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Guide · 7 min read

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

By MarketPup ·

More people now ask an AI assistant "who's a good groomer near me?" or "what's the best tool for this?" before they search. The good news: assistants mostly recommend businesses they can find, read and trust on the open web. That's work you can do.

Short answer: make your website easy for AI crawlers to read, state the plain facts about your business in one place, use the same name and details everywhere, and get mentioned on the sites assistants already trust. Nobody can guarantee a mention, but these steps make one much more likely.

How do AI assistants decide what to recommend?

When an assistant answers a question about businesses, it usually does two things. It draws on what it learned in training, and it runs a live web search and reads the top pages it finds. Many assistants pull those results from search engines such as Bing, Google or Brave, or from their own crawlers. So if search engines can't find you, assistants usually can't either.

Then the assistant looks for agreement. A business that shows up with the same name, location and description on its own site, on maps and in directories and reviews looks real and safe to recommend. One that appears once, with mixed details, gets skipped.

1. Let AI crawlers read your site

  • Check your robots.txt. If it blocks crawlers such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Meta-ExternalAgent, assistants may not read or cite you. Allow your public pages and block only private areas.
  • Make sure your words are in the HTML. Many AI crawlers don't run JavaScript, so a site that builds every page in the browser can look empty to them. Our SEO checklist for AI-built apps shows how to check.
  • Submit a sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing also supports IndexNow, which tells it the moment a page changes.

2. Put the plain facts on one page

Assistants answer questions like "what is this company?" and "where is it based?" in a sentence or two. Give them that sentence. An About page should say, in the first lines, what you are, who you serve, where you are, who runs it and how to reach you. Write it as questions with short, direct answers.

  • Use headings phrased like real questions: "How much does it cost?", "Do you work outside Charlotte?"
  • Answer in the first sentence under each heading, then add detail.
  • Publish your prices if you can. Assistants quote numbers they can find.

3. Add structured data

Structured data (schema markup) is a block of code that labels your facts for machines: your business name, type, address, founder, services, prices and FAQ answers. Use Organization or LocalBusiness markup on your home page, FAQPage markup on question pages and Article markup on guides. Then link your other profiles with the sameAs property, so a crawler knows your Google profile, LinkedIn page and directory listings are all the same business.

4. Use the same name and details everywhere

This is the step most small businesses skip. Your name, address, phone number, website and one-line description should match on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, social profiles and directories. If your name is close to another company's, say so plainly on your About page, for example "not connected with" the other one, so assistants don't mix you up.

5. Get mentioned where assistants look

  • Maps and local profiles: a complete Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, with real reviews.
  • Directories for your field: agency directories for agencies, app directories for apps, pet directories for pet businesses.
  • Communities and press: genuine answers in forums your buyers read, local news, podcasts and partner pages.
  • Reviews: ask every customer to review you where your buyers look. Never buy, fake or filter them.

6. Publish answers, not just posts

Write guides that answer the exact questions your customers ask an assistant: "how much should a groomer charge in Charlotte?", "where should I list my new app?" Lead with the answer, keep it accurate, date it, and update it when things change. Assistants favor pages that answer clearly and stay current.

7. Check how assistants describe you

Once a month, ask a few assistants the questions your buyers would ask, such as "best marketing agency for AI app builders" or "what is [your business]?" Note whether you're named, what's said and which pages are cited. Fix anything wrong at the source: your site and your profiles. Keep the results, because it's the only way to see progress.

Quick checklist

  • robots.txt allows AI search crawlers on public pages.
  • Key text is in the HTML, not only in JavaScript.
  • Sitemap submitted to Google and Bing, with IndexNow if you can.
  • An About page with plain facts in question-and-answer form.
  • Organization or LocalBusiness, FAQPage and Article schema, with sameAs links.
  • The same name, address and description on every profile.
  • Google Business Profile, Bing Places and the directories your buyers use.
  • Real reviews and genuine mentions.
  • A monthly check of what assistants say about you.

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