AI visibility · United Kingdom
When a customer asks an AI assistant for a business like yours, does it name you?
Most local businesses have never checked. When we do check, the answer is usually no — and the reason is almost never the quality of the work. We measure it, fix what is causing it, and show you the figure every month.
What changed
Your customers changed how they search. Most businesses haven't noticed.
People used to search and pick from ten links. A growing number now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's assistant a plain question — "best plumber in Coventry", "how much are dental implants near me", "emergency dentist open now" — and get back one short answer naming two or three businesses.
There is no page two. You are either in that answer, or the customer never learns you exist.
You will not see these in your enquiry numbers. They never became enquiries.
Why some are named
It isn't about quality, and it isn't about reviews.
The difference is whether the business can be read and confirmed.
An assistant doesn't look at your website the way a person does. It reads facts — what you do, where, when you're open, what it costs — then checks them against directories, review sites and professional registers. Where those sources agree, it has enough confidence to name you. Where they disagree, it names a business whose details agree instead.
Most small businesses fail on the second half. Their phone number is published three different ways. Their opening hours differ between their own website header and footer. Their prices sit inside images a machine can't read.
None of that shows up in your enquiry numbers, and none of it is visible from your own website. It only shows up when you ask the assistants directly.
What this looks like in practice
We ran the check across every dental practice in one Warwickshire town.
Population 78,000. Three assistants, six questions, three times each — eighteen answers per practice.
Named by all three assistants.
Named in one answer out of eighteen.
One practice was absent from every answer when patients asked for an emergency dentist — while being named consistently when asked about by name.
Two practices had their Google reviews split across duplicate listings, so a patient could land on a page showing three reviews instead of ninety-four.
One practice's number appeared four different ways, including an out-of-area code.
None of these are small businesses doing bad work. They are well-reviewed practices whose published details do not agree with each other.
How it works
Three stages, and you can stop after the first.
The check
We ask three assistants the six questions your customers actually ask, three times each, and score how often you are named. You get a written report: the figure, the screenshots, which businesses are named instead of you, and the specific causes.
Five working daysFixed price, quoted before we start
If it shows you are already performing well, we will say so and refund half the fee.
The work
Your details made identical everywhere anyone checks. The listings you are missing claimed and completed. Your prices and your common questions published as text that can be quoted rather than sitting inside images.
Two weeksFixed price agreed in advance, scope written down
If any part is not done on time, you do not pay for that part.
Every month after
The same measurement, the same scoring, one page. Details checked and corrected as they drift. New platforms added as the assistants start using them. You tell us about a change once and we update it everywhere.
MonthlyThirty days' notice, no contract
What it costs
It depends on how many locations you have and how far your details have drifted, so we quote after the check rather than before. A single-site practice and a group of three are not the same job.
The check is a fixed fee and we tell you the figure before you commit to anything. There is no charge for the first conversation.
What you own
Everything we set up belongs to your business, not to us.
Your Google listing stays in your name. You add us as a manager, which lets us do the work without ever taking ownership. Every listing we create is registered to your business, verified with your phone and your address, and remains yours whether we keep working together or not.
Nothing is registered to us. No listing created under our details, no verification code to our phone, no password sitting only with us. You'll have access to every account we touch, and we hand you the login details in writing when the work is finished.
If you stop, you keep all of it — the listings, the profiles, the text on your website, the report history. We hand it over properly and answer your new provider's questions. No exit fee.
We say this plainly because it isn't always the case in this industry. Some agencies register listings in their own name so the work leaves when they do. That keeps clients who are trapped rather than clients who are satisfied.
Why it needs maintaining
Your details don't stay put on their own.
Directories rewrite what you gave them
They merge your entry with an old one, pull an out-of-date phone number in from somewhere else, or change their layout and lose half your description. Nobody tells you. It happens on sites you never log into.
Your business changes
New hours, a new service, a price increase, someone updates the website but not the listing. Each change is small. Each one puts your details slightly out of step with the twenty other places they appear.
And the assistants change
Where ChatGPT looked six months ago isn't where it looks now. New sources become important, old ones stop mattering. A business that was being named regularly can quietly stop being named, and the first sign is a quiet month.
This is why a one-off tidy-up doesn't hold — not because the work was done badly, but because nobody was watching afterwards.
What we won't do
The limits, stated before you ask.
We won't promise you a position
Nobody controls those. Anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
We won't touch your reviews improperly
No incentives, no filtering out the negative ones. Both are illegal in the UK and enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority, with penalties calculated from turnover. If you're currently offering anything in return for a review, we'll tell you to stop.
We won't publish anything unverified
No price, qualification or claim goes on your website unless you've confirmed it in writing.
We won't tie you in
Thirty days' notice, any time. No licence, no lock-in.
We'll tell you if it won't help
If your problem is your rating rather than your visibility, fixing your listings won't move the needle. You'll hear that on the first call.
We measure the same way every month
Through the assistants' developer interfaces, with no personal history attached, so each month's figure is directly comparable. Consumer apps vary by person and by day.
What else is available
Other options, honestly.
SEO agencies
They work on your position in Google. That still matters, but it's a different question from whether an assistant names you, and most don't measure the second one at all.
Listings software
Distributes your details to directories. Good tools — we use one. But they're tools somebody has to operate. Software won't decide which of your four published phone numbers is correct, write the answers to your customers' questions, or notice that your opening hours contradict themselves.
Doing it yourself
Entirely possible. Roughly thirty hours to set up and a few hours a month to maintain. Most owners have neither, which is the only reason we have a business.
Straight answers
Questions we get asked first.
How long before anything changes?
Assistants usually start naming a business differently four to eight weeks after the work is done, not immediately. We'd rather tell you that now than have you wondering in week three.
Do I need a new website?
No. Most of the work happens outside your website — on the directories, registers and listings assistants check. Where changes to your site are needed, we hand your web person the exact text and code to paste.
What if I already have an SEO agency?
That's fine, and there's no conflict. They work on your Google position; we work on whether assistants name you. Show them our report — it's specific enough for them to act on.
How is this measured?
We ask each assistant the same six questions, three times each, through their developer interfaces with no personal history attached. That keeps every month's result directly comparable rather than being a screenshot of one search on one day.
What if my rating is low?
Then this isn't your problem. Nearly a third of customers won't consider a business rated below 4.5, and no amount of visibility work fixes that. We'll tell you on the first call rather than take your money.
Who does this suit?
Businesses where one new customer is worth £500 or more, and where customers search locally and urgently. Dental and medical practices, solicitors, trades, garages, clinics, care providers.
Are you registered?
Smart Business Labs is the trading name of Vladislavs Saperins, a UK sole trader, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under ZC179963.
Start here
Find out where you stand.
The check takes five working days. You get the report whether or not we do anything else, and if it shows you are already doing fine, we will tell you and refund half. The first conversation costs nothing.