To get your business recommended by ChatGPT, let ChatGPT’s search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) reach your website, make sure Bing has indexed you, keep your business details identical on every listing, earn reviews and mentions on other sites, and write pages that answer customer questions plainly. Nobody can guarantee a recommendation, but you can make your business the obvious, consistent choice.
More customers now type “who’s the best electrician near Clapham?” into ChatGPT instead of Google, and it answers with two or three names. If yours isn’t one of them, you never even get the chance to compete. Checking whether a business can show up in AI answers is now one of the first things I look at when I take on a monthly SEO client in London, and below is the exact process I follow, written for UK small businesses rather than the American guides that tell you to fix your Yelp page.
Key takeaways
- ChatGPT usually searches the web live for local questions, so being findable in search indexes (Bing included) matters more than “AI tricks”.
- Check your robots.txt: if OAI-SearchBot is blocked, ChatGPT search won’t show your content in its answers.
- Claim Bing Places for Business. It can sync your details straight from your Google Business Profile.
- Consistent name, address and phone details plus steady reviews make you a safe business for an AI to name.
- Pages that answer the question in the first sentence or two are the easiest for AI tools to quote.
- Test the same prompts every month and track visits tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com.
How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?
ChatGPT recommends businesses that appear consistently in the web pages its search tool finds for the question. According to OpenAI’s own help page on ChatGPT search, it often rewrites your question into one or more search queries, sends them to partner search providers, and can use your approximate location from your IP address, turning “good plumbers near me” into something like “top plumbers Clapham”.
It then reads the results and summarises the businesses that keep coming up, usually with links to its sources. OpenAI is clear that it ranks results using multiple factors and that placement is not guaranteed. There is no form to fill in and no secret list to join. You earn a mention by being the business the web already agrees on.
Here’s where that information comes from, and what each source means for you:
| Where ChatGPT gets local business information | What it means for your business |
|---|---|
| Live web search through partner search providers (OpenAI’s help page points to Microsoft’s Bing privacy policy) | Your site needs to be indexed by Bing, not only Google |
| Your own website, crawled by OAI-SearchBot | Don’t block the crawler, and make your pages easy to quote |
| Business listings and directories | Claim Bing Places and keep every listing identical to your Google Business Profile |
| Reviews, “best of” articles, local press and forums | Earn reviews and mentions on other people’s websites |
| What the model learned in training | Changes slowly and can’t be influenced quickly, so focus on the live search side |
Step 1: Is your website open to ChatGPT?
Your website can only appear in ChatGPT’s answers if OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is allowed to visit it. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says sites that block OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from bare navigational links.
OpenAI uses three different user agents, and they do different jobs:
- OAI-SearchBot finds pages to show in ChatGPT search. This is the one you want to allow.
- GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. You can block it and still appear in search.
- ChatGPT-User visits a page when a user asks ChatGPT to look at it. It isn’t used to decide what appears in search.
To check, open yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt in a browser. If you see OAI-SearchBot under a “Disallow: /” rule, or a blanket rule blocking all bots, that’s your problem. A simple rule that allows it looks like this:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /OpenAI says changes to robots.txt take around 24 hours to reach its search systems. One catch most guides skip: security plugins, firewalls and services like Cloudflare can block the crawler even when robots.txt allows it. OpenAI asks site owners to make sure their host or content delivery network lets its published searchbot IP addresses through.
Step 2: Get your business into Bing, not just Google
Because ChatGPT’s live search leans on partner search providers, and OpenAI’s help page lists Microsoft’s Bing among them, a business that Bing has never indexed is starting with a handicap. In my experience, plenty of small business owners have set up Google Search Console and never touched Bing.
Two free jobs fix that:
- Bing Webmaster Tools: add your website and submit your XML sitemap, the same way you would in Google Search Console. Then search site:yourdomain.co.uk on Bing to see which pages it knows about.
- Bing Places for Business: claim or create your listing. Microsoft lets you sync your Google Business Profile weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and if your Google profile is already verified, the imported listing is verified automatically. Publishing then typically takes 7 to 12 days.
Before you sync, make sure your Google profile is accurate, because Bing will copy whatever is there. My Google Business Profile checklist covers every field worth filling in.
Step 3: Make your business details match everywhere
Your business name, address, phone number and opening hours should be identical on every listing, because an AI can only repeat what its sources say. If your Google profile says “Smith Plumbing Ltd” on one street and an old directory lists “Smiths Plumbers” at your previous address, an AI has two half-matching businesses to choose between, and neither looks like a safe recommendation.
