How does a local business get recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity?
AI assistants recommend businesses they can find and verify. They search the web, read pages that answer the question directly, and weigh reviews and mentions on other sites. To be recommended: let AI crawlers read your site, publish clear pages for each service and area, keep your facts identical everywhere, earn steady reviews, and get mentioned on sites the assistants trust.
What happens when someone asks
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for "a good AC repair company in Norcross", the assistant typically runs a web search, reads a handful of pages (listings, review sites, local articles, business websites), and writes an answer from what it found. It favours businesses whose facts it can confirm in more than one place and pages that answer the question without making it dig.
Six things that make you easier to recommend
- Let the crawlers in. Check that
robots.txtdoesn't block AI search crawlers such asOAI-SearchBot(ChatGPT search),PerplexityBotandClaude-SearchBot, and that your firewall or CDN doesn't block them either. Also be listed in Bing: several assistants lean on Bing's index, so claim your listing in Bing Places and verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. - Answer the question on the page. A service page that says in its first two sentences what you do, where, for whom and how to book is easy to quote. Pages that open with slogans are not. See service pages.
- Same facts everywhere. Name, address, phone, hours and services identical on your site, Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and Facebook. See NAP consistency.
- Machine-readable facts. LocalBusiness schema and an llms.txt file state your facts without layout in the way.
- Reviews with substance. Assistants summarise what reviews say. Reviews that mention the service and the town ("fixed our heat pump in Duluth the same day") help more than "great!".
- Be mentioned elsewhere. Local news, chamber of commerce, industry associations, "best of" lists, supplier directories. Mentions on sites the assistant already trusts are how it learns you exist.
How to check where you stand
Ask the assistants yourself, the way a customer would, from your city: "who's the best [service] in [city]?", "recommend a [service] near [neighbourhood]". Note whether you appear and which sources they cite. Repeat monthly; answers change as the web does.
The free Check-Up tests the site side: whether AI assistants can read and quote your pages, whether you have llms.txt and structured data, and whether your facts agree across your site and your listing.
Check this on your own business
The free 60-second Check-Up reads your website and Google profile and shows where you stand on this: AI search readiness, Quotable passages, llms.txt, Informational content. Public data only, no login, no card.
Run the free Check-Up →Or we run it for you
We make your facts machine-readable, publish pages that answer questions directly, and track what AI assistants say about you. Month to month, a new website included, plans from $199 a month.
See how it works →Questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There is no paid placement in ChatGPT's answers today. Recommendations come from what it finds and trusts on the web.
Does ChatGPT use Google reviews?
It reads what its search surfaces, which can include review sites and listings. Consistent, substantive reviews across platforms help.
Should I block AI crawlers?
If you want to be recommended, no. You can block training crawlers and still allow search crawlers like OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.