How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and AI search

How AI assistants find businesses

When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews for "a good family solicitor in Bristol", the tool searches the web or its index, reads a selection of sources and writes an answer. It favours information that is easy to extract, repeated consistently across sources and backed by signals of trust such as reviews and mentions on known sites. The method is often described as retrieval-augmented generation.

1. Say clearly who you are and what you do

Many websites are vague. AI tools cannot recommend you for a service you never name. Each main service should have a page that states, in simple sentences, what it is, who it is for, where you offer it and roughly what it costs. A short summary near the top of the page helps, as does a list of facts: years in business, qualifications, areas served.

2. Be consistent across the web

Your name, address, phone number, services and opening hours should match on your site, your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and directories. When sources disagree, AI tools are less confident and may leave you out or get your details wrong.

3. Collect detailed reviews

AI answers often summarise what reviewers say: friendly staff, quick response, fair prices. Reviews that mention specific services give the AI something concrete to repeat. See our guide to reviews.

4. Get mentioned by credible sources

Lists of recommended businesses, local press, trade associations and comparison articles are frequently used as sources. A mention in a respected local publication can matter more than dozens of low-quality directory links.

5. Answer the questions customers ask

FAQ sections with direct answers, such as "How much does a filling cost?" or "Do you cover Salford?", match the way people phrase questions to AI tools. Keep answers short, factual and up to date.

6. Make your site easy to read for machines

• Use structured data for your business, services and FAQs.
• Do not block AI crawlers in robots.txt unless you have a reason to.
• Consider an llms.txt file that summarises your key pages.
• Keep important text in the page itself, not only in images.

How to check your AI visibility

Ask several assistants the questions your customers would ask, from a few locations, and note who is named. Repeat monthly. Results vary between tools and over time, so look for trends rather than single answers.