How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
By Citeon · Published
ChatGPT recommends businesses it can find, understand and see vouched for by others. For most small businesses that comes down to six things: let its search crawler read your site, say plainly what you do, who it is for and where, keep your business details identical everywhere you are listed, earn reviews and mentions on other sites, publish pages that answer the exact questions customers ask, and check the result regularly. None of it is guaranteed, because OpenAI does not publish how answers are chosen, but each step removes a reason to leave you out.
1. Make sure ChatGPT can read your site
When ChatGPT searches the web, it fetches pages with crawlers called OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User. If your robots.txt file or a security setting blocks them, it cannot read your pages, and it cannot recommend what it cannot read.
This is the quickest thing to check and the most common thing to find wrong. Here is how to check in a few minutes.
2. Say what you do, who it is for, and where
AI reads your homepage literally. "Premium solutions for every customer" tells it nothing. "Custom wedding cakes in Melbourne, for couples planning a wedding in the next 12 months" tells it exactly when to mention you.
Put that plain description near the top of your homepage and your main service pages, in words a customer would use when asking. If you serve specific suburbs or cities, name them.
3. Be the same business everywhere
Use the same business name, address, phone number, website and one-line description on your site, your Google Business Profile, your social profiles and every directory you are listed in. Small differences make it harder for an AI to be sure all those mentions are the same business.
This matters even more if another company shares or nearly shares your name. AI can merge two businesses into one when it cannot find evidence that they are separate. We have seen it happen to our own name.
4. Get reviewed and mentioned on other sites
AI leans heavily on what other people say about you: review platforms, local and industry directories, news articles, association listings and "best of" round-ups. A business that only exists on its own website gives it very little to go on.
Ask happy customers for reviews on the platforms that show up when you search for your kind of business, and encourage them to mention the specific service and area. Reviews that say "great bathroom renovation in Geelong" carry more meaning than "great service". More on reviews and AI here.
5. Answer the questions customers actually ask
Think about the exact questions someone types before they hire you: "best family lawyer in Brisbane for property settlements", "how much does a kitchen renovation cost in Perth", "Company A or Company B". Then make sure a page on your site answers each one directly, in a paragraph that could be quoted on its own.
A clear pricing page, a page per service, a page per area you cover, and an honest FAQ usually do more than general blog posts. What makes a passage quotable.
6. Check, change, then check again
Ask ChatGPT the questions your customers ask, in a private window, a few times each, and write down who it names. Change one thing, wait a couple of weeks, and ask again. Answers vary from one asking to the next, so look for a pattern rather than a single result.
A step-by-step way to check what AI says about you. If you would rather not do it by hand, Citeon asks ChatGPT and the other major AI engines your customers' questions every week, shows who was named instead of you, and helps you write the pages to close the gap.
Common questions
How long does it take for ChatGPT to start recommending my business?
It depends on which part of ChatGPT answers. When it searches the web, a new or updated page can be picked up within days to weeks of being indexed. What the model knows from its training data changes only when OpenAI updates it, on a schedule nobody outside OpenAI controls. Work on the search side first, because it is the one you can influence.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
There is no form to submit your business to ChatGPT's recommendations and no setting to switch on. Be wary of anyone who says they can place you in its answers. What you can change is what is publicly readable about your business, and that is what this guide covers.
Why does ChatGPT recommend different businesses each time I ask?
Answers are generated fresh each time, so the wording of the question, where ChatGPT thinks you are, what it found in that search and plain chance all play a part. That is normal. The useful measure is how often you are named across several askings, not whether you appeared once.
Do I need a blog to be recommended?
Not necessarily. A few clear pages that answer the questions customers actually ask, such as what you offer, who it is for, where you work and what it costs, usually do more than a stream of general posts.
See which prompts your competitors win.
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