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

Why AI recommendations matter now

More people now ask an AI assistant who to choose instead of scrolling through ten blue links. They type something like "best accountant for freelancers in Manchester" or "which invoicing tool should a small agency use" and get a short answer with a handful of names.

If your business is one of those names, you are on the shortlist before the person has visited a single website. If you are not, the conversation often ends there. That is the whole reason to care about generative engine optimisation, usually shortened to GEO.

How AI assistants decide who to name

Each assistant works a little differently, and none of them publish a full recipe. But the patterns are consistent enough to act on. When an assistant answers a question about businesses, it tends to lean on three things.

1. What it can read about you

Assistants with web access, such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers, pull from pages they can crawl. If your site is blocked to their crawlers, thin, or hides key facts in images and PDFs, there is little for them to use.

2. Whether others mention you

Assistants are cautious. They prefer businesses that appear in places they already trust: well-known directories, industry lists, review sites, local press and comparison guides. A business mentioned in several independent places looks safer to recommend.

3. How well you match the question

If someone asks for "a fractional CFO for SaaS startups" and your site only says "finance services", you are a weak match. Specific, plainly worded pages win specific questions.

Step 1: Let AI crawlers read your site

Start with the basics, because nothing else works without them.

• Check your robots.txt file. Make sure you are not blocking crawlers such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot or Google-Extended unless you have a reason to.
• Make sure your important pages load as real HTML text, not only through scripts that crawlers may not run.
• Add an llms.txt file: a short plain-text summary of what your business does and links to your most important pages. It is a new convention and not every assistant uses it yet, but it is cheap to add.

Step 2: Answer the questions your customers really ask

Write down ten to fifteen questions a real customer would type into ChatGPT before choosing a business like yours. Use their words, not industry jargon. Then make sure your site answers each one clearly.

• Who you help: the type of customer, industry or size.
• What you do: each service on its own page, described in plain words.
• Where you work: cities, regions or "remote, worldwide".
• What it costs: a price, a range, or what changes the price. Pages that explain pricing are among the most quoted.
• How you compare: honest notes on who you are a good fit for, and who you are not.

Put the direct answer in the first sentence or two of each section, then add detail. Assistants often lift the first clear statement they find.

Step 3: Add structured data

Structured data, also called schema, is a small block of code that tells search engines and AI what a page is about in a format machines read easily. You do not need to see it on the page.

• Organization or LocalBusiness on your home and contact pages: name, logo, address, phone, opening hours.
• Service or Product on the pages that describe what you sell.
• FAQPage on pages that answer common questions.
• Article on blog posts like this one.

Most website builders and SEO plugins can add these for you. Test any page with Google's Rich Results Test to confirm it is valid.

Step 4: Get mentioned where AI already looks

This is the part most businesses skip, and it is often the difference between being named and not. Look at who the assistants name today for your key questions, then look at where those businesses are mentioned.

• Industry directories and "best of" lists in your field.
• Review platforms your customers use.
• Partner pages, associations and supplier directories.
• Local or trade press, podcasts and newsletters.

Aim for honest, useful listings. Bought links and spammy directories can hurt more than they help, both in Google and in how trustworthy you look.

Step 5: Keep your details consistent everywhere

If your name, address, phone number or services differ between your website, your Google Business Profile and directories, assistants have to guess which is right. Inconsistent details make you a riskier recommendation. Pick one version and use it everywhere.

Step 6: Check the answers, then improve

AI answers change from week to week, and they differ between assistants. So treat this as an ongoing loop rather than a one-off project.

1. Ask each assistant your key questions and note who it names.
2. For each question where you are missing, read why the named businesses were chosen: what do their pages have that yours do not?
3. Fix the gap: a new page, a clearer pricing section, an FAQ, a directory listing.
4. Ask again a few days after the change goes live.

You can do this by hand, or use a tool. Visiblio asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity your customers' questions every week, reads why others get named, writes the missing pages for your approval and re-checks after each one goes live. You can run a free check to see where you stand today.

What not to do

• Do not stuff pages with keywords or list every city in the country. It reads badly and assistants are good at spotting it.
• Do not invent reviews, awards or numbers. Being caught out is far worse than being missed.
• Do not expect overnight results. Changes need to be crawled and picked up, which can take weeks.
• Do not ignore Google. Many assistants draw on pages that already rank well, so classic SEO still matters. Our Google checklist covers it.

Questions