A growing number of people are skipping Google entirely and asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google Gemini for local recommendations. "What's the best gym for a free trial pass near Derby?" is a real query people are typing into AI chatbots every day.
The question is: when someone asks, does your gym come up?
We ran an experiment. We tested 500 fitness and training queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity, covering 15 cities across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. The results reveal a clear pattern in what makes AI recommend one gym over another.
The Experiment
We asked both ChatGPT (GPT-4) and Perplexity variations of the same core questions:
- "What's the best gym for [service] in [city]?"
- "Can you recommend a fitness studio near [area]?"
- "Where should I get my [membership type] in [location]?"
We recorded which businesses were recommended, how many times, and then reverse-engineered the common traits of the gyms that appeared most frequently.
What We Found: The 5 Authority Signals
The gyms that consistently got recommended by AI shared five characteristics. We're calling them AI Authority Signals:
1. Mentions on Third-Party Authority Sites
This was the single biggest predictor. Gyms mentioned on high-authority websites - think local news outlets, fitness blogs, business directories with editorial content, and industry publications - were 4x more likely to be recommended by AI.
ChatGPT and Perplexity don't crawl the web in real-time for every query. They rely on training data and (in Perplexity's case) live search results from authoritative sources. If your gym only exists on your own website and Google Business Profile, AI has very little data to work with.
2. High Volume of Genuine Google Reviews
Gyms with 100+ Google reviews were recommended 3x more often than those with fewer than 20. Both AI systems heavily weight review data when making local recommendations. They also appear to factor in review recency - a gym with 150 reviews from the last 12 months outperforms one with 200 reviews mostly from 3+ years ago.
3. Comprehensive, Structured Website Content
Gyms with detailed service pages - not just a list of services, but individual pages with pricing, process explanations, and FAQ sections - performed significantly better. AI systems parse website content to understand what a business actually does and how well they explain it.
A page titled "Personal Training Derby" with 800 words of useful content outperforms a generic "Our Services" page every time.
4. Consistent NAP Across the Web
AI systems cross-reference business information across multiple sources. If your gym name, address, and phone number are inconsistent across directories (different phone numbers on Yelp vs. Google vs. your website), AI treats this as a trust signal failure. Consistency builds confidence in the recommendation.
5. Industry-Specific Citations and Listings
Being listed on fitness-specific directories and platforms (ClassPass, Gympass, Mindbody directory, local wellness guides) gave gyms a significant edge. These industry-specific citations act as vertical authority signals that AI models weigh heavily.
What Doesn't Seem to Matter (Yet)
Interestingly, several factors that matter for traditional SEO didn't appear to strongly influence AI recommendations:
- Website design quality had no measurable impact. AI doesn't care if your site is pretty.
- Social media presence had minimal effect. Having 5,000 Instagram followers didn't translate to AI recommendations.
- Google Ads had zero impact. You can't buy your way into AI recommendations (yet).
The GEO Playbook for Gyms
Based on our findings, here's the priority order for getting your gym recommended by AI:
- Build backlinks from authority sites. Get mentioned on fitness publications, local news, and industry blogs. This is non-negotiable.
- Scale your Google reviews. Implement automated review requests after every visit. Aim for 100+ reviews with a 4.7+ average.
- Create deep, structured content. Build individual pages for every service in every area you cover. Use FAQ schema, service schema, and LocalBusiness schema.
- Audit your citations. Ensure your NAP is identical across every directory and listing.
- Get listed on industry platforms. ClassPass, Gympass, Mindbody directory, and other fitness directories.
The Window Is Open
Right now, AI search is still in its early stages. Most gyms haven't even thought about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The ones that start building these signals now will have an enormous head start as AI search becomes the default way people find local services.
In three years, asking ChatGPT for a gym recommendation will be as natural as Googling one. The question is whether your gym will be in the answer.