How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

ChatGPT and Google's AI recommend businesses they can find, read and see named on other sites. So the work splits in two. First, make sure their crawlers can reach your pages and that Google and Bing have them in their indexes. Then give the AI reasons to name you: clear answers on your own site, and your name on sites you do not own.

If you are working out how to get recommended by ChatGPT, this is the order we would do it in. The first half is exactly what we set up on havstock.com this month, and we show you the list below.

The short answer

To get recommended by ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews, do four things in this order:

1. Let the crawlers in. Check that your robots.txt file does not block Googlebot, Bingbot or OAI-SearchBot.
2. Get indexed by Google and Bing. Submit a sitemap to both. ChatGPT search leans on Bing.
3. Answer buyer questions on your own pages. Put the answer in the first lines.
4. Get named on other sites. Reviews, directories, local press, podcasts and videos.

Steps 1 and 2 take an afternoon. Step 4 never really ends, and the best evidence we have says it matters most.

How ChatGPT and Google's AI pick who to recommend

Neither one keeps a list of approved businesses. When someone asks a question, the AI searches the web, reads what comes back and writes an answer. The businesses it names are the ones that keep turning up in those results, from sources it trusts.

Two details change what you should do about it.

Google's AI uses Google's normal index

Google is plain about this. Its guide to AI features and your website says a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. There are no extra technical rules. No special file. No special markup.

The same guide says these answers use "query fan-out". The AI runs several related searches on subtopics, not just the one the person typed. So your page can be quoted for a question it never ranked for.

That matches what Ahrefs found across 15,000 long-tail questions in July 2025. About 80% of the pages AI assistants cited did not rank anywhere in Google for the question that was asked. Ranking still helps. It is just not the only way in.

ChatGPT search leans on Bing

OpenAI has never published a full list of where ChatGPT search gets its results. The clearest thing it has said came from its VP of Engineering in a 2024 Reddit Q&A: ChatGPT search uses "a set of services and Bing is an important one" (reported by Search Engine Journal). There are signs OpenAI now runs some of its own index as well. Either way, a business that is missing from Bing makes ChatGPT's job harder.

ChatGPT also has its own search crawler, called OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI's crawler page says it is used to show websites in ChatGPT's search results. It also says a change to your robots.txt takes about 24 hours to reach its search systems.

Here is how the main AI answers line up:

Most small businesses have set up Google Search Console at some point. Very few have ever opened Bing Webmaster Tools. That is the cheapest gap on this whole page to close.

The AI can only recommend a business it can find. Most of what gets sold as "AI SEO" skips that part.

Step 1: Let the AI crawlers in

Type yourdomain.com/robots.txt into a browser. This small file tells crawlers what they may read. You want to see that nothing blocks these:

• Googlebot, for Google Search and its AI answers.
• Bingbot, for Bing, Copilot and part of ChatGPT search.
• OAI-SearchBot, for ChatGPT search.

Watch for one trap. Some hosts and security tools now add AI blocking rules for you. On another site we run, Cloudflare's managed robots.txt had quietly added blocks for GPTBot and ClaudeBot. That one did not hurt ChatGPT search, because GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler, not its search crawler. But it is the kind of setting you want to choose on purpose, not find by accident.

You can say no to training and yes to search. OpenAI treats them as separate crawlers: GPTBot for training, OAI-SearchBot for search. Block the first if you like. Never block the second if you want to be found.

Last, make sure your key facts sit on the page as plain text. Your services, the areas you cover, your prices if you show them. Google's guide asks for important content to be available as text. A price list inside an image, or a service list that only appears after a script runs, is harder for any crawler to read.

Step 2: Get indexed by Google and Bing

Being allowed in is not the same as being in. Do these once:

1. Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. Then check the Pages report for pages Google found but chose not to index.
2. Set up Bing Webmaster Tools and submit the same sitemap. Bing lets you import your site straight from Search Console, so this takes minutes.
3. Turn on IndexNow. It lets you tell Bing about a new or changed page the moment it goes live, instead of waiting for a crawl. Many site platforms have it built in. Google does not take part in IndexNow, so Google still finds new pages through your sitemap.