For a UK small business, these are the listings I check first:
- Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business
- Apple Business Connect (used by Apple Maps)
- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn business pages
- General UK directories such as Yell, Thomson Local and Scoot
- Your trade or professional body directory, for example Checkatrade, TrustATrader, the Law Society or your accountancy body
Search your business name and old phone number on Google and Bing. Any listing with the wrong details either gets fixed or, if you can’t access it, reported as outdated.
Sound like a lot of admin? It is, and it’s exactly the unglamorous work that decides whether Google, Bing and ChatGPT trust your business. If you’d rather spend your time on customers, I can check your website, listings and AI visibility for you and tell you honestly what’s holding you back. Book a free consultation and we’ll go through it together.
Step 4: Earn reviews and mentions on other websites
ChatGPT can only recommend you based on what its sources say, so a business that other websites already talk about has a head start. Your own website saying you’re the best roofer in Wandsworth carries little weight. A local news story, a supplier’s case study or a “best roofers in south London” round-up saying it carries a lot more.
Start with reviews, because they’re the easiest win and they help with Google too. Ask every happy customer, make it a one-tap link, and reply to every review. I’ve written a separate guide on how to get more Google reviews without breaking Google’s rules.
Then look for mentions you can realistically earn:
- Ask ChatGPT your customers’ questions and note which websites it cites. Those are the lists and directories to get onto.
- Join your trade association, local business network or chamber of commerce, most of which list members online.
- Offer a useful comment or tip to local news sites and community blogs.
- Ask suppliers and partners whether they feature recommended businesses or case studies.
- Answer questions honestly in local forums and community groups, without spamming links.
Never buy reviews or write fake ones. Apart from the obvious risk to your Google profile, it’s the kind of shortcut that falls apart the moment a customer or competitor notices.
Step 5: Write pages ChatGPT can quote
Pages that answer a question directly in the first sentence or two are the easiest for AI tools to quote. If someone asks “how much does a boiler service cost in Clapham?” and your page opens with three paragraphs about your passion for heating, ChatGPT has nothing useful to lift, so it will quote someone else.
When I build a website, these are the pages I make sure every small business has, written so each section makes sense on its own:
- A clear homepage that says what you do, where, and for whom in the first two lines.
- One page per main service, with typical prices or price ranges, timescales and the areas you cover.
- An About page naming the real people behind the business, plus qualifications and memberships you actually hold.
- FAQs written in the words customers use on the phone, each answered in two or three sentences.
- Your full contact details, matching your listings exactly.
You don’t need special AI files or code. Google’s guidance on AI features says you don’t need new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and OpenAI’s documentation asks for crawler access, not an llms.txt file. Proper structured data is still worth having because it helps search engines read your details correctly, but it’s not a magic switch.
How do you check if ChatGPT recommends your business?
Check by asking ChatGPT the questions your customers ask, in a fresh chat with search switched on, and recording who it names and which sources it cites. Answers change with wording, location and time, so one screenshot proves very little. Repeat the same test every month instead.
Here’s the checklist I use:
- Write 10 prompts a real customer would type, such as “best accountant for a small business in Clapham” or “emergency electrician SW4 open now”.
- Include the area in the prompt, because ChatGPT otherwise guesses your location from your connection.
- Run each prompt in a new chat with search on, and open the Sources panel.
- Record whether you were named, which competitors were named, and which websites were cited.
- Compare the cited websites with your own listings. Every source you’re missing from is a to-do item.
- In Google Analytics, look for visits tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com. OpenAI adds this tag automatically to links people click in ChatGPT search.
- Repeat the same prompts on the same day each month and compare.
A simple tracking table is enough. Here are some example entries:
| Prompt | Were you named? | Competitors named | Sources ChatGPT cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best plumber in Clapham | No | Business A, Business B | Directory X, local news article |
| Emergency plumber SW4 | Yes (2nd) | Business A | Your website, Bing listing |
| Who can fit a new boiler in Balham? | No | Business C | Trade body directory |
Is getting recommended by ChatGPT different from normal SEO?
