North Mention

Get mentioned when it matters.

Help ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI assistants recommend your local business.

North Mention is an AI search visibility agency in Kitchener, Ontario. We structure your business’s digital footprint (website schema, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, reviews, listings and AI crawler access) so ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can find accurate facts about you and include you in their answers.

Get a Free AI Visibility Audit See what we fix
  • Starting with Kitchener-Waterloo clinics
  • Flat pricing in CAD
  • No new website needed

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization, in plain English

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of making a business easy for AI assistants to find, understand and cite. When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google “who is a good dentist in Waterloo?”, the assistant writes one short answer and names a few businesses. It builds that answer from information it can read about you online: your website, your business listings, your reviews and other sources.

North Mention makes that information accurate, consistent and machine-readable. We start with clinics in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, and work with any local service business in Ontario, from law and accounting firms to contractors, salons and restaurants.

Services

What we fix so AI can find you

Six areas that decide whether AI tools have trustworthy, consistent facts about your business.

LocalBusiness schema (JSON-LD)

We add structured data to your website that states your business type, services, location, hours and contact details in a format search engines and AI tools can read without guessing.

Bing Places synchronization

Bing Places for Business manages how you appear in Bing search and Bing Maps, which Microsoft Copilot also draws on. We claim or update your listing and keep it in step with your Google Business Profile.

Server-level AI crawler access

Some hosts, firewalls and CDNs block AI crawlers by default. We check your robots.txt and server or firewall settings so search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Bingbot can reach your public pages.

Google Business Profile

Correct primary and secondary categories, every service listed, accurate hours, photos, and regular updates, so Google’s AI features have current details to work with.

Reviews

A steady, honest process for asking customers for reviews and replying to them, so recent reviews describe the services you offer and where you offer them. No fake or incentivized reviews.

Consistent listings and citations

The same business name, address, phone and hours on Apple Business Connect, Yelp, Yellow Pages and local directories. Consistent details are easier for AI tools to trust.

Regulated professions: for dental, physiotherapy, chiropractic and other regulated clinics, every change stays factual and within your college’s advertising rules.

How it works

Test, fix, re-test

  1. Baseline test

    We ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google the questions your customers ask, such as “best physio in Waterloo”, and record who is named and what is said about you.

  2. Fix the foundations

    Schema, crawler access, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, reviews process and listings. Clear, accurate facts, published where AI tools look.

  3. Re-test and report

    We rerun the same questions and send a plain-English before-and-after report, so you can see what changed.

Data & proof

Why AI visibility matters now

Published research from BrightLocal, Pew Research Center, Google, Cloudflare and Statistics Canada. Each figure links to its source below. Survey figures from BrightLocal and Pew are based on US adults.

  • 45%

    of US consumers used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past 12 months, up from 6% the year before.[1]

  • 31%

    used ChatGPT for business recommendations, making it the most-used AI tool; 23% used Google’s AI Mode.[2]

  • 8% vs 15%

    Google users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% when none appeared.[3]

  • 1 billion+

    monthly active users for Google’s AI Mode, and 950 million for the Gemini app, according to Alphabet’s Q2 2026 earnings remarks.[4]

  • 1 million+

    Cloudflare customers turned on one-click AI crawler blocking, and since July 1, 2025 new Cloudflare domains are asked to allow or deny AI crawlers at sign-up.[5]

  • 74%

    of consumers only care about reviews written in the last three months, and 97% read reviews for local businesses.[1]

  • 35.9%

    of Canadian workers aged 15 to 69 used generative AI tools in their job or business in the 12 months to March 2026.[6]

What this means: more customers ask an AI assistant before they call, fewer click through to websites, and a business’s own server settings can quietly keep AI crawlers out. North Mention has no client case studies to publish yet; we will share real, measured results with permission once we have them.

Pricing

Simple, flat pricing in Canadian dollars

AI Visibility Fix-Up

$299 CAD, one-time

A baseline test of what AI says about you today, plus a one-time fix of the sources it reads.

  • AI answer test across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google
  • LocalBusiness JSON-LD schema added or corrected
  • robots.txt and server-level AI crawler check
  • Google Business Profile cleanup
  • Bing Places claim or sync
  • Listing consistency fixes and a before-and-after report
Start with a free audit

Ongoing

Monitor + Improve

$199 CAD per month

Ongoing work to keep your facts accurate as AI answers change, with a report every month.

