Getting Recommended by ChatGPT Isn’t Magic. It’s Mostly Housekeeping.

To get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI tools, your business needs consistent details everywhere it’s listed, a website machines can read easily, honest answers to the questions buyers actually ask, fresh reviews, visible people behind the brand, and mentions on sites you don’t own. None of it is magic. Most of it is housekeeping, done consistently, and measured monthly.

I read a good post this week by Austin Holmes, a PR founder, on how businesses get recommended by chatbots. I agree with most of it. But he’s coming at it from the PR side, and we come at it from the build side. So here’s our take, with what we’ve actually seen across more than 20 years of client work.

The shortlist problem

A few years ago, someone looking for a web developer or a salon would Google it and get ten blue links. They’d scroll, click around and compare.

Now they ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, and they get three or four names. That’s it. If you’re not on that shortlist, you don’t exist for that customer. There’s no second page to fall back on.

This is what Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is about. Basically, it means making sure AI tools recommend you when someone asks for a recommendation.

We call the knock-on effect the Jaw Effect. Your impressions keep rising while your clicks fall away, so the chart in Search Console opens up like a jaw. Most businesses see it and assume something’s broken. The reality is that the search is still happening. It’s just being answered before anyone reaches your site.

1. Be the same business everywhere

This is the boring one, and it’s free. Your name, address and phone number need to match everywhere. That means your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, directories, and that listing you set up in 2014 and forgot about.

AI tools are basically cross-referencing. When they find three different phone numbers, they can’t tell which is right, so they recommend someone whose details line up.

Quick example that might help. We worked with a hair salon chain for eight years, across 56 locations. A big chunk of the work was unglamorous: centralising every Google Business Profile, making sure every location’s details matched, and pulling reviews through automatically. That consistency is what let them dominate “hairdressers near me” searches across the whole estate.

2. Make your website readable by machines, not just people

This is where Austin’s list stops and ours really starts. AI tools don’t just read your words, they read your structure.

Schema markup is code that tells machines “this is a business, this is a service, this is a price, this is a review”. It gives them facts they can trust without guessing.

Quick example: South Coast Powersports, one of our clients, had over 100 high-intent keywords ranking within six months, largely off the back of structured data for their business, products and locations. Same content, much clearer signals.

If your site is a mess of plugins and slow pages, fix that first. Fast, lean sites get crawled more often and cost less energy to serve. Good for rankings, good for the planet.

3. Answer the question people are actually asking

People don’t type keywords into ChatGPT. They ask full questions:

• “How much does a bespoke web app cost and why?”
• “Is a WordPress site good enough for a 50-location business?”
• “Who’s the best plumber near me who can come out this week?”

So your site needs honest, direct answers. Put your pricing ranges on the page. Explain your process. Write FAQs that sound like real conversations, not SEO filler.

The thing is, most businesses hide their prices because they’re worried about scaring people off. What we’re seeing now is that AI rewards the business that’s upfront, and skips the one that says “contact us for a quote”.

4. Keep your reviews fresh, and reply to them

AI reads your reviews the way a customer does, just much faster. Recency matters as much as volume. A steady stream of reviews this year looks a lot more alive than a big pile from 2019.

Ask every happy client. Reply to every review, good or bad. A business that responds looks accountable, and that shows up in the signals AI tools pick up on.

5. Show the humans behind it

This is where small and mid-sized firms can beat the big faceless players. You want a proper About page with your real team, your story, how long you’ve been at it, and a real way to reach you.

We’ve been going since 2003, and the core team has worked together for the best part of two decades. That’s not just nice to say. It’s exactly the kind of trust signal AI tools look for when deciding who seems legitimate.

6. Get talked about in places you don’t own

AI doesn’t just read your website. It reads Reddit threads, Facebook groups, LinkedIn discussions, industry directories and press coverage. Third-party mentions carry a tonne of weight because you can’t easily fake them.

Worth knowing: different tools draw on different sources. OpenAI and Google both have data deals with Reddit, for example, so a business can look strong in one AI tool and barely register in another.

You can’t manufacture this, but you can take part. Answer questions in your community. Get listed on credible directories. Say yes to podcasts and trade press. Austin’s firm reports a big uplift from media coverage, and whilst I can’t verify his exact figure, the direction matches what we see.

7. Measure it properly, not by asking ChatGPT about yourself

Austin makes a good point here. Asking the AI from your own account gives you biased answers, because it already knows who you are.

We track what we call Share of AI Voice. Here’s what this looks like in practice:

• Write down the ten questions your real buyers ask
• Run them across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews, from clean, logged-out sessions
• Log who gets named, and in what order
• Compare yourself to three or four competitors
• Repeat monthly

Now you’ve got an actual number to move, rather than a vibe.

The tension nobody talks about

Here’s our own slant. Content that gets cited by AI and content that builds human trust don’t always want the same things. AI likes tight, factual, structured answers. Humans like story, personality and a bit of warmth.

The businesses that win will do both on the same page. A clear, citable answer up top, and the human reasoning underneath. That’s trickier than it sounds, and it’s where most of our GEO work actually goes.

Where to start this month

You don’t need to be first to every new trend. Get the basics sorted this month:

• Audit your name, address and phone number across every listing
• Add pricing ranges and honest FAQs to your key service pages
• Ask five happy clients for a review this week
• Run ten real buyer questions through two AI tools and write down who gets named

Then build from there, a little more each month. The window to get ahead of competitors on this is real, but it won’t stay open forever.

Key takeaway: PR gets you mentioned, but the build and the data make you believable. If you’d like to see where your business stands in AI search today, book a call.