How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
To get recommended by ChatGPT (and other AI assistants), make your business easy to understand and trust: complete your Google Business Profile, add structured data that names your business type and area, publish an FAQ that answers real customer questions, build recent reviews, and keep your name, address and phone consistent everywhere. Below is exactly how, step by step.
Why ChatGPT recommends some businesses and not others
When you ask ChatGPT for "the best electrician in Toronto," it doesn't pull from a single ranking. It assembles an answer from what it has learned and, increasingly, from a live web search. It favours businesses it can clearly identify (no ambiguity about who you are, where you work, what you do) and independently verify (a real Google profile, consistent details, genuine reviews). Businesses that are vague, inconsistent or invisible to structured data get left out — even good ones.
So the work isn't tricking the model. It's removing every reason for it to be unsure about you.
The 6 steps
1. Complete and verify your Google Business Profile
This is the single biggest signal. Claim it, verify it, and fill in everything: exact category, service area, hours, phone, website, and photos. Post to it regularly. AI assistants lean heavily on Google's local data, so an empty or unclaimed profile is the fastest way to be left out.
2. Add structured data (schema) to your website
Schema is code that spells out, in a format machines read perfectly, "this is a [business type], in [city], serving [area], phone [number], hours [...]." Without it, AI has to guess from your page text. With it, you remove the guesswork. Most local sites don't have it — which means adding it puts you ahead of most competitors immediately.
3. Publish an FAQ that answers real questions
Write out the questions customers actually ask — pricing, areas covered, emergency availability, how to book — and answer them plainly on your site, marked up with FAQ schema. This is the content AI assistants quote most directly, because it's already shaped like an answer.
4. Build recent reviews — and reply to them
Volume and recency matter more than a perfect average. A business with 30 reviews in the last year reads as more active and trustworthy than one with 60 reviews that stopped two years ago. Ask every happy customer, and reply to each review you get.
5. Keep your NAP consistent everywhere
Your Name, Address and Phone should be byte-for-byte identical across your website, Google, directories and social profiles. Inconsistencies make AI uncertain it's the same business, and uncertainty loses you the recommendation.
6. Get cited on sites AI already trusts
Listings on reputable local directories and mentions on local websites act as corroboration. The more trusted sources agree on who you are, the more confidently an assistant will name you.
The catch: these signals decay. Reviews go stale, profiles drift out of date, competitors add schema too. Getting recommended by AI isn't a one-time setup — it's an ongoing habit. That's the part most owners don't have time for.
Let an agent do it for you
Chantry runs this entire checklist automatically. It scores how often AI assistants name you today, applies the fixes to your website and Google Business Profile, keeps them fresh week after week, and re-tests whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI actually recommend you — so you can watch the number climb. Start with a free scan and see your current AI visibility in about a minute.