Guides · Updated 06 Aug 2026
Will clients find your firm when they ask ChatGPT?
On 6 August 2026 we asked five surfaces the same question: "Who are the best divorce attorneys in Pretoria?" Between them they named 18 different firms. One firm appeared in three answers. Fourteen appeared in exactly one. The firm ranking third on Google appeared in one AI answer out of four.
Every family law firm in Pretoria is competing for the same search.
What we found is that there is no longer one search to win.
We haven't named the firms. They didn't ask to be in a comparison on a supplier's website, and the finding doesn't need them. The method is below — you can run it yourself in twenty minutes and see the names for yourself.
The method
Five surfaces, one query, one afternoon. Private browsing window, logged out of everything — personalised results are useless as evidence.
- Google — top three organic results
- Google's AI Overview — the summary above the results
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Perplexity
One query, one date. A small sample, and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise. The pattern was clear enough on the first attempt that we stopped.
What came back
| Surface | Result |
|---|---|
| Google, top 3 organic | A legal directory ranked first, then two firms |
| Google AI Overview | Four firms, each cited to its own website |
| ChatGPT | Ten firms, presented with a map and star ratings |
| Gemini | Five firms, each with a cited source |
| Perplexity | Refused to rank. Pointed to three directories and named two firms as examples from those listings |
Eighteen distinct firms, in total.
The overlap
| Appeared in | Number of firms |
|---|---|
| 3 of 5 surfaces | 1 |
| 2 of 5 | 3 |
| 1 of 5 only | 14 |
| All 5 | None |
No firm appeared everywhere.
The firm sitting third in Google's organic results — which is a good position, earned — appeared in one of the four AI answers and was absent from the other three, including Google's own AI Overview.
One of the largest firms in the country made three of the five.
Why the answers differ
Each system is reading something different.
ChatGPT used business listing data. Its answer arrived with a map, star ratings and open/closed status — 5.0 for one firm, 4.9 for the next. That's Google Business Profile territory, not website territory. It appeared to be ranking substantially by rating.
Gemini cited sources, and two of its five came from a directory. Specifically attorneys.co.za. The other three it sourced to the firms' own websites.
Perplexity went to directories entirely. It declined to rank at all, saying it couldn't reliably identify "the best", and sent the user to Snupit, Procompare and attorneys.co.za.
Google's AI Overview drew on firm websites, citing each firm's own pages.
And Google's top organic result was itself a directory — attorneys.co.za, ranking above every actual law firm.
Four different sources of truth: business listings, directories, firm websites, and a refusal to answer.
Directories are back, and most firms stopped thinking about them in 2014
That's the finding we didn't expect.
Directory listings appeared in three of the five surfaces: Google's top organic result, two of Gemini's five citations, and the whole of Perplexity's answer.
Then we looked at the directory itself.
The category page we'd landed on — family law, one part of Pretoria — listed seven firms. Not hundreds. Seven.
| Position in the directory | Cited by an AI system |
|---|---|
| 1st | Yes — Perplexity |
| 2nd | Yes — ChatGPT and Gemini |
| 3rd to 7th | None of them |
The top two entries were exactly the firms the AI systems named. The other five were named by nobody.
One firm's directory description reads "one of the leading Divorce and Family Law practices in the country." Gemini quoted that description back, almost word for word, when asked who the best divorce attorneys in Pretoria are.
It's a paid listing. R400 a month for a small firm in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban. Less in smaller centres. So a category page isn't a list of every firm — it's a list of the firms who pay, and there are seven of them.
Most firms treat directory entries as legacy admin, filled in by someone years ago and never looked at since. If your entry lists an old address, a departed partner, or the wrong practice areas, that's what's being read back to people asking about you.
What this means for your firm
Google SEO is now one of several things, not the thing. A firm ranking third organically appeared in a single AI answer. The work that earned that position did not carry across.
Your Google Business Profile is doing more than you think. If a system is choosing between firms by star rating and review count, your profile is the input. Four reviews loses to forty regardless of how good your website is.
→ Your Google Business Profile matters more than your website
Check your directory listings. Being listed is one thing; where you sit in the list is another, and the two firms at the top of that seven-firm page were the two the AI systems named. Ten minutes to check. Worth knowing what yours says.
Your website still matters. Two surfaces cited firm websites directly. Clear, structured pages that plainly state what you do and where are what these systems can quote from. Practice areas hidden behind tabs on one page give them nothing to quote.
No single thing wins. The firm that appeared most often was the one present in all three places — a strong site, a complete profile, and directory listings.
Run it on your own firm
Twenty minutes. Private browsing window, logged out:
- Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for an attorney in your city and practice area. Use the same wording each time.
- Search the same thing on Google. Note the top three organic results and whether an AI Overview appears.
- Record whether you appear in each, and which firms do.
- Write the date down.
One reading tells you where you stand today. It doesn't tell you which direction you're moving, which is why we do it monthly for the firms we look after.
What we're not going to claim
Nobody can guarantee you a place in an AI answer. Anyone selling that is selling something they don't control.
The evidence on what drives AI visibility is genuinely contested — one study found 87% of ChatGPT citations came from the top 20 Google and Bing results; other research puts the overlap between top Google links and AI-cited sources below 20%. The systems change monthly. This test would give different results in November.
What we can do is measure it, tell you what it says, and do the work that plausibly helps: a clear, well-structured site, a complete profile, and consistent details across the directories these systems actually read.
The measurement is the honest part. It's also the part nobody else is showing you.
Tested 6 August 2026, Pretoria, private browsing, logged out. Results vary by location, session and model version.
We run this test monthly for the firms we look after, across six queries, and put the answers in their report. If you'd like to know where your firm currently stands, send us your URL and we'll include it in your free review.
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