Free Checklist · Updated 2026-10

AI Recommendation Checklist: 17 Checks to Get ChatGPT to Name Your Business

What ChatGPT needs to find, trust and repeat before it recommends you, as 17 checks you can do this week.

A checklist of everything that makes your business easier for ChatGPT to find and recommend. Work through it in order and you'll know exactly which gap is keeping you out of the answer.

For: Local businesses, agencies and SaaS founders whose buyers ask ChatGPT 'who should I hire' or 'what's the best tool'.

Baseline: what ChatGPT says today · 3
1. Can ChatGPT reach your site? · 4
2. Can it understand what you do? · 5
3. Do others vouch for you? · 5
4. Keep it accurate · 3
5 fixes to become recommendable this week · 5

How to use it

Run the baseline test first so you know where you stand.
Go through each section and tick what's already true.
Fix unticked items top to bottom. Access problems come before content, and content comes before mentions.

Baseline: what ChatGPT says today

With search on, ChatGPT reads live web pages and shows sources. Without search, it answers from what it learned in training. Test both before fixing anything.

Category prompt

Who are the best {service} providers in {city}? I'm a {type of customer} and care about {price / speed / quality}.

Click Sources under the answer and write down every site it cites. That list is your target list.

Brand prompt

What do you know about {business name} in {city}? What do they offer and what do customers say?

Note anything wrong: old prices, wrong location, missing services.

Shortlist prompt

I'm comparing {your business}, {competitor 1} and {competitor 2} for {job}. Which would you pick and why?

The reasons it gives for competitors are the signals you're missing.

1. Can ChatGPT reach your site?

robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot.
OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't appear in ChatGPT search answers (only possibly as navigational links).
Your firewall or CDN isn't blocking OpenAI's published IP ranges.
Some security settings block AI crawlers by default even if robots.txt allows them.
Your key facts are in plain HTML text, not only in images, PDFs or JavaScript widgets.
Crawlers read text most reliably.
Your site is indexed in Bing (check in Bing Webmaster Tools, free).
Hypothesis: ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers, and Bing has been widely reported as one. Being in Bing is cheap insurance.

2. Can it understand what you do?

One page per service, each saying what, for whom, where and roughly what it costs in the first two sentences.
Clear pages are easy to quote. Vague ones get skipped.
Your homepage names your category in words a buyer would use.
If you say 'growth solutions' and buyers ask for 'SEO agency', you don't match.
An About page with founder name, location, years in business and real credentials.
Gives AI tools concrete facts to repeat.
Name, address, phone, hours and service area are the same everywhere online.
Conflicting facts make you harder to describe confidently.
An FAQ answering the questions buyers actually ask (price, timeline, guarantees).
Many recommendation prompts include a condition like 'affordable' or 'fast'.

3. Do others vouch for you?

AI tends to repeat what many trusted sources agree on. This is a hypothesis drawn from what ChatGPT cites, not a published OpenAI rule, but it matches how search-based answers are built.

Google Business Profile complete, with recent reviews you've replied to.
Reviews are public trust signals and often show up in local answers.
Listed on the 2–3 review or directory sites that ChatGPT cited in your baseline test.
Those are the pages it already reads for your category.
Mentioned in at least one 'best {service} in {city}' or 'best {tool}' list article.
Category prompts often cite list articles.
Real customers or partners mention you on their sites or social profiles.
Independent mentions are harder to fake than your own claims.
If your buyers use Reddit or niche forums, you're mentioned there honestly (no fake accounts).
Forum threads are often cited for recommendation questions.

4. Keep it accurate

Update prices, services and hours on your site and profiles whenever they change.
Search-based answers pull from whatever is live.
Ask old directory listings with wrong info to correct it.
Wrong facts elsewhere can be repeated.
Re-run the 3 baseline prompts monthly and log the answers.
Answers change. A log shows if your fixes work.

5 fixes to become recommendable this week

Unblock OAI-SearchBot
Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see 'User-agent: OAI-SearchBot' followed by 'Disallow: /', remove it.
Rewrite your top service page opening
Two sentences: what you do, for whom, where, and the price range or how pricing works.
Ask five customers for a review
Send a direct link to your Google review form.
Claim the listings ChatGPT cited
Use the Sources list from your baseline test. Claim or create your profile on each.
Pitch one list article
Email the author of a 'best {service}' article ChatGPT cited and give them a reason to include you.

Unlock the full checklist

Everything above, plus the branded PDF to keep.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?

OpenAI hasn't published a ranking formula. With search on, ChatGPT reads live pages from search providers and partners and cites them, so businesses that are clearly described and widely mentioned on the cited pages tend to get named.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

There's no official way to buy a spot in ChatGPT's organic answers. Be wary of anyone selling guaranteed AI placement.

Does blocking GPTBot stop ChatGPT recommending me?

No. GPTBot is for model training. OAI-SearchBot is the one that controls ChatGPT search answers, per OpenAI's crawler docs.

How often should I check what ChatGPT says about my business?

Once a month is enough for most small businesses. Log the prompts and answers so you can compare.