How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Search

Not long ago, almost every conversation I had about online visibility started with Google.

How do we rank higher?

Why has our traffic dropped?

How can we generate more enquiries?

Those questions still matter, but another one now comes up regularly:

Can ChatGPT, Google Gemini or another AI assistant recommend my business?

The answer is yes. ChatGPT and other AI platforms can search the web, draw on online sources and include links or citations in their responses. However, there is no form you can complete or switch you can press to guarantee a recommendation.

The businesses most likely to benefit are those that make it easy for search engines, AI systems and potential customers to establish three things:

Who the business is.

What it does.

Why it should be trusted.

That may sound straightforward, but many websites do not communicate those facts nearly as clearly as their owners believe.

AI has changed how people search for businesses

A traditional Google search might be:

SEO Doncaster

An AI search is more likely to be:

Who are the best SEO companies in Doncaster for a small business that wants personal service?

The second search contains much more context. It asks the platform to compare businesses, interpret suitability and make a recommendation.

The same applies across many industries:

Which independent funeral directors in Leeds have strong reviews?

Who provides operated vacuum excavation across the UK?

Can you recommend an experienced family solicitor near Doncaster?

Which fire risk assessment company works with commercial landlords?

Instead of simply choosing from a list of search results, the user is asking an AI assistant to do part of the research for them.

That creates an additional opportunity for businesses, but it also raises the standard. It is no longer enough for a webpage to contain the right keyword. The business behind that page needs to be clearly understood and supported by credible evidence.

AI has not replaced SEO

AI search has not made SEO irrelevant.

Google’s own guidance is clear that the established principles of SEO remain relevant to its generative AI search features. Google says these experiences are rooted in its core search ranking and quality systems, and recommends clear technical foundations alongside unique, valuable and people-first content.

That makes sense.

Before an AI system can reference or recommend a business, it needs information to work with. Depending on the platform and the question, that information may come from:

• Your website.
• Google Search and other search indexes.
• Your Google Business Profile.
• Business directories.
• Reviews and customer feedback.
• Industry websites.
• News coverage.
• Professional associations.
• Helpful articles, guides and case studies.
• Other credible mentions of the business online.

Good SEO already works across many of those areas.

AI Visibility builds on those foundations. It does not replace them.

There is no single ChatGPT ranking

One important point is often overlooked: there is no fixed league table showing which businesses “rank” first in every AI assistant.

The answer can change according to:

• The wording of the prompt.
• The AI model being used.
• Whether live web search is available or used.
• The user’s location.
• The information already present in the conversation.
• How recent the available information is.
• The sources the platform finds or prioritises.

Two people can ask similar questions and receive different answers. The same person may also receive a different response when asking again several weeks later.

This is why AI Visibility should not be judged from one isolated prompt.

You need to monitor a meaningful collection of questions over time.

How do AI assistants find information about businesses?

There is no single process shared by ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and every other platform.

Some responses rely mainly on knowledge learned during model training. Others use live web search or connected services. ChatGPT Search can provide links to web sources, while other AI assistants can also draw on current web content and provide citations.

Google’s AI features are closely connected to Google Search. Its guidance for appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode therefore concentrates on the same foundations used for normal search visibility: crawlable pages, helpful content, technical accessibility and clear information about products, services and local businesses.

The practical lesson is simple:

AI assistants need credible information they can find, interpret and connect to your business.

The easier you make that process, the stronger your starting position becomes.

AI does not recommend the business shouting the loudest

It is tempting to think that adding “best company” to a homepage will make an AI assistant repeat the claim.

It will not.

A business can describe itself as the leading, largest or most trusted provider in its industry, but those claims carry limited value without evidence.

A stronger approach is to provide facts that can be checked and understood.

For example:

• How long the company has operated.
• Where it is based.
• Which areas it serves.
• Who leads the business.
• Relevant qualifications or partnerships.
• Specific services provided.
• Original case studies.
• Named experts and their experience.
• Genuine customer reviews.
• Membership of recognised organisations.
• Coverage or references from independent sources.

