Field notes and plain answers on how AI answer engines recommend businesses. By Nameworthy (Whitley Row LLC).https://nameworthy.ai/https://nameworthy.ai/research/how-much-do-ai-engines-agree/https://nameworthy.ai/research/how-much-do-ai-engines-agree/Across 1,984 measured runs and 139 question sets, any two AI engines asked the same question about the same city named overlapping businesses roughly 12% of the time. Per-pair overlap ran from 6.7% to 11.3%. Measuring one engine tells you almost nothing about the other five.Sat, 29 Aug 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.Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-recommends-injury-lawyers/https://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-recommends-injury-lawyers/Two full measurement panels in two states, 440 scored runs: AI engines actively discount advertising in personal injury, verify board certification against the state's official registry, and split every market into a recommended tier and a permanently footnoted one.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-recommends-med-spas/https://nameworthy.ai/research/how-ai-recommends-med-spas/Two full measurement panels in two Sun-Belt metros, 400 scored observations: AI engines recommend med spas by named injector, published price, named device platform, and — increasingly — a live check of the state license registry and the manufacturer's own provider directory.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/ai-visibility-consultant-for-small-business/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/ai-visibility-consultant-for-small-business/What an AI visibility consultant (AEO/GEO consultant) actually does for a small business, what one costs in 2026, when a $29 tracking tool is enough, and the five questions that expose a bad one.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/chatgpt-visibility-for-law-firms/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/chatgpt-visibility-for-law-firms/ChatGPT selects attorneys on bar records, board certification, and peer-review directories — it has stated its criteria in-answer, including 'not advertising alone' — and it now runs discipline checks against the state bar and prints them. What our legal-market panels show, and what a firm can do about it.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-google-ai-mode/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/how-to-get-recommended-by-google-ai-mode/Google AI Mode is a maps-first surface: your Google Business Profile category decides whether you're eligible before your content is ever read, local best-of lists ground its main recommendations, and review counts ride on every card. Win the places layer first, then the prose.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/answers/is-ai-visibility-worth-it-for-a-law-firm/https://nameworthy.ai/answers/is-ai-visibility-worth-it-for-a-law-firm/Whether AI visibility is worth paying for comes down to three measured numbers: engines answer hiring questions with 2–4 firm names, a #1 spot lasts roughly 1–2 days unmanaged, and blog content alone almost never earns the recommendation. Here's the honest math for a law firm.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 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.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nameworthy.ai/research/ai-citation-durability-report/https://nameworthy.ai/research/ai-citation-durability-report/First edition of Nameworthy's recurring benchmark: 383 first-position transition pairs and 1,800+ presence pairs from our measurement archive show an unmanaged #1 AI recommendation has an expected lifetime of roughly one to two days — with per-engine hold rates from 16% to 52%, and Claude lower still on a small, caveated sample.Sun, 09 Aug 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, 09 Aug 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.Sun, 09 Aug 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.Sun, 09 Aug 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.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT