/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/does-schema-markup-help-ai/Schema markup — LocalBusiness, Organization, Service, FAQ — helps AI engines understand what and who you are, which feeds the picture they build of your business as an entity. It's real leverage on entity clarity, but it's not a direct ranking lever, and consistency with the rest of your web presence matters more than piling on markup.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/google-business-profile-ai-citations/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/google-business-profile-ai-citations/Google answers local questions with data it already owns, and your Business Profile is a big part of it. A complete, accurate, actively maintained profile is one of the strongest levers you have for Google's AI surfaces — and it does far less for the other engines.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-much-does-geo-cost/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-much-does-geo-cost/AI visibility pricing in 2026, by tier: automated tools ($19–199/mo), monitoring dashboards ($29–700/mo), and agencies ($1,500–30,000/mo). What each buys, what to avoid, and where a done-for-you service fits.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-check-what-ai-says-about-your-business/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-check-what-ai-says-about-your-business/Open ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity in a clean session, ask the questions your customers ask before they hire someone, and note whether you're named. Do it three times per engine, because answers change run to run. Here's the exact method.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/the-words-customers-use/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/the-words-customers-use/The exact words a customer uses — best, affordable, most experienced, for a specific situation — pull up different shortlists, so a competitor can get named on the phrasing that converts while you look fine on a broad query. Here's why how a question is framed often outweighs raw brand strength, and how to become the clear answer to the questions your real customers actually ask.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/when-ai-gets-your-business-wrong/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/when-ai-gets-your-business-wrong/AI answers routinely state the wrong hours, the wrong address, a 'permanently closed' that isn't true, or services you don't offer — because engines pull from stale, conflicting sources across the web. You can't edit the answer, but you can fix what it reads. Here's the loop.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-engines-choose-local-businesses/https://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-engines-choose-local-businesses/ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google's AI each build recommendations from a different source stack. Here's what feeds each one, drawn from live panels, and why winning one engine says nothing about the others.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/is-local-falcon-enough/https://nameworthy.ai/research/is-local-falcon-enough/Local rank trackers like Local Falcon added AI scans. A fair teardown against primary sources: what they measure well, what they can't see (Perplexity, Claude, consumer-surface truth), and where a repeated-run report tells you more.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/SEO ranks your links. AEO and GEO earn your business a citation inside the AI answer. Here's what each term means, how they overlap, and why the old playbook only gets you halfway to being recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/does-ai-search-matter-for-small-business/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/does-ai-search-matter-for-small-business/Yes, and most for high-consideration businesses — law, medical, financial, home improvement — where customers research before they buy. For emergency and transactional needs, the map pack still rules. Here's how to tell if it matters for you, and what to do.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-chatgpt/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-chatgpt/A practical playbook for getting named in ChatGPT's recommendations, ranked by leverage: directory depth, a page that publishes real numbers, reviews, and answer-first content. Based on live panels, not theory.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-claude/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-claude/Claude ranks by two things it trusts: your Google reviews — score, volume, and what they actually say — and your verifiable credentials. It reads review text, weighs checkable qualifications like certifications and board or bar standing, and is openly skeptical of paid directory listings. Here's how to win it.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-gemini/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-gemini/Gemini often answers from what it already knows, not from a page it just read — so you win it at the knowledge layer: a strong, consistent Google Business Profile plus third-party corroboration of who you are. It's an entity problem, not a single-page problem.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-perplexity/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-perplexity/Perplexity reads unusually widely — more sources than most engines, but it only names businesses whose pages have a quotable answer. The lever is extractability: get into the vertical directories it cites, and make your own pages say something it can lift verbatim.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-show-up-in-ai/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-show-up-in-ai/To show up in AI, improve the public sources engines build answers from — directories, reviews, your Google profile, and pages that answer questions with concrete facts — then measure each engine separately and fix the weakest first. The complete playbook, in order of leverage.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-show-up-in-google-ai-overviews/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-show-up-in-google-ai-overviews/Google's AI grounds its answers in your Google Business Profile, review sites, the directories it trusts, and — crucially — your own educational and pricing pages. AI Mode goes further, crawling many sites per answer and mapping your content semantically. Here's how to be one of the sources.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/why-isnt-my-business-showing-up-in-ai/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/why-isnt-my-business-showing-up-in-ai/If AI engines aren't recommending your business, it's usually one of five fixable causes: thin directory profiles, no quotable page, weak reviews, inconsistent business info, or you're winning one engine and blind to the others. Here's how to tell which.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT