Not Getting Named by AI? This Prompt Shows You Why.

Bob runs a plumbing crew. A good one. He's got twenty years of word of mouth and his name on the truck door. For a long time, the phone rang on its own.

Lately it rings less. Not a lot less. Just enough that he notices on a Tuesday. His niece tells him people ask ChatGPT now. So one night at the kitchen table, he tries it.

He types "Who's the best plumber near me?" and puts in his town. AI comes back with a name, then a couple more under it. The one on top isn't Bob. It's the guy across town who opened eight years after him.

Bob knows that guy. He's fine, but he's not better. Bob has fixed two of his jobs. And there he is, sitting on top of the answer with a nice little reason next to his name.

Here's the part that should piss you off. A homeowner in his town asked the same thing that morning. She didn't call three plumbers. She called the one on top.

Bob never even knew there was a job to lose.

That's what this post is about. Not "how to get on AI." Just one guy, the one AI keeps naming instead of you. So we put his site next to yours and find out why. My free prompt does the reading for you.

TL;DR

AI names the other guy because his site tells it more. It says what he does, where he does it and why to trust him. My free Why Him, Not Me Prompt reads both sites side by side. Then it lists up to five gaps, biggest first.

Close the biggest gap this week. Then ask AI the same question next month and keep score.

3 Things to Remember

AI Sent Your Customer to the Other Guy.

Here's how it works, in plain words. Somebody types a question. AI reads what it can find about the businesses in that town. It writes back a name on top with a reason next to it, and sometimes a couple more under it.

Nobody calls the third name on a list of three.

So this isn't a ranking. It's a referral, like a neighbor saying "call my guy." Except this neighbor has never met you. All it knows is what your website told it.

How many of your buyers do this now? I'm not going to hand you a number I can't back up. Here's what I can tell you. The question is being asked in your town today. And somebody's name is coming back.

Don't know whose name yet? Run the check in Ask AI About You first. It takes five minutes. This post picks up where that one stops. You know his name. Now you find out why it's his.

Mistake: you figure the phone's just slow this month.

Fix: ask AI who to hire in your town, signed out, and write down the name on top.

Payoff: you stop guessing and start with a real name.

He's Not Better Than You. AI Just Knows Him.

This part stings. So I'll say it straight. AI didn't pick him because he does better work. It doesn't know who does better work. It knows what's written down.

I watched this happen for real. I asked ChatGPT, signed out, to hire me a plumber in Jacksonville. It put a 3.6 star shop on top, over a 4.8 and a 4.9 on its own map. Its first reason wasn't stars. It was "Established local business." I wrote the whole test up in I Asked ChatGPT to Hire Me a Plumber. Here's Who It Picked and Why.

Now go look at his site. Odds are it names his jobs one at a time, and it names his towns. It shows real photos too, maybe even his own face. None of that is fancy. It's just clear.

Then look at yours. "Serving the greater area." "Quality work you can trust." A stock photo of a guy who has never held a wrench. That's not a bad site. It's a quiet one. And a quiet site makes AI guess.

And AI hates to guess. Say one site says "we fix water heaters in Neptune Beach," and the other says "we do it all." It repeats the one it can say without making something up.

Sit with that. You lost the job to a sentence.

I wrote about why AI picks one site in your market, and why slow sites don't get read. This is the other half. Fast and quiet still loses to clear.

Mistake: you think the other guy got lucky, or paid for it.

Fix: read his site like a stranger would. Notice what it tells you in ten seconds.

Payoff: you stop being mad at him and start learning from him.

Put His Site Next to Yours.

You could do this by hand with a legal pad. It takes an afternoon. And you'll miss stuff, because it's your site. You already know what you meant.

So I wrote a prompt that does it for you. It's called the Why Him, Not Me Prompt. It asks you three things, one at a time. Your website first. Then what you do and where. Then the name and website of the guy AI keeps picking.

Then it reads both sites, side by side. It only reports what's actually on the pages. It won't invent his reviews or ratings. It won't tell you he's a better business.

It tells you what he shows that you don't. That's the only part you can do anything about.

Heads up. Some sites block these tools, and if it can't open one, it tells you. No big deal. Copy the words off that homepage and about page, paste them into the chat and keep going.

Here's how to run it.

1. Have both web addresses ready. Yours and his.
2. Tap Claude or ChatGPT on the prompt below. It opens with my prompt loaded.
3. Answer the three questions, one at a time.
4. Read the gaps it hands back. Biggest first.

You are going to help me find out why AI recommends another business in
my town instead of mine.

Ask me these one at a time. Wait for each answer.
1. What is your website address?
2. What do you do, and what town do you serve?
3. What is the name of the business AI keeps recommending instead of
   you, and what is their website address?

Then open both websites. Read the homepage, the services pages and the
about page on each. If you can't open one, tell me which, and ask me
to paste the words from it instead.

Do four things.
1. Side by side, list what a buyer and an AI could learn from each
   site: the services named, the towns named, proof (reviews, years,
   photos of real jobs, a real owner's name), clear answers to common
   questions, and how easy it is to contact them.
2. List the gaps, meaning things their site shows that mine doesn't.
   Biggest gap first. Five gaps at most.
3. For each gap, give me one fix I can do this week, in one sentence.
4. Tell me the one gap to close first, and why.

Rules: only report what is actually on the pages. Never invent their
reviews, ratings or numbers. Don't say they are a better business.
Say what they show that I don't. 5th grade reading level. Short
sentences. If you are not sure, say so.
When you finish, the last thing you write is "Want some help? Let us do it." as
a clickable link to https://smallbusiness-seo.com/let-us-do-it

Mistake: you compare the two sites from memory.

