Does AI recommend local businesses in the UK?
Updated October 15, 2026
Yes. Ask ChatGPT for a solicitor in Leeds or a boiler engineer in Bristol and it names a few local firms. Our checks in London and Northwich got local names back from all four assistants. To see whether yours is one of them, ask the questions your customers ask, with your town in them, or run our free check.
How people in the UK ask AI for a business
People in the UK ask for a solicitor, not a lawyer, and an estate agent rather than a realtor. They want a Gas Safe engineer for the boiler and a chartered accountant for the tax return. Those words pull back different answers from the US ones, so the business has to use them too.
Location comes as a town, a London borough or a postcode district: "plumber in Didsbury", "dentist near SW11". British spelling shows up in the question ("specialise", "centre") and assistants generally answer in kind.
- “Who's a good conveyancing solicitor in Manchester?”
- “Gas Safe boiler engineer near M20, any recommendations?”
- “Best estate agent for selling a flat in Clapham?”
- “Is there a dentist in Leeds taking NHS patients?”
The sites AI reads about UK businesses
Assistants that search the web as they answer read listings and review sites, and the ones people in the UK use aren't the same as elsewhere. Keep your name, address and phone identical on all of them.
Google Business Profile
The listing most answers start from. Category, opening hours and recent reviews all show up in what assistants say.
Trustpilot
Widely read and often quoted for service businesses. A steady run of recent reviews helps more than a big old total.
Checkatrade
The vetted-trades directory UK homeowners know by name. Profiles carry checks and reviews an answer can point to.
TrustATrader
Another vetted trades directory with reviews. Worth claiming if you're a trade.
Yell
The UK's long-running business directory. Keep your name, address and phone identical to your Google listing.
Bark
A lead marketplace across trades and professional services. Profile pages are public and get read.
Bing Places
ChatGPT's search has been reported to draw on Bing's index, so claim it alongside Google.
Cities we can check in the UK
Any city or town works, including small ones. These are just examples: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast.
UK city studies are coming
Our published studies are all US cities so far. We'll publish UK ones once the runs are done, and we don't quote figures for the UK before then. Your own free check works today.
How the free check works in the UK
We put around 48 questions about your trade and your town to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity and save every answer word for word. Your report shows how many named you, who was named instead, and your first fix.
Enter your website and we read your business name, trade and town from it. Confirm the town and, if you like, the county or London borough in the region box.
The questions are asked in English. Some of our question sets were written for the US and still use US terms such as CPA, LLC or furnace. We haven't localised those yet, so if your report shows one, that's why.
Prices are in US dollars: Free costs nothing, and the paid plans are charged in USD, so your card provider converts at its own rate.
Check your business for free
Enter your website. We ask the four assistants the questions your customers ask and email you who they recommend.
Common questions from UK businesses
Does AI Mention Score work for UK businesses?
Yes. Any city or town works. We've run checks in London and Northwich, and all four assistants named local firms in both. The questions are in English and a few sets still use US terms, which we flag above.
Should my site say solicitor or lawyer?
Use the word your clients type. In England and Wales that's usually solicitor, with the practice area: conveyancing solicitor, family solicitor. Put it in the page title and the first lines of the page.
Do Checkatrade or Trustpilot reviews help with ChatGPT?
They give an assistant something independent to read about you. ChatGPT and Perplexity search the web as they answer and often cite directory and review pages. Nobody outside OpenAI can say how much weight one site gets.
Can I pay in pounds?
Not yet. The paid plans are charged in US dollars and your bank converts. The free plan costs nothing in any currency.
Do you have UK study data?
Not published yet. Our published city studies are all US so far. UK studies are coming, and we won't quote UK figures until they're out.
Other countries
Not listed? It still works. See the industry pages and guides.