Can AI Search Find Your Dallas Business? A Practical Evidence Checklist
Direct answer: Check whether public pages can be fetched, whether they explain the business in readable text, whether they show work a person can verify, and whether the next step works on a phone.
Use this log before you pay for an “AI SEO” service. The Answer Engine Optimization playbook goes further into citations. The note on what happens when an agent is blocked explains a refused fetch. Here you record access, clarity, proof, and contact for your own pages.
Transcript
Can people tell what your business does, where it works, and how to reach you?
Start there before chasing another AI-search tactic.
First, check that your public pages are readable and accessible to search crawlers.
ChatGPT search has its own crawler, so review both the website rules and the hosting access.
That makes discovery possible; it does not guarantee a recommendation.
Next, describe each service clearly, with the places and customers you actually serve.
Then add evidence a person can check: real projects, specific examples, and reviews at their source.
Keep your business details consistent across the website and public profiles.
Finally, test the next step on a phone: the contact link, the form, and the response.
A visitor should not have to guess what happens after the click.
InterGlobal's checklist walks through access, clarity, proof, and contact.
Read the full guide and bring us the step you want to improve.
Access: can a public page be fetched?
Open an important page in a private window. Confirm it loads, the main text is in the HTML, and a person is not asked to solve a puzzle before reading the service. A developer can go further and look at server logs for the user agents you care about. An owner can still record the simpler observation: the URL, the date, and whether the page returned the content.
OpenAI documents separate controls. OAI-SearchBot is for search and is used to surface sites in ChatGPT search features. A site that disallows OAI-SearchBot is not shown in those search answers, though it can still appear as a navigational link. GPTBot is for content that may be used to train generative models. ChatGPT-User is for certain user-triggered visits and is not the control that decides search appearance. Allowing the search crawler makes discovery possible. It does not guarantee a recommendation. OpenAI: overview of crawlers.
Google’s guidance for AI features in Search says the usual SEO foundations still apply, important content should be available as text, and there is no special AI schema or AI text file required. It also says that meeting the requirements does not guarantee crawling, indexing, or serving. Google Search Central: AI features and your website.
Clarity: does the page name the work?
Read the first screen out loud. It should say what you sell, where you do it, and what the visitor can do next. “Best solutions for growth” is not a service. “Drain cleaning for homes in Dallas and Plano” is.
A sitemap helps a crawler discover URLs. Indexing, a citation, and a lead are later, separate events. Internal links still give a person, and a crawler, a path to the specific service. The Dallas marketing page is the local overview. The service scope for search lives on SEO.
Proof: what can you show that is real?
Show work a person can check: a page, a photo, or a project description you have permission to publish. Name the service and the place. The work index collects projects that were delivered, which is the kind of evidence to point to when it matches the job you sell.
Keep static facts accurate: business name, phone, city, and the services you actually sell. Do not add a street, a review score, or a client quote you cannot support.
Contact: is the next step working?
On a phone, tap the number and submit the form with a test you can delete. Write down who receives it. A page that explains the business and then offers no working next step is hard to use, whether a person found it in a map pack, a classic result, or a chat.
Track three different records. A citation is a system showing your page as a source. A click referral is a visit that arrives with a recorded source. A self-reported lead is a person who says they found you in a chat or a search. Ask “How did you hear about us?” and store the answer. Do not treat that answer as a citation, and do not treat a citation as a booked job.
Evidence log
Use one row per page. Leave a cell blank until you have looked. The log does not score the business.
| Page | Observation | Date | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | |||
| Clarity | |||
| Proof | |||
| Contact |
How to sample a prompt without fooling yourself
Pick three questions a real customer might ask, including the city and the service. Ask each one on the same day, save the answer, and note whether your business was named, linked, or absent. Repeat the same three questions later if you want a comparison. A single answer can change, so keep the notebook and compare the same questions.
Separate the words you see. A recommendation is the system telling someone to choose you. A mention is your name in a sentence. A citation is a link or source credit. They are not the same event, and none of them is a measured lead.
Questions for a provider
- Which pages will you change, and what will the visible text say?
- How do you tell a citation from a visit and a visit from a qualified inquiry?
- Which crawler controls are you asking us to change, and which ones are we leaving alone?
- How will we review the words on the page before anything is published?
A useful proposal names the pages, the checks, and the person who reviews the words. It does not sell a secret file that “makes ChatGPT recommend you.”
Review the pages you already have
Bring the URL, the service you want found, and the contact path you want tested. We can review access, clarity, proof, and the next step with you. Start at contact or visit www.intrglobal.com.
To keep
- Check access, clarity, proof, and contact on the pages you want found.
- OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot are separate controls.
- A sitemap helps discovery. Record citations, referrals, and leads in different columns.
- Save the same three customer questions if you want a later comparison.
Questions owners ask
If I allow AI crawlers, will ChatGPT recommend my business?
No. Allowing OAI-SearchBot is a search-eligibility control described by OpenAI. It is not a promise that your business will be cited or recommended.
Does a page in the sitemap mean AI search can find it?
A sitemap helps discovery of the URL. Whether that page is crawled, indexed, or shown is a separate step. Google’s AI-features guide says meeting the technical requirements does not by itself decide serving.
Where do I go for a broader citation guide?
The Answer Engine Optimization playbook covers citations. This page stays on the four checks for a Dallas business.