ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity – Which Does What?

"Does AI recommend us" has a problem: which AI? The four big engines produce answers to the same question by different routes, and being visible in one doesn't mean being visible in another. This post explains how the four engines work from a business owner's point of view; not technical detail, but "how does it find me".

ChatGPT

The most widely used engine and the first place most customers ask. It has two modes: generating an answer from training data, and searching the web when needed. On local and time-sensitive questions ("open in İzmir right now…") search kicks in; on general questions ("how do I choose a good glass balcony") it mostly doesn't.

How it finds you: from your footprint in the training data (news, directories, reviews, your own site) and, when it searches, from Bing-based results. If GPTBot can't get into your site, the first source weakens; if you're not in Bing's index, the second does.

Priority: keep GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot allowed in robots.txt; add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Gemini

Google's engine; built into Android phones, Google Search and Workspace. Its advantage on local questions is big: it uses Google Maps and Business Profile data directly. On questions like "near me", "open now" and "highly rated" it gives more precise answers than the others.

How it finds you: from the Google index and your Business Profile. If your classic SEO is good and your profile is complete, your chances of showing up in Gemini are high; if both are weak, even the best site doesn't make the list.

Priority: category, service area, hours and reviews on your Business Profile. Make sure you're not blocking the Google-Extended crawler.

Perplexity

An answer engine: it looks at the web for every question and lists its sources under the answer. It relies on current search results, not training data. That means two things: your changes show up here fastest, and to be shown as a source your page has to be quotable.

How it finds you: by crawling your site with PerplexityBot and from search indexes. If your page is structured to answer the question directly, with a clear heading and a sharp first paragraph, your chances of being cited are high.

Priority: every service page should answer a question; have an FAQ page; keep PerplexityBot allowed.

Claude

Anthropic's model; common in professional use, especially for writing and analysis. It has web search, but it's more cautious about recommending businesses: when unsure it says "verify this" and avoids making things up. That's why being recommended in Claude requires a stronger consistency signal than in the others.

How it finds you: from pages it crawls with ClaudeBot, and from search. If your details contradict each other across sources, Claude may choose to skip you rather than mention you.

Priority: name, address, phone and description identical everywhere; keep ClaudeBot allowed.

Why you need to be visible in all of them

Your customers don't use a single engine. A younger customer asks ChatGPT, an Android user asks Gemini, a researcher asks Perplexity. Being strong in one and invisible in another is like having no sign in half the city.

The good news: most of what the four engines want is the same. A site open to crawlers, a clear description, consistent details, pages that answer questions, a complete business profile. Do those and you move forward on all four; the differences are in the details.

How to measure

Ask the same questions to all four engines and record your state for each separately: recommends, recognizes, doesn't mention. Being Recommended on one engine and Unmentioned on another is common, and the cause is usually technical: a blocked crawler or a missing directory listing. A protan.ai report produces this table engine by engine; if you're doing it yourself, set up the same layout.