What to do when AI assistants are wrong about your business

When an assistant states something wrong about your business, it read it somewhere. Ask it for the source, fix the fact at the source, make sure your own site and Google Business Profile state the correct fact plainly, and check again in a few weeks. There is no form to correct ChatGPT; the correction is the web agreeing on the truth.

Find the source

Ask the assistant "where did you get that." Perplexity shows it without asking. It is usually an old directory listing, a review, a news story, or a stale page on your own site. Sometimes it is a page about a different business with a similar name.

Fix it at the source

Old directory listing: claim it and correct it, or ask the directory to remove it.
Your own site: correct the page, and remove pages for services or locations you no longer have, with redirects.
Google Business Profile: correct it there; the assistants trust it most.
A news story or third-party page: ask for a correction, and publish the correct fact on your site so it outweighs the old one.
A similar-named business: add your town and your full name to your pages and listings so the assistants can tell you apart.

Make the truth easy to find

State the correct fact in a sentence on your homepage and on the relevant page. Put it in your structured data. Make it match on every listing. The assistants resolve conflicts by majority and by trust; give them a majority.

Check again

Ask the same question in two to four weeks. If it is still wrong, the source is still live somewhere. Search your business name plus the wrong fact to find it.

Questions people ask

Can I contact OpenAI or Google to fix it?

Not for business facts. The models answer from the web, and the fix is on the web.

The wrong fact is in an old review. What then?

Reply to the review with the correct fact, and make sure newer reviews and your listing state it. Recency wins.

We moved. How long until the assistants catch up?

Once every listing and your site show the new address, a few weeks. The old address lingers as long as one directory still lists it.

Want this done for you?

This is the work we do for every client: search, answer engines, and AI assistants, on one plan with one monthly report. Tell us about your business and we will tell you what we would do first.

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