None of these promise anything. IndexNow's own FAQ says a submission does not guarantee a page gets indexed. What they do is remove the reasons a page might be missed.

Step 3: Write pages that answer the question first

When a buyer types "best dental clinic near me" into ChatGPT, the AI goes looking for a clean answer to lift. Give it one.

• Answer in the first lines. The first 40 to 60 words of a page should answer its main question in plain words. Then explain.
• Use question-style headings. "How much does teeth whitening cost?" does more work than "Our pricing".
• Give each service its own page. Do the same for each town if you cover more than one. "Emergency plumber in Leeds" is a page. A list of every service on one page is not.
• Put one full fact in each section. A sentence that names the service, the price and the town can be quoted on its own. A paragraph of adjectives cannot.
• Show who is behind it. Real names, real photos, real reviews.

Why the single fact matters: in a small check we ran on 15 Google searches in September 2026, the AI Overviews attached their source links to single sentences and bullets, not to whole sections. The heading got a page picked up. A clear sentence got it named. That was one day, from one country, so treat it as a pattern to test, not a law.

If your site is thin to begin with, fix the pages that turn visitors into enquiries first. We cover those in how to turn your website into a lead generation machine.

Step 4: Get your name on other sites

This is the step that matters most, and the one most guides rush past.

The AI trusts what many sources agree on. If ten sites name you as a good dentist in your town, you are a safe answer. If only your own site says so, you are a risky one.

The data points the same way. Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands in 2025 to see which signals track with showing up in Google's AI Overviews. A score of 1 would be a perfect match and 0 no link at all. Mentions of the brand across the web scored 0.664. Backlinks scored 0.218. These are links in the data, not proof of cause, and Ahrefs says so. But the gap is wide.

Being talked about beat being linked to. That changes where you spend your time.

Where to get named:

• Reviews. Google reviews feed Google's AI. For ChatGPT, Yelp now matters too: Yelp signed a deal to bring its reviews, ratings and photos into ChatGPT's answers to local questions (reported by Axios in July 2026). We explain how to build a steady flow of reviews in our guide to a review and reputation system.
• Google Business Profile. Google's AI guide tells businesses to keep their Business Profile information current. Fill in every field. Use the same name, address and phone number as your website.
• Directories and associations in your trade. The industry body, the local chamber, the "find a pro" list your customers already use.
• Local press and podcasts. One interview on a local show is a mention on a site you do not own.
• YouTube. In our September check, YouTube videos were cited in most of the Google AI answers we saw. A short video answering a common customer question counts.
• "Best of" lists in your area or niche. If a local blog ranks the best clinics in town, ask to be considered, and give them something real: a quote, a useful number, an offer for their readers.

Do not fake any of this. Fake reviews break the rules on every platform. Planted forum posts get found, and one angry thread about it becomes a mention you did not want.

What to skip

llms.txt files

An llms.txt file is a plain text summary of your site that some people claim AI tools read. Google says you do not need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in its AI features. We have seen no good evidence that ChatGPT reads one when it searches. Making one does no harm. It will not get you recommended.

Schema sold as an AI trick

Schema is code that labels a page for search engines. Google says there is no special schema you need for its AI features. We use basic Article schema on our blog, because it helps search engines file each post correctly. We do not expect it to get us quoted, and neither should you.

Anyone who guarantees a spot in ChatGPT

Nobody controls what ChatGPT says. Answers change from day to day and from person to person. If someone sells "guaranteed AI rankings", walk away.

What we did on havstock.com

We moved havstock.com off our old site builder to Cloudflare Pages on 24 September 2026. We used the move to set up steps 1 and 2 properly. This is the full list:

What we cannot tell you yet is whether it worked. We set this up in the last week of September 2026. We have no AI citations to report from it, and we will not pretend we do. We will know from the reports in the next section.

