How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Gemini

How do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI find a business?

AI assistants recommend businesses they can find on the web and check against other sources. When someone asks for "a good accountant in Leeds" or "an SEO agency for a dental practice", the assistant searches, reads what it finds, and names the businesses that the pages, listings and reviews agree on. You get your business recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews the same way: by being easy to find and easy to confirm.

Each assistant documents a different part of how it does this:

Assistant	Where it looks, per its own documentation	What you control
ChatGPT (search)	Pages fetched by OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which "is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features" (OpenAI)	Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt
Gemini app	"Public information from Google Maps" for places: addresses, descriptions, websites, ratings and opening hours (Gemini Apps Help); content from the Google Search index for grounding (Google crawlers)	Google Business Profile; your site in Google Search; the Google-Extended rule
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	Pages that are "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet" (Google Search Central)	Normal SEO; the Search generative AI setting in Search Console

Google's Maps tool for Gemini developers describes "a database of over 250 million places worldwide" and returns "places, reviews, photos, addresses, opening hours" (Gemini API docs). That is the data a Business Profile feeds, which is why the profile matters so much for Gemini.

ChatGPT is the least documented. OpenAI's crawler page explains how websites reach ChatGPT search, but it does not name the database behind ChatGPT's local business lists. The ranking guides that name a source disagree: one says ChatGPT's local lists are built from Google's business data, another that Bing's index feeds ChatGPT's search, and none cites OpenAI for it. Until OpenAI says, the safe course is to keep your details complete and identical on every major listing.

Which settings remove you from which assistant

The most common technical mistake is treating "AI crawlers" as one thing. They are separate controls, and blocking the wrong one removes you from answers you wanted to be in. From each company's documentation, checked October 29, 2026:

Control	What it does	If you block or switch it off
OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt	ChatGPT's search crawler	OpenAI: "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers."
GPTBot in robots.txt	Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's models	Your content should not be used for training; ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot, not GPTBot
ChatGPT-User	Visits a page when a ChatGPT user's request needs it	OpenAI says robots.txt rules "may not apply", and it is not used to decide what appears in search
Google-Extended in robots.txt	Training of Gemini models and grounding in Gemini Apps	Your content is not used to ground Gemini Apps' answers. It "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search"
Search Console: Settings > Search generative AI	Inclusion in AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover	Google: excluded sites "will not receive traffic or impressions from our generative AI features"
nosnippet, max-snippet, noindex	Limit what Google shows from a page	A page must be eligible for a snippet to appear as a link in AI features

Two rows catch businesses out. Blocking Google-Extended "to stop AI training" also removes your pages from the content Gemini Apps draws on at answer time, because Google's documentation covers training and grounding under the same token. And Google's Search generative AI control is a single switch: it includes your site by default, it "isn't used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search", and it does not affect AI training. Check it in Search Console before you spend anything on AI visibility; Google says a change "generally takes a few days" to apply.

For reference, this is the policy on our own site, live on October 29, 2026: 1920agency.com/robots.txt allows Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User, and leaves the training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended) allowed by the owner's choice. Robots.txt changes are not instant: OpenAI says its systems can take about 24 hours to adjust.

Make your business one clear entity everywhere

To get ChatGPT to recognize your business, it has to be one thing with one name, one address and one phone number wherever an assistant looks. If your website says "Smith Plumbing Ltd", your Google listing says "Smith Plumbing & Heating" and a directory has an old number, an assistant has three weak records instead of one strong one.

Start with the Google Business Profile, because two Google products read it directly. Google's guide to generative AI search says "Google Business Profiles can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results" (Google Search Central). Google's local ranking help explains how listings are chosen:

• Relevance: "how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for". Fill in categories, services and the description in your customers' words.
• Distance: how far the business is from the person searching. You cannot change it, so do not invent addresses you do not have.
• Prominence: "how well-known a business is", which includes "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have".
• "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results."

Then make the other listings match it exactly: Bing Places for Business, your Apple Maps place card through Apple Business ("Claim your location on Maps"), and the directories in your trade. Because ChatGPT's local data source is not documented, matching all of them covers every likely source. Your website should state the same name, address, phone number and service area in plain text, not only inside an image.

If the problem in your business is that nobody finds you on Google in the first place, AI answers will not fix it, because they read the same web. That is the problem our SEO services for small businesses start with: the site, the Business Profile and the pages closest to bringing in enquiries.

