To get recommended by ChatGPT, make sure its search crawler can reach your site, publish pages that answer your buyers' exact questions with specific facts, and get named on the third-party pages ChatGPT reads, such as review sites and "best of" lists. When ChatGPT searches, it rewrites the question into targeted queries, pulls results from search providers and its own crawler, and names the businesses those pages agree on. Then test with a fixed set of real prompts every month to see what changed.
How ChatGPT decides which brands to recommend
There are two ways ChatGPT can answer: from what the model learned in training, or by searching the web first. For buying questions, the second path is the one you can influence.
When ChatGPT searches
OpenAI says ChatGPT "may search the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information", and users can also turn search on by hand. Web search is available on every ChatGPT plan, including Free, and to people who aren't signed in.
How it builds the search
ChatGPT doesn't search the user's words verbatim. According to OpenAI, it "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" sent to search partners, and after reviewing the first results it may send more specific follow-up queries. OpenAI's own example turns a long question about cancer drugs into "CCR8 immunotherapy drug development 2025".
For local questions it adds location. ChatGPT may infer a general location from the user's IP address and turn "good restaurants near me" into a query like "top restaurants San Francisco". If memory is on, it can fold saved preferences into the query too ("good vegan restaurants San Francisco").
Where the results come from
OpenAI describes the sources in a few places:
| Source | What OpenAI says | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Third-party search providers | ChatGPT sends rewritten queries to search partners; its help page links Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy statements | Be indexed in Bing, and keep product data clean if you sell on Shopify |
| OAI-SearchBot | "Used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features" | Allow it in robots.txt and at your CDN |
| ChatGPT-User | Visits a page when a user's request needs it | Don't block it if you want pages read on demand |
| Merchant product feeds | Shopping results use product data; Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already integrated | Ecommerce brands can apply to share a feed |
GPTBot is a separate crawler used for model training, and blocking it leaves ChatGPT search alone. Blocking OAI-SearchBot is what keeps your pages out of ChatGPT search summaries.
How it chooses what to name
ChatGPT reads the results, picks the passages that answer the question and writes a short list. OpenAI says it ranks results "using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information" and that placement is not guaranteed. In practice, a business gets named when several of the pages ChatGPT read put it on their lists, and a page gets cited when it supplies a clear, specific answer.
The playbook: how to get recommended by ChatGPT, step by step
Step 1: Write the prompts your buyers use
List 20 to 30 questions in your customers' words. Group them by intent:
| Intent | Example prompts |
|---|---|
| Best in category | "best med spa in Austin", "best accounting software for a 10-person firm" |
| Near me / urgent | "emergency plumber open now in Phoenix" |
| Comparison | "[your brand] vs [competitor]", "is [competitor] worth it" |
| Price | "how much does Invisalign cost in Chicago" |
| Problem first | "my AC is blowing warm air, who should I call in Tampa" |
Always put the city in local prompts. A question asked without one gets answered for wherever the user's IP says they are.
Step 2: Run a baseline test
For each prompt:
- Open a temporary chat, so memory and past conversations don't shape the answer.
- Make sure search is on (choose Search from the tools menu).
- Ask the prompt exactly as written.
- Record every brand named, in order, and every cited source.
- Repeat on two more days. Answers change between runs, so one result is an anecdote.
A simple log looks like this:
| Date | Prompt | Run | Brands named (in order) | Sources cited | You named? | Your page cited? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 | best med spa in Austin | 1 | ||||
| Oct 7 | best med spa in Austin | 2 | ||||
| Oct 8 | best med spa in Austin | 3 |
Your mention rate is the share of runs that name you. Your citation rate is the share that link one of your pages.
Step 3: Fix access
The fastest fixes are usually access fixes.
- robots.txt: allow
OAI-SearchBotandChatGPT-User. OpenAI says changes take about 24 hours to apply. - CDN and firewall: Cloudflare and other firewalls can block bots that robots.txt allows. OpenAI asks you to allow traffic from its published IP ranges.
- Bing: verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and check your key pages are indexed.
- Rendering: make sure the answer is written in the page's HTML text. Text inside images, or loaded late by scripts, is harder for crawlers to read.
The AI crawler checker tests your robots.txt against the main AI crawlers in one pass.
