When a homeowner used to ask “who’s a good tree surgeon near me?”, they typed it into Google and scanned the map pack. Increasingly, they ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity instead — and the assistant replies with two or three named recommendations and a reason for each. There’s no page of ten blue links to climb. You’re either the answer or you’re invisible. This guide explains, in concrete terms, how those recommendations get made and what a tree surgery business actually does to earn them.
This is part of our wider guide to GEO and AI SEO for tree surgeons. If the term “GEO” is new to you, start with our plain-English explainer on what generative engine optimisation means for the trade and come back here for the how-to.
How do AI assistants actually decide who to recommend?
An AI assistant doesn’t hold a private opinion about your business. It builds one on the spot, from public sources, every time someone asks. Understanding where each assistant looks is the whole game — because if your details aren’t strong in the places it reads, you can’t be the answer.
Here’s how the three big assistants source local recommendations in 2026:
| Assistant | Where it pulls local data | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (Search) | Runs primarily on Microsoft Bing’s index, supplemented by OpenAI’s own OAI-SearchBot crawler; leans on Google Business Profile data for local | You can’t ignore Bing — claim Bing Places, not just Google |
| Google Gemini | Grounds local answers directly in Google Maps / Google Business Profile | A complete, accurate Google Business Profile is non-negotiable |
| Perplexity | Searches the live web and favours credible, recent, well-cited sources | Authority and freshness of the pages that mention you matter |
The common thread: all three assemble an answer from your Google Business Profile, directory listings, reviews and website — and then favour the business whose facts are clearest and most corroborated. We go deeper into the underlying ranking logic in our companion piece on how AI engines choose which local businesses to recommend. The short version: AI rewards consistency and evidence, and punishes ambiguity.
Why is being recommended by AI harder than ranking on Google?
Because AI assistants are dramatically more selective. Where Google’s local “3-pack” surfaces a meaningful share of businesses for a given search, 2026 research from SOCi’s Local Visibility Index found AI assistants recommend only a sliver: roughly 1% of local business locations on ChatGPT, around 7% on Perplexity and about 11% on Gemini. A list of ten becomes a shortlist of two or three.
That selectivity changes the job. Google will list you even if you’re the eighth-best option in town. An AI assistant won’t — it names the businesses it can recommend confidently, with the least risk of being wrong. For a tree surgeon, that confidence comes from having no gaps and no contradictions in the facts an assistant can find about you.
It also means this is genuinely first-mover territory. Most tree surgeons aren’t optimised for AI assistants at all yet. The firms that get the fundamentals right now don’t just win today’s thin trickle of AI referrals — they build authority that compounds as more homeowners shift to asking assistants. “Get recommended by AI, not just Google” is becoming a real differentiator on a sales call.
How do you get recommended by ChatGPT and AI assistants?
There’s no secret trick and nothing to pay for placement. The work is methodical: make your business the clearest, best-evidenced answer to the questions homeowners ask. Here’s the sequence we use.
Step 1 — Make your Google Business Profile flawless
Every assistant either reads your Google Business Profile directly (Gemini, ChatGPT) or relies on the same kind of data. Claim it, verify it, and complete every field — exact business name, service area or address, phone, hours including out-of-hours storm cover, all relevant categories, and each service spelled out: tree removal, crown reduction, pruning, stump grinding, hedge work, emergency call-outs. A half-finished profile is a half-finished answer.
Step 2 — Claim Bing Places and align your directories
This is the step tree surgeons skip, and it’s exactly why ChatGPT may favour a competitor. ChatGPT Search runs on Bing’s index, so a claimed, complete Bing Places listing directly affects whether ChatGPT can recommend you. Then make your name, address and phone identical across Checkatrade, Yell, the Arboricultural Association directory and any local listings. Mismatched details are the single most common reason an AI gets nervous about naming a business.
Step 3 — Keep recent reviews flowing
AI assistants weigh review volume, average rating and recency. A profile with thirty reviews from three years ago looks dormant; a steady trickle of fresh reviews mentioning real jobs (“turned up within hours after the storm and took down a split oak safely”) signals an active, trustworthy firm. Ask every happy customer, and reply to each review — it’s free corroboration the assistants can read.
