02
Which parts can you change?
The parts that come from your own site and profiles, and the facts others copy from them. Google's sitelinks and site names are automated, but Google says what feeds them. For sitelinks, keep titles and headings "informative, relevant, and compact." For your site name, "add WebSite structured data to your home page."
Google also warns against generic names: one like "Best Dentists In Iowa" "is unlikely to be selected by our system as a site name, unless that's an extremely well-recognized brand name." If your business name is a description of your trade and city, expect to compete for your own name. Everything else, from your Business Profile to your BBB page, you improve by keeping it accurate and complete. Our knowledge panel entry explains why most local businesses get a Business Profile instead.
03
Which pages do AI answers link when someone asks about your business?
Mostly the same third-party pages. Asked whether a named contractor was legit, ChatGPT linked at least one review site or directory in 11,641 of 11,982 answers. Birdeye pages were linked in 5,450 and BuildZoom in 2,513, while Yelp appeared in 84 and Google in 160 (what ChatGPT checks).
That points the same way as your brand SERP: the pages that describe you on other sites carry a lot of the answer. If one of them has your old phone number or a closed location, both the search page and the AI answer can repeat it.
04
How should you check your brand SERP?
Search the way a customer would, from a phone, signed out or in a private window. Try your exact business name, then your name with your city, then your name with "reviews." Note every page on the first screen, whether its facts match your current ones, and whether a competitor or a similarly named company shows up.
Then ask an AI assistant the question homeowners ask: "Is [your business] in [your city] legit?" Look at which sites it links. Fix the records you control first: your entity home page, your Business Profile, and the profiles you own on review sites. Our reputation management work covers the review side, and repeating this check every few months catches drift before customers do.
Related terms: Knowledge panel · Entity home · BBB accreditation · All glossary terms
Where to go next: Google Business Profile handbook for the profile at the center of most contractor brand SERPs, and what ChatGPT checks before recommending a contractor for the AI side.