We also looked for a study on how long a new page takes to earn its first AI citation. We could not find one. Be wary of anyone who quotes you a number of days.

The plumbing is days of work. The mentions are months. Plan your time the same way.

How to check if AI recommends you

1. Ask like a buyer. Once a month, start a fresh chat in ChatGPT with search on and ask the questions your customers ask. "Best dental clinic near me." "Who can fix a leaking roof in [your town]?" Do the same on Google. Write down who gets named and which sites get cited. Answers vary, so ask each question a few times.
2. Google Search Console. Google added a Generative AI performance report in June 2026. It shows how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not show clicks, or what people typed.
3. Bing Webmaster Tools. Its AI Performance report, added in February 2026, shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI answers, and which pages.
4. Google Analytics. Look for visits where the source is chatgpt.com. Those are people who clicked a link to you inside ChatGPT.
5. Searches for your name. When AI starts naming you, more people tend to search for your business by name. Search Console shows that too.

Do it yourself or hand it off?

Steps 1 and 2 are an afternoon's work if your site is simple. Do them yourself. You do not need an agency to submit a sitemap.

Steps 3 and 4 never stop. New pages every month. Asking for a review after every job. Pitching the local paper. Keeping your profiles in sync. This is where most owners stall, because it competes with running the business.

That ongoing work is part of what we do. Havstock Unlimited includes SEO, AEO and blog posts, plus AI chat on your site that answers questions and books calls, for one flat monthly fee. If you are still deciding how to get this kind of help, our guide to how a marketing subscription works explains the model and who it does not suit.

This will not suit you if you need leads this month. AI visibility builds slowly. If you need calls booked next week, ads are the faster lever, and that is where to start.

FAQ

Can I pay to get my business recommended by ChatGPT?

No. ChatGPT started testing ads in 2026, but OpenAI says ads are clearly labelled and do not influence its answers. The unpaid recommendation still comes from what the web says about you. Be wary of anyone who sells a guaranteed place in ChatGPT's answers.

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

Nobody knows, and nobody has published a study on it. OpenAI says robots.txt changes reach its search in about 24 hours. Getting indexed can take days or weeks. Getting named depends on reviews and mentions, which build over months. Plan for a slow build and check once a month.

Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing?

OpenAI has not published a full list. Its VP of Engineering said in 2024 that ChatGPT search uses several services and that Bing is an important one. There are signs it now runs some of its own index too. Being in both Google and Bing covers you either way.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

No. Google says you do not need AI text files to appear in its AI features, and we have seen no good evidence that ChatGPT reads one when it searches. Making one does no harm. Spend the hour on reviews and clear service pages instead. Those are what get read.

Does schema markup help me get recommended by AI?

Not directly. Google says there is no special schema you need for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Basic schema still helps search engines understand your pages and can earn rich results in normal search. Add it for those reasons. Do not pay for it as an AI ranking trick.

Does my Google Business Profile affect AI recommendations?

For Google's AI, yes. Google's own guidance tells businesses to keep their Business Profile current. Fill in every field, add photos and reply to reviews. For ChatGPT, keep your Yelp listing current too, since Yelp has a deal to bring its reviews into ChatGPT's local answers. Match your details everywhere.

Does this work for Claude, Perplexity and Copilot too?

Mostly, yes. Copilot runs on Bing, so Bing Webmaster Tools covers it. Perplexity uses its own crawler, PerplexityBot, so do not block it. Claude's web search uses Brave Search, which only crawls pages Googlebot is allowed to crawl. Get the Google and Bing basics right and you cover most of the ground.

Start with one check today

Open your robots.txt. Then search for your business name on Bing. If either one shows a problem, fix it before you write a single new page. Everything else about how to get recommended by ChatGPT sits on top of those two being right.