Your Google Maps listing and the AI chat don't pick the same businesses

In October I ran the same questions twice for dentists and physiotherapists in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Haarlem.

Once through AI chat with web search: ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. (Grok was in the set too, but its runs failed on these pages, so it's three.) And once through Gemini working from Google Maps data. Questions in Dutch, the way someone who just moved to town would ask them.

I thought the two would mostly line up. They don't.

The numbers

Over those six pages, the chat answers named 186 businesses. The Maps answers named 54.

37 of the Maps picks also showed up in the chat answers. The other 17 never did. That's about one in three.

The other way round it's starker. 149 of the 186 businesses the chat AIs named never came up in the Maps answers at all.

One example each way

Dentists in Utrecht. Tandartspraktijk Utrecht B.V. was picked in all three Maps answers. In the nine chat answers, it didn't come up once.

Physios in Haarlem. FysioExpert came up in six chat answers. Zero Maps answers.

And then there's Fysio Inc, also in Haarlem. Seven chat answers and all three Maps answers. Both doors open.

What that means for you

There isn't one "AI" deciding whether you get named. There are at least two routes in. One runs through your Maps listing: your reviews, your category, your opening hours. The other runs through the web: your own site and what other sites say about you.

My guess, and it is a guess, is that most small businesses work hard on one and forget the other. A practice with lots of good reviews and a thin website. Or a great website and a Maps listing nobody has touched in years.

That's good news, really. Both are things you can fix. No magic. Just check both doors.

Check yours

The free scan at foreground.info asks the AIs about your business and shows you which ones name you.

Two routes. Check both.