Mostly no. The foundations are the same as good local SEO: a fast, crawlable website, accurate listings, reviews and genuinely useful pages. The differences are emphasis. Bing matters more than most owners realise, mentions on other websites carry extra weight, and answers move around more than Google rankings do.
| Google search | Google AI Overviews | ChatGPT search | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main source of results | Google’s index | Google’s index | Partner search providers, including Bing, plus OAI-SearchBot |
| Local listing that matters most | Google Business Profile | Google Business Profile | Bing Places, Google profile and other listings it finds |
| Crawler to allow | Googlebot | Googlebot | OAI-SearchBot |
| How to track it | Search Console | Search Console (counted with web results) | utm_source=chatgpt.com in Analytics, plus monthly prompt tests |
If Google’s AI answers are your bigger worry, my guide on how to rank on Google AI Overviews covers that side.
How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT?
Technical fixes can work within days, but building enough reputation to be named regularly usually takes months. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take around 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search, and Microsoft says a synced Bing Places listing typically takes 7 to 12 days to publish. Reviews, mentions and better pages build up more slowly, and what the model learned in training only changes when OpenAI releases new models.
Anyone promising you’ll be “the top ChatGPT recommendation in 30 days” is guessing. Treat it as a monthly measurement, the same way you’d track your Google rankings.
What I would do first: a 30-day plan
If you run a small business in London and want to be recommended by ChatGPT, this is the order I’d work in. Each week builds on the one before.
| Week | Focus | What gets done |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Access and baseline | Check robots.txt, firewall and security plugins allow OAI-SearchBot. Run your 10 prompts and record the results. |
| Week 2 | Bing and listings | Set up Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap, sync Bing Places from Google, and fix every listing with old details. |
| Week 3 | Your website | Rewrite the opening of your homepage and main service pages so they answer the question in two sentences. Add real FAQs. |
| Week 4 | Reviews and mentions | Start a review request routine and approach two or three of the websites ChatGPT cited for your competitors. |
| Every month | Measure | Re-run the same prompts and check utm_source=chatgpt.com visits in Analytics. |
Can you do this yourself, or should you get help?
You can do most of this yourself if you’re comfortable with your website’s settings and have a few spare hours a month. The robots.txt check, Bing Places and review requests are all manageable for a confident business owner.
Where it gets harder is the technical side and the consistency. Firewalls silently blocking crawlers, an old website that’s slow or hard to edit, dozens of out-of-date listings, and service pages that need rewriting properly are where most owners stall. And the monthly testing only works if somebody actually does it every month.
That’s why my monthly SEO covers Google, Google Maps and AI answers together: an audit, a keyword plan, on-page fixes, local SEO, content and a plain-English report each month. If your current website is the real problem, I also build new WordPress websites with on-page SEO set up from launch, so they’re ready for Google and AI search from day one.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No one can sell you a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT’s recommendations. OpenAI says it ranks search results using multiple factors and that placement is not guaranteed. What you can do is make your business easy to find, consistent and well reviewed, which is what the recommendations are built from.
Does ChatGPT use my Google Business Profile?
OpenAI doesn’t publish a list of the local sources it uses. Your Google profile still matters because Bing Places can sync from it and many other sites repeat its details. Keep it accurate and complete, then claim Bing Places too.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor and not me?
Usually because your competitor appears on more of the websites ChatGPT reads: directories, review sites, round-up articles or local news. Run the prompt yourself, open the Sources panel and see which sites are cited, then work on getting listed or mentioned there.
Do I need an llms.txt file to appear in ChatGPT?
No. OpenAI’s documentation asks you to allow OAI-SearchBot, not to add an llms.txt file, and Google says no special AI files are needed for its AI features. If adding one takes five minutes, fine, but don’t pay extra for it.
Does ChatGPT give the same recommendations every time?
No. Answers change with the exact wording, the location ChatGPT assumes and the date you ask. That’s why it’s worth testing the same set of prompts every month rather than relying on a single screenshot.
How can I see if ChatGPT sends me customers?
Look for visits tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com in Google Analytics, because OpenAI adds that tag to links clicked in ChatGPT search. Also ask new customers how they found you, as some will read ChatGPT’s answer and then search for your name directly.
Want more customers from Google and ChatGPT?
Getting your business recommended by ChatGPT comes down to the same things that win you calls from Google: a website search engines can reach, listings that match, reviews from real customers, and pages that answer questions clearly. Get those right and you give every search tool, AI or not, a good reason to send people your way.
If you’d like more calls and enquiries from people searching in your area, book a free consultation and I’ll show you where you stand today and what I’d fix first. Prefer to talk? Call or WhatsApp me on 07404 145722.
