How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend Your Business

Written By Stew Hang

To get ChatGPT to recommend your local business, you need a site its search tools can reach and a name that shows up, with the same facts, on the pages it reads when someone asks for a business like yours. ChatGPT searches the web for most local questions, reads a handful of sources, and names the businesses those sources agree on. This guide covers how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants when the question names a city or neighborhood. For the wider picture across Gemini, Claude and Google's AI Overviews, see our guide to improving your visibility in AI search.

The short answer

  • ChatGPT searches the web for local questions, guesses your location if you leave out the city, and cites what it reads.
  • It names the businesses its sources agree on. Be on those sources, with matching facts.
  • Test logged out, with and without a city, several times, and count how often you are named.

Where does ChatGPT get its information about local businesses?

OpenAI's help center says ChatGPT may search the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information, and that it can use location information to find local results.

Search partners. ChatGPT "sometimes partners with other search providers." It rewrites your question into shorter queries and sends them out. OpenAI's own example: someone asks for good restaurants near them, ChatGPT places them in the San Francisco area from their IP address, and searches "top restaurants San Francisco." The help center links Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies for those providers, and says ChatGPT may share your location with "trusted third-party providers" of local information, such as business listings, without naming them.

Its own crawler. OpenAI runs OAI-SearchBot to surface websites in ChatGPT search. Sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers," though a bare link to them can still appear.

What the buyer sees. An answer with citations, plus a Sources button that lists the cited pages. On iOS and Android, results may also include a map. For restaurants, ChatGPT can show reservation times from OpenTable, Resy or Yelp.

Illustration

Who does emergency plumbing in Ballard?

Several Seattle plumbers offer 24 hour service in Ballard, including:

Competitor ACompetitor BCompetitor C

Your business is not mentioned

Why ChatGPT names the businesses its sources agree on

OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results using "multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information," and that placement is not guaranteed. It does not publish the factors. What we see in practice is simpler: ChatGPT writes from the handful of pages it just read. If three of them name the same caterer, that caterer is in the answer. If you appear on one page, with an old phone number and a slightly different name, you are easy to leave out.

So the work has two halves: make sure ChatGPT can read your site, then make sure the pages it reads about your trade and your town mention you, with matching facts.

Illustration

Which Honolulu caterers handle beach weddings?

These Honolulu caterers come up most in local wedding guides for beach ceremonies:

Competitor ACompetitor BCompetitor C

Your business is not mentioned

How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and AI assistants

These are the local steps we work through, in order. The first three you can finish this week. The rest take months.

Let OAI-SearchBot in

OpenAI says a site is eligible for ChatGPT search when it allows OAI-SearchBot to crawl and its host or content delivery network allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses. The second half catches people: a firewall or bot protection switch can block the crawler even when robots.txt looks fine.

Do this: Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for OAI-SearchBot near a Disallow line. Then ask your host whether AI bots are blocked at the firewall.

Claim Bing Places and verify Bing Webmaster Tools

Microsoft documents that Copilot fetches web information from the Bing search service, so Bing matters for Copilot directly. For ChatGPT it is less clear: OpenAI links Microsoft's privacy statement for its search providers but does not say which service, or how much it counts. We set Bing up anyway. It is free, Bing Places can sync from your Google Business Profile, and Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report showing when Copilot cites your pages.

Do this: Claim your listing at bingplaces.com, sync it from Google, then verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools.

Make your listings say the same thing

OpenAI does not name the providers of the business listings ChatGPT uses, so do not bet on one. Your name, address, phone, hours, categories and service area should read the same on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp and the directories in your trade.

Do this: Search your business name plus your city and fix every listing that disagrees with your site. Our guide to ranking higher on Google Maps covers the Business Profile side.

Get onto the local "best of" lists

For "best caterer in Honolulu", the pages ChatGPT reads are often local roundups: city magazine lists, neighborhood blogs, directory top ten pages. If they name three competitors and not you, so will the answer. Some lists take a pitch, some are paid. Know which before you spend.

Do this: Ask ChatGPT your top buying question with your city, open Sources, and list every roundup it cites.

Show up in local news and community threads

Local news and community discussion (city subreddits, neighborhood forums) are where people recommend businesses in their own words, and in our experience they turn up among the cited sources for local questions. Do not fake your way in. Sponsor the event, answer the question when you are the expert, and give the local reporter a useful story.

Do this: Find one local thread asking for what you do and add something helpful, under your real name.

Earn reviews that say what and where

"Fixed our burst pipe in Ballard on a Sunday night" tells an engine the service, the place and the situation in one sentence. "Great job" tells it nothing. Detailed reviews on your Business Profile and the review sites in your trade give ChatGPT language to repeat.

Do this: Change your review request to ask customers to mention the job and the neighborhood.

Write area pages that answer real questions

An area page works when it answers what people there ask: do you cover it, how fast can you get there, what a typical job costs, the local quirks (older homes, permits, beach venue rules). A template with the neighborhood name swapped in gives ChatGPT nothing new to cite.

Do this: Pick your two best neighborhoods and answer the questions callers from there ask, one page each.

How to test whether you show up in ChatGPT

Write ten questions the way customers say them, then run them like this:

  • Log out first. OpenAI says signed out users can search, and that saved memories can change the queries ChatGPT sends. Logged out keeps your history out of the test.
  • Ask with and without a city. Without one, ChatGPT estimates your location from your IP address (a VPN can change it), so customers across town may see a different answer.
  • Ask each question several times, in fresh chats. Answers change between runs. "Named in 4 of 10 runs" is a number you can improve; one screenshot is not.
  • Open Sources every time. The cited pages tell you where to work next.
  • Watch your analytics. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links it sends, so those visits show up in Google Analytics.

Where to start this week

  • Today: check robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot and ask your host about AI bot blocking.
  • This week: claim Bing Places, verify Bing Webmaster Tools, and fix the listings that disagree with your site.
  • Next week: run five buyer questions logged out, with and without your city, three times each. Record who is named and what is cited.
  • This month: pitch the two roundups ChatGPT cites most and write one real neighborhood page.

Free, about thirty seconds

See whether ChatGPT can read your site

The free AI Readiness Check reads your robots.txt and up to twenty pages the way an AI crawler would, then tells you what to fix first, including whether each search you care about has a page of its own. No email needed to see your score.

Run the free AI Readiness Check

Want the full picture? The AI Visibility Audit asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews thirty of your buyers' questions and shows exactly who they name.

Common questions

How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants?

Let ChatGPT's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, reach your site, keep your business facts identical across your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and directories, and earn mentions on the pages ChatGPT reads for your trade and city: local best-of lists, local news, community threads and review sites.

Where does ChatGPT get its information about local businesses?

When it searches, ChatGPT sends rewritten queries to third-party search providers and uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says it may also share your general location with third-party providers of local information, such as business listings.

How do I rank in ChatGPT?

There is no fixed rank. ChatGPT names a few businesses per answer and the names change between runs, so measure presence: how often you are named across repeated runs. Raise it by being named, with matching facts, on the sources ChatGPT cites in your city.

Does ChatGPT use Google Business Profile or Bing for local results?

OpenAI does not say. Its help center links Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies for its search providers and mentions providers of business listings without naming them. Microsoft does document that Copilot uses the Bing search service. Keep both listings accurate and identical.

How do I optimize my website for ChatGPT?

Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and at your firewall (OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach its systems), answer buyers' questions in plain sentences, and give each area you serve a page with real local answers. Earning mentions elsewhere takes months, so re-test quarterly.

Sources

Stew Hang
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