How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

Try this. Open ChatGPT and ask it to recommend a business like yours in your area. Something like: “Who’s a good fee-only financial advisor near San Diego?” or “Best commercial roofing company in Phoenix?”

Are you in the answer?

For a lot of businesses, the answer is no, even when they rank well on Google. That’s a problem, because a growing number of people now start their search by asking an AI tool instead of typing keywords into a search box.

Here’s how AI search works in plain English, and what you can do about it.

How AI tools decide who to recommend

When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews a question, the tool searches the web, reads a handful of pages and writes an answer based on what it found. It usually names a few businesses and links to its sources.

To make that list, the AI has to do three things:

1. Find your website. Its crawlers have to be allowed in, and your pages have to show up in the search results it relies on.
2. Understand what you do. It needs to read clearly who you are, what you offer, where you work and who you serve.
3. Trust what it reads. If your details are inconsistent, or nobody else on the web mentions you, it’s less likely to recommend you.

Most businesses that get skipped have a problem with one of these three. The good news is that all three can be fixed.

1. Make sure AI tools can get in

Your website has a small file called robots.txt that tells crawlers what they’re allowed to read. Some websites block AI crawlers without the owner knowing, often because of a security plugin or a setting someone changed years ago.

Check that these aren’t blocked:

• OAI-SearchBot, which ChatGPT uses for search
• PerplexityBot, used by Perplexity
• Googlebot, which feeds Google’s AI Overviews along with regular search
• Bingbot, since several AI tools draw on Bing’s results

Be careful with the opposite mistake, too. When we started working with Fintegrity, a previous audit had concluded that AI crawlers were blocked. We tested it, and they weren’t. That one wrong finding had stalled the whole effort.

2. Spell out who you are, for machines

People read your website. AI tools read it too, but they’re much happier when you label things clearly. That’s what structured data is: a small block of code, invisible to visitors, that says “this is the business name, this is the phone number, these are the services, this is the area we serve.”

The most useful pieces for most businesses:

• A business profile with your name, address, phone, hours and service area
• Services listed clearly, each on its own page if you can
• FAQs marked up as questions and answers
• People, such as the founder or key staff, with their credentials

Without it, the AI has to guess. With it, the AI gets the facts handed to it.

3. Write pages that answer real questions

AI tools are answering questions, so pages that answer questions directly get used more.

Look at your service pages. Does each one say plainly what you do, who it’s for and where you do it, near the top? Or does it open with three paragraphs about your passion for excellence?

A few habits that help:

• Answer first, explain second. If the question is “How much does a roof inspection cost?”, put a real answer or range in the first paragraph.
• Use the words your customers use. “Fee-only financial advisor” beats “holistic wealth partnership” if that’s what people actually type.
• Add a short FAQ to important pages, with the questions you hear on sales calls.
• Show proof. Case studies, reviews and specific examples give the AI something concrete to point to.

4. Keep your details the same everywhere

AI tools cross-check. If your website says one phone number, your Google Business Profile says another and an old directory lists a business name you stopped using in 2019, the AI can’t tell which is right, and it may leave you out.

Make a list of everywhere your business is listed (Google, Bing, Yelp, industry directories, LinkedIn, the BBB) and make the name, address, phone and website match exactly. It’s tedious, and it matters.

5. Get mentioned beyond your own website

AI tools trust businesses that other sources talk about: reviews, local news, industry associations, partner websites, guest articles. You don’t need a PR firm. A steady trickle of genuine reviews and a few mentions on respected sites in your industry go a long way.

How to tell if it’s working

AI search is newer than regular search, so measuring it is still a bit rough. A few practical ways:

• Ask the tools yourself every month, with the questions your customers would ask, and note whether you’re named.
• Watch your analytics for visits coming from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and similar sources.
• Ask new clients how they found you. “ChatGPT recommended you” is becoming a real answer.

Give changes a few weeks to take effect. AI tools need time to recrawl your site.

Where to start

If you only do one thing this week, ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the question your best customer would ask. If you’re not in the answer, check that the crawlers can get in, then make sure your business details are clear and consistent.

If you’d like us to look at it for you, we do this for businesses like yours. We’ll tell you what’s missing and what we’d fix first.

Quick answers

Is this the same as SEO? They overlap a lot. Good SEO helps, because many AI tools rely on search results. But AI search puts extra weight on clear structured data, direct answers and consistent details across the web.

How long does it take to show up in AI answers? Fixes to crawl access and structured data can be picked up within weeks. Building the trust signals, like reviews and mentions, takes longer and keeps paying off over time.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT? No. You can’t buy a spot in the answer. You earn it by being easy to find, easy to understand and well regarded.