Getting found online · Updated October 4, 2026
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI search?
Updated October 4, 2026
Let each engine's search crawler read your site, keep your Business Profile and Bing Places listing complete, and publish pages that answer the questions customers ask. ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and Google's AI answers often search the web before they answer, and then they can only cite businesses that search finds. Nothing guarantees a mention.
If you want AI tools to name you, get found by the search they run first
If you want AI tools to recommend you, work on being found by the searches they run behind the scenes. For questions about local businesses or current information, they usually search the web first and write the answer from what comes back.
Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode are "rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems" and retrieve "relevant, up-to-date web pages from our Search index." Microsoft describes Copilot as "powered by Bing's search index." OpenAI says ChatGPT search "sometimes partners with other search providers."
So there is no separate AI ranking to win. A business that blocks the crawler, is missing from the index or has a thin listing is not in the pool the answer is written from.
One question becomes several searches. Google calls this "query fan-out": the model issues related searches to gather more results. OpenAI gives a local example: for "good restaurants near me", ChatGPT may use the person's approximate location and search "top restaurants San Francisco." Those rewritten searches read like ordinary local searches, and that is where you need to show up.
- ChatGPT
- Its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, plus outside search providers. OpenAI lists Microsoft's privacy statement among them.
- Check robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot. Being indexed by Bing may help as well.
- Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini
- Google's Search index. Gemini Apps also use it for grounding, controlled by the Google-Extended token.
- Check the page is indexed in Search Console.
- Microsoft Copilot
- Bing's search index. Bing Webmaster Tools reports when Copilot cites your pages.
- Check the page is indexed in Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Perplexity
- Its own crawler, PerplexityBot, which Perplexity says is not used to train AI models.
- Check robots.txt and any firewall allow PerplexityBot.
For example
A homeowner in Mesa asks ChatGPT: "Who can fix a water heater leaking from the bottom today?" ChatGPT may search something like "emergency water heater repair Mesa" and "water heater leaking from bottom." A plumber whose site blocks OAI-SearchBot, and whose Bing listing has old hours, is unlikely to be among the results the answer is built from. A competitor with a water heater repair page and a complete listing is in the pool.
Work through the checks in this order, because an early failure blocks the rest
Better pages do nothing for an engine that cannot read them, so start with access.
- Crawler access. Read your robots.txt and firewall bot settings. Allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.
- The index. Confirm your service pages are indexed by Google and Bing, and that Search Console includes the site in AI features.
- Listings. Complete your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, with matching details.
- Answers. Publish pages that answer what customers ask on the phone.
- Measurement. Ask the engines monthly and read AI referrals in your reports.
Let the engines in
If your robots.txt or firewall blocks AI bots, allow the search bots and decide training separately
If you blocked "AI bots" as one group, split them: allow the search bots, and block the training bots only if you want to.
OpenAI runs two separate crawlers. OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT's search answers. OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links." GPTBot collects content "that may be used in training" its models. OpenAI says "each setting is independent of the others," so you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot. After a robots.txt change, OpenAI says "it can take ~24 hours" for search results to adjust.
OpenAI's stated delay
~24 hours
How long OpenAI says ChatGPT search takes to adjust after a robots.txt change.
Google works the other way. There is no separate Google AI crawler to allow. Google says robots.txt rules for Googlebot are "the control" for how your site is crawled for Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. Blocking Google-Extended does not remove you from Google Search; Google says it "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search." It does cover grounding in Gemini Apps, so blocking it keeps your content from being used to ground answers in the Gemini app.
Perplexity asks sites to allow PerplexityBot and its published IP ranges. Microsoft says Bing "respects all content owner preferences expressed through robots.txt."
- Check your firewall, not just robots.txt. Perplexity notes that a web application firewall may need a rule to let its bots through. Google's list of AI best practices includes making sure crawling is allowed "by any CDN or hosting infrastructure."
- On Cloudflare, open Security Settings, then Configure AI bot policies. Bots are sorted into Search, Agent and Training, and new domains keep Search allowed by default. But any training block also blocks "mixed-purpose crawlers that combine Search and Training," which can cost you some search visibility.
- Read the live robots.txt. Cloudflare's managed robots.txt, when switched on, puts its rules in front of yours. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt itself, not the copy in your site builder.
Why do these bots still visit after I block them?
Some visits are fetches a person asked for. OpenAI says "robots.txt rules may not apply" to its ChatGPT-User visits, which are "not used to determine whether content may appear in Search." Perplexity says its Perplexity-User fetcher "generally ignores robots.txt rules" for the same reason.
To control whether you appear in their search answers, use the search crawler's name: OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot.
If your pages are not indexed by Google or Bing, fix that before anything else
Check each service page in Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool and in Bing Webmaster Tools. A page missing from the index cannot be a source for an AI answer.
Google says that to show as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet," and that "indexing and serving isn't guaranteed." For Copilot, the index that matters is Bing's.
Check the Search Console switch. Google says that as of August 31, 2026, it has rolled out a Search generative AI control to all websites, found under Settings in Search Console. "Include" is the default. "Exclude" means "you won't receive any traffic or impressions from these features." A property can inherit the setting from a parent property, so check it even if you never touched it.
