ChatGPT gets most of the attention, but plenty of your customers ask other assistants: Gemini on an Android phone, Claude at work, DeepSeek because it was free, Meta AI inside WhatsApp, Siri while driving. Each finds information in a slightly different way, and some of them publish far more about how than others.
This guide goes through them one by one, says what is documented and what is not, and ends with the small set of actions that help across all of them. The short version: most of the work to get your business mentioned by Claude and Gemini is the same work that gets you found anywhere, but there are one or two assistant-specific checks worth doing.
Live search versus training data: the distinction that matters
Every assistant can answer in two ways. It can answer from what the model learned during training, a snapshot of text gathered months or years ago. Or it can search the web at the moment you ask and write an answer from what it finds, usually with links. For a local business, the second route is the one that counts. Training data is patchy on small firms and often out of date, and there is nothing practical you can do to get into it on demand.
When an assistant searches live, your website, listings and reviews are in play today. That is where your effort should go.
| Assistant | Live web search | Main source for local answers | How documented |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini (Google) | Yes, grounded in Google Search | Google Search and Google Maps data | Well documented |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Yes, when web search is on | Its own crawlers plus a third-party search provider | Crawlers documented; provider details limited |
| DeepSeek | Yes, when its search option is on | Not clearly published | Poorly documented |
| Grok (xAI) | Yes | The web and posts on X | Partly documented |
| Meta AI | Yes, for some questions | Web search through partners; details vary | Partly documented |
| Siri and Apple Maps | Uses Apple’s own data and can hand some questions to ChatGPT | Apple Maps listings from Apple Business Connect | Listings well documented |
Gemini: it is mostly about Google
Gemini is Google’s assistant, and when it needs current information it grounds its answers in Google Search. For places and local businesses it can draw on Google Maps data, which is built largely from Google Business Profiles, reviews and the web. In practice, the businesses Gemini mentions for “best dog groomer in Taunton” look a lot like the businesses Google shows for the same search.
That makes Gemini the most predictable assistant for a local business. The same things that help you in Google help you here: a complete, accurate Google Business Profile, genuine reviews, a website that is indexed and clearly says what you do and where, and consistent details on other sites.
One common confusion is worth clearing up. Google offers a robots.txt token called Google-Extended that lets sites opt out of having their content used for some Gemini purposes. Google says Google-Extended does not affect whether or how your site appears in Google Search. Blocking it will not remove you from Search, and allowing it is not a ranking trick. For most small businesses, leaving it alone is fine.
Claude: allow the right crawlers
Anthropic publishes details of three crawlers. ClaudeBot collects web content that may be used to train models. Claude-SearchBot crawls to improve the quality of search results for Claude users. Claude-User fetches pages when a person using Claude asks a question that needs them. Each can be allowed or blocked separately in robots.txt.
If you want Claude to find and cite you, the two that matter are Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User. You can block ClaudeBot if you object to training and still allow the other two. The mistake to avoid is a blanket block, whether in robots.txt or a hosting or CDN setting that stops AI bots wholesale, which can shut out search crawlers along with training ones.
Claude’s web search also uses a third-party search provider. Anthropic has not published full details of how results are chosen, and reports about which provider it uses have changed over time, so it is safest not to build a strategy around any one of them. Being properly indexed in Google and Bing, and allowing Claude’s own search crawlers, covers the likely routes.
DeepSeek: the least documented of the big names
DeepSeek’s app and website have an option to search the web. When it is on, answers can include links to sources. DeepSeek has published little about how that search works, which index it uses or how it decides which pages to cite. When search is off, answers come from training data, which is unlikely to know much about most UK local businesses.
Honestly, there is no DeepSeek-specific action a small business can take with confidence. The general groundwork, clear pages and consistent listings on well-known sites, is the best available bet. Anyone offering specialist DeepSeek optimisation is selling a guess.
Grok, Meta AI and Siri in brief
- Grok, from xAI, searches the web and posts on X. If your customers are active on X, a genuine, active account with your business details helps; if they are not, it is low priority.
- Meta AI appears inside WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. It can search the web for some questions, but how it sources local business information is not fully published. A complete Facebook page and Instagram profile with accurate details are sensible anyway.
- Siri and Apple Maps rely on Apple’s own business data, which you can manage for free through Apple Business Connect. On recent iPhones, Siri can also pass some questions to ChatGPT, so the ChatGPT groundwork helps there too. For any business with customers on iPhones, which is most businesses, claiming Apple Business Connect is worth half an hour.
What works across every assistant
Because each assistant draws on the open web one way or another, the actions that help everywhere are the same few:
- Let the search crawlers in: Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User and PerplexityBot at minimum. Check robots.txt and any bot-blocking setting at your host.
- Make every key page answer what, where, for whom and roughly how much, in the first few lines.
- Keep your business name, phone, address or service area and website identical across Google, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and the main directories in your sector.
- Collect genuine reviews on the platforms your customers read.
- Earn a few real mentions elsewhere: local press, supplier pages, trade bodies, community sites.
- Keep prices, hours and services current, because assistants repeat what they find.
How to check where you stand
Pick ten questions a real customer might ask, with your town in them, and ask each assistant with web search switched on. Note whether you appear and, more usefully, which sources are cited. If the same directory or review site keeps coming up and you are not on it, that is the gap to close. Repeat every couple of months, since answers shift.
In your analytics, look for referral visits from gemini.google.com, claude.ai, chat.deepseek.com, perplexity.ai and similar. They are usually small numbers for a local business, but they tell you which assistants are sending real people.
Nerdsharks builds sites with these crawlers allowed and each page written to answer a clear question, but the checks above are free and anyone can run them on their own site this week.