Earn reviews and mentions you did not write

Assistants trust what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself, so the second job is building that outside record honestly. Google's generative AI guide notes that its AI features "can show what's being said about products and services across the web", and that "a first-hand review provides a unique perspective based on personal experience".

The work that counts:

• Reviews from real customers. Ask every customer, on your Google profile first and then on the review site your trade uses. Reply to them; Google's local ranking help says replying "shows you value customer feedback". More reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, per the same page.
• Mentions on sites you do not control. Local press, trade associations, supplier and client case studies, podcast appearances, and "best of" lists for your city or trade that you qualify for on merit.
• Specific wording. A mention that says what you do and where ("a Leeds accountant for contractors") helps an assistant match you to a question better than a bare link.

What does not count is manufacturing it. Google warns that "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem", and its spam policies name "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam. Do not pay for reviews or write your own. One honest review a week for a year builds a record that holds up; a burst of suspicious ones does not.

Answer your buyers' questions on your own site

Your website is the source an assistant cites when it explains why it named you, so give it pages that answer what buyers actually ask. Those are usually:

• what you charge, or what drives the price if you quote per job (our SEO cost guide is an example of a sourced price page);
• which services you offer and which you do not;
• where you work, and how fast you can start;
• how you compare with the alternatives, stated fairly;
• proof: named projects, with the client's agreement, such as our Progen Aesthetics case study.

Write each page so its first sentence answers the question on its own, then give the detail. That serves people and AI answers at once. Google's guide says you do not need to write in a special way for AI: "You don't need to write in a specific way just for generative AI search."

One warning. Some AI-visibility advice says to publish a page for every prompt a customer might type. Google's guide addresses this directly: AI models run a "query fan-out" (a set of related searches behind one question), and creating pages for those variations "primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses" violates Google's scaled content abuse policy. One good page per real question is the rule.

What does not help (and what Google says about it)

A lot of money now goes into tactics Google's own guide calls unnecessary. Its "Mythbusting generative AI search" section lists them:

Common advice	What Google's guide says
Add an llms.txt or other AI file	"You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search"
Split content into small chunks for AI	"There's no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces for AI to better understand it."
Rewrite your pages for AI	"You don't need to write in a specific way just for generative AI search."
Collect mentions anywhere you can	"Seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem."
Add special AI schema	"Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add."

Two of the pages ranking for this question still recommend an llms.txt file. Google's answer, at least for its own AI features, is that it is not needed.

Be careful with tools and services that promise AI placement. Google's guidance on third-party SEO tools says "Third-party tools don't have access to our internal ranking data" and "Google doesn't evaluate third-party services, so be wary of such claims and those making them". It names this kind of work "AEO" (answer engine optimization) or "GEO" (generative engine optimization). Google's view, in its guide's own words: "optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."

Check where you stand, then measure

You can see whether AI assistants name your business today in about an hour, and repeat the same check monthly:

1. Write 10 to 20 real buyer questions. Use your service plus your city or market ("emergency plumber in Manchester"), comparisons ("X vs Y for a small clinic") and problems ("why are my Facebook ads getting clicks but no sales").
2. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google (where AI Overviews appear). Use the same wording every time.
3. Record who is named and what is cited. The cited sources show you which listings, directories and articles you are missing from.
4. Check Google's numbers. Search Console's Generative AI performance report shows how your pages appear in Google's generative AI features; Google describes it as "impressions metrics and information about which pages appear in AI responses and in what countries" (Google). Google also counts traffic from AI features inside the normal Performance report, under the Web search type.
5. Check visits. In your analytics, look at referral traffic from the assistants' own domains (such as chatgpt.com), and ask new enquiries how they found you.

Treat one test as a snapshot, not a ranking. A fixed list repeated monthly shows the direction. When AI answers do send enquiries, they only turn into customers if someone replies fast; our guide to automating lead follow-up covers answering every form within minutes.

How long does it take, and what can you expect?

Technical fixes act quickly; being recommended builds over months. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search, and Google says a change to Search Console's AI setting "generally takes a few days". Reviews, matching listings and independent mentions build up at the pace of your business, and no one controls when an assistant's answer changes.

