Guides · Updated 2026-10-18

How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT (UK)

Nobody can make ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot recommend your business, and anyone who promises a guaranteed spot is guessing or selling. What you can do is make sure the places these assistants read about local firms describe you clearly, accurately and in the same words everywhere. This guide covers the steps that the AI and search companies themselves describe, with a checklist at the end.

How we checked: every claim on this page links to the company's own documentation or to UK law. We read each source on 18 October 2026. Where a company doesn't say how its assistant picks businesses, we say so rather than guess. No affiliate links on this page. See how we make money.

What actually happens when someone asks ChatGPT for a local business

When a customer types "find me a reliable electrician in Leeds" into ChatGPT, it can search the web before it answers. OpenAI's help article on ChatGPT search says ChatGPT can use your approximate location (worked out from your IP address) to find local results, that it rewrites your question into search queries, and that it "sometimes partners with other search providers". On mobile, results can include a map. OpenAI also warns that results can be incomplete or wrong.

The other assistants work in a similar way, and each one leans on a source you can do something about:

So the job isn't "optimising for AI". It's getting the basics right in Google, Bing and Apple, and on your own website, because that is what the assistants read.

What nobody can promise you

Be wary of anyone selling "guaranteed ChatGPT rankings". Here is what the companies say:

• Google: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." (Google Business Profile Help)
• Google again, on AI Overviews and AI Mode: you don't need special AI files, special markup or "special schema.org structured data" to appear. (Google Search Central)
• OpenAI shows labelled ads to some UK users on the Free and Go plans, and says ads don't influence ChatGPT's answers. Paying for an ad is not the same as being recommended. See does ChatGPT have ads in the UK?

Answers also change from one person to the next. Location, the exact wording of the question and the search results on the day all play a part.

Step 1: Let the AI search crawlers read your website

If your website blocks the crawlers that power AI search, you can't be cited. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers", and it recommends allowing it (OpenAI crawlers). Perplexity says the same about PerplexityBot (Perplexity crawlers).

Search crawlers and training crawlers are separate. OpenAI's GPTBot collects training data and is set independently of OAI-SearchBot. Google-Extended controls whether Google can use your content for training its Gemini models; it doesn't change how you appear in Google Search (Google). You can block training and still allow search.

Open yoursite.co.uk/robots.txt in a browser. If you see "Disallow: /" under OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Bingbot or Googlebot, ask whoever runs your website to remove it. A robots.txt that allows search but blocks training looks like this:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Copy prompt

Only add the GPTBot lines if you don't want your content used for training. That is a business choice, not a ranking trick.

Step 2: Complete and verify your Google Business Profile

This is the single most important listing for UK local searches, and the Gemini app reads it directly through Google Maps. Google's guidance on improving your local ranking says:

• Verify the business, so Google knows you're authorised to represent it.
• Keep the information complete and accurate: "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results."
• Add photos, set correct opening hours and respond to reviews.
• Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence.

Practical points for UK firms:

1. Use your real trading name. Don't add keywords such as "Best Plumber Leeds" to the name field; Google's guidelines for representing your business ask you to represent the business as it's recognised in the real world, across signage and stationery, and breaking them can lead to suspension.
2. Pick the most specific primary category. Google asks for the fewest categories that describe your core business, and one profile per business.
3. If you work at customers' homes, set a service area rather than showing your home address.
4. List your services with a sentence each. These are the words that match what customers ask.
5. Add holiday hours before bank holidays.

For help writing posts and replies, see how to use AI for your Google Business Profile and our profile notes on Google Business Profile.

Step 3: Claim Bing Places (Copilot reads Bing)

Microsoft says Copilot sends a short search query to Bing and uses the results in its answer. Bing's own local listings come from Bing Places for Business, which is free. Many UK businesses never claim it, which leaves Bing to piece your details together from elsewhere.

Bing Places offers an option to import your details from Google Business Profile, as Microsoft staff explain on Microsoft Q&A. Importing saves typing, but check every field afterwards: categories in particular don't always map across, and the import copies any mistakes too. Fix Google first, then import.

Step 4: Claim your Apple Maps place card

Siri and Apple Maps use Apple's place cards. Apple lets businesses claim and edit them for free; Apple announced the tool as Business Connect in 2023 and it now sits within Apple Business. You'll need an Apple Account and to verify the business. Add the same name, address, phone number, hours and photos as on Google.

Step 5: Use exactly the same name, address and phone number everywhere

Your name, address and phone number (often shortened to NAP) should match on your website, Google, Bing, Apple, Companies House, your trade body listing and every directory. Google's own advice is about accuracy and completeness rather than a magic formula, but the logic is simple: if one site says "Smith & Sons Plumbing, Unit 4" and another says "Smith Plumbing Ltd, 4 Mill Lane" with a different number, any system that compiles answers from several sources has less reason to be confident.

A quick way to audit this:

1. Write your official version once, with one phone number format.
2. Search Google for your phone number in quotes, then your business name and town.
3. Fix every listing that differs, including old addresses and numbers.

