How Claude picks local businesses
Updated October 15, 2026
Anthropic doesn't publish how Claude chooses businesses to recommend. It does document that Claude can search the web and cite sources, and it names its crawlers. In our stored answers, Claude without web search was the most cautious assistant: it named at least one business in 79% of local questions, and in a small town it often said it didn't know.
Does Claude search the web?
It can. Anthropic offers web search in the Claude apps and in its API, and answers that use it come with citations. Without search, Claude answers from what it learned in training, which is months old by the time you ask.
Anthropic documents three crawlers: ClaudeBot, which collects training data; Claude-User, which fetches a page when a user asks; and Claude-SearchBot, which helps its search. Blocking them in robots.txt leaves Claude less of your site to read.
What do our stored Claude answers show?
We test Claude Haiku 4.5 through the API without search, so our answers show what Claude knows from training. Across 1,584 stored Claude answers (15 October 2026), it named at least one business in 79.4% of them, the lowest of the four. When it did name businesses it named about 3.4.
The gap shows up most in small places. In our Northwich, UK heating run, Claude named no business for 31 of the 48 questions, while Gemini and ChatGPT named someone for every one. It tends to say it lacks current information and point people to directories instead.
How do you get named by Claude?
Two routes. For answers from training, be widely and consistently described across the web over time: directories, reviews, local press, trade bodies. For answers with web search, have pages that answer the question directly, and let Claude's crawlers read them.
- Allow ClaudeBot, Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt.
- Get listed with the trade bodies and directories Claude suggests when it won't name anyone.
- Keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere.
Check your business for free
Enter your website. We ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask and email you who they recommend.
Common questions
Why does Claude refuse to recommend a business?
Without web search it often says it doesn't have reliable current information about local firms, especially in smaller towns. With search on, it's more likely to name someone and cite where it found them.
Does Claude use Google or Bing?
We couldn't find a search provider named in Anthropic's help pages. Look at the citations on a searched answer to see which pages it relied on.
Which Claude model do you test?
Claude Haiku 4.5 through the API, without web search. That shows what Claude says from training, which is the harder case to win.
Is it worth caring about Claude for a local business?
Yes, though most of the work is shared. The fixes that get you named by Claude, such as consistent listings and clear pages, are the same ones that help with ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.