How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT

Your next customer might never type your name into Google. They might ask ChatGPT, "Who's the best electrician near me?" and call whoever it names.

So, does ChatGPT name you? Do you even know?

Most owners I talk to have never checked. I hadn't either, until this fall. Here's the exact process I used on my own business, step by step. No tricks, no special software. Just the work, plus an honest look at how my own business is doing.

The short answer

There's no secret code, and no file or trick that makes ChatGPT recommend you. AI tools search the web, read a few pages and repeat what they find. To get named, you need three things:

1. Be easy to find. Your site and your Google Business Profile have to show up in search.
2. Be easy to quote. Short, plain facts: what you do, where, what it costs.
3. Be mentioned by others. Directories, "best of" lists and reviews.

If you want the background first, read GEO vs SEO: 8 AI Search Myths for Small Businesses. Otherwise, let's start.

Step 1: Test what AI says about you

Before you fix anything, find out where you stand. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode (the AI Mode tab in Google Search). Ask each one the questions your customers would ask.

Swap in your own service and town:

• "Who is the best [your service] in [your city]?"
• "Who can help a small business with [your service] in [your city]?"
• "How much does [your service] cost in [your city]?"
• "What do people say about [your business name]?"
• "Is [your business name] a good choice for [your service]?"

If you can, use a private window or log out, so your own history doesn't shape the answer. Ask each question twice. Answers change from one run to the next.

For each answer, write down three things:

• Were you named? Yes or no.
• Which sites were cited? Look at the links. These are the sources you need to be on.
• What facts did it repeat? Prices, years in business, review counts.

When we ran 20 questions like these through six AI tools on October 29, 2026, the pattern was clear. Out of 100 written answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode, 44 included a dollar figure and 29 mentioned years in business. Hard facts get repeated.

Step 2: Fix your Google Business Profile

Google says its local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity." (Google) It also says Business Profiles "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results." (Google)

This matters most for Google's own AI. In our test, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode named us in 0 of 48 answers. In 19 local Google searches the same day, we had no spot in the map pack and no top-10 result. Google's AI leans on Google's results. If you're not there, you're far less likely to be in the answer.

• Pick the most accurate primary category.
• Write a plain description: what you do, who for, where.
• List every service, with a short line on each.
• Keep your hours, phone and website current.
• Add real photos of your work.
• Reply to every review.

Not sure where to start? Our Asheville SEO service includes Business Profile work for exactly this reason.

Step 3: Get on the directories and lists AI quotes

AI tools often cite lists, not just business websites. In our Asheville test, the sources they used included DesignRush, Clutch, Expertise.com, Thumbtack, Yelp and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. Local "best of" blog posts showed up too.

Your list will be different. A plumber's answers will cite different sites than a web designer's. That's why Step 1 matters. Go back to the links you wrote down and work through them:

• Claim the free profiles first. Fill in every field, using the same name, address and phone everywhere.
• Ask for reviews on the ones that rank by reviews. On lists ranked by reviews, a profile with zero reviews is easy to skip.
• Check before you pay. Some sites charge for a better spot. Before you pay, check that the list actually shows up in AI answers for your city.
• Join your local chamber or business group if it has a member directory.

Step 4: Write pages that answer the exact question

The pages AI tools cited most in our test had something in common. The page title matched the question almost word for word. Think "Affordable Web Design Asheville NC," not "Our Services."

The most-cited business website belonged to a small local studio with a Domain Rating of 7. It had a separate page for each service, with the city in every title. Its most-cited page stated a starting price and had a short FAQ. It was cited in 29 of 108 answers.

For each main service, write one page that does this:

• Title and main heading match the question. Use the words your customers use, plus your city.
• The first sentence is the answer. "We build custom websites for small businesses in Asheville, starting at $4,500." Not a slogan.
• State your price, or at least a starting price. If you can't, explain what drives the cost.
• Add an FAQ with the three to five questions you hear most, each answered in two or three sentences.

You can see how we did this on our Asheville web design page and our pricing page.

Step 5: Put quotable facts on your homepage

Your homepage is likely the first page AI tools read when someone asks about you by name. Give them a sentence they can lift.

Write one plain line near the top, in real text, not an image:

"[Business name] is a [city], [state] [service] company, founded in [year], serving [area]."

Then add four to six short facts below it. Your starting prices, your years in business, your review rating and count, your service area, and who does the work. Keep them true and keep them current. If a price changes, update it everywhere, or AI tools may keep quoting the old one.

Step 6: Earn reviews that name the service

Google says positive reviews and helpful replies "can help your business stand out." (Google) Reviews also give AI tools words to repeat. A review that says "They rebuilt our website and fixed our booking form" tells everyone more than "Great job!"

You can't control what people write. But you can make it easy to be specific:

• Ask right after a job goes well, with a direct link to your review form.
• Remind them what you did. "If you have a minute, a review about the new website would mean a lot."
• Reply to every review, good or bad.

One hard rule. Google doesn't allow businesses to "offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review." (Google) No gift cards, no discounts. It can get reviews removed.

Step 7: Check every month

AI answers move. Set a reminder for the first of each month and spend 30 minutes on this:

• Re-ask your Step 1 questions in each AI tool and note what changed.
• Check Bing Webmaster Tools. Its AI Performance report shows how your pages appear in Microsoft Copilot, which pages were cited and the "grounding queries" behind them. (Bing)
• Check Google Search Console. Its Generative AI performance report shows how your content does in Google's AI features. (Google)

Bing's report taught me something. Between July 14 and October 11, 2026, it showed 62 Copilot citations for our site. 59 of them were one blog post, our CRM integration checklist. One page that answered one question clearly did almost all the work.

What we did on our own site

I don't want to give advice I haven't taken. Here's what I changed on elfatranydesign.com, and what's still on my list.

Done:

• Put every price on our pricing page in one table, with an updated date (October 7, 2026).
• Added plain question-and-answer FAQs to our local SEO, automation and hacked WordPress pages, worded the way people ask AI tools (October 26, 2026).
• Linked our directory profiles, such as Clutch and DesignRush, in our site's structured data (October 26, 2026).
• Added an llms.txt file with our services and prices (October 6, 2026). Google ignores it. Other tools may not.
• Checked robots.txt. Every major AI search crawler is allowed (October 29, 2026).

Still to do:

• A short facts line on our homepage.
• Reviews on the directories AI tools quote for Asheville.
• Climbing into Google's map pack, where Google's AI often looks.

The result so far: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude named us in 20 of 60 answers. Google's AI named us in 0 of 48. That's my honest scorecard, and I'll keep working on the Google side.

Where to start this week

Don't try all seven steps at once. Do Step 1 today. It takes about 20 minutes, and it tells you which step matters most for your business.

If you'd like help, our Asheville SEO service covers your Business Profile, listings and pages. Or send me a note with what the AI tools said about you, and I'll tell you what I'd fix first.