Short answer: yes. When someone asks ChatGPT to recommend an accountant, it usually estimates where they are from their internet connection and adds that place to the searches it runs. So a person in Bolton who types "find me a good accountant" may get Bolton firms without ever typing the word Bolton. If your website and listings don't make clear which towns you serve, you can miss out on those searches.
How ChatGPT works out where someone is
OpenAI explains this on its help page about searching the web with ChatGPT. There are three ways location can come into an answer.
From the IP address. ChatGPT may use a person's IP address to estimate their general location, such as their country or city. This happens without them doing anything. OpenAI says it does not pass the IP address itself to its search partners, only the general location.
From device location, if they turn it on. People can choose to share their device's location in ChatGPT's settings. This is off by default. When it is on, ChatGPT can use more specific information to answer questions about nearby businesses.
From memory. If someone has memory switched on and has told ChatGPT where they live, OpenAI says saved memories can be used when it rewrites a search.
What it does with that location
ChatGPT does not usually send the exact words someone typed to a search engine. OpenAI says it rewrites the question into one or more shorter search queries. Its own example is a person asking for "good restaurants near me" from the San Francisco area, which becomes the search "top restaurants San Francisco".
For an accountancy practice, the same thing happens. "Can you recommend an accountant for my small business?" can become something like "small business accountant Manchester" behind the scenes. The firms that come back for that search are the ones ChatGPT is most likely to name.
OpenAI also says ChatGPT may share location with trusted third party providers that supply local information, such as nearby business listings. That is one reason your listings matter as much as your website.
Why the location guess is not always right
The IP estimate is approximate. OpenAI notes that a VPN or the network someone is on can change the location ChatGPT infers. A person on a work network may appear to be in a different town from the one they live in.
That is why you should not rely on a single test. If you ask ChatGPT about accountants from your office, your result may differ from what a client sees at home ten miles away. Ask with the town named in the question too, so you can compare.
What this means for your practice
Because ChatGPT turns a vague question into a search with a place name in it, you want to be a clear match for "accountant" plus each town you serve. A few things help.
1. Name your towns plainly. Say which towns and areas you cover on your homepage and contact page, in normal sentences. 2. Give your main areas their own page. A page for each town you really work in gives searches like "accountant Stockport" something specific to find. It needs genuine detail about how you help clients there, not a copy of another page with the town name swapped. 3. Keep your Google Business Profile complete. Google's own guide to local ranking says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that it uses what it knows about a searcher's location when they don't share it. Your profile is where Google learns where you are. 4. Match your details everywhere. Use the same name, address and phone number on your website, your profile and directory listings, so every source agrees about where you are. 5. Let ChatGPT's crawler in. OpenAI says a site must allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl it to be eligible for ChatGPT search results.
If you want to know why a rival keeps getting named in your town, our post on how ChatGPT decides which accountants to recommend explains the rest of the process.
For examples of town pages, see our pages on web design for accountants in Manchester and web design for accountants in Bolton.
Check what AI says about you in your town
Run our free AI visibility checker to see what Google Gemini says about your practice where you are. If you would rather have someone fix your pages, profile and listings, our SEO service for accountants covers it. Get in touch and we will tell you plainly what we would change first.
Common questions
Can ChatGPT see exactly where I am?
Not unless you turn on device location sharing, which is off by default. Otherwise it works from a rough estimate based on your IP address.
Will a client in the next town see my firm?
Possibly not, if your website and listings only mention one town. If you serve several areas, say so clearly and give your main ones their own pages.
Does naming the town in the question change the answer?
It can. OpenAI's own advice, if local results show the wrong area, is to include your city or postcode in the question.