  • Monthly AI answer re-tests
  • Ongoing profile and listing updates
  • Review request and reply process support
  • Schema and website fact updates
  • Monthly progress report
Start with a free audit

Founding-client pilot pricing: we are taking on a small number of founding clients at pilot pricing. Mention it in your audit request. Prices are in Canadian dollars and exclude HST where applicable.

FAQ

Questions local business owners ask

What is AI search visibility, and why does it matter for a local business?

AI search visibility is how often, and how accurately, AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention your business when someone asks for a recommendation. Instead of showing a long list of links, these tools write a short answer and usually name only a handful of businesses. If your clinic, firm or shop is not one of them, that customer may never see you. The shift is happening quickly: in BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of 1,002 US adults, 45% said they had used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6% the year before. AI visibility work makes sure the facts these tools rely on are complete, consistent and easy to read, including your website's structured data, your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listings, your reviews and your directory citations. It complements traditional SEO rather than replacing it.

How do AI assistants decide which local businesses to recommend?

No AI company publishes a complete formula, so anyone who claims to know exactly how recommendations are chosen is guessing. What is publicly documented is where the information comes from. According to BrightLocal, AI responses may draw on reviews, local directories, business websites, social media and other third-party sources, depending on the tool and the question. Assistants that search the live web also use crawlers, such as OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, to read pages, and they can only use what those crawlers are allowed to reach. In practice, a business with clear, consistent facts across many trusted sources is easier for an AI tool to describe with confidence. That means the same name, address and hours everywhere, a complete Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, recent reviews that mention your services, and a website that states plainly what you do and where. North Mention focuses on those inputs, because they are the ones you control.

What does the $299 AI Visibility Fix-Up include?

The AI Visibility Fix-Up is a one-time project priced at $299 CAD, plus HST where applicable. It starts with a baseline test: we ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google a set of questions your customers would realistically ask, then record whether your business appears and what is said about it. Next, we fix the foundations. We add or correct LocalBusiness structured data (JSON-LD schema) on your website, check that your robots.txt file and server or firewall settings are not blocking AI crawlers, clean up your Google Business Profile, claim or synchronize your Bing Places listing, and correct inconsistent listings on major directories. You receive a plain-English report showing what we found and what we changed. Most of the work fits around your existing website, so you do not need a redesign. If you want ongoing tracking afterwards, the Monitor + Improve plan continues the work every month.

Can North Mention guarantee my business will be recommended by ChatGPT or Google?

No. Nobody can honestly guarantee that an AI assistant will recommend a particular business, or that it will list you first. AI answers change from one question to the next, differ between platforms, and shift as the underlying models and search indexes are updated. Be cautious of any agency that promises a top spot in ChatGPT. What North Mention can do is remove the technical and informational barriers that make it harder for AI tools to find, understand and trust your business, and then measure the results honestly. With the Monitor + Improve plan, at $199 CAD per month, we rerun the same set of customer-style questions every month, track how often and how accurately you are mentioned, and keep improving your listings, review process and website facts. For regulated professions such as dental, physiotherapy and chiropractic clinics, every change stays factual and within your regulatory college's advertising rules.

Free AI Visibility Audit

Find out what AI says about your business.

Tell us about your business. We will check what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google say when customers ask for what you do, and email you a short, plain-English summary with the first three things we would fix.

  • No cost, no obligation
  • Reply within 2 business days
  • Based in Kitchener, Ontario

Prefer email? [email protected]

We use your details only to prepare and send your audit and to follow up about it. We do not sell or share your information. Marketing emails are sent only if you tick the box above, and every email includes a way to unsubscribe. North Mention, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada · [email protected]

Sources

  1. BrightLocal, “Local Consumer Review Survey 2026” (February 11, 2026; panel of 1,002 US adults). brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey ↩
  2. BrightLocal, “Nearly Half of Consumers are Asking AI for Business Recommendations” (March 10, 2026). brightlocal.com/research/lcrs-ai-trust ↩
  3. Pew Research Center, “Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results” (July 22, 2025; browsing data from 900 US adults, March 2025). pewresearch.org ↩
  4. Google, “Q2 2026 earnings call: Remarks from our CEO” (July 22, 2026). blog.google ↩
  5. Cloudflare, “Cloudflare Just Changed How AI Crawlers Scrape the Internet-at-Large” (press release, July 1, 2025). cloudflare.com ↩
  6. Statistics Canada, “Use of generative artificial intelligence tools among Canadian workers, March 2026”, The Daily (July 30, 2026). statcan.gc.ca ↩

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