When an AI answer gives customers your old address or promises a service you do not offer, save the answer before changing the website. Record the question and any sources shown, because you need to know which fact is wrong and where conflicting information may still be published.
Correct the sources you can control, then keep track of the ones still unresolved. When a check shows the right answer, log it with the question and the date, and wait for your next planned check instead of asking until you like the reply.
Start with errors that could cost someone time or lead them to the wrong decision. Think of it like this, a wrong phone number sends a customer nowhere and a closed location sends them across town for nothing, so fix those before you touch a description you do not like.
The method in four steps
We call it save, sort, fix, recheck.
- Save what the assistant said, whether it was ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or the AI summary at the top of Google, with your question and any sources it listed, before you change anything.
- Sort the error into a wrong fact or a missing recommendation, and put the ones that cost customers something first.
- Fix the sources, starting with one approved set of facts and your own pages, then your Google profile, directories and other sites, and ask search engines to recrawl what changed.
- Recheck with the same questions on a schedule, and log what the answer says now.
Steps 1 to 3 have an end, while step 4 keeps running until the answers settle.
1. Save the error before editing anything
Write down enough that someone else on your team could follow it. Record the product used, date, exact question, visible answer, any displayed source links, and whether the conversation already included information about your business. If you were signed in, or the answer used your location, note that too.
An assistant can mix what it read on a linked page with things it picked up elsewhere, so open each source and find the wrong fact on the page before you contact its publisher.
Use this correction log:
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Error | Says the business offers Saturday installations |
| Correct fact | Installation appointments are offered Monday through Friday |
| What it costs the customer | A caller may plan around an unavailable day |
| Evidence of the correct fact | Current scheduling policy and published service page |
| Visible conflicting source | An old directory entry with weekend hours |
| Who fixes it | Office manager for listings, website editor for pages |
| Change made | Service hours clarified and directory correction requested |
| Check date and result | Same question asked again, answer saved |
| Status | Sources corrected; answer still inconsistent |
Leave an entry open like that when your fixes are done and the answers have not caught up yet.
2. Sort wrong facts from missing recommendations
A wrong address is a factual error. Being left out of a list of recommended providers is a different problem, because you can publish accurate evidence about your work and the search system still decides whom to recommend.
An assistant calling you “expensive” may be giving an opinion with no wrong price behind it. If you do not publish prices, explain how estimates work where that helps customers. Do not create a false price range just to give an assistant a more favorable number.
For example, if a business serves commercial premises only, a statement that it repairs home equipment is a wrong fact you can correct. A claim that another provider is better known is an opinion, so log it as a missing recommendation.
Label each entry as a wrong fact, an old fact, a mix-up with another business, a guess the assistant made or a missing recommendation, because each label leads to different work. One overall “AI visibility score” would lump a wrong phone number in with a marketing wish.
3. Fix the sources
Write one approved set of business facts
Write a one-page facts sheet that matches how the business runs today. Include the public business name, website, customer contact route, locations, service areas, opening hours, services offered, important exclusions, and who approves changes. Add a checked date and an owner for each fact that changes regularly.
Then compare that sheet with the pages customers use. The homepage, service pages, contact details, booking flow, and footer should agree. A service discontinued last year can stay visible in an old article, a booking option or a downloadable brochure after the main page changes.
Decide whether each old reference should be corrected, clearly marked as historical, or removed from current navigation. Keep useful historical material when it has a reason to exist. Readers should see how the business works today, and a history page can still tell them how you got here.
When updating an important service page, write the fact in plain words on the page. “Installation appointments are available Monday through Friday” is clearer than a calendar icon the reader has to interpret. If you publish structured business data behind the page, keep it consistent with what visitors can read.
Correct the other sources customers can find
Search the business name together with the incorrect fact. Open each directory, old article, old domain or partner page that repeats it, and start with the ones you own or can ask to correct.
Google says Business Profile information comes from several sources, including publicly available content, information from owners, and other contributions. So expect some listings to show the old fact for a while after the website is fixed.
For a local business, review the profile separately from the site. Google’s editing guidance covers details such as hours, website, location, and services, with review of submitted changes. Keep screenshots or confirmation records for edits that remain pending.
Our guide to Google Maps and website rankings explains how the two differ. Use the same facts sheet for both.
For third-party pages, use the publisher’s usual contact route, quote the exact wrong sentence, link to a page that shows the correct fact and ask them to change it. Do not ask for changes to independent opinions or accurate accounts of past events, since a publisher has no reason to change those.
Help search engines find the corrected pages
After publishing a correction, verify the page itself. Open it on a phone, check any redirected old URL, and make sure the correct fact is visible without signing in. If your site uses caching, ask whoever runs it to confirm visitors see the new version.
For an important page on a site you manage, Google allows a recrawl request through URL Inspection. Google says it decides when, and whether, to include the page, and that repeating the request will not make it faster, so request it once and check back later.
Bing describes IndexNow as a notification mechanism for content changes. It helps Bing and other engines find the update sooner.
Each assistant still updates its answers on its own schedule, and the same product can answer differently depending on the question, so log the fixes from step 3 and the answers from step 4 in separate columns.
4. Recheck with the same questions
Choose a few questions tied to the error you found. For the installation-hours example, you might test “Does this business install on Saturdays?” and “When can I book an installation with this business?” Keep the wording the same and use a fresh conversation for each planned check.
Check the directory itself as well, because if it still shows the wrong hours, that fix is unfinished whatever the assistant says today.
Record whether the new answer is accurate, incorrect, ambiguous, or leaves the subject out. Record an omission as its own result, separate from an accurate answer. Keep a screenshot or the copied answer so you can compare later, and keep customer information and private staff details out of test questions.
How often you check depends on what is at stake. If customers are calling a wrong number, check again every few days until it is fixed, and leave a small wording change for your monthly review. We would not ask every day, because answers shift from day to day and you end up chasing noise.
Decide when the work is complete
Step 3 is finished when your own pages are accurate, the outside corrections are made or logged as requested, and someone owns future changes. Keep step 4 running while the answers stay inconsistent.
When reporting progress, say what changed: two pages corrected, one profile update published, one directory request pending. Keep observed AI answers in their own column. The AI search measurement ledger uses the same separation between evidence and business outcomes.
Search systems still decide whether to recommend or cite you, and the log shows your team what the business says, where the old facts still live and which fixes are still waiting.
If you would like help with the rechecking, Ooky, our own tool, runs the same questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and keeps the answers side by side, so you can see when a correction takes hold.