How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI.

How AI assistants find businesses

When someone asks for a recommendation, assistants with search can look up current web pages and write an answer from what they find. So there are two jobs: be in the indexes those assistants search, and be clear and credible enough to be worth citing.

1. Make sure crawlers can read your site

Crawlers are what let your site be found, and it’s easy to block them by accident. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. GPTBot is separate: it collects content that may be used to train AI models, and you can block it while still allowing OAI-SearchBot.

Google asks for the same basic access. Crawling must be allowed in robots.txt and by your CDN or hosting setup. Firewalls and bot protection are worth checking, because they can block crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.

2. Get indexed by Google and Bing

Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that there are no additional technical requirements. Verify your site in Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.

Do the same in Bing Webmaster Tools. Its AI Performance report shows how your content is cited across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and some partner services, which gives you real data rather than guesswork.

3. State your key facts in plain text

An assistant can’t recommend you for something your site doesn’t clearly say. Google advises making important content available as text, and making sure any structured data matches what’s visible on the page. Near the top of your key pages, cover:

• What you do and who it’s for
• Where you work
• What it costs, even as a starting price or range
• How long it takes and how the process works
• How to contact you

Answer the questions customers actually ask, on the page, in plain language. Facts locked inside images or PDFs are harder to read and quote.

4. Keep your Google Business Profile current

Google’s AI features guidance specifically lists keeping your Business Profile information up to date as a best practice. Its local ranking guidance says results are mainly based on relevance, distance and how well known a business is. For “near me” and suburb searches, this is often the highest-value hour you can spend.

5. Earn mentions on other websites

In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that brand mentions across the web had the strongest correlation with visibility in Google’s AI Overviews, at 0.664, compared with 0.218 for the number of backlinks. Ahrefs itself cautions that correlation isn’t causation, and well-known brands naturally collect more of both. Still, it’s a good reason to get your name in front of real audiences.

For a small business, that usually means:

• Accurate listings on industry directories and associations
• Genuine customer reviews
• Local news, suppliers, partners and community groups that have a real reason to mention you
• Useful answers and articles published under your business name

6. Show your evidence

A study from Princeton and other researchers, accepted at KDD 2024, tested ways of rewriting web content and found they could lift visibility in AI-generated answers by up to 40%, with results varying by subject. It’s a lab result, not a promise for your business, but the takeaway is practical: specifics beat vague claims.

So publish your real prices, timeframes and results, name your sources, and say when you’re not the right fit. It’s the kind of page people trust as well.

What to skip

• Paying for an llms.txt file. Google says you don’t need new AI text files or special markup for its AI features.
• Dozens of near-identical suburb pages. Google’s spam policies list pages targeting specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page as doorway abuse.
• Lists of suburbs stuffed into your text. Google names blocks of text listing cities and regions as keyword stuffing.
• Fake reviews or made-up results. They can seriously damage your business if they’re found out.
• Guarantees. No one controls what an AI assistant says.

What to do this afternoon

If you only have a few hours, start with these.

1. Check your robots.txt file

   Open yoursite.com.au/robots.txt and make sure it doesn’t block Googlebot, Bingbot or OAI-SearchBot. Ask your host whether a firewall or CDN is blocking them too.

2. Confirm you’re in Google and Bing

   Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, then submit your sitemap in both.

3. Update your Google Business Profile

   Check your name, phone, website, services and hours.

4. Rewrite your homepage’s first paragraph

   Say what you do, who it’s for, where you work and, if you can, what it costs.

5. Ask three happy customers for a review

   A real review on your Google profile helps people choose you, and adds to the signals that show how well known you are.

Questions

Sources

1. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
2. OpenAI: overview of OpenAI crawlers
3. Bing Webmaster Blog: introducing AI Performance (10 February 2026)
4. Ahrefs: an analysis of AI Overview brand visibility factors (26 May 2025)
5. Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024)
6. Google Business Profile Help: tips to improve your local ranking
7. Google Search Central: spam policies