AI Visibility is not about making bigger claims.

It is about making your business clearer and supporting those claims with better evidence.

Start by making your website unmistakably clear

One of the first things I look for when reviewing a website is whether a visitor can quickly answer these questions:

• Who is this business?
• What does it provide?
• Where does it work?
• Who does it help?
• Why is it credible?
• What should the visitor do next?

Businesses frequently assume those answers are obvious because they already know their own company inside out.

A new visitor does not.

Neither does an AI system encountering the business for the first time.

Your homepage should clearly state the business name, primary services, location or service area and main reasons to trust you. Your About page should explain who runs the company, its history and the genuine experience behind it. Your service pages should cover one clear subject in enough depth to be useful.

Clarity is one of the most underrated advantages in both SEO and AI search.

Strengthen the relationship between your business, people and services

Modern search increasingly involves understanding entities and the relationships between them.

An entity can be a business, person, product, place, service or organisation.

For Need More Clicks, some of the important relationships are:

• Need More Clicks is based in Doncaster.
• Andy Roberts founded Need More Clicks.
• Andy has used SEO since 2002.
• Need More Clicks provides SEO, Google Ads and AI Visibility services.
• Need More Clicks works with businesses in Doncaster and across the UK.

Those facts should not be hidden in one paragraph on an obscure page.

They should be communicated consistently across the website, About page, professional profiles, reputable business listings and relevant structured data.

The objective is not to repeat the same sentence everywhere. It is to remove ambiguity about who you are and what you are qualified to discuss.

Publish content that demonstrates genuine expertise

Publishing more content does not automatically improve AI Visibility.

A hundred shallow articles may add less value than five excellent ones.

The strongest content normally does at least one of the following:

• Answers a genuine customer question thoroughly.
• Explains a complicated subject clearly.
• Provides first-hand experience.
• Includes original examples or evidence.
• Challenges common but misleading advice.
• Shows how a problem was solved.
• Provides facts that are difficult to find elsewhere.

Google advises website owners to focus on unique, non-commodity content that is genuinely helpful, including for its AI search experiences. It also warns that generating large volumes of pages without adding meaningful value may breach its policies on scaled content abuse.

That matters because generic content is easy to reproduce.

Experience is not.

A sentence such as this carries more authority:

After reviewing hundreds of websites, one of the most common problems I find is that businesses describe their services clearly but provide almost no evidence of who is responsible for delivering them.

That is much more valuable than another article containing ten tips copied from pages already ranking.

Build authority beyond your own website

Your website is the information you publish about yourself.

AI platforms can also encounter what other sources say about you.

That means independent references matter.

Depending on the type of business, useful sources may include:

• Industry directories.
• Local business organisations.
• Professional associations.
• Local news websites.
• Trade publications.
• Supplier or partner pages.
• Client case studies.
• Event and conference websites.
• Trusted review platforms.
• Relevant list articles.

The emphasis should be on relevant and credible mentions.

Google specifically cautions against chasing inauthentic mentions purely to manipulate generative search visibility. Its systems continue to prioritise quality and combat spam.

Ten weak directory links do not necessarily carry more value than one strong industry reference that accurately explains your expertise.

Keep your business information consistent

Conflicting information makes a business harder to understand.

Common examples include:

• Different versions of the business name.
• Old telephone numbers.
• Previous addresses.
• Inconsistent descriptions of services.
• Outdated opening times.
• Different names for the same person.
• Profiles that have not been updated for years.

For a local company, keeping its Google Business Profile complete and accurate is especially important. Complete and accurate information helps local businesses appear for relevant searches, and Google’s generative AI features may include information about local businesses.

Review your main profiles regularly and correct outdated information rather than allowing contradictions to accumulate.

Encourage genuine customer reviews

Reviews help potential customers judge whether they can trust a business.

They can also provide useful independent context about what the business actually does well.

A funeral director may repeatedly be praised for compassion and communication.

A construction company may receive positive comments about safety, reliability and specialist knowledge.

An SEO consultancy may be recognised for honest advice and long-term results.