Google's own pages disagree here. Its "AI features and your website" page, last updated December 2025, says there are "no additional technical requirements." Its newer optimization guide, updated July 2026, says a site "must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console." Go by the newer page.
Tell Bing when pages change. Microsoft recommends IndexNow, which notifies participating search engines "whenever content is added, updated, or removed."
Give them something to cite
If people ask for a business near them, make your listings the answer
Verify your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, fill in every field, and keep the name, address, phone number, hours and categories identical on both and on your website.
Google says its AI responses "can include ... information about local businesses" and that Google Business Profiles "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results." Microsoft says registering with Bing Places helps keep "address, hours, and contact information" current and "eligible for inclusion in AI-generated responses."
OpenAI says ChatGPT may share a person's location "with trusted third-party providers that help provide more local information, such as nearby business listings." It does not say which providers supply those listings, so keep the same details on every listing you control.
The ordinary local signals still apply. Google says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity," with reviews and links feeding prominence, and that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."
For example
A roofing company lists "Mon to Fri 7 to 5" on Google, "Mon to Sat 8 to 6" on Bing Places and an old suite number on its website. Someone asks Copilot which roofers near them are open Saturday. The answer depends on which details Copilot's sources carry, and here they disagree. Making all three match removes the guesswork.
If a customer would ask it on the phone, answer it on a page
Write pages that answer what people ask before they book: what a job costs and why, how long it takes, the warning signs, and which towns you cover.
Google says content that is "unique, compelling, and useful will likely influence your website's presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions" in its guide. It contrasts commodity content, like "7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers," with "unique expert or experienced takes that go beyond common knowledge."
Write a clear question and a direct answer. Microsoft says assistants can often lift question-and-answer pairs "word for word" into their answers. It advises against putting key details only in images or PDFs, and warns that details hidden in tabs can be skipped.
Do not build a page for every phrasing. Google warns that creating separate content for every variation of a search, including fan-out queries, "primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses" violates its scaled content abuse policy. One strong page per job beats twenty thin ones.
For example
A commodity page: "5 Signs You Need a New Water Heater." Hundreds of sites say the same thing. A non-commodity page: "Repair or replace a 12-year-old tank in Mesa: what hard water does to tanks here, what each option costs, and when a $400 repair is a waste." The second one answers the question an owner actually asks, in numbers only a local plumber can give.
If someone sells you llms.txt, AI markup or mentions, spend the time on pages instead
If someone offers to add an llms.txt file or "AI schema" to get you into AI answers, treat it as optional at best. Google says you do not need "new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown" for its AI features, "as Google Search itself doesn't use them," and that an llms.txt file "will neither harm nor help" visibility in Google Search.
What llms.txt is. A proposed file that guides AI agents around a site, "used most heavily for software documentation," in its author's words. None of the OpenAI, Perplexity or Microsoft pages behind this answer mention it. A judgment call: it is harmless, and it is not where a local service business should spend its first hour.
Structured data is useful, not required. Google says "there's no special schema.org markup you need to add" for AI features. If you use it, keep it matching the visible text on the page.
Fake mentions do not help. Google says "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem." It adds that "no third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems," so treat any promise of AI placement with suspicion.
Check whether it is working
If you want to know where you stand, ask the engines your customers' questions
Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini ten questions your customers ask, each with your town in it. Note who is named and which pages are cited.
- Mix job questions ("water heater leaking from bottom Mesa") with choice questions ("best emergency plumber in Mesa open Sunday").
- In ChatGPT, look for citations or a Sources button. Answers that used web search may include them.
- Open the cited sources. A directory or competitor page cited for your job is the page to outdo.
- Record the answers in a sheet with the date, so you compare like with like next month.
Treat one answer as a sample, not a ranking. OpenAI says ChatGPT may use your approximate location, and saved memories when enabled, to rewrite the search. It also warns that "search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect." Look for patterns over several months, not one answer.
If you have Google Analytics, read the AI Assistant channel and the chatgpt.com source
Open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, and look for the AI Assistant row. Google defines it as visits from "sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok."
OpenAI says ChatGPT "automatically includes the UTM parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com" in referral links, so search the table for chatgpt.com to see those visits alone.
The trap: Google's own AI answers are not in that row. Google says the AI Assistant channel "excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode." Those clicks are counted with the rest of your Google search traffic, which is why Search Console is where to look for them.
- Search Console, Generative AI performance report. Google says it reached all websites by August 31, 2026, though a site with too few AI impressions may not see it. It shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, device and date. Clicks from those features count in the main Performance report under Web.
- Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance. Shows how often Copilot and Bing's AI summaries cite your pages, which pages, and a sample of the "grounding queries" used to find them. Microsoft says these counts reflect citations, "not page importance, ranking, or placement."
Judge it on calls and booked jobs. Google itself suggests looking past clicks to "indicators of conversion" such as "information lookups about your business." At a few dozen AI visits a month, one booked job tells you more than any citation count.
For example
Over a quarter, a plumber's site gets 3,000 visits. The AI Assistant row shows 60, and 45 of them came from chatgpt.com. Two filled in the quote form; one became a $2,800 water heater install. Search Console's AI report shows the water heater page with 400 AI impressions, so that page gets expanded first.