How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

How AI assistants choose who to name

ChatGPT search looks things up on the web and credits its sources with links. OpenAI says any public website can appear, as long as it does not block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot [1]. Perplexity works the same way with PerplexityBot [3]. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on the normal Google index: Google says the same SEO basics apply and there are no extra requirements [4].

So the question is not “how do I talk to the AI” but “when the AI searches, does it find a page that clearly answers, and does the rest of the web agree that you are a real, good choice?”

The checklist, in order

1. Let the AI crawlers inCheck robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot or Bingbot [2][3]. A blocked crawler cannot read or link to you. Our free AI search check tests this in seconds.
2. Get indexed in Google and BingVerify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and send new pages with IndexNow [11]. Bing now shows where its AI cites you [10].
3. Say clearly who you are, where and whatYour home page needs one main heading and a first paragraph that says what you do, for whom and where. AI assistants quote this kind of sentence. Avoid a home page that is only images and slogans.
4. Add business structured dataLocalBusiness or Organization markup with name, address, phone and hours tells machines the facts with certainty [8]. Our free schema generator writes it for you.
5. Complete your Google Business ProfileGoogle says the profile helps your business show in AI responses as well as in Maps [5]. Fill in categories, hours, services and photos, and keep them current.
6. Answer the questions customers really askOne clear page per service, with prices or how pricing works, the area you serve and a short FAQ. Google asks for original, people-first content, not pages written to rank [6].
7. Get mentioned on other sitesIn an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, mentions of the brand on other websites had the strongest link to appearing in Google’s AI Overviews, well ahead of backlinks [12]. Real reviews, directories in your field, partners and press all count. This is a correlation, not a guarantee.
8. Add video and expert postsYouTube mentions were the strongest factor in a second Ahrefs study across ChatGPT and Google AI [13], and Semrush found LinkedIn among the most cited sites in AI answers, mostly educational posts by people [14].
9. Measure itChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends [1], so you can see these visits in your analytics. Once a month, ask the assistants the questions your customers ask and note who they name.

What does not work

• Special AI files or markup “for ChatGPT”. Google says you do not need new machine readable files, AI text files or special schema to appear in its AI features [5]. llms.txt may help some tools, but it is not required.
• Mass pages for every city or keyword, bought links, or reviews you wrote yourself. These break Google’s spam policies and can remove a site from results [7].
• Asking ChatGPT to “remember” your business. A chat with you does not change what it tells other people.

What we see in real sites

Free tools for each step

Common questions

Sources

1. OpenAI: Publishers and developers FAQ
2. OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
3. Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers
4. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
5. Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features
6. Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
7. Google Search Central: Spam policies
8. Google Search Central: Local business structured data
9. Google Business Profile Help
10. Bing Webmaster Blog: AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
11. IndexNow documentation
12. Ahrefs: brand mentions and AI Overviews (75K brands)
13. Ahrefs: what correlates with AI brand visibility
14. Semrush: LinkedIn and AI visibility study