How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

How ChatGPT decides which businesses to recommend

For questions about local businesses, ChatGPT usually searches the web before answering. It reads a handful of pages (business websites, Google and other map listings, review sites, directories, local articles and forums) and writes a summary of the businesses that come up most often and most positively.

When it doesn't search, it relies on what it learned during training, which is older and less complete. Either way, the same rule applies: the businesses that are easiest to find, understand and trust across many sources get recommended most.

That means three things matter most:

• Access: can ChatGPT's crawlers actually read your website?
• Clarity: is it obvious what you do, where, and for whom?
• Consensus: do other trusted websites say the same good things about you?

Step 1: Let ChatGPT read your website

Many websites block AI crawlers without the owner knowing, through a robots.txt file, a security plugin, or a setting at their hosting or CDN provider. If ChatGPT can't read your site, it has to rely on what other websites say about you.

OpenAI uses separate crawlers: OAI-SearchBot (to show your site in ChatGPT search), ChatGPT-User (when a user asks ChatGPT to look at a page) and GPTBot (to collect training data). To appear in answers, allow at least the first two. You can block GPTBot and still be recommended.

Check yours in seconds with our free AI crawler checker.

Step 2: Say clearly what you do and where

AI assistants match questions to businesses using plain words. A homepage headline like “Welcome to our practice” tells them nothing. “Family dentist in Parramatta, open Saturdays” tells them everything.

• Put your main service and your city or suburbs in your homepage headline and first paragraph.
• Give each main service its own page (for example “Emergency dental care in Parramatta”).
• List the areas you serve, your opening hours and, where you can, typical prices.

Step 3: Add structured data

Structured data (schema.org markup) is a small block of code that tells machines exactly who you are: business type, name, address, phone, hours and service area. Use the most specific type you can, such as Dentist, Plumber, RealEstateAgent or Restaurant, rather than the generic LocalBusiness.

The free Eudoxia check generates this code for your business, ready to paste.

Step 4: Answer the questions customers actually ask

AI assistants love pages that directly answer a question. Write an FAQ page that uses your customers' own words: “Do you take new patients?”, “How much is a check-up?”, “Can you come out today?”. Keep answers short, specific and true.

A good source of questions: the ones where AI currently recommends your competitors instead of you. The Eudoxia report lists them.

Step 5: Be listed where AI looks

ChatGPT and other assistants lean heavily on well-known listing sites. Make sure you have a complete, accurate profile on:

• Google Business Profile
• Bing Places for Business (Bing's index feeds several AI assistants)
• Apple Business Connect
• The main review and directory sites for your industry and country
• Local chambers of commerce, associations and trusted local news sites

Your Eudoxia report shows exactly which websites the AI relied on for your category and city, so you know where to start.

Step 6: Get reviews that mention what you do and where

AI assistants summarise reviews. A review that says “Great dentist in Parramatta, fitted me in the same day for a broken tooth” teaches the AI three things at once: your service, your location and your strength. Ask happy customers to mention what you did and where. Never buy or fake reviews: it breaks platform rules and can get your listings removed.

Step 7: Keep your details consistent everywhere

If your website, Google profile and directories show different names, addresses or phone numbers, AI assistants become less sure they're all the same business. Use exactly the same business name, address and phone number everywhere.

Step 8: Measure, then repeat

AI answers change between users, locations and days, so a single check is a snapshot. Check again every month to see the trend: how often you're mentioned, your position, and which competitors appear.

Run a free Eudoxia check to get your starting score.

What doesn't work

• Stuffing pages with keywords or city names. It reads badly and AI assistants ignore it.
• Fake reviews or fake listings.
• Hidden pages “for AI only”.
• Anyone who guarantees you'll be recommended by ChatGPT. Nobody can, because OpenAI decides.