AI visibility guide
How to get your business mentioned in ChatGPT
The short answer
There's no listing and no fee for appearing in ChatGPT's answers. When it searches the web, ChatGPT reads pages and repeats the brands it finds in sources it trusts. Your job is to make your site readable, answer your customers' questions and get other sites talking about you.
A mention can't be guaranteed: the same question can name different brands on two runs. You can raise the odds, and you can measure them.
Two ways to show up
ChatGPT can name your brand in the answer or cite your site as a source, with a link. They don't always go together: sometimes it names you while citing a directory, and sometimes it cites your site for a fact without recommending you. Measure them separately.
What ChatGPT needs to be able to do with your site
- Get in. OpenAI's search crawler is OAI-SearchBot. If your robots.txt blocks it, ChatGPT won't use your site as a source when it searches. GPTBot is different: it's for training, and blocking it doesn't take you out of search.
- Read it without JavaScript. If your services, prices or FAQs only appear after JavaScript runs, a crawler may never see them.
- Understand who you are and what you do. Your name, town, what you sell and who it's for, said plainly on the homepage and on each service page.
What tends to count off your site
For recommendation questions (‘which accountant would you recommend in Leeds?’, ‘best invoicing software for sole traders’), assistants rely mostly on third parties: the press, comparison pages, reviews and directories. Being mentioned there, with the same name and description, usually counts for more than anything your own site says.
The sources each engine cites change fast. Semrush found Reddit's share of ChatGPT answers fell from about 60% to about 10% in roughly six weeks in 2025. Don't bet everything on one kind of source.
Five steps to help ChatGPT name you
Run the test
Write five questions the way a customer who doesn't know you would, without your brand, and note everything: who ChatGPT names and which sites it cites. Ask again on another day.
Open the door
Check your robots.txt and your firewall or CDN let OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Googlebot in.
Answer the question
For each important question, a page that answers it in the title and the first paragraph, with facts people can check: area, lead times, guide prices, who it's for.
Get your facts straight
The same name, address, phone number and description on your site, your Google Business Profile and the directories for your field.
Earn mentions
Be present where ChatGPT already looks for your field: the press, comparison sites and directories it cited in your test. No paid reviews, no bought links.
Common questions
Does ChatGPT use Google to search?
OpenAI doesn't publish which index it uses each time. What it does document is its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot: let it in and your site can be a source.
Should I write a blog post for every question?
Only if it really answers it and adds something of your own. Keyword stuffing cut visibility by about 8% in the 2024 GEO study, and thin pages made in bulk are a risk in Google too.
Does blocking GPTBot take me out of ChatGPT?
Not out of search: GPTBot is the training crawler. The search one is OAI-SearchBot. You can block one and allow the other.
Sources