We asked DJ Wetzel for the single most useful exercise an owner can run this week to see where they stand in AI search. He gave us a five-minute test anyone can do from their phone. Here’s how he walked us through it.
The exercise, DJ says, will tell you more about your real marketing position than most paid audits. You don’t need any special tools, you don’t need to know anything technical, and you can do it on your phone right now. All it costs is a little honesty about what you find.
As DJ put it:
“I’d rather an owner spend five honest minutes seeing their own result than pay me for a report that just tells them what they already suspect. The truth is free — you just have to be willing to look at it.”
— DJ Wetzel, M.Ed., White Oak Digital
Ready? Here it is.
The question
Open ChatGPT — or Claude, or Gemini, or the Google AI Overview at the top of a normal Google search. Type in the exact kind of question your customers now ask AI for recommendations instead of typing keywords into a search bar:
“Best [your service] near [your city]?”
If you’re a mortgage broker in Greenville, that’s “Best mortgage broker near Greenville, SC?” If you run a home inspection business, “Best home inspector near Greer, SC?” DJ’s rule of thumb: use your real service and your real town, then read the answer slowly.
What to look for
Three things, in this order:
Are you mentioned? Not your industry in general — you, your business, by name. Scan the whole response.
Who is mentioned? Write down the names that come up. These are the businesses the AI currently trusts enough to recommend in your market. Some you’ll expect. Some might surprise you.
Why them? Notice how the AI describes each one. “Known for responsive service.” “Specializes in first-time buyers.” “Strong reviews for thorough inspections.” Those little phrases, DJ notes, are gold — they show you exactly what the system understands about each competitor.
The follow-up that reveals everything
Now ask one more question, right there in the same chat:
“Why did you recommend those specifically?”
This is where it gets useful. The AI will tell you, in plain language, what it’s weighing — reviews, clear specialization, consistent information, a strong local presence, content that demonstrates expertise. You’re essentially getting the system to explain its own decision.
As DJ put it:
“When the AI explains why it picked a competitor, it’s handing you the answer key. Every reason it lists is a signal you can go build for real — not a trick, just the honest work of showing you’re good at what you do.”
— DJ Wetzel, M.Ed., White Oak Digital
Read that answer carefully, because it’s a roadmap for what you’d need to strengthen to be included.
What your result means
Whatever you found, here’s how DJ reads it:
- You were mentioned, described accurately. Good. You have a real foundation. The work now is protecting and extending that lead.
- You weren’t mentioned at all. This is the most common result, and it’s not a disaster — it’s a visibility gap. The AI doesn’t know you well enough yet. That’s fixable, and knowing it is the first step.
- You were mentioned, but inaccurately. Wrong service area, outdated specialty, a detail that isn’t true anymore. This is worth investigating, because scattered or stale information across the web is confusing the machine — and probably your customers too.
Try it a second way
Run the same query through Google AI Overviews — the AI-generated summary that now sits above the normal blue links. You’ll often notice the two systems answer a little differently, weight different sources, and name different businesses. That’s not a glitch; each system reads the web its own way. Seeing where you show up in one but not the other tells you something about where your signals are strong and where they’re thin.
What to do with what you learn
Some of what you find, you can act on yourself. If your Google Business Profile is stale, auditing and keeping your Google Business Profile active is one of the highest-leverage fixes you can make on your own. If you’ve never written honestly about the specific work you do best, start. If your reviews are thin on detail, build a simple habit of asking happy customers to describe what you actually did for them.
As DJ put it:
“None of this is a quick win. It’s a system — a Google Business Profile you actually tend, reviews with real detail, content in your own voice — and those signals compound month after month. That’s the part a shortcut can’t fake.”
— DJ Wetzel, M.Ed., White Oak Digital
Other things are harder to fix alone — untangling inconsistent information across a dozen sites, building content in your real voice when you’re already working sixty-hour weeks, or figuring out why a competitor keeps getting named and you don’t. That’s the point, DJ says, where getting help pays for itself.
Either way, do the exercise. Five minutes of looking honestly at your own result beats months of guessing. And if you’d like a professional version — a real strategist manually checking where you appear across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google, plus the highest-priority fixes — that’s exactly what our free AI Visibility Snapshot is. No call required, delivered within one business day. But truly, start with the five-minute version first. It’ll change how you see all of this.
— Based on an interview with DJ Wetzel, M.Ed., founder of White Oak Digital.