How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?

For local questions, ChatGPT pulls a small set of web results and business data and summarizes them (Search Engine Land). In one study, 46% of ChatGPT's local citations came from general business directories (Steady Demand); another found BBB in 39% of its answers and government licensing pages in about one in four (8ight.ai).

So the work is concrete: clear service pages on your site, accurate listings on the directories it cites, reviews, and a mention on the 'best' lists for your city. Nobody can guarantee a specific answer. Answers vary run to run, which is why we measure across many repeated questions instead of a single screenshot (SparkToro).

The fixes that matter most

1. A page for every service you sell
   Plain-language pages that answer the questions customers actually ask. Topical relevance on your own site is the strongest measured correlate of being cited. Source
2. Be listed where each assistant looks
   ChatGPT leans on directories such as BBB, Expertise.com and Angi plus Yelp data; Claude cites Yelp heavily; Google's AI leans on your Business Profile. Source
3. Show up on 'best of' lists
   Expert-curated best-of lists ranked as the #1 AI visibility factor in Whitespark's 2026 expert survey. Source
4. A complete Google Business Profile with steady reviews
   Profile completeness, review count and owner replies all correlate positively with being cited. Source
5. Don't block AI crawlers
   If robots.txt blocks OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity's search bots, they can't read you. It's a one-line fix. Source

Related questions

• What is an AI visibility audit for a local business?
• Who can help my plumbing company show up in AI answers?
• How do I make my business show up when people ask ChatGPT for a recommendation?
• What are the best AI visibility tools for small businesses?
• Is there a service that checks if AI assistants recommend my business?

Updated 2026-10-17. Figures link to their original sources.