Guide
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
Quick answer
You cannot sign up or pay to be named in a ChatGPT answer. ChatGPT recommends businesses it can find, read and see described the same way in several places. So the work is simple to state: let its crawler read your site, say plainly who you are, answer the questions your buyers ask, and get mentioned on other sites it trusts. Then ask it the same questions every month and track the answers.
How ChatGPT decides who to name
When someone asks ChatGPT for a supplier, it either answers from what it learned in training or, more often now, searches the web first and sums up what it finds. Either way it leans on sources that agree with each other. A business described the same way on its own site, in directories, in reviews and in local or trade press is an easy recommendation. A business with a thin website and nothing else written about it is invisible, however good its work is.
That is why a strong Google ranking does not guarantee a mention, and why a small firm with good coverage can be named ahead of a bigger one.
Seven steps, in order
- 1. Check what it says now. Ask ChatGPT ten questions a buyer would ask, such as “who are the best [your service] providers in [your town]” or “which UK firms do [a specific job]”. Use a temporary chat so your own history does not colour the answers. Note whether you are named, what it says about you, and which websites it cites. Those cited sites show you where to get listed.
- 2. Let the crawlers in. ChatGPT search reads the web with a crawler called OAI-SearchBot. If your robots.txt or your hosting blocks it, you cannot appear in those answers. Check Cloudflare too: since July 2025 new Cloudflare sites block AI crawlers by default. GPTBot, which collects training data, is a separate choice you can make either way.
- 3. Get into Bing. ChatGPT search has drawn on Bing’s index alongside its own. Set up Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and fix what it flags. It takes about an hour, and many UK businesses have never done it.
- 4. Say plainly who you are. Use the same business name, address and phone number everywhere. Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema to your site. Write an about page with hard facts: when you started, where you work, who runs the business, and what you do and do not do.
- 5. Answer the questions buyers ask. One page per real question, with the answer in the first two sentences. Give prices or price ranges, timescales, areas covered and who it suits. Models quote direct answers. They skip marketing copy.
- 6. Get mentioned elsewhere. Sector directories, trade bodies, review sites, local news, supplier and partner pages. Ask happy clients for reviews where your buyers look. This step moves results the most, and it is the slowest.
- 7. Check again every month. Same questions, same method, written down. Answers change from one run to the next, so judge the trend over several months rather than a single result.
What does not work
- Repeating “ChatGPT” or “AI” across your pages. Models read meaning, not keyword counts.
- Bought reviews and low-quality directories. They add noise and can damage trust in the sources that matter.
- An llms.txt file on its own. It is a cheap, sensible addition, but there is no public evidence that ChatGPT uses it to choose who to recommend.
- Anyone who guarantees a placement. Nobody controls the answer.
How long it takes
Technical fixes such as crawler access, Bing and schema take days. Changes in how ChatGPT describes you can show within weeks, once its search picks up your new pages. Being named for competitive questions depends on mentions on other sites and usually takes several months.
Where we can help
We do this work for UK businesses as a fixed-price audit, followed by monthly checks if you want them. We currently run monthly checks across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity for a UK hotel group’s seven properties. If you would rather do it yourself, the steps above are the same ones we follow. See our SEO, AEO and GEO service for what we offer.
Common questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Where ChatGPT shows ads, OpenAI says they are labelled and kept separate from the answer itself. There is no way to buy a place in the recommendation, and anyone offering a guaranteed placement is guessing.
Is getting on ChatGPT different from SEO?
It overlaps. A fast, crawlable site with clear pages is the base for both. The difference is that ChatGPT names three or four businesses instead of listing ten links, and it leans more on what other sites say about you.
How do I see what ChatGPT says about my business?
Open a temporary chat and ask it directly what it knows about your business. Then ask the questions your customers would ask, without naming yourself. The second test matters more, because that is how buyers use it.
Do I need a Google Business Profile?
If you serve customers in person, yes, and a Bing Places listing as well. AI assistants draw on map and review data for local questions. If you work remotely, put the effort into directories and reviews in your sector instead.
How long before ChatGPT mentions my business?
Technical fixes take days, and changes in how ChatGPT describes you can show within weeks. Being named for competitive questions depends on mentions on other sites and usually takes several months.