How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?

To get your business to show up in ChatGPT, three things have to be in place. OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, must be allowed onto your site. Your pages must answer, in plain words, the questions customers ask before they buy. And your business has to be named on the other sites ChatGPT reads when it searches: directories, review platforms and articles that compare businesses like yours. Nobody can promise you a mention, because OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. You can remove the reasons it leaves you out. Perplexity works differently, and how to rank on Perplexity AI covers it.

This guide is for owners and marketing leads who want to know what to check first and what to fix. It follows the same order we use when we start AI SEO work for a client, and every claim about how ChatGPT, Google or Bing behaves links to their own documentation. If you also want to appear in Google’s AI answers, our guide to getting into Google AI Overviews covers that side.

Where does ChatGPT get the businesses it recommends?

When ChatGPT answers with web search, it builds the answer from live search results, so the businesses it names are mostly the ones that turn up in those results. OpenAI’s ChatGPT search help page says it “typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries” and “sometimes partners with other search providers”. For local questions it may use an approximate location based on the user’s IP address, and on iOS and Android the answer can include a map.

In practice, a question like “who’s a good accountant for a small builder in Leeds” turns into a few searches behind the scenes. ChatGPT reads what comes back and writes a short list. If your site and your listings aren’t in those results, you can’t be on the list. Answers given without search come from the model’s training data, which is older and which you can’t edit.

Why isn’t ChatGPT mentioning my business?

Usually ChatGPT can’t reach your site, finds no page that answers the question, or finds stronger proof about your competitors elsewhere. Work through the causes in this order, because the first ones take minutes to fix.

How do I check whether ChatGPT can see my website?

Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser and check that nothing blocks OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI’s crawler documentation lists three user agents, and each does a different job:

• OAI-SearchBot is the one that decides whether you can show up. OpenAI says it is “used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features”. Sites that opt out “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers”, although they can still appear as navigational links.
• GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. Blocking it tells OpenAI not to train on your pages and has no effect on search.
• ChatGPT-User visits a page when someone in ChatGPT asks it to. OpenAI says it “is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search”.

Here is an example robots.txt for a business that wants to appear in ChatGPT search but would rather its pages weren’t used for training. Treat it as an example and change it to suit your own choice:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Two more checks that get missed. First, OpenAI’s help page asks site owners to make sure their host or CDN allows traffic from OpenAI’s published search bot IP addresses, and security plugins with a “block AI bots” switch can stop it without telling you (our guide to which AI crawlers to block or allow covers each one). Second, while you’re in robots.txt, look at the other assistants. PerplexityBot is what Perplexity uses to surface and link sites in its answers. Anthropic says blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in Claude’s search results. For Google, the Google-Extended token controls Gemini training and grounding, and Google says it does not affect inclusion in Google Search.

What should my website say so ChatGPT can recommend me?

It should answer buyer questions directly and state the facts an assistant needs before it names you: what you do, who for, where, how pricing works and why someone should trust you. If a customer would ask it before calling, the answer belongs in text on your site.

A practical way to build that list:

1. Write down the 10 to 20 questions customers ask on the phone or by email before they buy. Use their words, including the town or region.
2. Match each question to a page. A service page can answer “do you do X in Y?”, while “how much does X cost?” usually needs its own section explaining how the price is worked out.
3. Put the direct answer in the first one or two sentences under a heading that matches the question, then add the detail.
4. Keep proof on the page: real project examples, the areas you serve, licences or memberships you actually hold, and a link to where your reviews live.
5. Use headings, short tables and FAQ sections. Microsoft’s Bing team says “clear headings, tables, and FAQ sections help surface key information”, which makes a page easier for Copilot and other AI answers to use.

The usual problem is a homepage that says “quality solutions for all your needs” and nothing a customer or a machine could quote. ChatGPT has no reason to recommend you for a job your site never mentions.

Do I need llms.txt or special schema to show up in ChatGPT?

No official source requires either. OpenAI’s crawler and publisher pages ask for OAI-SearchBot access and say nothing about llms.txt or structured data as a condition for ChatGPT search. Google says the same about its own AI features: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode”, you “don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup”, and “there’s also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add” (Google Search Central).

Schema still helps with ordinary search. Google’s Organization markup guide says it can help Google “disambiguate your organization”, and its sameAs property points to your profiles on other sites. Physical businesses should use the most specific LocalBusiness type. llms.txt is a community proposal that costs little to add, so add one if you like, but don’t pay anyone who sells it as the fix.

How do other websites affect whether ChatGPT recommends me?

A great deal, because when ChatGPT searches “best [service] in [town]” the results are often directories, review sites and comparison articles, and it writes its answer from those. If your competitors are on those pages and you aren’t, ChatGPT has less to say about you.

What we do for clients, in order:

1. Run the customer questions in ChatGPT and write down every source it cites.
2. Sort those sources into ones you can join (directories, trade associations, chambers of commerce, review platforms), ones you can pitch (local news, trade publications, podcasts) and ones you can’t influence. Ignore the last group.
3. Keep your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere, matching your Google Business Profile.
4. Ask every customer for a review on the platforms that appear in the answers. Google’s local ranking guidance says prominence, “how well-known a business is”, is one of its main factors, and that there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers how to ask within Google’s rules.
5. Claim Bing Places for Business. Microsoft says registering keeps your address, hours and contact details current so they can be included in AI-generated responses in Copilot and Bing.

