How do you get found in ChatGPT?

The short answer

Be easy to find, easy to read and easy to trust.

There’s no button to press. ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot and Perplexity write their answers from what they can reach on the web, and from business listings and reviews.

So the work is the same everywhere: let their crawlers in, keep your key facts in plain page text, keep your listings complete and matching, and get talked about by sites they trust.

Google says there’s nothing extra you need to do for its AI features beyond being in Search. And there’s no official way to claim a business profile in ChatGPT yet, though that looks like it’s changing (chapter six).

By Ross Thompson, Director of Technology & Innovation at ZERO FAFF, Durham. Checked and updated 9 November 2026.

A word before we start

Why we wrote this

There’s a lot of confident advice about “AI SEO” out there, and much of it is guesswork. We do this work for a living, so we wanted one place with only what the companies themselves say.

Every claim here comes from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Anthropic or Perplexity’s own documents, or from named reporting, and it’s all sourced at the back. Where something isn’t confirmed, we say so.

This changes fast. We’ll update this book when it does.

Contents

What’s in the book

1. How AI finds a business4
2. Let them in6
3. Easy to read8
4. Listings and reputation9
5. Where do you stand?10
6. New: ChatGPT business profiles11
7. How to tell if it’s working13
8. What you can skip14
9. Good questions, straight answers15

Chapter one

How AI finds a business

Each AI assistant has its own way of reading the web, but they all lean on the same few things.

• ChatGPT. Its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, plus third-party search providers that OpenAI doesn’t name.
• Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. Built on Google Search itself. If you’re not in Google, you’re not in these.
• Microsoft Copilot. Bing’s index.
• Perplexity and Claude. Their own search crawlers.
• Siri and Spotlight. Apple’s crawler, and Apple Business listings.

Chapter one, continued

Three things they all need

• To be allowed in. If a crawler is blocked, it can’t read your site, however good it is.
• To understand you. Plain text that says what you do, where, and for whom.
• A reason to trust you. Listings, reviews and other sites that back up what you say.

Chapter two

Let them in

Most AI companies run two crawlers: one gathers pages to train their models, the other finds pages to answer people. Block the wrong one and you vanish.

Chapter two, continued

Check you’re not blocking them by accident

Your site’s rules for crawlers live in a file called robots.txt, at yoursite.co.uk/robots.txt. If you don’t want to share your pages for training, you can block the training bots and still be found.

Hosting and security settings can block crawlers too. Cloudflare, which sits in front of a lot of websites, has blocked AI crawlers by default since July 2025 unless you say otherwise. Plenty of owners don’t know.

Chapter three

Easy to read

An AI tool can only recommend what it can understand.

• Key facts in the page text. What you do, where and how to get in touch. A 2024 study found several AI crawlers don’t run JavaScript, so don’t hide it behind scripts or in images.
• A page per service. And for each place you genuinely cover, with something true and specific to say.
• Plain answers. Prices, areas, how long things take. The questions customers actually ask.
• Structured data. It helps Google show more in results. Google says no special kind is needed for AI.

Chapter four

Listings and reputation

AI tools don’t just read your website. They check it against everything else said about you.

• Google Business Profile. Google says it can help you show in AI answers as well as Search.
• Bing Places and Apple Business. Both free. Apple Business feeds Siri and Apple Maps, and is free in the UK since April 2026.
• The same details everywhere. Name, phone, website and area, matching on every listing.
• Reviews and replies. Recent, real and answered.
• Being mentioned. Local news, trade bodies, suppliers and partners talking about you.

Chapter five

Where do you stand?

Tick what’s true for your business today.

1. Search engines and AI crawlers can reach your siteNothing in your robots.txt, hosting or firewall is blocking them.
2. Your key facts are in the page textWhat you do, where and how to get in touch, not only in images or behind a script.
3. A page for each main serviceAnd for each place you genuinely cover, with something true to say.
4. Your Google Business Profile is completeCategories, services, hours, photos and recent posts.
5. You’re on Bing Places and Apple BusinessBoth are free, and feed Copilot, Siri and Apple Maps.
6. The same details everywhereName, phone, website and area match on every listing.
7. Recent reviews, with repliesA steady flow, not a burst from two years ago.
8. Other trusted sites mention youLocal press, trade bodies, suppliers or partners.

Chapter six

New: ChatGPT business profiles

On 10 November 2026, OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT, in beta. In its Business Hub, you can claim your business, keep its details up to date and see how often ChatGPT mentions you.

You prove the business is yours by phone, email, your website’s domain or Shopify, then pass an identity check. It’s free, and you don’t need to advertise.

Chapter six, continued

What to do now

Claim your profile, and check every detail matches your website and your other listings. Then keep it current.

And keep going with the rest of this book: ChatGPT still writes its answers from what it can find on the web.

Chapter seven

How to tell if it’s working

• Google Search Console. A report, live for every site since August 2026, shows how often you appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It counts appearances, not clicks. More in our news.
• Bing Webmaster Tools. Shows how often Copilot and Bing’s AI answers cite your pages.
• Your analytics. Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and similar appear as referrals.
• Your enquiries. Ask every new customer how they found you. It’s still the best measure there is.

Chapter eight

What you can skip

• An llms.txt file. Google says you don’t need AI text files, and no big AI company says it uses one for search.
• Special “AI” schema. Google says there isn’t any you need to add.
• Chopping pages into bite-sized chunks. Google says there’s no ideal length.
• Anyone promising a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT. Nobody can.

Good questions, straight answers

What people ask

Good questions, continued

The final chapter

What happens next

Finding out how AI sees your business takes three steps, and the first one is just a chat.

1. A quick chat

   Tell us your website and what you’d like to be found for. No hard sell, zero faff.

2. A proper look

   We check your site, your listings and how you show up in Google and AI answers, then tell you what matters most.

3. A plan and a fixed price

   If you go ahead, we do the work and report on it in plain English, enquiries included.

The small print

Where it all came from

• OpenAI, its crawlers and what blocking each does
• Google, AI features and your website, and its AI optimisation guide
• Google, its crawlers, including Google-Extended
• Google, the Search Console AI report
• Microsoft, AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
• Apple, Apple Business, and Applebot
• Perplexity and Anthropic, their crawlers
• Cloudflare, blocking AI crawlers by default
• Vercel, AI crawlers and JavaScript (December 2024): sells hosting
• Pew Research Center, clicks when an AI summary appears (US)
• OpenAI, Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT (10 November 2026), and OpenAI Help, setting up your business

All checked 9 November 2026, and chapter six on 11 November 2026. This moves quickly, so check before you act.