How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

A homeowner’s AC dies on a Saturday in July. They don’t scroll through search results. They ask ChatGPT who can fix it today, and it names three companies. If you’re one of them, the phone rings. If you aren’t, you never hear about the job.

Owners now search for a way in, typing things like “how to get my business recommended by ChatGPT” and “how to register my business with ChatGPT”. The honest answer starts with what isn’t possible, then moves to what OpenAI actually documents about how ChatGPT search finds a business. Then come the fix order, notes for each trade and a way to measure it.

Key takeaways

• You can't register, list or pay your way into ChatGPT's answers. Ads, where they run, sit below the answer and don't change it.
• ChatGPT search rewrites the question, uses the customer's rough location and searches the web through partners it doesn't fully name.
• OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Check your robots.txt and firewall first.
• Studies disagree on ChatGPT's favourite sources, so be complete and consistent on Google, Bing, Yelp, the BBB, your licence record and trade directories.
• Review volume tracks with being named. One study found ChatGPT named 3.4% of firms with under 25 reviews.
• Measure it: the same questions, every month, in a fresh chat, with your city in the question.

Can you register your business with ChatGPT?

No. There’s no sign-up form, business directory or paid spot in ChatGPT’s recommendations. When someone asks for a local business, ChatGPT usually searches the web, reads what it finds and summarises it. Your job is to make sure what it finds about you is complete, consistent and easy to trust.

That also answers the related questions owners type in, such as how to get your business listed on ChatGPT or how to put your business on ChatGPT. There is no listing to create. OpenAI’s own help page on searching the web with ChatGPT says ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors and that “placement is not guaranteed”. The only thing it asks of a website owner is to let its search crawler in.

So getting found on ChatGPT is the same job as being easy to check on the open web. It’s closer to good local SEO than to buying an ad.

What does it mean to be recommended by ChatGPT?

Being recommended by ChatGPT means your business is named in its written answer when a customer asks for your trade in your city. It’s different from ranking in a list of links, because there is usually no list to scroll. You’re either one of the few names in the answer or you’re not there.

A few terms come up again and again in this guide.

• ChatGPT search is the feature that lets ChatGPT look things up on the web and show links to its sources. OpenAI says it may search automatically when a question benefits from current information.
• OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI’s crawler for search. If it can’t read your site, your pages can’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers.
• A citation is a linked source ChatGPT shows under or beside its answer. A mention is your business being named, with or without a link. Both count, but mentions are what bring calls.
• NAP consistency means your name, address and phone number read the same everywhere they’re listed.
• AI visibility is how often AI assistants name your business for the questions your customers ask.

The plain version: ChatGPT can only recommend what it can find, and it tends to recommend what it can confirm in more than one place.

Why does getting recommended by ChatGPT matter now?

It matters because ChatGPT now searches the web for local questions, uses the customer’s location and shows a short answer with a few names. Independent studies show which sources it reads and how strongly review volume tracks with being named. The figures below are the ones we trust, each linked to where it came from.

3.4%

22.2%

38.7%

80%

54%

Two of those findings point in opposite directions. BrightLocal found Yelp everywhere in ChatGPT’s answers, while 8ight’s study reported by PPC Land found ChatGPT cited Yelp in none of its 1,412 answers. The studies used different methods, places and dates, and 8ight’s author says it shows “where the engines read, not what moves them”. The safe reading is to be present and correct on all of them.

How does ChatGPT search find local businesses?

ChatGPT search takes the customer’s question, rewrites it into one or more search queries, adds a rough location and sends those queries to search partners. It reads the results, writes an answer and may show citations, a map and a Sources list.

It rewrites the customer’s question

OpenAI says ChatGPT search “typically rewrites your query” into targeted queries for its search providers, then may send more specific follow-ups after reading the first results. A customer who types “my AC is blowing warm air, who can come today” may become a search like “same-day AC repair Plano TX”. That’s why pages that use plain trade words, service names and city names are easier to match.

