How Does ChatGPT Choose Which Businesses to Recommend?
- 4 hours ago
- 9 min read
People are increasingly asking ChatGPT to help them choose products, services and suppliers.
They might ask for the best accountant for an ecommerce company, a suitable venue for a corporate event or an SEO agency that understands AI search. Instead of returning a standard list of links, ChatGPT can research the options and provide a shortlist within its answer.
That creates an obvious question for business owners: how does ChatGPT decide which companies to recommend?
There isn’t a published formula that guarantees inclusion. OpenAI states that ChatGPT Search ranks results using several factors designed to provide relevant and reliable information. Placement is never guaranteed.
Even so, we can understand many of the signals that help AI platforms find, assess and compare businesses. Most are rooted in established SEO, clear business information and evidence from trusted sources across the web.
Does ChatGPT Search the Internet Before Recommending a Business?
ChatGPT can search the web when a question requires current information.
According to OpenAI’s guidance on ChatGPT Search, the platform may turn a user’s question into one or more targeted searches. It can then review the results, conduct further searches and use the information it finds to build an answer.
For example, someone might ask:
Which SEO agencies can help a medium-sized UK business appear within ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews?
ChatGPT could explore several connected searches, such as:
AI SEO agencies in the UK
Agencies offering ChatGPT visibility tracking
SEO agencies with AI search case studies
Companies providing Google AI Overview reporting
Reviews of suitable SEO agencies
It may compare agency websites with reviews, business listings, articles, industry coverage and other online sources.
This means the wording on your website matters, but it isn’t the only information that can shape the final answer.
ChatGPT Must Be Able to Find Your Website
Your website needs to be accessible before it can become a useful source for ChatGPT Search.
OpenAI uses a web crawler called OAI-SearchBot to surface websites within ChatGPT’s search features.
If the crawler is blocked through your robots.txt file, your pages may not be eligible to appear within ChatGPT Search answers.
Website owners should check that:
OAI-SearchBot is permitted in robots.txt
OpenAI’s published search crawler addresses aren’t blocked
Important pages load correctly
Content is available as readable text
Pages aren’t hidden behind scripts or login screens
Internal links make services and supporting content easy to find
Canonical tags point towards the correct pages
Allowing the crawler doesn’t guarantee that your website will be used. It simply ensures the door hasn’t been shut before the assessment begins.
It is also worth knowing that OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot serve different purposes. OAI-SearchBot supports search visibility, while GPTBot relates to the development of OpenAI’s models. A website can allow the search crawler while making a separate choice about GPTBot.
Relevance to the User’s Question
The most basic requirement is relevance.
ChatGPT needs enough evidence to connect your business with the service, product, problem or location included within the prompt.
If you provide international SEO services but only mention “SEO” in a short paragraph on your homepage, the connection may be too weak. A dedicated page explaining your international service, experience, markets and approach provides much clearer information.
Your website should state:
What your business does
Who your services are for
The problems you solve
Where you operate
The sectors you understand
The products or services you provide
What makes your offer different
How customers can work with you
Clarity is more important than repeatedly forcing a keyword into the copy.
A potential customer may describe their need in a way you hadn’t expected. Useful pages should therefore cover the wider subject, not just one exact search phrase.
Clear Service and Product Information
AI platforms need enough detail to understand whether a business is suitable.
A vague promise such as “we provide innovative solutions” says very little. It doesn’t explain the actual service, the customer or the expected result.
A stronger service page should answer practical questions:
What is included?
Who is the service suitable for?
What is your process?
What experience do you have?
Which locations or markets do you cover?
How do you measure the work?
What happens after someone contacts you?
Are there any important limitations?
Why might someone choose you rather than another provider?
This doesn’t mean every page needs to be enormous. It needs to be complete enough to remove uncertainty.
Specific details make a business easier to understand. They also give AI platforms more information to use when matching a company with a detailed customer request.
Evidence of Genuine Experience
A business can say it is experienced, trusted and results-driven. Most competitors will say the same thing.
