As of November 2026, a small professional services firm can start AI search optimization itself without paying anyone, and paid help from Answersky starts at $30 once for a report, $99 a month for fixes written for you, or $549 a month when we make the changes. The real difference between a service and a tool subscription is who does the work after the first report.
We’re Answersky (answersky.com), and we’re one option among several. This post covers what you can do yourself first, what paid help covers at each level, and five tests that show whether you’re being offered a service or a tool. Nothing here is a promise that any firm gets named.
What can a small firm do itself?
Most of the first steps need your time, not a fee. Google says that for small local businesses, you can “probably do much of the work yourself”. Its page on AI features says “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.”
In order:
- Ask the assistants your buyers’ questions, more than once. Write down who is named each time. Our guide on how to check if ChatGPT mentions your business shows how.
- Let the search crawlers in. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.”
- Say plainly on your own pages what you do, for whom and where. Google lists keeping important content in text among its recommended practices on its AI features page.
- Read the reports the search engines already give you. Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode appears in Search Console’s Performance report under the Web search type. Bing’s AI Performance report (in public preview since Feb 2026) shows how often Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries cite your pages. It says it doesn’t show ranking or authority, and it doesn’t cover ChatGPT.
Your own website is worth the effort. In Answersky’s Oct 12, 2026 test, a business’s own website was cited in 82 of 108 ChatGPT and Perplexity answers. A citation shows a page was linked, not that it decided who was named. See our post on whether AI reads your own website.
Answers that cited a business's own website
ChatGPT and Perplexity answers, Oct 12, 2026
- All answers (108)
- 82 of 108
- Accounting firms (36)
- 32 of 36
- Law firms (36)
- 24 of 36
What does paid help cost, and what does it cover?
It depends on who does the work. Here is how our plans differ, with our prices as they stand today. The last column says who does what.
| Level | Price | What you get | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Scan | Free | 6 of your buyers’ questions on ChatGPT and Perplexity, 12 answers, and who AI named instead of you. No score and no fixes | Nobody: it’s a check |
| Full Report | $30 once | 9 questions, each asked 3 ways, on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, 108 answers, a 0 to 100 score for each assistant and the top 5 fixes, by email within 1 business day | You make the fixes |
| Guided | $99 per month | The Full Report every month, up to 5 page fixes as paste-ready text, the sites to get listed on, 2 article outlines, and a weekly watch on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude that flags early signs, new rivals and wrong facts as they appear | We write the fixes, you paste them in |
| Done for you | $549 per month | Baseline check, site setup, key pages rewritten and your top profiles fixed in month 1. Re-check, new pages, listings or mentions, a report and a call each month | We make the changes, you approve them |
Guided and Done for you can be cancelled any time. Done for you is invoiced by us. Our pricing page has every plan and what it includes, and the service page explains what we do and don’t do. A sample report shows what a Full Report looks like.
We don’t do video or social media content, and we never pay for links or placements. We can’t say when a change will show up, or that it will.
How do I tell a real service from a tool subscription?
Ask what happens after the first report. A tool is usually sold as software that shows you data, and sometimes recommendations. A service does part of the work, and says which part. Google’s advice on hiring an SEO is a good starting point, because the same questions work here. Five tests:
- Who makes the changes, and is that written down? The table above says it for each of our levels. Ask any provider the same question.
- Can they show examples of previous work? Google suggests asking for them, and for references.
- Will they share every change they make? Google lists “Will you share all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations?” among the questions to ask.
- What do they say about results and timing? Google’s page says no one can promise a #1 ranking, and to be wary of anyone who does. The same goes for being named by an AI assistant. Google also says third-party tools don’t have access to its internal ranking data and can’t promise performance.
- Can you see the evidence and the price in writing? Look for the raw answers behind any score, the questions asked and how many ways. Our post on how to choose an AI visibility tool goes through those checks.
Is Answersky the right option for a small firm?
It might be, if you want the check done properly and someone else to write or make the fixes. It isn’t, if you want a promise of a place in AI answers, or video and social media work. We start with the free Quick Scan, because the answer might be that you’re already named.
Our own record is a reminder not to expect fast wins. On Sep 30, 2026, answersky.com was named in none of its 78 answers. What we changed since, and what moved, is on our log.
Why should the check be repeated?
Because one answer is one sample. In Answersky’s Oct 15, 2026 test, a leading AI assistant with web search named specific firms in all 56 answers to B2B buyer questions. Counting each firm once per question and pooling all 28 questions, about 40% of the firms named for a question appeared in only one of its two answers. In our Oct 12, 2026 test, only 11% to 15% of the businesses named were named by more than one of ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. A check that runs once, or on one assistant, can mislead you. The Full Report is a one-time snapshot, so repeat it yourself. Guided and Done for you re-check every month, and Guided adds a weekly watch on all four assistants. All the numbers are on our statistics page.
What are the limits of this post?
- Prices and plans are Answersky’s, as of November 2026. We don’t compare other providers’ prices, because we haven’t checked them for this post.
- Our tests are small. In both, the assistants were told to recommend specific businesses by name where relevant, which likely raises how often they are named. They show prompted recommendations, not every way people ask. The Oct 12 test asked each question once, on one evening. The Oct 15 test asked each question twice, on one day. Each is one run, not a ranking.
- Google’s and Bing’s pages describe their own search. They don’t describe how ChatGPT or Perplexity decide what to name.
- Nothing here shows that any change gets a firm named.
Free Quick Scan: 6 of your buyers’ questions on ChatGPT and Perplexity, 12 answers and who AI named instead of you. Results on the scan page when ready, plus an emailed copy; queued or review requests arrive by email within 1 business day. See pricing.
