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How to show up in ChatGPT: a small-business guide

ChatGPT recommends businesses it can read about, on your site and across the web. Here is how it finds them, and what to fix first.

Updated 21 Oct 2026 · 3 official sources

How does ChatGPT find businesses?

ChatGPT answers in two ways. Without search, it relies on what the model learned in training, which may be months out of date. With search (which ChatGPT turns on by itself when a question needs current information, such as businesses, places and prices), it rewrites the question into search queries, sends them to search partners and its own index, reads the results and writes an answer with cited sources. OpenAI's help center names Bing as one of those search providers.

For local questions ("plumber near me"), ChatGPT can show a list of businesses with a map. OpenAI hasn't published which listing data it uses for those, so the reliable strategy is to be readable by OpenAI's search crawler, be indexed in Bing, and be described the same way everywhere ChatGPT might read about you.

Which crawlers matter for ChatGPT?

ChatGPT crawlers and what to do with them
User agentDo
OAI-SearchBot
Search

Builds the index for ChatGPT search. OpenAI says sites that opt out won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers (they can still appear as navigational links).

Allow
ChatGPT-User
User-triggered

Visits a page when a ChatGPT user or custom GPT asks about it. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to these user-initiated visits.

Allow
GPTBot
Training

Collects content that may train OpenAI's models. Blocking it does not remove you from ChatGPT search.

Your choice

robots.txt you can copy

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

# Optional: opt out of model training only
# User-agent: GPTBot
# Disallow: /

Not sure what your file says now? Check it free: it reads your robots.txt rule by rule for OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, GPTBot and 18 other AI bots.

What should you fix, step by step?

  1. 01Let OAI-SearchBot in (robots.txt and your firewall)

    Check robots.txt first: a leftover User-agent: * / Disallow: / from a staging site, or a plugin's "block AI bots" switch, will keep you out of ChatGPT search. Our AI Crawler Checker reads your file bot by bot and gives you the exact lines to change.

    Then check your CDN or security plugin. Bot protection (Cloudflare, Wordfence, Akamai…) can block OpenAI's crawlers with a 403 before they ever see robots.txt. OpenAI says changes to robots.txt take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search.

  2. 02Get indexed in Bing

    Because ChatGPT search uses Bing among its providers, a site Bing hasn't indexed starts at a disadvantage. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools (you can import it from Google Search Console in a few clicks), submit your sitemap, and claim your Bing Places listing.

    When you publish or change a page, notify Bing with IndexNow: our IndexNow Submitter does it from the browser. Background: IndexNow explained, and the full Bing and Copilot guide.

  3. 03Put your key facts in plain HTML text

    OAI-SearchBot reads the HTML your server sends. Facts that only exist inside images, PDFs, sliders or text loaded later by JavaScript are easy to miss. Your homepage and service pages should say, in ordinary text: what you do, for whom, where (city and areas served), how to book, hours, and typical prices if you can share them.

    One page per main service, with the questions customers actually ask answered on it, gives an assistant something specific to quote. Run the SEO Health Snapshot for the basics, and see AI crawlers and JavaScript.

  4. 04Add LocalBusiness schema that matches your listings

    Structured data (JSON-LD) states your facts in a form machines don't have to interpret: business type, address, phone, opening hours, area served, price range and your profile links in sameAs. It doesn't guarantee a mention, but it removes ambiguity, and it must say exactly what your listings say.

    Use the most specific type that fits (Dentist, Plumber, Attorney…). Our free Schema / JSON-LD Generator writes it for you.

  5. 05Make your name, address and phone identical everywhere

    AI answers are stitched together from many sources at once: your site, your listings, review sites and directories. When they disagree (an old phone number, a previous address, "St." on one and "Street" on another plus a different suite), the assistant has to guess, and it often picks the version that appears most.

    Write down one canonical version of your business name, address, phone, hours and website, then make every profile match it: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business, Yelp, Facebook, and the directories for your trade. Your Google Business Profile matters here too: other sites copy from it, and it is often what people quote.

  6. 06Earn real reviews where this engine looks

    When someone asks for "the best" or "a trusted" business, assistants lean on review platforms and third-party lists rather than your own claims. For local questions ChatGPT often cites review sites, local news and "best of" lists. Search your category and city in ChatGPT and note which of those sources appear; that is where you want to be listed.

    Ask happy customers for reviews as part of your normal process, reply to reviews (good and bad) and fix the issues they raise. Never buy or script reviews: platforms remove them, and it can get a listing suspended.

  7. 07Check what ChatGPT says about you, then re-check monthly

    Ask ChatGPT the questions your customers ask ("best emergency plumber in Leeds", "dentist open Saturdays near Austin"), not just your business name. Note who gets named, what's said about you, and which sources are cited. Turn on search (the globe icon) so you see the sources. If ChatGPT gets something wrong about you, follow our guide to fixing wrong information.

    Our free AI Visibility Quick Scan does a first pass, and this guide shows how to test by hand.

  8. 08Measure ChatGPT referrals

    Links clicked in ChatGPT answers usually arrive with utm_source=chatgpt.com, so they show up in your analytics as their own source. See how to track AI referral traffic in Google Analytics.

  9. 09Optional: add an llms.txt

    llms.txt is a proposed plain-text summary of your site for AI tools. None of the major assistants has said it uses llms.txt to choose what to cite, so treat it as a cheap extra, not a fix. It takes ten minutes with our llms.txt Generator. More in Does llms.txt actually help?

Sources

We update this guide when ChatGPT changes how it works. Something out of date? Tell us.

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