How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
More customers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI who to hire. Those answers name only a few businesses. Here is how they choose, and what you can actually do about it.
Short answer: make it easy for the AI to find clear, matching facts about your business in several places it trusts, starting with your own website and your Google Business Profile. Nobody can buy or guarantee a spot, but most businesses are missing for fixable reasons.
How AI assistants pick who to name
When someone asks “who is a good accountant near me?”, an assistant with web search looks the question up, reads a handful of pages, and writes an answer naming the businesses it found the clearest evidence for. It tends to favour businesses that are described the same way in several places, with specifics it can repeat: what they do, where, for whom, and what customers say.
1. Test it first
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers would ask, without using your business name. Note who they name and which websites they cite. That tells you where you stand and which sources matter in your field.
2. Make your website say plainly what you do
A page for each main service, the towns or areas you serve, your prices or price ranges if you can share them, and answers to the questions customers ask. Vague lines like “quality solutions for all your needs” give an AI nothing to repeat.
3. Add structured data
Structured data is a set of behind-the-scenes labels on your site that states your business name, address, phone, hours, services and area in a format machines read reliably. Most small business sites have none, or only what a plugin added by default.
4. Complete your Google Business Profile
Map listings are among the sources these assistants lean on most for local questions. Fill in every field, pick the right categories, list your services, and keep hours and photos current.
5. Get your details consistent everywhere
Your name, address and phone number should match on your site, Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook and the directories in your trade. Mismatches make it harder for an AI to be sure it has the right business.
6. Earn reviews and mentions
Recent, detailed reviews, and mentions on other sites such as local news, associations and “best of” lists, give the assistants independent evidence. Ask happy customers, and reply to the reviews you get.
7. Make sure AI crawlers are not blocked
Some websites block the robots that AI companies use to read the web, often by accident through a security setting. If they cannot read your site, they rely entirely on what others say about you.
Almost every step here is also good SEO. That is why we do the two together, and test both. If your site is not on Google at all, start with why your website is not showing up on Google.
Want to know where you stand? Our free check asks the AI assistants your customers’ questions and shows you who they name.
Common questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There is no paid placement in ChatGPT’s answers today, and no form to submit your business. What you can change is the information it finds when it looks you up.
Where does ChatGPT get its information about local businesses?
When it searches the web, it reads business websites, map and directory listings, review sites and articles that compare businesses, then summarises what it finds. Which sources it uses varies from question to question, so it pays to be described clearly and consistently across all of them.
Is this different from SEO?
Less than people selling it suggest. A readable website, a complete Google Business Profile, consistent listings and good reviews help with Google and with AI answers. The difference is mainly in how it is measured: you have to ask the AI assistants the questions your customers ask and see whether you come up.
How do I see what ChatGPT says about my business?
Ask it the way a customer would, without your business name: “Who is the best roofer in Fort Worth?” Try a few versions, and try Gemini and Perplexity as well. Or request our free check, which does this for you and records who was named instead.
Find out what Google and AI say about your business
We look at your website, check how you show up on Google, and ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask. You get a short report showing where you stand, who shows up instead, and why. No cost, no obligation, no sales call needed.
Get my free checkUsually back within two business days.