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How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
What ChatGPT reads before it names a business, and what you can change this month.
Short answer
ChatGPT recommends businesses it learned about in training or finds when it searches the web. To get named: let OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, read your site; make sure you're indexed in Bing; write pages that say plainly what you do, for whom and where; and earn mentions on the reviews, lists and publications ChatGPT cites for your category. Then check what it says about you every month.
How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?
Ask ChatGPT for "the best payroll software for a small agency" and it can answer two ways. It can rely on what its model learned in training, or it can search the web, read several pages and write an answer with links to its sources. For products, services and anything recent, it often searches.
OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes works with other search providers, and it also runs its own search crawler. In practice, a business that is described clearly and mentioned across several independent, relevant pages is far easier to recommend than one that only talks about itself.
Can ChatGPT read your website?
Check this first. OpenAI runs separate crawlers for separate jobs:
| Crawler | What it does | If you block it |
|---|---|---|
OAI-SearchBot | Finds pages to show and cite in ChatGPT search | Your pages won't appear as sources in ChatGPT's search answers |
ChatGPT-User | Opens a page when a user's request needs it | OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply, because a person asked for the visit |
GPTBot | Collects content that may be used to train models | Future models learn less about you from your own site |
Look at your robots.txt, then at your CDN and firewall. Some security settings block AI crawlers by default, even when robots.txt allows them.
Why does Bing matter for ChatGPT?
OpenAI doesn't name all its search providers, but Bing is widely understood to be one of them, and Microsoft's Copilot runs on Bing. Being properly indexed in Bing costs little and covers both.
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap.
- Use IndexNow, so Bing hears about new and updated pages straight away.
- Check that your key pages are actually indexed, not just crawled.
What makes a page easy for ChatGPT to recommend?
- Say what you are in one sentence. "SuperFindable is an SEO, AEO and GEO agency based in New Delhi." Vague pages get skipped.
- Name who you serve and where. Industries, company sizes, cities, countries. People ask AI tools specific questions, like "for dental clinics in Pune".
- Show proof. Named clients, real results, credentials and reviews.
- Answer comparison questions. Pages such as "X vs Y" and "best tools for…" match how people ask AI tools for shortlists.
- Keep facts consistent. Your name, services, locations and prices should match across your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories.
Where else does ChatGPT look?
Your site is one source. For recommendations, AI answers often cite what other people say about you:
- Review platforms for your category: G2 and Capterra for software, Google reviews for local services, Clutch for agencies.
- Industry publications and trade press.
- Best-of lists and comparison articles that rank in search.
- Forums and communities such as Reddit.
- YouTube videos and their descriptions.
Ask ChatGPT your buyers' questions and look at the sources it cites. If those pages mention your competitors and not you, you have your list of targets.
How do you check what ChatGPT says about you?
- Write 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask, from broad ("best CRM for startups") to specific ("CRM with WhatsApp integration for Indian startups").
- Run each one in ChatGPT with search on, in a fresh chat. Ask more than once, because answers vary.
- Record whether you're named, where in the answer, what's said, and which sources are cited.
- Repeat every month with the same questions, and compare.
Then watch your analytics. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to many of the links it shows, so its visitors are easy to spot. Full method in How to measure your visibility in AI search, or let us run it for you.
Keep reading
How long does it take to get recommended by ChatGPT?
Changes that affect search-based answers, such as opening crawler access or publishing a clear page, can show up within weeks once pages are recrawled. Becoming a brand the model recalls on its own takes longer, because it depends on mentions building up and on new model versions.
Does ChatGPT recommend businesses with more reviews?
Review sites are common sources in recommendation answers, so a strong presence on the ones that matter in your category helps. There's no published rule about review counts.
Can I correct wrong information ChatGPT gives about my business?
You can't edit its answers. Fix the sources: correct your own site and profiles, and ask other sites to update wrong details. Search-based answers pick up the change once those pages are recrawled.
Is being recommended by ChatGPT the same as ranking on Google?
They overlap but aren't the same. Google ranks pages; ChatGPT names businesses and cites a few sources. Track both.