How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT

You cannot pay or ask ChatGPT to recommend you, and nobody can promise it. What you can do is make your business easy to find and easy to describe: a complete Google Business Profile, matching details on every listing, a page for each service and town, and real reviews.

Last updated October 19, 2026

PickCheck is a free AI recommendation checker for local service businesses, made by Hive Asset Group, LLC.

Start with what a customer sees

When someone asks an AI assistant "best plumber in Prior Lake MN," the assistant has to find businesses and decide what to say about them. If the assistant can search the web, it reads the pages it can reach. Your job is to make those pages clear and true. Think of it as handing the assistant a clean business card.

No one can guarantee a mention. AI answers change from run to run. These steps just remove common reasons to be skipped. For the short version, see does AI recommend my business.

The 7 steps

Fill out your Google Business Profile all the way. Add your main service, your hours, your service area, your phone number and your website. Add photos. Google says a business is matched to a search by relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. That is Google's own guidance, and it is a good base for anything else.
Make your name, address and phone number match everywhere. Use the exact same spelling on your website, your Google profile, Bing, Facebook, Yelp and the trade directories you use. "Smith Plumbing LLC" in one place and "Smith Plumbing and Drain" in another makes you look like two businesses.
Claim your Bing listing. Bing Places lets you import your Google Business Profile, so it takes little time. Many AI tools with web search use search engines to find pages. Claiming a second major listing is cheap, and it also helps Bing searchers.
Give each service and each town its own page. One page for "water heater repair in Savage" says more than one page that says "we do everything." Write it like you talk: what you fix, where you go, what it costs to get a quote, how to call.
Let search crawlers in. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and it recommends allowing that crawler in your robots.txt file. Ask whoever built your site to check this file. It is a five minute job.
Ask happy customers for reviews, then answer them. Ask in person or by text, right after the job. Reply to every review, kind or not. Never buy reviews.
Get named by real places. Your chamber of commerce, a local sponsor page, a supplier's "find an installer" list. Each is one more true place that says what you do and where.

Quick table: what to fix, and how long it takes

Fix	Time	Who can do it
Finish Google Business Profile	30 to 60 minutes	You
Match name, address, phone	1 to 2 hours	You
Claim Bing listing	About 30 minutes	You
Service and town pages	A few hours each	You, or a writer
Check robots.txt	5 minutes	Your web person
Ask for reviews	2 minutes per customer	You and your team

Times are our rough estimates for a small business, not measured figures.

How to check by hand

You do not need a tool to see where you stand. Open ChatGPT (turn web search on if you see the option). Type the question a customer would: "best [your trade] in [your town]." Write down who is named.

Now try two more wordings: "who should I call for [problem] in [your town]" and "[your trade] near me in [your town]." Answers vary run to run, so ask each question twice, on two different days. One answer is a snapshot, not a ranking.

If you are named, note what it says about you. If you are not, note who is, and compare their website and listings with yours. You can also read how to fix your Google Business Profile for AI assistants.

Want a faster first look?

PickCheck's free scan asks one web-connected AI assistant the same kind of question for your town and trade, and shows whether you are named and who is named instead. It takes about 30 seconds. It does not test ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity by name. A paid Fix Kit ($29, one time) turns what it finds into a step-by-step plan.

If your steps need web pages written, our sister tool Paperboy writes search articles for local businesses.

Free, about 30 seconds. Enter your town and trade.

Run the free scan

FAQ

Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business?

We found no way to pay for a place in an AI assistant's answer. Google also says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking on Google. Do the steps above and check by hand.

How long until ChatGPT recommends me?

Nobody can say. Answers change from run to run, and pages take time to be found again. Check by hand every few weeks and keep notes.

Do I need a website?

It helps a lot. A website gives assistants a clear place to read what you do and where. A complete Google profile alone may be enough to start.

Should I block AI crawlers?

If you want to be shown in ChatGPT search answers, OpenAI says to allow its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in robots.txt. Your web person can set this.

Does replying to reviews matter?

Google says more reviews and good ratings can help local ranking, and that replying shows you value feedback. We cannot say how much any one assistant uses them.

Does PickCheck check ChatGPT?

No. PickCheck tests one web-connected AI assistant. You can check ChatGPT yourself using the steps above.