How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business.

When a question needs current information, ChatGPT searches the web. OpenAI says it typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries and sends them to search providers it partners with. It can also use general location information based on your IP address, so “near me” becomes a city.

Then it answers from the pages that came back and links to them. So the question isn't really “how do I get into ChatGPT.” It's whether the pages it finds say clearly that you're the answer. And OpenAI is plain about the limit: Placement is not guaranteed.

OpenAI runs a crawler for search called OAI-SearchBot. Its advice: we recommend allowing OAI-SearchBot in your site's robots.txt file. Its help page adds that your host or content delivery network has to let OpenAI's published crawler addresses through.

• Open yoursite.com/robots.txt

  If it says Disallow for OAI-SearchBot, or Disallow: / for every crawler, ChatGPT search can't read you.

• Ask whoever hosts your site

  Some hosts and security settings block crawlers they don't recognise. Ask whether OpenAI's search crawler gets through.

• Training is a separate switch

  GPTBot is the crawler for training OpenAI's models. OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can allow search and block training.

In my test, 202 of the 236 links went to the businesses' own websites, not to directories or review sites. The pages ChatGPT linked to said, in plain words, what the business does, who it does it for, where, and often what it costs. Eighteen links went straight to a pricing page.

• What you do, in your customer's words

  "Roof repair and replacement", not "exterior solutions". The question a customer types is the sentence your page should answer.

• Where you work

  Name the cities and areas you serve, or say you serve the whole country if you do.

• What it costs

  A price, a starting price or a range. When the question is "under $1,000", a page that says a number can answer it.

• Who you're for

  A page for each trade or kind of customer you serve gives a specific question a specific page to land on.

OpenAI's help page points to Microsoft's privacy statement among its search providers, and local questions lean on business listings. So fill in both: your Google Business Profile and Bing Places, Microsoft's version. Use the same name, phone number and hours on both and on your website.

Your own pages say what you do. Other sites say whether it's true. Ask every happy customer for a review, reply to every one, and get listed in the directories for your trade. Never pay for a review or write your own: Google strictly prohibits incentives for reviews, and fake reviews can get a profile suspended.

• Sign out, or use a private chat, so ChatGPT's memory of you can't fake a hit.
• Start a new chat for each question, and ask it the way a customer would: “Who fixes roof leaks in Tampa?”, not your business name.
• Name the city. ChatGPT guesses your location from your connection, so name your customers' city to see what they see.
• Open the links. They show you which sites ChatGPT trusts for your trade, and which lists are worth getting onto.

Do it once a month. One answer on one day tells you very little.

Every site I build is written this way: what you do, where and for how much, at the top of the page, with OpenAI's and every other search crawler let in. Website Care includes a monthly check of what Google and ChatGPT say about your business, and your Google profile looked after. I run the same check on Ninewave every Monday.

• The website: never more than $999

  For small businesses anywhere in the US, live nine days after I have your content.

• Care: $99 a month

  Required while I host the site, with no minimum term. If you leave, you get a full copy of the code, free.

Every price is on one page. Or just tell me about your business.