Guide
How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Other AI Assistants
How AI assistants choose which businesses to recommend, and a practical checklist to get found in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
Short answer: AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity recommend businesses they can find, understand and trust. Make sure AI crawlers can reach your site, publish clear facts about what you do, where and for how much, add structured data, keep your business listings consistent, earn reviews and mentions on reputable sites, and answer real customer questions on your pages. Traditional SEO is still the foundation, because many assistants search the web before they answer.
How AI assistants pick businesses to recommend
When someone asks "who can build a Stripe payment portal in Milwaukee?", an assistant typically:
- Searches the web for relevant pages.
- Reads the most relevant results.
- Weighs trust and consistency: reviews, listings, mentions and clear facts.
- Summarizes a few options, often with links.
Your goal is to be the clearest, most trustworthy answer in steps 2 and 3.
The checklist
1. Let AI crawlers in
Check that your robots.txt and firewall do not block AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and Bingbot. Some hosting and security services block AI bots by default.
2. Publish clear, quotable facts
Every key page should state plainly what you do, who it is for, where you work, typical prices and timelines, and how to contact you. Lead with a short, direct answer, then the details.
3. Use structured data
Add schema.org markup for your business, services, FAQs and reviews so machines can read your facts without guessing.
4. Offer machine-friendly versions
An llms.txt file and clean markdown versions of key pages make it easy for AI systems to read your content. They are new, cheap to add and growing in use.
5. Get indexed fast
Submit sitemaps to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and use IndexNow so Bing, and the assistants that rely on it, see updates quickly.
6. Be consistent everywhere
Your name, address, phone number and services should match on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, LinkedIn and chamber listings.
7. Earn mentions and reviews
AI answers lean on outside signals: reviews, local news, association directories, partner pages and community discussions. Ask customers for reviews and get listed where your industry looks.
8. Answer the questions people ask AI
People ask assistants full questions: "How much does a payment kiosk cost?" "Who builds online ordering for supper clubs?" Write pages and FAQs that answer those questions directly.
9. Measure it
Ask the major assistants about your services and town every month, and watch for visits and leads from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com in your analytics.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not in organic answers. Recommendations come from what the assistant finds and trusts, which is why clear content, structured data and reputation matter.
How long does it take?
Crawling and indexing changes can show up within days to weeks. Reputation and mentions build over months.
This site uses every technique above; see how this site works with AI assistants. Want the same for your business? See AI search optimization.