How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
No one can guarantee it. You can make your business easy for AI to read and easy to confirm: a website ChatGPT’s search crawler can reach, the same facts on your site and your listings, honest reviews, and real mentions on other sites. The list is short: an AI answer to a local question names two to four businesses on average.
Key figure
2.5to 4.1
businesses named per AI answer to a local question. BrightLocal, Sep 2026, 1,300 locations.
The full answer.
What ChatGPT reads. When ChatGPT searches the web, it uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that opt out of it “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers” (Q2). For local questions, most of what AI cites is the businesses’ own websites and their listings: 93% of the distinct websites cited in BrightLocal’s 2026 study were business sites (R16, B), and in Yext’s count, websites were 44% of citations and listings 42% (R18, B).
What you can control, in order.
- Let OAI-SearchBot into your site, in robots.txt and at your host or firewall.
- Put your facts on your site in plain text: what you do, where you serve, hours, phone.
- Make your listings match your site, word for word.
- Ask every customer for a review the same way. Never pay for one and never screen out unhappy customers.
- Earn real mentions in lists, local press and associations. Across 75,000 brands, branded web mentions track with how often ChatGPT names a brand (R26, B, a correlation).
What you cannot control. Which businesses the answer names. The list also moves: ask the same question again and only 20% to 33% of the businesses overlap (R16, B).
Ranking on Google helps but does not decide it. Page-one Google rank correlated about 0.65 with how often ChatGPT named a brand (R35, B, a correlation), yet only 8% of the pages ChatGPT cited ranked in Google’s top 10 for the same question (R19, B).
What Still Fox does.
We check what ChatGPT and other AI tools say about your business and trace what they cite. Then we fix the site and give you the list for your listings. We do not promise a recommendation.
Sources.
Each claim above carries its id and a grade from A to D. The research report holds the full ledger.
- R16 B
Businesses per local AI answer: AI Overview 2.5, AI Mode 3.5, ChatGPT 4.1; 20% to 33% overlap on repeat runs; Google Maps named a tracked business in 66% of searches vs 32% to 38% for AI; 93% of distinct cited domains were business sites.
BrightLocal, Local AI Visibility Study, 2026-09-16 In the ledger
- R18 B
Local AI citations: websites 44%, listings 42%, reviews and social 8%, forums 2%.
Yext, 2025-10-09 In the ledger
- R19 B
Only 12% of pages cited by AI tools ranked in Google’s top 10 for the same question; 8% for ChatGPT.
Ahrefs, 2025-08-11 In the ledger
- R26 B
Branded web mentions correlate 0.664 with how often ChatGPT names a brand.
Ahrefs, 2025-12-12 In the ledger
- R35 B
Page-one Google rank correlated about 0.65 with how often ChatGPT named a brand.
Seer Interactive, 2025-01-07 In the ledger
- Q2 EC
OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers
Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers
Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply.
More answers.
- How do I check what ChatGPT says about my business?→
- What is AI visibility, and is it just SEO with a new name?→
- Are Google’s AI Overviews taking traffic from my website?→
- Why does AI get my business hours wrong, or say I’m closed?→
- Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot?→
- Does my website need an llms.txt file?→