It uses the customer’s location

ChatGPT may use an approximate location from the customer’s IP address, and sharing precise device location is optional and off by default. OpenAI’s own example turns “good restaurants near me” into “top restaurants San Francisco”. It also says ChatGPT may share location with trusted third-party providers to show results such as nearby business listings, though it doesn’t name those providers.

It relies on search partners

OpenAI says ChatGPT search “sometimes partners with other search providers” and points readers to Microsoft’s and Shopify’s privacy policies. It doesn’t say which provider supplies which answer, so we don’t claim ChatGPT runs on Bing. We do treat your Bing Places listing as one to keep correct.

It shows sources, and they can be wrong

Answers that use search may include citations you can open. OpenAI warns that results “can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect”. If an old phone number or closed location sits on a directory, ChatGPT can repeat it. Our ChatGPT engine guide keeps the documented details in one place.

Which OpenAI crawler should your robots.txt allow?

Allow OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that opt out of it “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers”, though they can still appear as navigation links. GPTBot is a separate crawler for training, and blocking it doesn’t hide you from search. Each setting is independent, per OpenAI’s crawler documentation.

Crawler	What OpenAI says it does	If you block it
OAI-SearchBot	Finds sites for ChatGPT’s search features	Your pages won’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers
GPTBot	Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models	Your content shouldn’t be used for training; search isn’t affected
ChatGPT-User	Visits a page when a user asks ChatGPT to	OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, and it isn’t used to decide what appears in search

To stay in ChatGPT search but opt out of training, use this.

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

First, a firewall or CDN can block OpenAI even when robots.txt allows it, and OpenAI asks hosts to allow its published search crawler IP addresses. Second, changes aren’t instant. OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust. Paste your file into our free AI crawler checker to see what each crawler is allowed to read.

Where does ChatGPT get information about local businesses?

ChatGPT reads a mix of your website, map and review platforms, complaint and licensing records, and partner data. Some partners say so publicly. Yelp, for one, says its integration puts Yelp reviews, ratings, photos and business details inside ChatGPT. Researchers still disagree on which sources it leans on most.

What the platforms themselves say:

• Yelp says its content integration surfaces “reviews, ratings, photos, and business details” in the chat, per Yelp’s announcement. It also names Apple Maps and Microsoft Bing among the platforms showing Yelp-powered recommendations. See our Yelp guide.
• Thumbtack has announced that ChatGPT will be able to use its APIs to recommend home service professionals to US users, per Thumbtack’s press release.
• Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s free listing service for Bing search and Bing Maps, now at bing.com/forbusiness. Microsoft improved importing from Google when it relaunched in October 2025.
• Apple Business replaced Apple Business Connect in April 2026, is free, and shows place cards across Apple Maps, Safari and Spotlight, per Apple’s announcement.

What the studies add: 8ight found ChatGPT leaned on the Better Business Bureau and on government pages, about 7 in 10 of them licensing boards, licence lookups or contractor lists. The FTC tells homeowners to “check with your state or county government to confirm a contractor’s license”, per its home improvement guidance. Our state licensing guide covers the lookups.

For the full picture of how assistants weigh these sources, read how AI assistants decide which local businesses to recommend.

How do you get your business recommended by ChatGPT?

Work in a fixed order: let ChatGPT read your site, make your details match everywhere, make your claims checkable, then build the signals that take longer, such as reviews, pages and outside mentions. Most businesses can do the first four steps in a week. The rest is steady monthly work, not a one-off project.

Week one: make your business findable and checkable

Months one to three: build the signals that take time

How many reviews do you need for ChatGPT to recommend you?

There’s no published threshold, but review volume clearly tracks with being named. In 8ight’s study, ChatGPT named 3.4% of businesses with fewer than 25 reviews, 10.0% with 25 to 99, 13.9% with 100 to 249 and 20.9% with 250 to 999. The median named business had 175 reviews.