That language reinforces the business’s reputation in a way that self-written marketing copy cannot.

The aim should never be to manufacture reviews or force customers to include particular keywords.

Ask genuine customers for honest feedback and respond professionally to what they say.

A smaller collection of detailed, credible reviews is far more valuable than suspicious praise created purely for visibility.

Create strong service and location pages

AI recommendations often begin with a specific requirement:

• A service.
• A location.
• An industry.
• A type of customer.

Your website needs pages capable of answering those requirements.

A vague page called “Our Services” provides limited context.

A dedicated page about “Commercial Fire Risk Assessments in Leeds” gives search systems much clearer information about the service and its geographical relevance.

That does not mean producing hundreds of almost identical town pages.

Each page should serve a genuine purpose and contain useful information for the intended customer.

A strong service or location page may explain:

• What the service involves.
• Who needs it.
• Where it is available.
• The process followed.
• Relevant qualifications or standards.
• Frequently asked questions.
• Examples of completed work.
• Why the provider is credible.

This helps traditional rankings, local search and AI understanding at the same time.

Use structured data properly

Structured data can help search engines interpret information about your organisation, people, services, articles and other content.

Useful schema types may include:

• LocalBusiness or a more specific business type.
• FAQPage, where appropriate and accurately reflected on the page.

Structured data is supporting information, not a shortcut to rankings or AI recommendations.

It must also agree with the visible content. Marking up expertise, services or reviews that users cannot see is not a credible strategy.

Google has stated that no special AI file or new form of markup is required for inclusion in its generative search features. Standard SEO and properly implemented structured data remain the sensible approach.

Make important content accessible

Brilliant content has limited value if search systems cannot access it.

Check that important pages are:

• Included in your internal navigation.
• Linked from relevant pages.
• Available without requiring a login.
• Not blocked by robots directives.
• Fast enough to use comfortably.
• Usable on mobile devices.
• Supported by clear internal links.

Search Console remains one of the most useful tools for checking whether Google can discover and index your content and for monitoring how pages perform in Search.

Technical SEO may not sound as exciting as AI Visibility, but it remains part of the foundation.

Can you optimise specifically for ChatGPT or Gemini?

You can improve the information available to AI platforms, but there is no guaranteed optimisation formula for one assistant.

Be cautious of anyone promising:

• Guaranteed ChatGPT rankings.
• Guaranteed inclusion in Gemini answers.
• A special piece of code that forces AI citations.
• Secret prompts that permanently train an AI to recommend you.
• An instant submission service for every major AI platform.

The practical work is less glamorous:

• Improve your website.
• Clarify your entities.
• Publish better content.
• Develop credible mentions.
• Keep business information accurate.
• Build a genuine reputation.
• Make your pages technically accessible.
• Monitor the questions that matter.

That is slower than installing a plugin, but it is also far more likely to create lasting value.

A practical AI Visibility checklist

1. Search for your business manually

Ask several AI platforms factual questions about your business:

What does [business name] do?

Where is [business name] based?

Who runs [business name]?

Which services does [business name] provide?

Look for missing, outdated or inaccurate information.

2. Test commercial prompts

Use realistic prompts a potential customer might ask:

Who are the best [service providers] in [location]?

Which companies provide [specialist service] in the UK?

Can you recommend an experienced [professional] near me?

Record whether your business appears and which competitors are mentioned.

3. Review the cited sources

Where citations or links are provided, inspect them.

Which websites are influencing the answer?

Are competitors benefiting from strong directories, guides, reviews or industry mentions that you lack?

4. Audit your website’s entity information

Check that the business name, founder, services, history, locations and credentials are clear and consistent.

5. Strengthen weak supporting pages

Improve your About page, service pages, case studies, author biographies and customer proof.

6. Review your wider online presence

Correct outdated directory listings and professional profiles.

7. Repeat the process

AI answers change. Monitor a set of commercially important prompts rather than treating one response as definitive.