Step 6: Get genuine reviews, and reply to them

Google says prominence is based partly on "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have", and that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking" (Google). Reviews are also the text that assistants quote when they describe what customers think.

Ask every happy customer, at the moment they're happiest: when the job is finished, the invoice is paid or they say thank you. A short text with your review link works well; see our guide to automatic Google review request tools.

Stay inside the law. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans businesses from writing or commissioning fake reviews, or reviews that hide an incentive such as a discount or free product (legislation.gov.uk, Schedule 20 paragraph 13). If you publish reviews on your own site, you must not hide negative ones while showing positive ones, and you must take reasonable steps to prevent fake reviews. The CMA's fake reviews guidance explains what this means in practice.

Reply to every review, good and bad, politely and with specifics.

Step 7: Make your website easy to understand

Google's AI features guidance lists the same best practice as for normal search: allow crawling, link pages together, put important content in text rather than only in images, and keep your Business Profile up to date.

For a small business, that means:

• A page for each main service, saying what you do, where and roughly what it costs or how you price it.
• Your towns and areas written in text, not only shown on a map image.
• Your accreditations (Gas Safe, NICEIC, TrustMark and so on) written out with your registration number where you have one.
• Answers to the questions customers ask you on the phone. Assistants answer questions; pages that answer them are easy to quote.

Schema: useful, but not magic

Structured data (schema.org markup) tells search engines facts about your business in a format they can read. Google supports LocalBusiness structured data and asks you to use the most specific type, such as Plumber or Electrician, with the name and address as required properties. It also says the markup must match what's visible on the page. Google is clear that it is not required for AI Overviews or AI Mode.

Two rules people often break: don't mark up review stars about your own business (Google only recommends aggregateRating for sites that capture reviews about other businesses), and don't add details that aren't on the page. A simple, honest example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "name": "Smith & Sons Plumbing",
  "url": "https://www.example.co.uk/",
  "telephone": "+44 113 496 0000",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "4 Mill Lane",
    "addressLocality": "Leeds",
    "postalCode": "LS1 1AA",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "areaServed": ["Leeds", "Wakefield", "Bradford"]
}
</script>

Copy prompt

Test it with Google's Rich Results Test before you publish.

Step 8: Earn mentions on other sites (citations)

A citation is any other website that names your business, ideally with your address and phone number. Google counts links from other websites towards prominence. Good UK citations for a small firm include your trade body or scheme register, your local Chamber of Commerce, trade directories you actually get work from, local news coverage, and suppliers or partners who list installers.

Quality beats quantity. Paying for bulk directory submissions often just creates more inconsistent listings to fix later.

Step 9: Check what the assistants say about you

Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, for example "who are the best-reviewed roofers in Swindon?" and "what are [your business name]'s opening hours?". Note whether you appear, what they say and which sources they cite. ChatGPT and Copilot show their sources; Microsoft says Copilot's Sources button shows the exact Bing query it used.

If an assistant gets a fact wrong, find the source it cites and fix that. For tracking Google specifically, see how to monitor Google AI Overviews and what is Google AI Mode?

The checklist

Common mistakes

• Paying for "AI SEO" guarantees. No company can guarantee a recommendation; Google says it can't be paid for.
• Blocking every AI bot. Blocking GPTBot (training) is fine if you want; blocking OAI-SearchBot (search) removes you from ChatGPT search.
• Buying or incentivising reviews. It has been illegal in the UK since April 2025.
• Setting it up once and forgetting it. Old hours and old phone numbers are the commonest errors assistants repeat.

Related

• How to use AI for your Google Business Profile
• Automatic Google review request tools (UK)
• UK AI price table
• UK small business AI statistics 2026

FAQ

Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business?

No. You can't buy a place in ChatGPT's answers. OpenAI shows labelled ads to some UK users on the Free and Go plans and says ads don't influence the answers. Google says the same about local rankings: there's no way to pay for a better one.

Do I need an llms.txt file or special AI schema?

Not for Google. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Normal good practice, a crawlable site with clear text and an accurate Business Profile, is what it asks for.

How long does it take to show up?

There is no fixed time. Google and Bing listings can take days to verify and publish, and assistants only reflect changes once their search sources have updated. Check monthly and keep a log rather than expecting an overnight change.

Sources

• OpenAI Help: ChatGPT search
• OpenAI: overview of OpenAI crawlers
• Google Search Central: AI features and your website
• Google Business Profile Help: tips to improve your local ranking
• Google Business Profile Help: guidelines for representing your business
• Google Search Central: LocalBusiness structured data
• Gemini Apps Help: find places and get directions
• Microsoft Support: how web search works in Copilot Chat
• Bing Places for Business
• Perplexity: crawlers
• Apple Newsroom: Apple Business Connect
• legislation.gov.uk: DMCC Act 2024, Schedule 20 paragraph 13
• CMA: fake reviews guidance