Evidence is far more useful.
This could include:
Detailed case studies
Results and performance data
Examples of completed work
Client testimonials
Original photographs
Named experts
Professional qualifications
Awards and recognition
Years of experience
Research conducted by the business
Clear explanations based on practical work
For example, an AI SEO agency that publishes real visibility reports and explains how it measures mentions and citations offers stronger evidence than one that simply claims to be an expert.
At Improve Marketing, we’ve started including anonymised examples from real AI visibility reporting.
These show brand mentions, citations, competitive performance and growth within Google’s generative AI features.
That sort of original evidence is difficult for another agency to copy. It also helps people and search platforms see that the service exists beyond the sales copy.
Authority Beyond Your Own Website
Your website is a source of information about your business. However, it is also controlled by your business.
AI platforms may look for independent sources that confirm what you say.
These sources can include:
News and industry publications
Review websites
Business directories
Professional bodies
Partner websites
Client websites
Local publications
Event websites
Interviews and podcasts
Award organisers
Expert profiles
If your website says you’re an award-winning agency, an independent award page helps confirm it. If you claim to work within a certain sector, relevant coverage or a client case study can support that connection.
This is where digital PR and link building can support AI visibility.
The aim isn’t to create hundreds of low-quality mentions. A smaller number of relevant references from credible sources will usually provide a clearer signal.
Reviews and Reputation
Reviews can help AI platforms and potential customers assess a business.
They may provide information about:
Service quality
Customer satisfaction
Reliability
Areas of expertise
Products purchased
Locations served
Common strengths and weaknesses
The language used by customers can be particularly valuable. Reviews often describe a business in more natural terms than its own marketing copy.
A company might call itself a “full-service building envelope specialist”, while its customers regularly describe it as a trusted window and door installer. Both descriptions provide useful context.
Businesses should build reviews on the platforms that matter within their market. This might include Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, sector-specific websites or recognised professional directories.
Reviews should be genuine. Attempting to manufacture them creates reputational risk and gives potential customers a distorted picture.
Accurate Location Information
Location can influence ChatGPT recommendations when a prompt has local intent.
ChatGPT may use an approximate location based on a user’s IP address. People can also share a more precise location or include a town, county or country within their question.
For local visibility, businesses should maintain consistent information across:
Their website
Google Business Profile
Bing Places
Contact pages
Local directories
Review profiles
Social platforms
Professional listings
The business name, address, telephone number and service area should be accurate.
Location pages can also help where they provide real value. A useful local page should contain information about services, experience and customers within that area. Creating dozens of almost identical town pages with only the place name changed is unlikely to build strong local authority.
Improve Marketing is based in Suffolk, but supports clients across the UK and internationally. Our website needs to make both facts clear. This allows an AI platform to connect us with a local search without assuming our services are limited to the surrounding area.
Useful Content Around Customer Questions
Service pages explain what you sell. Supporting content helps demonstrate how well you understand the subject.
This might include:
Practical guides
Answers to common questions
Comparisons
Buying advice
Industry commentary
Original research
Checklists
Case studies
Explanations of complex issues
One article is unlikely to create authority across a broad market. A connected group of useful pages gives an AI platform more information to draw upon.
For instance, an AI SEO agency could publish detailed content covering:
How to measure AI search visibility
How ChatGPT chooses businesses
What an AI visibility audit includes
Why brand mentions matter
The difference between AI SEO and traditional SEO
How Google AI Overviews select supporting sources
Each article answers a different question while supporting the main commercial service.
This is the approach we’re taking with our own AI SEO agency service. The purpose isn’t to produce articles for the sake of it. It is to build a useful body of information around the service we provide.
Clear Brand and Entity Signals
An AI platform must work out whether different pieces of online information refer to the same business.
Your company name, website, people, services, address, profiles and third-party mentions should connect into a consistent picture.