Ratings didn’t separate them. The median star rating was 4.9 for named and unnamed businesses alike.

That is a correlation in one snapshot, not proof that reviews cause recommendations. Busy, well-run businesses tend to collect reviews and get named for the same underlying reasons.

The way to build volume without breaking Google’s rules is simple. Ask every customer, not only the happy ones, and never tell them what to write. Our guide to getting more Google reviews has messages that follow those rules, and the review request templates are ready to send. For how reviews on Google feed into AI answers, see do Google reviews affect ChatGPT.

Can you advertise your business on ChatGPT?

Yes, in some places, but ads don’t buy a recommendation. OpenAI started testing ads in the US on February 9, 2026, for Free and Go users. One labelled ad unit can appear below a response. OpenAI says ads “do not influence ChatGPT’s answers” and that advertisers can’t shape, rank or alter responses.

What OpenAI’s ads help page says:

• Ads may appear for Free and Go users. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts don’t see ads.
• Ads are chosen on relevance and expected outcomes, using the context of the conversation, the ad’s landing page and copy, and advertiser bids.
• Ads aren’t eligible to appear near sensitive topics, including personal health. Health advertisers can only run ads if they meet OpenAI’s eligibility criteria.

So how do ads show up in ChatGPT? Below the answer, separate from it. A plumber who pays for an ad can appear under a response that names three competitors. The answer itself is still built from what ChatGPT finds on the web, which is why the earlier steps matter more than any ad budget.

How does this work for each trade?

The method is the same for every trade, but the sources ChatGPT can check differ. Home service trades are checked against licence boards, the BBB and home service marketplaces. Health practices are checked against licence lookups and health directories, and their ads face stricter limits.

Home services: HVAC, plumbing and roofing

Health practices: dental and med spa

Example: an HVAC company’s first 90 days

Here’s the maths in round numbers. Real results and timing vary by engine, city and trade.

2 of 20

Where it starts. The company has 18 Google reviews, no Bing Places listing and a robots.txt file its old web designer set to block every bot except Google. Its Yelp page lists a phone number it stopped using two years ago.

Week one. It opens robots.txt to OAI-SearchBot, imports its Google profile into Bing Places, fixes the Yelp phone number and adds its state licence number to every page.

Months one to three. It finishes about 12 jobs a week and asks every customer for a review. If 1 in 4 leave one, that’s 3 reviews a week. The maths: 18 + (3 × 12 weeks) = 54 reviews by the end of month three. In 8ight’s brackets, that moves it out of the under-25 group, where only 3.4% of businesses were named.

Month three. The same 20 questions now name it in 5. That’s 5 ÷ 20 = 25%, up from 10%. If it averages 4 extra calls a month from those answers and books half of them at a $350 average repair, that’s 2 × $350 = $700 a month in new work.

The numbers are invented. The point is that every change is measurable against the starting score.

Which fix should you make first?

Start with whatever stops ChatGPT from reading or trusting you, then build volume. A blocked crawler or a wrong phone number undoes everything else, so those come before reviews and pages. Use the table to match what you see in ChatGPT’s answers to the first fix.

What you see when you ask ChatGPT	Likely cause	Fix first
Your website never appears as a source	OAI-SearchBot blocked by robots.txt or a firewall	Allow OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI’s published IPs
ChatGPT gives an old phone number or address	A directory still lists old details	Fix Yelp, Bing, Apple and the BBB to match Google
Competitors named, you never are	Fewer reviews and mentions	Ask every customer for a review; pitch local roundups
You’re named but for the wrong service	Your pages don’t name the service plainly	One answer-first page per main service
ChatGPT can’t confirm your licence	Licence number missing or name mismatch	Publish the number; match the name to your state record
You’re named in one city but not the next	Service areas missing or vague	List service areas on Google, Bing and your site

For the six most common reasons a competitor gets the mention instead, read why ChatGPT recommends your competitor and not you.

What are the common mistakes that keep businesses out of ChatGPT?

