When was the last time you searched for a service in ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of Google? If you have done it even once, so have your potential customers. The question is not whether people are using AI platforms to find businesses. They are. The real question is whether they are finding you or your competitors when they search. Watch the full video above to learn more.

In this week’s Friday SEO Tip, Kathleen Urbanski, our  Client Strategist here at Boulder SEO Marketing, walks through a real-time comparison of search results across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. She uses two real examples, physical therapy clinics in Boulder and LASIK providers in Denver, to show how your business visibility varies across platforms and why your strategy needs to account for all of them.

The Search Landscape Has Shifted

Google is still the biggest player, but it is no longer the only game in town. People are actively using ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini to search for local services, product recommendations, and professional providers. These platforms pull from different data sources and rank results in their own ways, so your Google rankings alone do not guarantee visibility everywhere your customers are looking.

Here is the thing: according to recent studies, people who get their recommendations from ChatGPT convert at a rate four times that of those from traditional Google search. That is a massive shift in how buying decisions are being made, and if your strategy is not keeping up, you are handing those conversions to your competitors. This is not a trend that is going away. AI-powered search is only going to grow, and the businesses that adapt their strategies now will benefit the most.

What Google Search Results Actually Look Like Now

When Kathleen searched for “best physical therapy clinic in Boulder,” the first thing that appeared was the AI Overview. Not the map pack, not the blue links. The AI Overview. This section now sits at the very top of the search results page and recommends specific businesses by name. If you are not showing up in the AI Overview for your core services, you are already behind the businesses that are.

After the AI Overview comes the local map pack, a staple of local SEO for years. But right below that? Discussion forums. Reddit threads, Facebook groups, and Quora answers are now ranking higher than traditional organic blue links. Google is placing greater weight on real user experiences and personal recommendations than ever before. Kathleen showed a Reddit thread from three years ago about physical therapy recommendations in Boulder that is still ranking on page one. A three-year-old forum post is outranking established business websites because Google considers such authentic user feedback highly valuable.

She ran the same test for “best LASIK in Denver” and found the exact same pattern. The local map pack appeared first, followed immediately by Reddit discussions and Facebook posts, some dating back years. The businesses mentioned most frequently in those forum threads were the same ones appearing in the local map pack and across AI platforms.

Why Reddit and Forums Deserve Your Attention

This is something many businesses overlook entirely. If someone posts a recommendation thread on Reddit asking for a physical therapy clinic in Boulder, the businesses mentioned in those replies are getting visibility on Google’s first page. The same goes for LASIK providers in Denver. Kathleen showed how a Reddit post from one year ago asking about LASIK surgery in 2025 is showing up prominently in search results, with the businesses mentioned in the thread also appearing in the local map pack and AI platforms.

The takeaway is straightforward. You need to know what people are saying about your industry and your competitors on these forums. Whether the sentiment is positive or negative, it directly impacts your visibility. If your competitors are being recommended in Reddit threads, Quora answers, and Facebook groups while your business is nowhere to be found, that is a gap in your strategy that needs attention. Pay attention to both the positive recommendations and the negative sentiment. Both tell you something important about how your market perceives the options available to them.

How AI Platforms Rank Businesses Differently

Kathleen ran the same search, “best physical therapy clinic in Boulder,” across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. The results were similar but not identical. ChatGPT pulled the top two recommendations directly from Google’s local map pack and displayed star ratings and review counts alongside each business. Perplexity showed a different list, with some overlap with the AI Overviews, and even included side-by-side comparisons of different clinics. Claude had yet another order, pulling some of the same businesses but prioritizing them differently.

She repeated this with the LASIK search and found the same pattern. The top three results in ChatGPT matched the top three in Google’s local map pack. Perplexity is pulled from a broader set of sources. Each platform has its own way of evaluating and presenting businesses, but the common thread is clear: businesses with strong fundamentals show up everywhere.

What does this tell us? The businesses that show up across all platforms are the ones with strong on-page SEO, consistent business information, solid reviews, and real authority in their space. Your website content, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and your presence across the web all feed into how these AI platforms decide who to recommend. There is no shortcut here. The fundamentals matter more than ever because they serve multiple platforms at once.

Your On-Page SEO Now Serves Two Masters

This is the key insight from Kathleen’s walkthrough. Your on-page SEO strategy is no longer just about ranking in Google. It needs to address what AI platforms look for when deciding which businesses to recommend. That means clear, specific service descriptions on your website. That means consistent NAP information across all listings and directories. That means genuine reviews from real customers and active engagement with your online presence.

When Boulder SEO Marketing creates strategies for clients, the team ensures they not only address traditional Google search but also optimize for how businesses get cited on AI platforms. One of their clients in the physical therapy space is showing up as the top recommendation across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. That does not happen by accident. It happens because the strategy accounts for where customers search and ensures the business has the authority, content, and consistency that every platform looks for.

What You Should Do Right Now

Start by running the same test Kathleen demonstrated. Search for your primary service and location in Google, then do the exact same search in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Compare the results. Are you showing up? Are your competitors showing up instead? Are there forum discussions where your business should be mentioned but is not? Take note of which businesses appear across all four platforms, because those are the ones doing something right with their SEO strategy.

If your current strategy only focuses on Google, you are leaving visibility on the table. Your customers are already using these AI platforms to make buying decisions, and the businesses that show up across all of them are the ones winning the most leads. If you need help building a strategy that covers both traditional search and AI search, reach out to Boulder SEO Marketing for a free strategy session. The team will help you see exactly where you stand across every platform and build a plan to close the gaps.

Stay safe and healthy,

Cheers,

The Boulder SEO Marketing Team