Step 4 — Answer the questions homeowners actually ask
Assistants are answering questions, so give them quotable answers. Build pages and FAQs around the things people genuinely ask: How much does it cost to remove a large tree? Do I need permission to cut down a tree with a TPO? How do I know if a tree is dangerous? Lead each one with a direct, self-contained answer, then add the detail. This “answer-first” structure is what lets an assistant lift a clean sentence and attribute it to you.
Step 5 — State what you do and where, unambiguously
Give each core service its own page and each town you serve its own page, written for humans but structured so a machine can’t misread them. Underneath, add LocalBusiness schema — structured data that declares your services, service areas, hours and contact details in a format AI engines parse with certainty. We cover the markup in detail in our local SEO library, but the principle is simple: don’t make an assistant infer what you can simply state.
Step 6 — Earn mentions on sources AI already trusts
Recommendations strengthen when independent, credible sources also point to you — local news covering a storm clean-up, a supplier’s “find an installer” page, a community group’s recommended-traders list, the Arboricultural Association. These off-site signals are what our guide to building the brand mentions and citations AI trusts is all about, and they’re often the difference between being known to an assistant and being recommended by it.
Step 7 — Test the assistants and measure what moves
Finally, treat the assistants as something you check, not guess at. Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions a local customer would — “best tree surgeon in [your town]”, “emergency tree removal near [postcode]” — and note whether and how you appear. Watch your analytics for referrals from AI tools, too. This is where our data background earns its keep: we track which fixes actually changed the answers, rather than hoping.
What does ChatGPT see when it looks for a tree surgeon?
It helps to picture the assistant’s checklist. When someone asks ChatGPT for a tree surgeon in a town, it’s effectively scoring candidates against questions like these:
- Can I confirm this business exists and where it works? (Google Business Profile, Bing Places, consistent NAP)
- Do other sources corroborate it? (directories, reviews, local mentions)
- Is it active and well-regarded? (recent reviews, replies, rating)
- Does its own site clearly state the relevant service and area? (service and town pages, schema)
- Is the information current and free of contradictions? (matching details everywhere)
Every “yes” makes you a safer recommendation. Every “I can’t tell” pushes the assistant towards a competitor who answers more cleanly. Your job is to turn every question on that list into an unambiguous yes.
A practical checklist for AI-assistant visibility
Use this as a quick audit of where you stand today:
- Google Business Profile claimed, verified and 100% complete
- Bing Places listing claimed and matching Google
- Name, address and phone identical across all directories
- Steady stream of recent Google reviews, all replied to
- A service page for each job and a page for each town you cover
- LocalBusiness schema declaring services, areas and contact details
- Answer-first FAQ content for common homeowner questions
- At least a few mentions on trusted local or trade sources
- A monthly habit of testing the assistants and checking referrals
If most of those boxes are empty, that’s not bad news — it’s your roadmap, and it’s the same roadmap most of your competitors haven’t started.
How does this connect to your wider SEO?
Here’s the reassuring part: almost none of this is separate work. A complete Google Business Profile, consistent citations, fresh reviews and a clear, well-structured website are the foundations of ordinary SEO for tree surgeons too. GEO doesn’t replace that — it raises the reward for doing it properly, because AI assistants are far less forgiving of gaps than Google’s list ever was.
What’s different is the destination. The same effort now has to satisfy two audiences at once: the search engine that ranks you and the assistant that recommends you. Build for the assistant — clear answers, corroborated facts, no contradictions — and you tend to rank better in classic search as a happy side effect.
This is exactly the kind of joined-up work we do, and because we come from a data and analytics background — the approach behind our Jax Tree Removal rebuild and lead-tracking setup — we tie it back to tracked leads so you can see which jobs the work actually brought in, not just a vague sense that “AI mentioned us.” If you want to know where you stand with ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity today, get a free audit and we’ll show you exactly what each assistant can (and can’t) currently find about your business, and which fixes will move you onto the shortlist first.