The most common mistakes are blocking OpenAI’s search crawler without knowing it, paying for “ChatGPT placement” that no one can deliver, and fixing only Google while other listings stay wrong. Each one is easy to check and cheap to fix, which is why they come first in any audit.

1. Blocking OAI-SearchBot by accident. Security plugins and CDN bot rules often block every non-Google crawler. Check the file and the firewall.
2. Paying for guaranteed placement. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. A vendor promising it is selling something OpenAI says doesn’t exist.
3. Fixing Google and nothing else. ChatGPT reads Yelp, the BBB, licence lookups and partner data. A wrong number on any of them can show up in an answer.
4. Asking only happy customers for reviews. It breaks Google’s rules and skews your profile. Ask every customer and let them write what they want.
5. Writing pages for keywords, not questions. A page that says “best HVAC solutions” gives ChatGPT nothing to quote. “We repair AC units in Plano the same day, 7am to 9pm” does.
6. Checking once and giving up. One test tells you little. Twenty questions a month show a trend.

How do you check whether ChatGPT recommends you?

Ask the questions your customers ask, in a fresh chat, with your city in each question, and record who gets named and which sources are cited. Do it again next month with the same questions. A fixed set of questions turns a random answer into a score you can track.

OpenAI says that when local results show the wrong area, users should include a city, neighbourhood or postal code. Your own location, a VPN or saved memories can change what ChatGPT shows you, so test from a logged-out browser or ask someone in your service area to run the same set.

Prompts to copy

Swap in your trade, city and service, and keep the wording the same each month.

I need an AC repair company in Plano, Texas that can come today. Who would you recommend and why?

Who are the best-reviewed plumbers in Tampa, Florida for a water heater replacement? List a few and say where you found the information.

Is [business name] in [city] licensed and well reviewed? What sources do you see for them?

A monthly checklist

ChatGPT visibility check, monthly

Copy

• Run the same 20 questions in a fresh chat with your city in each one
• Record whether you’re named, your position and which sources are cited
• Ask the trust check prompt about your own business and note every wrong detail
• Confirm robots.txt still allows OAI-SearchBot
• Check Google, Bing, Apple, Yelp and the BBB show the same name, phone and hours
• Count new reviews this month and reply to each one
• Note one competitor who is named and look for the source that names them

Our guide to running your own AI visibility audit has the full scoring method.

Does the same work for Perplexity and Google AI Overviews?

Mostly, yes. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond normal SEO, and Perplexity also reads the open web. Accurate listings, steady reviews and clear pages help every engine. Each one weighs its sources differently, though, so the details change.

Google’s guidance on AI features says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and that no special structured data is needed. That makes your Google Business Profile and local SEO carry straight over. For the Google side, read how Google AI Overviews choose local businesses.

Perplexity has its own crawler, PerplexityBot, which you allow in robots.txt the same way you allow OAI-SearchBot. Our guide on getting your business on Perplexity covers it. If you’re wondering how this fits with SEO, SEO vs AEO vs GEO explains where the work overlaps.

How Damex does it

Our team does this work, and a senior marketer with 10+ years of experience owns each account. The AI Visibility service tracks your buyer questions across five AI engines every month, ChatGPT included, and works on the sources they read.

• Audit. We ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Copilot the questions your customers ask, then record who gets named.
• Listings. We fix your name, address and phone across the directories AI engines and maps read for your trade, including Bing Places and Apple’s business listings.
• Reviews. On Growth and Authority, we ask every customer for a review after the job, with their consent, and reply to every review.
• Pages. We write service and FAQ pages that open with a direct answer.
• Outreach. On Growth and Authority, we pitch your business to local roundups and best-of lists.
• Measure. You see your count against the month you started.
• Checks. Every piece of work is reviewed before it goes out under your name.

We don’t promise placement, because no one can. We measure it and show you the trend. Prices for each package are on the pricing page, and you can see where you stand today with the free AI Visibility Check.