People do not ask ChatGPT for an abstract trade. They ask for a location who will show up. The model then has to pick a name. If your name, site, and place disagree, it picks someone else — or invents a twin.
That is the whole AI-visibility problem for franchise locations. It is not a missing Wikipedia page. It is not a directory logo you unlock with a card. It is whether the next sentence can finish you.
What has to stay still
The name on the van, the name on the invoice, and the name on the site should be one name. A franchise door is not the brand HQ. Each door needs its own file. Reviews can wait. A fourth spelling in an ad campaign cannot.
What a public file does
A Type A snapshot on this registry is an observed record: name, place, site, a way to reach you. Gold is the same record after you prove the website. Neither one is a government license. Both of them give a model a page it can finish without walking a theme.
What HQ should not do
Do not publish one Gold file and point every city page at it. That is how models merge twelve shops into one phone.
What not to buy
A pack that promises first place in ChatGPT. A directory upsell to put a logo on a listing you already have. A weekend on a Wikidata item that will not last. Those spend money and leave the file messy.
Look up a file in the registry. Read why this exists. Gold is $297 a year after the website is proved.