How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants

When a buyer asks ChatGPT “who are the best roofing contractors near me?” or “which suppliers can repair this part?”, they get a short list, not ten blue links. If your company isn’t on that list, you don’t get a second chance. This guide explains how AI assistants pick who to recommend, and the changes that make your business the obvious answer.

How AI assistants decide who to recommend

AI assistants don’t keep a secret ranking of businesses. When someone asks for a recommendation, most of them search the web, read what they find, and summarize it. ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews all work this way, citing the pages they used.

1. 1A buyer asks“Who are the best commercial roofers near me?”
2. 2The assistant searchesIt runs web searches, much like a person would.
3. 3It reads and comparesYour site, listings, reviews and other sources.
4. 4It answers and citesA short list of names, with links to its sources.

That means three things decide whether you’re named:

• Can the assistant find you? Your site has to be crawlable and indexed, the same as for Google.
• Can it tell what you do, where and for whom? Vague pages (“solutions for your needs”) give it nothing to work with.
• Does the rest of the web agree? Assistants cross-check. Directory listings, reviews, industry sites and news that describe you the same way make you a safer answer.

AI search isn’t a separate channel you have to hack. It rewards the same thing buyers do: a clear, credible company that’s easy to understand.

Make sure assistants can read your site

Start with access. If an assistant’s crawler can’t reach your pages, nothing else matters.

• Check your robots.txt. Make sure you aren’t blocking the crawlers assistants use to search, such as Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search) and PerplexityBot. Some security plugins and CDNs block unfamiliar bots by default.
• Don’t hide content behind scripts. If your services only appear after JavaScript runs, or inside images and PDFs, some crawlers will miss them. The important words should be in the page’s HTML.
• Keep it fast and stable. Pages that time out or error don’t get read.

Say exactly what you do, where and for whom

Assistants match questions to pages. The more precisely your pages describe your business, the more questions you can be the answer to.

• One page per service. “Commercial roof replacement”, “Storm damage repair” and “Roof inspections” each deserve a page, not a bullet on the homepage.
• Name your service area and industries. If you serve Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, or supply the aerospace aftermarket, say so in plain words on the pages that matter.
• Lead with the answer. Open each page with a sentence that could be quoted on its own: who you are, what you do, and for whom.
• Show your credentials. Certifications, licenses, years in business and notable customers are exactly what an assistant looks for when it calls a company “trusted”.

Add structured data

Structured data (schema markup) is a block of code that describes your business in a format machines read directly: your name, address, phone, services, service area, reviews and more. It doesn’t change how the page looks.

The types that matter most for a service business are Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList. Test your markup with Google’s Rich Results Test before you rely on it.

Answer the questions buyers actually ask

Assistants love pages that answer a question directly. Make a list of what prospects ask you on the phone, then answer each one on your site:

• How much does it cost, roughly, and what drives the price?
• How long does it take?
• What certifications do you hold?
• Do you work with companies like mine?

A short FAQ on each service page, written in plain language, gives an assistant something worth quoting. Keep the answers honest and specific.

Be consistent everywhere you’re listed

If your website says one thing and your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn page and directory listings say another, an assistant can’t be sure which is right, so it’s less likely to name you.

• Use the same company name, address, phone number and description everywhere.
• Claim and complete your profiles on the directories your industry uses.
• Ask happy customers for reviews on Google and the platforms buyers in your industry check.

Check what assistants say about you today

Before you change anything, ask. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google and try the questions your buyers would ask: “best [service] in [city]”, “[product] suppliers for [industry]”, “is [your company] any good?”. Note who gets named, what sources are cited, and whether anything said about you is wrong.

Repeat the same questions every month. It’s the simplest way to see whether your changes are working.

Is your website ready for AI search?

0 of 8 yes

• Search engine and AI crawlers aren’t blocked in robots.txt
• Every service has its own page
• Each page opens with who you are, what you do and for whom
• Your service area or industries are named in plain words
• Certifications, licenses and notable customers are easy to find
• Service pages answer real buyer questions in a short FAQ
• Your site has structured data (Organization or LocalBusiness, Service)
• Your name, address, phone and description match everywhere you’re listed

There’s room to grow

Assistants probably struggle to describe your business today. Start with access and one clear page per service.

Get a free audit of your site

Your free Leadsure audit includes this check: what ChatGPT says when someone asks for a company like yours, and what to fix first.

Frequently asked questions

Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?

No. Nobody controls what AI assistants say, and anyone who promises a guaranteed recommendation is guessing. What you can do is make your business the clearest, most credible answer available.

Is AI search optimization different from SEO?

It builds on the same foundation: a well-structured site that search engines can read. The difference is the emphasis on being understood and quoted (clear answers, consistent facts, structured data) rather than only ranking in a list of links.

How long does it take to show up in AI answers?

It depends on how often the assistants re-read your pages and how competitive your market is. Fixing access and clarity can help within weeks; building the wider reputation that makes you a safe answer takes longer.