How ChatGPT finds local businesses
When a question benefits from current information, ChatGPT searches the web. OpenAI's help center says ChatGPT sometimes works with outside search providers, and when it does, it typically rewrites the question into one or more targeted searches for them; the privacy notes for that feature point to Microsoft, among others. It also estimates your general location from your IP address, so a question like good roofers near me can become a search for roofers in your city.
For questions about nearby businesses, OpenAI says ChatGPT may share an approximate location with trusted third-party providers of local information, such as business listings, and on phones the answer can include a map. In other words, ChatGPT leans on the same search indexes and listings you already depend on.
Step 1: let ChatGPT's search crawler in
OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot to surface websites in ChatGPT search. Its documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. Check your robots.txt file and any firewall or security service in front of your site, and allow the crawler. OpenAI notes that robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to register.
GPTBot is a different crawler, used for training OpenAI's models. The two settings are independent, so you can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot.
Step 2: make your business facts match everywhere
OpenAI warns that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect, so do not hand it conflicting versions of your business to choose between. Use the same business name, phone number, address or service area, hours and list of services on your website, your Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business, which Microsoft offers free. Then hunt down old directory listings that still show a former number or address.
Step 3: publish pages an assistant can quote
Write a page for each service with the plain facts people ask about: what it costs and why, how long it takes, which areas you cover, and which licenses and warranties you carry. Put a direct answer near the top, then the detail.
Research backs specificity. In the 2023 study that coined the term generative engine optimization, adding statistics, quotations and cited sources to pages raised their visibility in AI-written answers by about 30 to 40% on one of the authors' measures, while stuffing in keywords did little or nothing. That was a lab benchmark rather than a test of local businesses, but the lesson carries over: concrete, sourced detail beats repetition.
Step 4: earn real reviews and mentions
Google says its AI features can show what people are saying about a business across the web, including blogs, videos and forums, and ChatGPT's search answers cite web sources in a similar way. Ask every satisfied customer for a review on Google, keep profiles current on the sites your customers use, and get listed where your trade association or local chamber publishes members. Skip shortcuts: Google's guidance notes that chasing inauthentic mentions is not as helpful as it might seem.
How to check where you stand
Run this check every month or two, because answers shift as their sources change:
- Ask ChatGPT, with search on, the questions your customers ask, including the town, for example who repairs furnaces in Brighton, Michigan. Note who it names and which sources it cites.
- Open the cited sources. If a directory shows your old phone number, fix it there.
- Watch your analytics for visits referred from chatgpt.com, and count the calls and forms they produce, not just the visits.
- Compare the answer with the same question in Google, and fix the weaker of the two first.
Related questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not in its regular answers. OpenAI's crawler documentation describes a separate bot that checks pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, so advertising exists alongside the answers, but nothing in OpenAI's documentation offers a paid route into the answers themselves. Those depend on what ChatGPT can find and verify.
Does blocking GPTBot keep me out of ChatGPT?
No. GPTBot gathers content for training OpenAI's models, while OAI-SearchBot finds sites for ChatGPT search. OpenAI treats them as independent settings, so you can block training and still allow search. Blocking OAI-SearchBot is what keeps you out of ChatGPT search answers.
Do I need an llms.txt file for ChatGPT?
OpenAI's crawler documentation centers on robots.txt rules for its bots and does not ask for one. Google says its Search ignores llms.txt files. A clear, crawlable website with accurate facts does more than any special file.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor instead of me?
Usually because it found more, or clearer, information about them: a page that answers the exact question, consistent listings, more reviews or more mentions in the sources it cited. Read the sources it shows for them and close those gaps on your own site and profiles.