AI visibility guide
Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my business?
The short answer
Almost always for one of these reasons: AI can't read your site, your site doesn't answer the question the customer asked, few other sites mention you, your details don't match from one site to the next, or the question favours bigger brands. Sometimes it's just variation: the same question gets a different answer the next day.
Before you change anything, find out which one is yours.
Six causes and how to check them
| Cause | How to check |
|---|---|
| The crawler can't get in | Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Claude-SearchBot next to ‘Disallow’. Check whether your CDN blocks bots too. |
| The content isn't in the HTML | View the page source (not the inspector). If your services aren't in the text, a crawler won't see them either. |
| Your site doesn't answer the question | Search your own site for the customer's question. If the answer is spread over three pages, or missing, AI takes it from someone else. |
| Few mentions on other sites | In your test, look at the sites the AI cites. Are you on any of them? |
| Details that don't match | Compare your name, address, hours and services on your site, your Google profile and directories. |
| Bias towards big brands | If the question is broad (‘best CRM’), a well-known brand usually wins. Try local or niche questions. |
Don't mistake variation for absence
AI answers aren't fixed. A 2026 study found that about 65% of cited sources change from one day to the next, and that a single run tells you very little (Schulte et al., preprint). One answer on its own tells you nothing. If you're missing from many different questions, asked on several days, that's a real problem.
A real case: our own site
On 31 October 2026 we scanned pablodpavon.com, the professional site of this guide's author, for the Argentine market (es-AR). The technical foundation scored 94/100: the site can be crawled, indexed and read. Even so, AI named it in 0 of 13 answers about its field. A sound technical base is necessary, but it isn't enough to get you named. The most likely gaps are mentions on other sites and pages that answer customers' specific questions.
What to do next
Start with what blocks you (crawlers, HTML), move on to pages that answer questions, and leave off-site work, the slowest part, for last. The steps are in getting mentioned in ChatGPT, and how to measure shows how to tell whether it worked.
Common questions
Has the AI got something against my business?
No. Assistants repeat what they find in the sources they read. If your business isn't there, or appears with different details, it gets left out.
My competitor is smaller than me and shows up. Why?
They may have a page that answers exactly that question, appear in the directory or publication the AI cites for your field, or simply have more consistent details. Look at the sources the answer cites: that's usually where the reason is.
Sources
- Schulte, Bleeker and Kaufmann, ‘Don't Measure Once’ (preprint) (2026-04-08)
- Chen et al., big-brand bias in AI answers (preprint) (2025-09)
- OpenAI, crawlers (2026-10)
- Perplexity, crawlers (2026-10)
- Anthropic, crawlers (2026-04-07)