Set up a clean test before you ask anything:

1. In ChatGPT, open a temporary chat or use a browser where you are not signed in.
2. For Google, use a private browser window.
3. Put the town in every question. Do not count on the tool to guess where you are.

A dealer who skips this step can see their own name in every answer and think the job is done. Their customers may never see it.

What questions should you ask?

Write the questions the way a homeowner or office manager would type them, not the way a dealer talks. Buyers do not say "intrusion detection." They say "alarm."

Here are six to start with. Swap in your own town:

• "Who is the best alarm company in [town]?"
• "Who installs security cameras for small businesses near [town]?"
• "I just had a break-in in [town]. Who should I call for a security system?"
• "Who does fire alarm inspections in [town]?"
• "Is there a local alarm company in [town] that is better than the big national ones?"
• "Who can take over monitoring on my existing alarm system in [town]?"

Pick the ones that match the work you want more of. If you mostly install commercial fire, lead with the fire questions.

Six questions, asked twice each in ChatGPT and twice each in Google, gives you 24 answers. That is enough to see a pattern.

How do you write down what comes back?

Use a sheet of paper or a simple spreadsheet with five columns:

1. Date
2. ChatGPT or Google
3. The question you asked
4. Every company named, in the order it appeared
5. Whether your company was one of them

Google shows an AI summary at the top of some searches and not others. When it does not show one, write down "no summary" and move on. That is a result too.

When you finish, count. Say you were named in 3 of your 24 answers, and a competitor across town was named in 14. That gap tells you more than any single screenshot could.

How do you read the results?

Count how often you were named. Do not worry about where you landed in the list. ChatGPT does not keep a ranking, so being "number two" in one answer means little. Being named in 14 of 24 answers means a lot.

Check the names closely. AI answers sometimes blend companies with similar names. If your company is "Smith Security" and the answer says "Smith Alarm," look it up before you count it. It may be you under an old name, or it may be a different company.

Read what the answer says about you, too. A wrong phone number, the wrong services or a note that you are closed is a separate problem, and it usually traces back to an old listing somewhere on the web.

Look at the companies that beat you. Search each one and note what they have: how many Google reviews, which directories list them, whether their website says plainly what they install and where. That list becomes your to-do list.

What can a do-it-yourself check not tell you?

It covers one town, the questions you thought of and the day you asked. It does not tell you how you compare with dealers in the next county, or whether last month looked any different.

Your own habits also get in the way. It is easy to ask only the questions you hope to win. A buyer who just had a break-in asks a different question than a dealer testing their own name.

Treat the check as a rough reading, not a final verdict. Run the same 24 questions on the first of each month and compare.

What does a benchmark add?

A benchmark runs the same check the same way across many companies and many towns. Our AI Visibility Report asked buyer-style questions in four wordings for security markets across the United States, counted how often each company was named, and matched each name carefully against a list of real companies, so a "Smith Alarm" answer does not get credited to "Smith Security." That shows who gets named in your market and how often, not only whether you came up once.

If you want a quick reading for your own company today, run our free ChatGPT naming check. It asks ChatGPT four questions a property owner would type, using live web search, and shows every company that came back, in order. It is four draws on one day. Run it again next month and compare the two.

What should you do with the results?

If you were named often, keep doing what got you there. Ask for reviews after every job and keep your listings current.

If you were named rarely or never, start with the basics. Make your company name, address and phone match everywhere it is listed. Ask your next ten customers for a review that mentions what you installed; our free Review Request Kit writes the ask for you. Rewrite your home page so a stranger can tell in one read what you install and which towns you serve. Our free Website Sales Test shows what a visitor can and cannot find there.

None of this works overnight, and nobody can promise you a spot in an AI answer. Reviews and listings build up over months. The monthly count will show you whether the work is paying off.

For the reasons behind these fixes, read why ChatGPT recommends some security companies and not others.

Frequently asked questions

Why did ChatGPT name me yesterday and not today?

ChatGPT writes each answer fresh, and the wording of the question, the town and the day all change it. That is why you ask several questions more than once and count the results.

Should I check Google too, or only ChatGPT?

Check both. Your buyers use both, and the two can name different companies for the same question.

How often should I run the check?

Once a month is enough. Use the same questions each time so the counts compare fairly.

Can I pay to be named in ChatGPT answers?

We know of no honest way to buy a spot in the answer. Ads buy ad space. Reviews, matching listings and mentions on other websites are what make a company easy to name.