Step 4: Study the sources ChatGPT cited
Go back to your log and sort every cited source into a bucket:
| Source type | What to do about it |
|---|---|
| Competitor websites | Read their page. What does it say that yours doesn't? |
| "Best of" lists and roundups | Contact the publisher; make sure your facts are easy to verify |
| Review platforms | Build reviews on the platforms that keep appearing |
| Directories | Correct and complete your listing |
| Forums and Reddit | Answer genuinely where your buyers ask, as yourself |
| Your own pages | Protect them: keep facts current and the page fast |
This is where most of the opportunity sits. If ChatGPT keeps citing the same two lists and neither names you, those two lists are your priority.
Step 5: Publish a page for each prompt you lose
For each lost prompt, create or rewrite one page that:
- answers the question in its first two sentences,
- states specifics a model can quote: prices or ranges, hours, service area, credentials, turnaround, guarantees you actually offer,
- uses H2s that match the sub-questions (cost, process, how to choose, comparisons),
- cites the source of any statistic,
- ends with a short FAQ in your customers' words,
- carries a visible "updated" date.
Research supports the specifics. The 2023 GEO paper found that adding quotations, statistics and cited sources to a page raised its share of generative answers the most, while keyword stuffing made things worse. More on that in our GEO explainer.
Step 6: Make your business facts consistent
ChatGPT decides who to name by cross-checking pages. Contradictions hurt. Make your name, address, phone, services, prices and opening hours match across your site, your Google Business Profile, your main directories and your social profiles. Add Organization or LocalBusiness structured data that matches the visible page, and check it with the schema validator.
Step 7: Ecommerce only, share product data
If you sell products, ChatGPT shopping runs on product data. OpenAI says merchants can apply to share a product feed, and Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already integrated with no application. Feeds with images, prices, availability and reviews give ChatGPT more accurate information when shoppers compare options.
Step 8: Re-test every month
Run the same prompts the same way each month. Look for three things: whether your mention rate moved, whether your new pages are being cited, and whether the third-party sources changed. Track utm_source=chatgpt.com in analytics too: ChatGPT adds that tag to referral links.
What doesn't work
| Tactic | Why to skip it |
|---|---|
| Repeating your keyword | In the GEO study, keyword stuffing scored below the unoptimised baseline |
| Fake reviews or self-written "best of" lists on throwaway sites | Breaks review platforms' rules and can cost you the listings you need |
| Hidden text aimed at AI crawlers | Breaks Google's and Bing's spam policies, and the visible page still has to answer the question |
| Buying "guaranteed ChatGPT placement" | OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed; nobody can sell it |
| Blocking all bots to "protect content" | Blocking OAI-SearchBot removes your pages from ChatGPT search summaries |
Test faster with tools
Manual testing works for 20 prompts. Past that it gets slow, and three runs per prompt per month adds up. Some options:
- The free ChatGPT SEO tool puts a buyer question to an OpenAI model and shows what it says about you.
- The free AI visibility checker asks three models one buyer question at once and shows whether each answer names your business.
- Rank.ai asks your customers' questions in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini every day, through each engine's API with web search on, and records every brand named and every page cited. It flags the questions where competitors get named and you don't, then writes the articles that answer them and publishes them to your site. The free AI grade runs 12 of your customers' questions across those three engines, no account needed.
Our buyer's guide to AI visibility tools compares the main options. For Google's AI answers specifically, read how to rank in Google AI Overviews.
FAQ
How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?
When it searches, ChatGPT rewrites the question into targeted queries, gets results from search partners and its own crawler, reads the relevant pages and names the businesses those pages support. OpenAI says it ranks results using multiple factors aimed at relevance and reliability. Businesses that appear on several trusted pages for the question tend to be named.
Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing?
OpenAI says ChatGPT uses third-party search providers and links to Microsoft's privacy statement among them, which makes Bing indexing worth checking. It also runs its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI does not list Google as a search partner on its help page.
How do I get my website to show up in ChatGPT?
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and at your CDN, make sure your pages are indexed in Bing, and publish pages that answer your buyers' questions directly. OpenAI says any public website can appear in ChatGPT search, though placement is not guaranteed.
Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
You can't buy a place in ChatGPT's organic answers. Merchants can share product feeds for shopping results, and OpenAI says there are no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT. Be wary of anyone selling guaranteed placement.
How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT?
A robots.txt fix takes about 24 hours to register, according to OpenAI. New or rewritten pages have to be crawled and indexed by the search providers first, which usually takes days to weeks. Judge results over two to three months of repeated tests.
Why does ChatGPT give different answers to the same question?
Answers depend on the rewritten queries, the search results at that moment, the user's approximate location and, if memory is on, their saved preferences. That is why you should run each prompt several times and track rates over time. Our guide to LLM visibility explains the measurement side in more depth.
