ChatGPT is unable to see client's Google Reviews?

[Creativedge]

I'm wondering if anyone has any insights into this one: One of our clients, Ryan S. Kinn, DMD is no longer ChatGPT's top recommendation for his area. Looking into it, I see that ChatGPT only "sees" a single visible review on Yelp, whereas the next-closest competitor shows their 126 Google reviews.

Dr. Kinn has 582 reviews on Google, and I'm curious why ChatGPT doesn't see these Google reviews unless I explicitly instruct it to look for them. I've found this is the same result for both GPT 6 and GPT 5.6.

 

[fisicx]

ChatGPT like many other AI tools uses an LLM. The LLM comprises data from millions of websites, documents and other source material. It's quite likely ChatGPT was blocked from scraping Google data. Which is a bit rich considering how Gemini has scraped date from everywhere else.

Have you asked posed same prompt of Gemini and other AI tools? I'd put money on you getting different answers from each. In fact ask ChatGPT tomorrow and you probably get a different answer.

 

[ProspectSignal]

A couple of things worth checking before assuming it's a ChatGPT bug:

1. When ChatGPT browses, it isn't reading the Google Maps listing directly. It works from search results and whatever third-party pages it pulls, so the competitor's "126 Google reviews" is most likely coming from a page that quotes that number (their own site, a directory, a review widget, a news or "best dentists in X" article), not from Google itself. Ask it for its sources on the competitor and you'll usually see which page it got the count from.
2. Search Bing for the practice name + city. If Bing Places shows thin or no review data for Dr. Kinn and the Yelp page ranks above everything else, that matches what ChatGPT is surfacing. Claiming and filling out Bing Places is a quick fix if it hasn't been done.
3. Check what's on his own site. If the site shows no review count or testimonials in plain text (only an embedded widget that loads with JavaScript), there's nothing for a crawler to quote. A short, crawlable line like "582 Google reviews, 4.9 average" on the homepage or a reviews page gives it something to pick up. Also worth making sure the site isn't blocking OpenAI's crawlers in robots.txt or at the CDN.
4. Look at the dental-specific sites (Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD, etc.) and the "best dentist in [city]" list articles that rank locally. If the competitor shows up on those and Dr. Kinn doesn't, that's often the gap, more than the Google count.

It also varies run to run, so test the same prompt a few times, logged out, before reporting a change to the client.

 

[DenisOmerovic]

ChatGPT doesn't read the Google profile itself when it searches. OpenAI's help article on ChatGPT search says it turns your question into search queries and sends them to outside search providers. So it only sees reviews that show up on the pages those searches return. That would explain a Yelp page making it in while the 582 Google reviews don't. Source: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897

That also gives a test for fisicx's blocking idea. Ask the same question a few times, then ask ChatGPT which pages it used. If the competitor's review count keeps coming from one directory or "best dentist" list, that page is the gap to close for Dr. Kinn.

On his own site, check robots.txt and any CDN bot rules for OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites opted out of that bot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". If the review count on his site only loads in a widget, put it in plain text on the page too. Source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots

 

[DenisOmerovic]

I put the same 6 Fostoria dentist questions to 4 AIs today, and the 582 reviews are the gap, not his visibility.

- Dr. Kinn came up in 23 of the 24 answers, so ChatGPT does know him.
- ChatGPT and Claude never used the Google reviews. Both rated him from Healthgrades, 5.0 from 2 ratings, and one Claude answer said "Read recent Google reviews, which I couldn't see."
- The competitor with 126 looks like Tri-County Dental Center. Asked to pick one dentist, ChatGPT and Claude both chose Dr. Guernsey there, and ChatGPT's reason was 5.0/5 from 112 WebMD ratings.
- Gemini quoted "over 500+ Google reviews" and picked Dr. Kinn. Google AI Mode quoted 580+.
- His site isn't blocked. ChatGPT cited his own site in 3 of its 6 answers.

So for ChatGPT, the count that matters is on WebMD and Healthgrades, which were each cited in 10 of 24 answers.

Two smaller things: every AI gave (419) 435-6700 while his Google profile shows 419-869-9358, and Gemini also gave a second address, 111 E North St.

Has anyone here moved review volume onto WebMD or Healthgrades for a practice that already has hundreds on Google?