How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google's AI

When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overview for "a good home health agency near Glendale" or "a body shop that works with my insurance," the answer usually names two or three businesses. If yours isn't one of them, that customer may never see your website at all.

This is no longer a small group of early adopters. In BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, 45% of consumers said they use AI tools to find local businesses, up from 6% a year earlier. And the AI is far pickier than Google search: SOCi's study of nearly 350,000 business locations found ChatGPT recommended just 1.2% of them, against about 36% that appeared in Google's local map results.

What the AI is looking for

AI assistants don't have a secret directory. They read what's already published about you, mostly your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories and your own website, and they recommend businesses they can describe with confidence. Three things matter most.

• Reviews act as a filter. In the SOCi data, locations ChatGPT recommended averaged 4.3 stars. A low rating, or very few reviews, can keep you out of the answer entirely.
• Your details have to agree everywhere. If your hours, address or phone number differ between Google, Yelp, Facebook and your website, the AI is less sure who you are, and less likely to name you.
• Your website has to answer real questions. AI tools quote pages that say plainly what you do, where, for whom and how. Vague slogans give them nothing to work with.

Seven things to do this month

1. Complete your Google Business Profile. Every category, service, service area, hour, photo and attribute that applies. Gemini and Google's AI draw heavily on it.
2. Claim Bing Places and Apple Business Connect. Some AI assistants lean on Bing's data, and Siri and Apple Maps use Apple's. Both take an afternoon.
3. Make your name, address and phone identical everywhere. Check Google, Bing, Apple, Yelp, Facebook, industry directories and your website footer.
4. Give each service its own page. One page per service, written the way a customer would ask about it: what it is, who it's for, what it costs to get started, how long it takes, which areas you serve.
5. Add a short FAQ to each service page. The questions your front desk hears every week are exactly what people type into ChatGPT.
6. Build a steady flow of reviews, and reply to them. Recent reviews matter, and so does responding. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers how to do it within the rules.
7. Get mentioned by others. Local news, industry associations, chambers of commerce and partner websites all count. AI tools trust what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself.

How to check where you stand

Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and ask the question your customers would ask, in their words, with your city. Try three or four versions. Note who gets named and what the AI says about them. That list is your real competition now, and it is often different from who ranks first on Google.

Then ask each tool directly about your business by name. If it gets your hours, services or location wrong, that's the first thing to fix.