How we use Otterly to monitor AI Visibility

Manually testing prompts can provide a useful snapshot, but it becomes difficult when you need to monitor several platforms, locations, services and competitors regularly.

Need More Clicks is an Otterly Agency Partner. We use Otterly to track carefully selected prompts across AI search platforms, measure changes in brand visibility and examine which websites are being cited.

This helps us answer questions such as:

• How often is the business mentioned?
• Which competitors appear more frequently?
• Which domains are being cited?
• Is visibility improving?
• Are AI platforms describing the business accurately?
• Which topics or prompts reveal the strongest opportunities?

The software provides monitoring and evidence. It does not replace the strategic work required to improve visibility.

The real value comes from connecting what the reports show with SEO, content, digital PR, entity optimisation, reviews and the wider authority of the business.

How long does improving AI Visibility take?

There is no standard timescale.

Some changes can be reflected relatively quickly when an AI tool uses live web search and discovers updated information.

Other systems may rely partly on older model knowledge or search indexes that update at different speeds.

Progress also depends on where the business starts.

A well-established company with a strong website and credible online mentions may need relatively small improvements.

A business with an unclear website, inconsistent listings and little independent recognition will have more work to do.

AI Visibility should be treated as a long-term part of online marketing rather than a one-off technical task.

Frequently asked questions about AI recommendations

Can ChatGPT recommend a local business?

Yes. ChatGPT can provide business recommendations and, when web search is used, may include links to current online sources. The answer can vary according to the prompt, available sources, location and conversation context.

Can I submit my business directly to ChatGPT?

There is no general submission form that guarantees ChatGPT will recommend a business. Focus on making accurate and authoritative information about the company available across the web.

Does Google Gemini use Google Business Profile information?

Google’s search AI experiences can include information about local businesses, and Google recommends maintaining complete and accurate Business Profile information. Gemini can also connect with Google services in certain contexts, although the information used depends on the product and user settings.

Do backlinks affect AI Visibility?

Credible links and mentions can help establish authority and make useful sources discoverable. However, there is no universal formula proving that a particular number of backlinks will produce an AI recommendation. Relevance, quality and context matter more than collecting links indiscriminately.

Do reviews help a business appear in AI results?

Reviews contribute to a business’s wider online reputation and give platforms independent information about customer experiences. Their precise influence varies by platform and query, so reviews should be developed for genuine customer trust rather than treated as an isolated AI ranking factor.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

Not for Google’s AI search features. Google says it does not use llms.txt or special AI text files for inclusion in its generative search experiences. Other systems may operate differently, but an llms.txt file should not take priority over strong technical SEO and valuable website content.

Is AI Visibility the same as SEO?

They overlap significantly. SEO helps businesses become discoverable and understandable in search engines. AI Visibility looks more specifically at how brands are represented, mentioned and cited within AI-generated answers. Strong SEO foundations support both.

Can a business guarantee it will be recommended?

No. Recommendations are generated by independent platforms using changing systems and sources. Any agency promising guaranteed inclusion should be treated cautiously.

My advice

Do not abandon SEO to chase AI.

Do not publish hundreds of weak articles because someone has renamed the process “GEO”.

Do not manufacture mentions or reviews.

And do not assume there is a hidden switch that will make ChatGPT recommend your company.

Concentrate on becoming a business that deserves to be recommended.

Build a website that explains your services clearly.

Publish content based on genuine expertise.

Keep your business information accurate.

Earn strong reviews.

Develop reputable third-party mentions.

Demonstrate the experience of the people behind the company.

Make your pages accessible to search engines.

Then monitor how AI platforms interpret the evidence you have created.

AI does not simply recommend the business shouting the loudest. It is more likely to surface businesses it can understand and support with credible information.

That is why I see AI Visibility as an extension of good SEO rather than its replacement.

Need More Clicks has worked in search since long before AI assistants became part of everyday marketing conversations. Today, we combine that SEO experience with specialist AI Visibility monitoring to help businesses understand how they appear across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other platforms.

To find out whether AI assistants currently recognise and recommend your business, contact Need More Clicks for an AI Visibility review.