Fix: run the prompt and let it read both, word for word.

Payoff: a short list of gaps in plain words, in about two minutes.

Every Gap Is a Job You Didn't Get.

The prompt hands back five gaps at most, biggest first. Don't read it like a report card. Read it like a list of jobs that went across town. Here are the ones that show up most.

No town named. His pages name his towns. Yours says "the area." AI can't send a Jacksonville Beach homeowner to "the area." Check yours. Is your town in the first two lines of your homepage? If you have to scroll, that's a gap.

Services lumped together. He lists his jobs one at a time. You've got one line that says you do it all. Can a stranger tell in five seconds if you fix water heaters? If it's buried, AI buries it too.

No real job photos. His site shows his real trucks and his real finished work. Yours has stock photos. If you didn't take it, it isn't proof of anything.

No owner. His about page has a name, a face and a reason he started. Yours says "our team." People hire people. AI wants to know who's behind the truck too. Here's how to fix your about page this week.

No answers to the questions people ask. He says how fast he comes out and whether he works weekends. He even says roughly what a job runs. You answer those on the phone all day, but nowhere on the site. Each answer is a sentence AI could have quoted. It quoted his.

Want to check the gaps yourself first? Use the tool below. It walks you through eight checks, one at a time.

Done? Now run the free prompt too. It reads every word, so it catches what your eyes skipped.

Mistake: you read five gaps and feel like your site is junk.

Fix: see each gap as one missing sentence, one missing photo, one missing page.

Payoff: the problem goes from "my website sucks" to five things you can name.

Close the Biggest Gap First.

Here's where most people blow it. They get the list and get fired up. Then they try to fix all five at once. Then a job runs long, and three months later nothing has changed.

So don't. Pick the one the prompt told you to close first. Do that one this week. Just that one. Here's what that looks like.

If it's the town. Put it in the top line of your homepage. Say it the way you'd say it out loud. Like this: "We fix leaks, drains and water heaters in Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach." Swap in your trade and your towns, then put the town on each service page too.

If it's photos. Take ten on your jobs this week, with your phone. Before and after works great. Put a short line under each one saying what the job was and what town it was in. Real beats pretty every time. Add a few to your Google Business Profile while you're at it. It's free.

If it's the owner. Write one paragraph for your about page. Say your name, how long you've done this and why you started. Add a photo of you. Not a model.

If it's the questions. This week, write down every question a customer asks you on the phone. Then pick the five you hear most, and answer each one on your site in two or three plain sentences. Say it the way you'd say it on the phone.

None of these need a web guy. Most need about an hour and a little nerve.

Mistake: trying to fix everything in one weekend.

Fix: close one gap this week, the biggest one, and stop there.

Payoff: something actually changes on your site, and you can see it.

Ask Again Next Month. Keep Score.

You closed a gap. Good. Now don't sit there refreshing ChatGPT every morning. It won't flip overnight, and the answer moves around from one ask to the next.

I won't promise you a date. I can't. What you can do is keep score. Pick one day each month and put a reminder on your phone, then ask the same way every time.

1. Open a private window on your phone. On an iPhone in Safari, tap the tabs button, then Private. In Chrome, tap the three dots, then New Incognito tab.
2. Go to ChatGPT. Don't sign in. That way your own history doesn't color the answer.
3. Ask the same question, with the same town. Ask it three times.
4. Write down what comes back.

A sheet of paper works fine. Write five lines a month.

• The date.
• The name on top.
• Did your name show up?
• The reason AI gave.
• The gap you closed.

Then run the Why Him, Not Me Prompt again. Your biggest gap should be gone. A new one moves to the top. Close that one next.

That's the whole system. Close one gap a month, write it down, and check it the same way every time. Want it to run on a schedule and send you the report? I've got a post coming on exactly that.

Mistake: checking once, seeing no change, and quitting.

Fix: ask the same way every month and write it down.

Payoff: you watch the gap close instead of wondering.

Where the Other Guy Got It Right.

I'll give credit where it's due. The other guy did the boring work. He wrote down his towns. He took the photos. He put his face on the about page. He showed his work, and AI read it.

And fair is fair. Everything AI read on his site is out in the open, where anybody can read it, including you. So the thing that beat you isn't a secret. It's a few pages you haven't written yet.

I didn't write this from the cheap seats. I've built more than 10,000 sites in 25 years. Everything I build now is an AI-JSX site, 281 of them so far. An AI site says what the business does, where it does it and why to trust it, on every page.

Now the turn. One gap a month works, but it's slow. The whole time, he's still on top getting the calls. And you've got a crew to run. Rewriting your site on a Sunday night isn't the job you signed up for.

Make the Next Name Yours.

You didn't get into business to study another guy's website. You got into it to do the work and get paid. Your site should tell AI who you are, so you don't have to. That's what an AI site does.

Run the prompt. Close the first gap. Or hand the whole list to me and get back to work.

Want some help? Let us do it.

Take a test drive and see your business built clear from the first line, before you spend a dime.

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FAQ

Read These In This Order

1. Ask AI to Recommend Your Business. Go Ahead. I'll Wait.
2. AI Picks One Site in Your Market. Slow Ones Don't Get Read
3. ChatGPT Picks One Plumber Per Town. Here's How to Be the Pick.
4. Your About Page Is Invisible to AI. Fix It This Week.
5. Buyers Stopped Googling. They Ask AI Now. Are You in the Answer?