How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants
AI assistants recommend businesses they can find, understand and trust. That means pages they can crawl, a clear statement of what you do and where — and, most of all, other trusted sites that mention you. The last part is the one most small businesses are missing.
People already ask. In a 2026 BrightLocal survey, 45% of US consumers said they'd asked an AI tool like ChatGPT to recommend a local business, up from 6% a year earlier. And Adobe's retail data (US retail) shows visitors who arrive from AI search convert up to 42% better than other traffic.
How an assistant decides who to name
When you ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews for "a good roofer in Brampton", the assistant usually runs a web search, reads a handful of pages, and writes an answer from what it found. So three things decide whether you're in that answer:
- Can it read your site? Pages that load fast, render without
JavaScript tricks, and don't block AI crawlers in
robots.txt. - Does it understand you? A plain sentence on your site that says what you do, for whom and where — plus structured data that says the same.
- Do others vouch for you? Directory listings, reviews, local news, industry lists, "best of" articles. When several independent sources describe you the same way, the assistant is confident enough to name you.
Five steps, in order of impact
1. Get mentioned on other trusted sites
This is the biggest lever and the one you can't fake. Start with the free ones: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp, Yellow Pages, your industry association, and directories specific to your trade. Then aim for articles — a local news story, a supplier's case study, a "best of" list in your city.
2. Make your Google Business Profile complete
AI Overviews and Gemini lean on Google's own data. Fill every field, pick the right categories, add real photos, and ask happy customers for reviews that mention the service and the city.
3. Say what you do in one sentence — everywhere the same way
"Family-run HVAC company serving Mississauga and Brampton since 2012." Put it on your home page, your profiles and your listings, word for word. If your business name is shared with another company, say plainly that you're a different one.
4. Answer your customers' questions on your own pages
A page per service with the price range, the area you cover and how long it takes. Assistants quote pages that answer the question directly in the first paragraph.
5. Let the crawlers in and add structured data
Allow GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended in
robots.txt, add LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService structured data,
and consider an llms.txt file. It's quick technical work — but it only
helps once steps 1–4 give the assistant something to say.
How to check
Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini the three questions your customers ask most, in a private window. Write down who they name. That list is your real competition in AI search — and the baseline to measure against.
Want the technical part checked for you? Run the free AI-visibility check. If you'd rather have it done, see what SEO + GEO costs.
FAQ
No. There is no paid placement inside ChatGPT's answers. Recommendations come from what the model and its web search find about you, which is why mentions on other sites matter.
Usually 2–3 months after the underlying signals change — a new directory listing or article has to be crawled and indexed before an assistant can use it.
No. The same clear, fast, well-structured site serves Google and AI assistants. What changes is how directly it answers questions and how consistently other sites describe you.
Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask — for example 'best plumber in Mississauga' — in a private window, once a month, and write down who they name. Our free AI-visibility check shows how AI search reads your site.