Expect three things to stay true:

• There is no placement to buy in Google's results. Google's Business Profile help says "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." ChatGPT does carry ads (OpenAI's crawler documentation describes OAI-AdsBot, which checks "web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT"), but an ad is paid advertising, not a recommendation in the answer.
• Nothing is certain. Google's guide says that even when a page meets every requirement, "Indexing and serving aren't guaranteed". Treat anyone who promises a spot in ChatGPT the way you would treat someone promising the top of Google.
• The work pays twice. Every step above, from a complete Business Profile to pages that answer real questions, also improves your ordinary Google results, so none of it is wasted if AI answers change.

How 1920 Agency approaches AI search

We treat AI visibility as part of SEO, as Google does, not as a separate product. For a client, that means checking that the right crawlers and Search Console settings are in place, cleaning up the Business Profile and listings, building the pages buyers ask for, and testing a fixed set of buyer questions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google each month.

We rebuilt and run SEO for Progen Aesthetics, a UK clinic, and run daily SEO monitoring on our own operations. We follow Google's spam policies: no bought links, no fake reviews, no mass-produced pages. We are an independent agency based in Islamabad, Pakistan, working with clients in the US, UK, Australia and Pakistan.

Sources

• Google Search Central, "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search", https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide (published May 2026, last updated July 10, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• Google Search Central, "AI features and your website", https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features (last updated December 10, 2025; checked October 29, 2026)
• Google Search Central, "Google Search's guidance on third-party SEO tools and advice", https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/third-party-seo (last updated June 5, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• Google Search Central, "Spam policies for Google web search", https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies (last updated August 28, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• Google, "Google's common crawlers" (Google-Extended), https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-common-crawlers (last updated October 15, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• Search Console Help, "Search generative AI control", https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16908024 (checked October 29, 2026)
• Search Console Help, "Generative AI performance report (Search)", https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139 (checked October 29, 2026)
• Google, "New opportunities, control and insights for website owners", https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-controls-website-owners/ (June 3, 2026, updated August 31, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google", https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091 (checked October 29, 2026)
• Gemini Apps Help, "Find places & get directions in Gemini Apps", https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16622866 (checked October 29, 2026)
• Google AI for Developers, "Grounding with Google Maps", https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/maps-grounding (last updated October 13, 2026; checked October 29, 2026)
• OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI crawlers", https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots (checked October 29, 2026)
• Microsoft, "Bing Places for Business", https://www.bing.com/forbusiness/ (checked October 29, 2026)
• Apple, "Apple Business", https://business.apple.com/ (checked October 29, 2026)

Frequently asked questions

How can I get ChatGPT to recommend my business?

Make sure ChatGPT's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is allowed in your robots.txt, because OpenAI says sites that block it are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Then give it something to find and check: a website that answers your buyers' questions, a complete Google Business Profile, the same name, address and phone number on every listing, real reviews, and mentions on sites you do not control.

Is there a way to register my business with ChatGPT?

OpenAI's crawler documentation describes no listing form for businesses. What it does describe is a search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which you control in robots.txt. A business gets into ChatGPT's answers by being findable on the web and on the listings services that answers draw on, not by registering.

How do I get my business recommended by Google AI Overviews?

Google says there are no extra requirements: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in Google Search. Check that Search Console's Search generative AI setting still includes your site (it does by default), keep your Google Business Profile complete, and apply normal SEO. Google says Business Profiles can help your services show in AI responses.

Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

You cannot pay Google for a better local ranking; its Business Profile help says so plainly. ChatGPT now carries ads: OpenAI documents a crawler, OAI-AdsBot, that checks pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. An ad is a paid placement, so treat it as advertising, not as being recommended in the answer.

Do I need an llms.txt file to show up in AI answers?

Not for Google. Its guide to generative AI search says you do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, markup or Markdown to appear. Spend the time on your Business Profile, your reviews and the pages that answer buyers' questions instead.

How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT's answers?

Robots.txt changes are quick: OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours for its systems to adjust. Being named as a recommendation takes longer, because reviews, listings and mentions build up over months, and no one controls when an assistant's answer changes. Test the same prompts once a month and compare.

How do I check if ChatGPT recommends my business right now?

Write down 10 to 20 questions a buyer would really ask, such as the service plus your city, and ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google. Record who is named and which sources are cited, and repeat the same list monthly. In Google Search Console, the Generative AI performance report shows impressions from Google's AI features.