How to get recommended by ChatGPT

Step zero: record a baseline you can trust

Before changing anything, run five fixed unbranded prompts with ChatGPT Search on and save the answers and sources. Without that baseline you will not know whether anything you do afterwards helped, and you will be tempted to believe whichever single answer you saw last. The checking guide walks through the exact setup.

Be realistic about the target. OpenAI says no placement in ChatGPT search is guaranteed and that ranking weighs several factors to find relevant, reliable information. The plan below improves your odds and your evidence; it is not a promise.[1]

The priority order

Make real pages that are easy to read and reach

OpenAI advises sites that want to appear in ChatGPT search answers to allow OAI-SearchBot and its published IP ranges. Training access through GPTBot is a separate choice.[1][2]

Google's guidance for its AI features in Search is essentially ordinary SEO: pages must be indexed and snippet-eligible, important content should be available as text, crawling should not be blocked by your CDN or host, pages should be linked internally, any structured data should match what is visible on the page, and business profile details should be kept up to date. Google says there are no additional technical requirements. This is Google AI Search, governed by Googlebot, which is not the same as the Gemini app.[3]

Structured data labels facts that are already on the page. It is not a guaranteed ranking boost, and no special schema type guarantees AI recommendations.

State your service, location and prices honestly

• Name each service the way customers say it, and say who it is for and who it is not for.
• State your service area in plain text. If you are online-only, say so; do not invent a street address to look local.
• Give prices, starting points or typical ranges where you can, with caveats such as call-out fees, minimums or what changes the quote.
• Keep hours, contact methods and booking steps current and identical across your site and listings.
• Remove or update pages for services you no longer offer, so old facts stop circulating.

Local business profiles, such as a Google Business Profile, are worth keeping complete and accurate when your business is eligible for one under that platform's rules. Google lists keeping business profile information updated among its AI features recommendations.[3]

Write original answers, not more words

Google's helpful content guidance asks whether content is original, useful and written for people rather than to manipulate rankings, and whether sourcing and authorship are clear. It also says there is no preferred word count and that changing dates without meaningful updates does not make content fresher.[4]

Answer from your own experience: the mistakes you see, the questions you get on the phone, what a typical job involves. That specificity is what a generic competitor page cannot copy.

Earn genuine third-party evidence

Assistants often cite pages that are not yours: review sites, directories, local news, trade association listings. You cannot control those, but you can make them accurate and genuine. Ask real customers for reviews, join directories that are relevant to your trade and area, and correct wrong facts where the platform lets you.

• Do not buy reviews, swap fake reviews, or pay for links meant to manipulate search.
• Do not create thin location pages for towns you do not really serve.
• Do not stuff pages with AI-assistant keywords or hidden text.

Retest weekly and read the sources

Each week, re-run the same prompts with the same setup and save the answers. When you are cited, note which page. When a competitor is cited, open the source and ask what useful information it gave that your pages did not. Change one thing at a time where you can, and date it in your log.[1]

llms.txt is an experimental convention. It may be worth a try, but there are no guaranteed gains and Google says its AI features do not require it. Prioritise the steps above first.