How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT

ChatGPT recommends businesses it can find, understand and trust. When it searches the web, it reads pages, compares what different sources say, and names the options that look most relevant and reliable for the question. To be recommended more often, make sure ChatGPT’s crawler can read your website, answer common customer questions clearly on your own pages, keep your business facts consistent everywhere, and get mentioned on other trusted sites. Nobody can guarantee a recommendation, but these steps make one much more likely.

This guide walks through how ChatGPT finds businesses today and what you can do about it, step by step.

How does ChatGPT find businesses to recommend?

ChatGPT answers in two ways. Sometimes it answers from what it learned during training, which can be months or years old. For questions about local services, prices, opening hours or “best options right now”, it usually searches the web first and then writes an answer with links to its sources.

That search step is where you can make a difference. OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot to surface websites in ChatGPT’s search features. According to OpenAI’s own documentation, sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. A separate crawler, GPTBot, is used for training AI models, and you can block that one while still allowing search.

Crawler	What it is for	Should a small business allow it?
OAI-SearchBot	Showing websites in ChatGPT’s search answers	Yes, if you want to be recommended
GPTBot	Collecting content to train OpenAI’s models	Your choice; blocking it does not remove you from search answers
ChatGPT-User	Visiting a page when a user asks ChatGPT something; it does not crawl the web on its own	Usually yes

Step 1: Make sure ChatGPT can read your website

This is the most common and most fixable problem. Many websites block AI crawlers without the owner knowing, through:

• a robots.txt file that blocks all bots or specific AI bots
• security or firewall settings at the hosting company or CDN (Cloudflare, for example, has settings to block AI crawlers)
• a website builder setting that hides the site from search engines

Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser. If you see User-agent: OAI-SearchBot followed by Disallow: /, or a blanket block for all bots, ChatGPT search cannot use your pages. Ask whoever runs your website to check the hosting settings as well. OpenAI says changes take about 24 hours to take effect.

Step 2: Say clearly what you do, where and for whom

ChatGPT is much more likely to recommend you for “a family dentist in Drammen who takes new patients” if a page on your site says exactly that. Vague copy like “We deliver quality solutions tailored to your needs” gives it nothing to work with.

On your home page and each service page, state plainly:

• what you do (in the words customers use, not internal terms)
• where you work (town, area, whether you travel)
• who you are for (families, businesses, beginners)
• what it roughly costs, or how pricing works
• how to get in touch or book

Put the most important answer in the first two or three sentences of the page. That is the part most likely to be quoted.

Step 3: Answer the questions customers really ask

Think about the questions people type, or say, before they choose a business like yours. “How much does a new bathroom cost?” “Do I need a permit for a heat pump?” “How long does a dog grooming appointment take?”

Each good answer on your site is another chance to be the source ChatGPT reads. A short FAQ on each service page, and a few helpful articles, go a long way. Write for people first: Google’s own guidance calls for content that is “helpful, reliable, and people-first”, and the same kind of content tends to work for AI tools.

Step 4: Keep your facts identical everywhere

AI tools compare sources. If your website says you open at 8, Google says 9 and an old directory lists a phone number you no longer use, ChatGPT has to guess, and it may pick the wrong one or skip you.

Go through the places you are listed and make the basics match exactly: business name, address, phone number, opening hours, website address and main services. Start with your Google Business Profile (our local SEO guide shows how), then Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing Places and the directories that matter in your industry and country.

Step 5: Get mentioned on sites ChatGPT trusts

When ChatGPT recommends businesses, it often links to articles, review sites and lists rather than to the businesses themselves. That means being mentioned by others matters as much as your own website.

Realistic ways to earn mentions:

• Reviews on Google and the review sites your customers use, with replies from you
• Local press: a new opening, an anniversary, a community project
• Industry associations and certification bodies that list members
• Suppliers and partners that list where their products are sold or installed
• “Best of” lists in your area: check which ones ChatGPT already cites for your questions, and whether you can be included on fair terms

Avoid paying for fake reviews or spammy listings. Beyond being dishonest, it can break the rules of the review platforms and damage trust in your business.

Step 6: Check what ChatGPT says about you

Make a habit of testing. Once a month:

1. Ask ChatGPT five to ten questions a real customer would ask, with search turned on.
2. Note whether you are named, whether the description is correct, and which sources are linked.
3. Note which competitors appear and what sources they are mentioned in.
4. Fix what is wrong at the source: your own pages, your Business Profile, or the directory that has old information.

Answers change from one try to the next, so look at the pattern over several months rather than one result. You can also check your analytics for visits from chatgpt.com.

A checklist to work through

• robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot
• Hosting, CDN and security settings do not block AI crawlers
• Home page says what you do, where and for whom in the first lines
• Every main service has its own clear page
• Service pages include an FAQ with real customer questions
• Name, address, phone, hours and website match on every listing
• Google Business Profile is complete, with recent photos and reviews
• You reply to reviews
• You have at least a few mentions on independent, relevant sites
• You test ChatGPT’s answers once a month and write down what you see

What not to do

• Do not trust promises of guaranteed AI recommendations. No one outside OpenAI controls what ChatGPT says.
• Do not stuff pages with keywords or city names. It reads badly to customers and does not help AI tools understand you.
• Do not create dozens of thin pages that say the same thing for different towns.
• Do not hide key information in images or PDFs only. Put it in normal text on the page.

How does this fit with SEO?

Almost everything above also helps you in Google. That is not a coincidence: AI tools often build on the same pages search engines have found. If you want to understand where SEO ends and AEO begins, read what is AEO and SEO vs. AEO.

Where Pufflo fits

Pufflo is built for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to take this list off your hands: check that ChatGPT and other AI tools can read your site, ask them your customers’ questions every month, show you in plain language where you are mentioned and where competitors are, and suggest fixes you approve before anything changes. Plans start at €49 a month excl. VAT, and if you start during the launch period you get 50 % off the first three months. See pricing to get started.