Short answer: you cannot buy or submit your way into ChatGPT’s recommendations, but you can make your business easier to find, understand and trust. Let ChatGPT’s search crawler read your website, state clearly what you do and where, keep your business details identical across the web, earn genuine reviews and independent mentions, and publish pages that answer the questions buyers actually ask. Then test real prompts every month and fix what you find.
This guide explains what is known about how ChatGPT picks businesses, the six steps worth your time, what to avoid, and how to tell whether it is working.
How ChatGPT decides which businesses to recommend
When someone asks “who is the best roofer in Boise?”, ChatGPT usually searches the web and then writes a summary of what it finds. OpenAI does not publish a ranking formula or a full list of the sources it uses for local recommendations, so be careful with anyone who claims to know exactly how it works. How much it relies on specific sources such as Bing Places, for example, is still unclear.
What we can say is more practical. ChatGPT can only recommend a business it can find, and it is more likely to name one when several sources agree on who that business is and what it does well. Google rankings help but do not settle it: in one small October 2026 field test of home service recommendations in two US cities, about 31% of ChatGPT’s picks were also in Google’s top three local results. So a business can be named without being in the top three. It is one test on one day, but it shows why AI visibility deserves its own attention.
Step 1: Make sure ChatGPT can read your website
Start here, because everything else depends on it. OpenAI’s documentation says sites that block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links. Check these three things:
- Your robots.txt file. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and confirm OAI-SearchBot is not disallowed. OpenAI’s training crawler, GPTBot, is controlled separately, so you can block training and still allow search.
- Your firewall or CDN. Security settings can block AI crawlers even when robots.txt allows them. Ask your developer or host to check.
- Your page content. Key details should appear as real text on the page. Services, prices and locations shown only inside images are easy to miss.
Step 2: Say exactly what you do, where and for whom
AI tools match a request to a business. Vague copy such as “quality solutions for all your needs” gives them nothing to match. Each main service should have its own page that states the service, the area you cover, who it suits, and what the customer can expect. A homeowner asking for “emergency drain cleaning in Tempe on a Sunday” needs a business whose pages clearly mention emergency work, drain cleaning, Tempe and weekend hours.
Add structured data (LocalBusiness and Service schema) so your name, address, phone number and services are easy for machines to read. It is not a magic switch, but it removes guesswork. If your website cannot support this cleanly, a website rebuild may be worth considering.
Step 3: Keep your business details consistent everywhere
Your name, address, phone number, hours and services should match on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, Yelp and the main directories in your industry. Conflicting details make it harder for any system to be confident about your business, and they can send customers to an old number.
Complete your Google Business Profile first, since it matters for Google regardless of AI. Then claim Bing Places: it is free, and even with its role in ChatGPT unclear, it takes little effort. This work overlaps heavily with local SEO, so you get two benefits from one job.
Step 4: Earn genuine reviews and independent mentions
What others say about you carries more weight than what you say about yourself. Two things are worth building steadily:
- Reviews on more than one platform. Ask every happy customer soon after the job, reply to all reviews, and do not rely on Google alone. Reviews that mention the specific service and the city give useful detail, such as “fixed our AC the same day in Mesa”.
- Mentions on sites you do not control. Local news, trade associations, suppliers you work with, sponsorships and reputable “best of” lists all give outside confirmation that you are real and respected.
Step 5: Publish clear answers to real buyer questions
People ask ChatGPT full questions: how much does it cost, how long does it take, do I need a permit, is it worth repairing or replacing? Answer those on your site, with the direct answer in the first sentence or two and the detail below. Short sections, plain headings and an FAQ make your content easy to quote.
Your own sales calls are the best source of topics. Write down the ten questions customers ask most, then give each one a proper answer. Be specific, publish real price ranges where you can, and say who a service is not right for.
Step 6: Test what ChatGPT says about you
You cannot improve what you do not measure. Each month, run the same ten or so prompts in a fresh chat with web search on, and log the results in a simple spreadsheet:
- “Who is the best [service] in [city]?”
- “Which [service] companies in [city] are open on weekends?”
- “Is [your business name] any good?”
- “Compare [your business] with [main competitor].”
Record whether you were named, how you were described, whether the details were correct, and which sources were cited. Answers change between runs, so look for trends over several months rather than reacting to one result. The cited sources are the most useful part: if the same directory or article keeps appearing, that is where to get listed or mentioned. It also helps to ask new leads how they found you, because analytics will not capture every AI referral.
What does not work
- Fake reviews. They can get your Google Business Profile penalized and damage trust if found out.
- Mass-produced AI articles. Hundreds of thin, near-identical pages add nothing new for anyone to cite.
- Keyword-stuffed business names. These break Google’s guidelines and can lead to suspension.
- Anyone guaranteeing placement. Nobody controls what ChatGPT says, and answers vary by question, wording and location.
How Advisible Technologies can help
Advisible Technologies is a Google Partner agency working with businesses in the US, the UAE and Pakistan. Our AI search optimization service covers crawler access, structured data, content built to be quoted, and prompt testing, and it is part of our Full Growth System (custom quote). If your local foundations need attention first, our Local Growth plan starts from $399/month and covers your Google Business Profile, citations, on-page SEO and review strategy. See what local SEO costs for more detail.
Not sure where you stand? Get a Free Audit and we will review your website, listings and visibility, then tell you what to fix first.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not through organic recommendations. Any advertising options OpenAI offers are separate from earning a mention in an answer, so the steps above still matter.
How long does it take to show up?
There is no fixed timeline. Removing a crawler block can take effect quickly, as OpenAI says robots.txt changes take around 24 hours to apply. Building reviews, mentions and useful content takes months of steady work.
Is this different from SEO?
It overlaps a lot. Crawlable pages, clear content, reviews and consistent listings help both. AI visibility adds more focus on outside mentions, quotable answers and testing prompts. Most local businesses should fix their SEO basics first.
Do these steps also help with Gemini and Google AI Overviews?
Largely, yes. Each tool has its own crawlers and sources, but clear facts, consistent listings, reviews and helpful content are useful everywhere. Check that any AI crawler you want to reach is not blocked.
How do I find out if ChatGPT knows my business?
Ask it, with web search on: “What do you know about [business name] in [city]?” Check the facts and the sources. Or request a free audit or email contact@advisibletechnologies.com and we will check it for you.