More people now ask ChatGPT questions like "Who's a reliable electrician in Utrecht?" or "Welk boekhoudkantoor helpt ZZP'ers in Eindhoven?". The answer usually names only a few businesses. Understandably, owners want to know how to be one of them.
The short answer: make sure ChatGPT's search crawler can read your website, state clearly on your site what you do, where and for whom, keep your business details identical everywhere, and earn mentions and reviews on other trustworthy sites. That makes your business easy to find and easy to verify. It can't guarantee a mention, and anyone who promises one is overselling.
Two Ways ChatGPT Knows About Businesses
1. What the model learned during training. ChatGPT's underlying models were trained on large amounts of text from the web and other sources. Well-known businesses may be "remembered" this way, but that knowledge has a cut-off date and is often thin or outdated for small local businesses.
2. What it finds when it searches the web. For many questions, especially current or local ones, ChatGPT can search the web and base its answer on the pages it finds, showing those sources as links. For a small business, this is the route that matters most, because it uses up-to-date information, including your website.
You can't do much about the first route. You can do a lot about the second.
Five Things You Can Actually Influence
1. Let ChatGPT's search crawler read your site
OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT's search features. OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers" (OpenAI's crawler documentation). Check your robots.txt, and any "block AI bots" setting at your host or CDN. Our guide to which AI crawlers to allow explains the difference between search, training and user-triggered bots.
2. Say clearly what you do, where, and for whom
AI answers are assembled from text. If your homepage says "Quality you can trust" but never says "bathroom renovations in Haarlem and surroundings", there's little to match to a customer's question. Name each service, state your service area in words, and answer the questions customers ask before they get in touch: prices or price ranges, availability, how it works.
3. Keep your business details identical everywhere
Your business name, address, phone number, opening hours and services should match on your website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles. Conflicting details make it harder for any system to be confident it has the right business.
4. Be mentioned by others
When an assistant recommends businesses, other sources often count: review platforms, local directories, industry associations, local news, partner and client websites. You can't write these yourself, but you can earn them: ask happy customers for reviews, keep directory listings complete, and take part in your local business community.
5. Keep it current
Outdated prices, old opening hours and discontinued services on your website are a reason for an assistant to prefer someone else, or to give customers wrong information about you.
What No One Controls
- Answers vary. The same question can produce different businesses for different people, wordings, locations and days.
- Models and products change. What works today may be weighted differently after the next update.
- You can't see the ranking. There is no public "ChatGPT ranking" and no official report of how often you're mentioned.
- Nobody can guarantee a mention. Not us, not an agency, not a tool. Be wary of anyone selling guaranteed placement in AI answers.
How to Check Where You Stand
- Write five questions a real customer would ask, including your town or region.
- Ask them in ChatGPT in fresh chats, and note which businesses are named and which sources are linked.
- Repeat a week later. Patterns across several runs tell you more than one screenshot.
- In your website analytics, look for visits referred from chatgpt.com. That number is usually an under-count, but it shows whether people click through.
Our 15-minute AI self-check has a step-by-step version, including Google's AI answers and other assistants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does good SEO help me appear in ChatGPT? A: Largely, yes. Crawlable pages, clear content, accurate business details and a good reputation help in both. They're not identical, though: ranking well in Google doesn't guarantee a ChatGPT mention.
Q: If I block OpenAI from training on my site, will I disappear from ChatGPT? A: According to OpenAI, training (GPTBot) and search (OAI-SearchBot) are separate controls. Blocking GPTBot doesn't block ChatGPT search.
Q: Do reviews matter for AI recommendations? A: They're one of the few independent signals of whether customers are happy, and review platforms are among the sources assistants can find. Genuine, recent reviews help people and systems alike. Never buy or write them yourself.
Q: How long does it take before ChatGPT mentions my business? A: There's no fixed timeline, and no guarantee it will. Fixing access and clarity on your website is quick; building reviews and independent mentions takes months.
Q: Can I pay to be recommended? A: Not in the answers themselves, as far as we know. Treat any offer of "guaranteed ChatGPT placement" with suspicion.
See What ChatGPT Says About You
We'll run five of your customers' questions on ChatGPT, Google and one more assistant and send you a one-page summary within three working days. Get a free AI visibility check, or read how our AI search optimization works.