How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
Seven steps to get your business mentioned and cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, from crawler access to reviews and schema.
Why AI recommendations matter now
More buyers now ask an AI assistant who to hire or what to buy, and act on the answer. In the United States, 34% of adults had used ChatGPT by early 2025, about double the share in 2023 (Pew Research Center, June 2025).
AI answers also change how people click. When Google shows an AI summary, people click a traditional result 8% of the time, compared with 15% when there is no summary (Pew Research Center, July 2025). If the answer names your competitor and not you, many buyers never reach your website at all.
How ChatGPT decides which businesses to mention
OpenAI doesn’t publish a ranking formula. In practice, ChatGPT builds answers from two sources: what it learned in training, and live search results when it searches the web. It favours businesses whose details are clear, consistent and confirmed by other sources, such as review sites, directories and articles.
That means the goal is not to “trick” the model. It is to make accurate information about your business easy to find and easy to trust.
1. Let AI crawlers into your website
AI assistants can only use pages their crawlers can reach. Check your robots.txt file and any security or firewall settings, which sometimes block AI crawlers without you knowing.
OpenAI documents separate crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, ChatGPT-User for pages people ask ChatGPT to visit, and GPTBot for training (OpenAI). Google’s AI Overviews use the normal Googlebot index, so they follow your regular Google settings (Google Search Central).
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /2. Make sure Google and Bing index your site
AI search tools lean on existing search indexes. Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and fix any pages that aren’t indexed. ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers alongside its own crawler, and Microsoft Copilot is built on Bing, so Bing coverage matters more than many businesses assume.
3. Answer buyers’ questions in the first two sentences
AI quotes pages that answer clearly and early. Write each key page around a question your buyers actually ask, such as “How much does a website redesign cost?”, and answer it directly in the first two sentences before adding detail.
- Use question-style headings that match how people ask.
- Keep each answer to 40–60 words, then expand.
- Back claims with numbers and link to the source.
- Name the author and show when the page was last updated.
4. Add schema markup
Schema tells machines exactly what your business is. Add Organization or LocalBusiness markup with your name, address, phone and social profiles; Service markup on service pages; and FAQPage markup where you answer questions on the page. Keep the markup identical to what visitors can see.
5. Make your business details match everywhere
AI trusts facts it can confirm in several places. Your business name, address, phone number, services and one-sentence description should be the same on your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, directories and review sites. Small differences, such as two versions of your address, make you harder to verify.
6. Earn reviews and third-party mentions
Other sources are how AI checks what you say about yourself. Ask happy customers for reviews on Google and the directories that matter in your industry. Get listed in reputable directories, contribute expert answers to industry publications and share original data when you have it. One credible mention on a trusted site can outweigh many pages on your own.
7. Track what AI says about you every month
You can’t improve what you don’t check. Keep a fixed list of 15–20 questions your buyers ask, such as “best [your service] in [your city]”, and run them through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google each month. Record whether you’re mentioned, cited and linked. In GA4, group visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com into their own channel so you can see the traffic AI sends you. Our free Digital Foundation Score checks the technical side in one report.
Common mistakes
- Blocking AI crawlers by accident through a security plugin or firewall rule.
- Hiding key information in images or PDFs that crawlers read poorly.
- Inconsistent names and addresses across directories.
- Thin pages for every city with the same text and a different place name.
- Publishing unsourced claims that AI has no way to verify.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
Make your business easy to find, understand and verify: let AI crawlers access your site, make sure you’re indexed by Google and Bing, answer buyers’ questions in the first two sentences of your pages, add schema markup, keep your business details identical everywhere, and earn reviews and mentions on trusted sites.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There is no way to buy a place in ChatGPT’s organic answers. Recommendations come from what the model and its search sources can find and verify about your business.
How long does it take to show up in AI answers?
Fixes such as crawler access and schema take effect within weeks. Being mentioned regularly usually builds over three to six months, as your content, reviews and mentions on other sites accumulate.
Do I still need SEO if I want AI recommendations?
Yes. AI search tools lean on search indexes and pages that are already well structured, so good SEO remains the foundation for being recommended by AI.
Sources
- Pew Research Center (25 June 2025): 34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023
- Pew Research Center (22 July 2025): Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
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