If you serve a local area, this groundwork overlaps with our local SEO service.

How do I check if ChatGPT is recommending my business?

Ask it the questions your customers ask, write down what it says, and repeat the same set every month. Back that up with traffic data, which is steadier than any single answer.

1. Build a fixed prompt list from 10 to 20 of the customer questions above. Include some with your town (“best family lawyer in Hamilton”) and some without.
2. Run them the same way each time. Use a temporary chat or a logged-out window so past conversations don’t steer the answer, and check the answer used web search (it will show sources).
3. Record four things per question: whether you are named, whether you are linked, who is named instead, and which sources are cited.
4. Check referral traffic. OpenAI says “ChatGPT automatically includes the UTM parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com in referral URLs” (OpenAI publishers FAQ). In Google Analytics, look for chatgpt.com as a session source, then see which pages those visitors land on and whether they enquire. Treat the number as a floor, because analytics can only count visits that arrive with the tag or a referrer.
5. Check Copilot and Google. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report that counts citations of your pages in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries. Google includes traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode in the normal Search Console Performance report under the Web search type, according to its AI features guide.

Expect answers to move around. The same question can produce a different list tomorrow, so judge the trend across the whole prompt list over a few months, never a single screenshot.

For the Google Analytics side, including why ChatGPT visits can show up as Direct, see how to track AI traffic in Google Analytics.

Can I get my business on ChatGPT for free?

Yes. There is no fee or sign-up to be included in ChatGPT search: OpenAI says “any public website can appear in ChatGPT search” as long as OAI-SearchBot can crawl it (OpenAI publishers FAQ). The robots.txt check, the answer pages and the prompt tracking above cost time, not money. So does a Google Business Profile, which Google says is free to create. What you pay for, if anything, is someone else doing that work and keeping it going.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT and states that “ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you”, with ads “clearly labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the organic answer” (OpenAI). Be wary of anyone who promises guaranteed ChatGPT placement for a fee. Paid help can only do the groundwork above properly and track it.

How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT?

There is no official timeline. The crawler fix is quick: OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust. Content and mentions take longer, because new pages have to be found and other sites have to list or write about you before ChatGPT can read them. We judge progress month by month on the fixed prompt list and the referral traffic, and we tell clients up front that nobody controls what an assistant says.

Should I do this myself or hire someone?

You can do the first half yourself in an afternoon. Use this checklist to decide on the rest:

• Can you open and edit your robots.txt, or ask your developer to? If yes, do the crawler check yourself.
• Do you know the 10 to 20 questions customers ask before buying? If yes, you can write or brief the answer pages.
• Do you have time each month to run the prompts, log the results and chase listings and reviews? If not, that ongoing part is where help pays off.
• Is your site on a builder you can’t change much? Then you may need someone who can fix structure, schema and page speed.
• Does most of your work come from Google? Then make sure whoever helps protects your normal rankings while doing this, because ChatGPT’s search reads normal search results.

If you’d rather hand it over, our AI SEO service covers the crawler and schema checks, answer-first pages, mentions on other sites and monthly tracking of where you’re named in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. The first two months come with no setup, audit or management fees, and after that you only keep paying if you think it’s worth it.

FAQ

Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing results?

OpenAI says ChatGPT search “sometimes partners with other search providers” and sends them rewritten versions of the question, but its help page does not name them. Either way, doing well in normal search helps, because those results are what ChatGPT reads before it answers.

If I block GPTBot, will my business disappear from ChatGPT?

Not from search answers. GPTBot collects content for model training, while OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that decides whether your pages can appear in ChatGPT search. You can block one and allow the other.

Is getting into ChatGPT different from normal SEO?

Mostly it builds on the same work: a site search engines can crawl, clear pages and a good reputation on other sites. Google says its AI features need nothing beyond its normal guidance. What changes is that you also allow the AI crawlers, write answers that make sense when quoted on their own, and track mentions as well as rankings.

Does this work for local businesses?

Yes. ChatGPT may use an approximate location from the user’s IP address to give local results, and on the phone apps it can show a map. That puts a lot of weight on your Google Business Profile, your reviews and matching contact details across the directories it cites for your town.

Sources: 1. Overview of OpenAI crawlers (OpenAI). 2. ChatGPT search (OpenAI Help Center). 3. Publishers and developers FAQ (OpenAI Help Center). 4. Testing ads in ChatGPT (OpenAI). 5. AI features and your website (Google Search Central). 6. Google’s common crawlers (Google Search Central). 7. Organization structured data (Google Search Central). 8. How Google determines local ranking (Google Business Profile Help). 9. Google Business Profile (Google). 10. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing Webmaster Blog). 11. Perplexity crawlers (Perplexity). 12. Does Anthropic crawl data from the web? (Anthropic).