Problems can arise when:
Several businesses use similar names
An old address remains on business listings
Team profiles contain conflicting information
Services are described differently across platforms
Social profiles are abandoned or inaccurate
Different versions of the company name are used
A rebrand leaves old information behind
Consistency doesn’t mean using the same paragraph everywhere. It means the important facts agree.
Your website should make it easy to identify the organisation, its key people and its areas of expertise.
An About page, contact details, author profiles, case studies and relevant structured data can all support this understanding.
There is no special “AI schema” that guarantees a recommendation. Structured data should match the visible content and serve a genuine purpose.
Technical SEO Still Matters
AI search still relies on accessible web content.
Google has confirmed that AI Overviews and AI Mode use its core search systems and may conduct several related searches before producing an answer. Microsoft’s AI experiences are also supported by web search and indexed information.
A technically weak website can make useful content harder to discover or interpret.
Important areas include:
Crawlability
Indexation
Site structure
Internal linking
Canonical tags
Page speed
Mobile usability
Redirects
Duplicate content
Structured data
XML sitemaps
Server reliability
Good technical SEO won’t make an unsuitable company the best recommendation. It helps ensure that a suitable company can be properly assessed.
Fresh and Accurate Information
Some business information changes frequently.
Prices, product availability, services, locations, team members and opening hours can all become outdated.
AI platforms may produce a poor recommendation if the available sources contain conflicting or old information. Regular reviews can help prevent this.
Businesses should update important pages when something changes, rather than changing dates simply to make old content appear fresh.
A genuinely updated guide might include new examples, revised advice or current platform information. Changing “2025” to “2026” without improving anything adds little value.
Can You Pay to Be Recommended by ChatGPT?
OpenAI doesn’t offer businesses a guaranteed organic recommendation within ChatGPT Search.
ChatGPT ranks search results using several factors intended to help users find relevant and reliable information. OpenAI also states that placement isn’t guaranteed.
Advertising and organic recommendations should be treated as separate things. Paying for advertising doesn’t turn a business into the organic answer to every related question.
Any agency claiming that it can guarantee a first-place ChatGPT recommendation should be treated with caution.
Work can be done to improve the information and authority available to AI platforms. The final answer remains under the control of the independent platform.
Why ChatGPT Answers Can Change
You may run the same search on two occasions and receive different recommendations.
Results can be affected by:
Changes to the prompt
The user’s location
Previous conversation context
The sources available
New or updated web pages
Different search queries generated behind the scenes
Platform and model updates
The date of the search
ChatGPT may also conduct more than one search when answering a detailed question. A small change to the prompt could lead it towards a different set of sources.
One positive result is worth recording, but it shouldn’t be treated as a permanent ranking.
Consistent visibility across a group of commercially relevant prompts is a much stronger measure. Our guide to measuring AI search visibility explains how mentions, citations and competitive performance can be tracked over time.
How Can You Improve Your Chances of Being Recommended?
There is no single switch that makes a business appear within AI answers.
A practical strategy should include:
Making the website accessible to relevant search crawlers.
Explaining services, products, customers and locations clearly.
Publishing useful content based on genuine expertise.
Adding case studies, results and original evidence.
Strengthening reviews and trusted business profiles.
Earning relevant coverage and third-party mentions.
Fixing technical SEO and indexation problems.
Connecting people, services and external profiles clearly.
Keeping important information accurate.
Tracking prompts, citations and competitors over time.
Most of this will also support traditional search visibility and customer confidence. That is why AI SEO shouldn’t sit apart from your wider SEO strategy.
Find Out How AI Platforms Understand Your Business
ChatGPT and other AI platforms can influence how people discover and compare businesses. Appearing within those answers depends on far more than adding a few questions to a webpage.
Your business must be easy to find, understand and verify. It needs useful content, clear services, sound technical foundations and support from credible sources beyond its own website.
Improve Marketing helps businesses assess and strengthen these signals through AI visibility audits, content development, technical SEO, digital PR and ongoing tracking.
We can show you where your business currently appears, which competitors are being recommended and which sources are shaping the answers.
