Why isn't my new phone number showing in Google yet?

Phone-number changes propagate fastest of all GBP edits, usually within 24-72 hours. If it's been longer, check two things: the change is actually saved (not pending verification), and the old number isn't still listed elsewhere (Yelp, BBB, your own website). Google sometimes pulls phone numbers from secondary sources when there's a conflict.

Do I need to resubmit my GBP after edits?

No. Google re-crawls active profiles automatically. The exception: major changes like a new business name or address sometimes trigger re-verification (postcard or phone call). That's a re-verification, not a resubmission. Google walks you through it.

What's the fastest way to see ChatGPT update its info on my business?

Two things speed it up. First, update every directory ChatGPT cross-references (Yelp, BBB, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Bing Places) the same day you fix Google. Second, get a fresh signal somewhere ChatGPT crawls: a new review, a Reddit mention, a press release. The model picks up coherent multi-source change faster than a single-source edit.

Does running a fresh audit help speed up AI visibility?

Not directly. Auditing doesn't change crawler behavior. What it does is tell you which specific signals are out of sync before you start fixing, so you don't waste a 30-day refresh cycle fixing only half the problem and then waiting another 30 days for the rest to propagate.

How long after I fix my GBP will I show up in AI search?

Q: How long after I fix my GBP will I show up in AI search?

Google's own systems (Maps, AI Overviews) reflect GBP changes within 1-7 days for visible content like hours, categories, and description. Third-party AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity) refresh on 30-90 day cycles, so your fix may take that long to propagate. Track AI citations weekly to see when it lands.

Google's own systems (fastest)

When you edit your Google Business Profile, three Google systems eventually reflect the change: Google Search, Google Maps, and Google AI Overviews. They don't update in lockstep.

Hours and phone number. Usually live in Search and Maps within 24-72 hours. These have the simplest data paths.

Description, services, and attributes. 3-7 days typical. Sterling Sky's controlled tests on description edits showed propagation in under a week consistently across the businesses they tracked.

Categories. Usually 1-3 days, but a primary category change can trigger Google to re-evaluate the profile's classification, which sometimes pushes the timeline to 14 days.

Photos. Visible immediately in your dashboard, usually appear in public Search within 24 hours. AI Overviews may take longer to surface them because AIO pulls a subset of the most-engaged-with photos, not the newest.

AI Overviews citations. This is the slowest Google surface. Even after your GBP and your website are clean, AIO may take 7-21 days to start citing you for queries you didn't previously appear in. Ahrefs' 2024 AIO study found AIO citations are 25.7% fresher than the regular SERP on average, which means AIO updates faster than normal organic. But the floor is still about a week.

Third-party AI crawl cycles (slowest)

This is where impatience kills owners. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest don't have a live connection to Google Business Profile. They retrieve from cached snapshots of the web, refreshed on the AI tool's own schedule.

ChatGPT. Search-augmented (the "Browse" mode and the default web-search behavior in GPT-4.1+) hits live web most of the time, but its underlying source freshness depends on Bing's crawl. Bing re-crawls high-trust local directories (Yelp, BBB) every 7-14 days. So even though ChatGPT's call is live, the data it sees on those directories may be up to two weeks stale.

Perplexity. Generally faster than ChatGPT because Perplexity does aggressive on-query crawling. But its Reddit-heavy retrieval means changes only stick when there's a Reddit thread reflecting them. That can be 30+ days after your fix lands everywhere else.

Google AI Overviews. Counts as Google's own system, see above.

The honest answer for "when will ChatGPT recommend me?" after a real fix campaign is 30-60 days. Some signals appear faster, but the full picture (where the model has been re-exposed to consistent multi-source data and updated its summary) takes a couple of crawl cycles.

What you can do to speed it up

You can't change the crawl schedules of OpenAI or Perplexity, but you can change how much signal is available when they do crawl:

Update every directory at once. Don't fix Google on Monday and Yelp three weeks later. Block one afternoon and do all six (Google, Yelp, BBB, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Bing Places). The AI tools pick up coherent change much faster than scattered single-source edits.
Trigger a fresh review the same week. A new Google review with timestamped text gives the crawlers something concrete to anchor to. It's also a freshness signal AI tools weigh in their citation logic.
Add structured data to your website. If your homepage emits a complete LocalBusiness schema block, ChatGPT and Perplexity can read the canonical version of your details directly from your site, without waiting on directory refreshes.
Check your llms.txt, or don't. Despite the buzz, no analyst we trust has shown a measurable lift from llms.txt files. We auto-generate one as cheap hygiene, but it's not where to invest time.

How to verify the fix worked

Three checks, in order of speed:

Day 1: Search your business name in Google Maps incognito. Are the changes visible?
Day 7: Search Yelp, BBB, and Bing Places for your business. Updated everywhere?
Day 14: Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the buyer-intent queries for your trade and city ("best plumber in Phoenix"). Are you cited? If not, who is, and what sources is the AI citing about them?

If you want to skip the manual checking, run our free audit. We report Map Pack rank for your top queries plus AI mention rate across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Copilot, and Gemini. Re-run it 30 days after a fix campaign and you'll see exactly which AI surfaces updated and which didn't.