How to Get Your Business Mentioned in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

Published 22 June 2025 · Updated 2 October 2026 · By Tom Galland

How do you get your business mentioned in ChatGPT? Make it easy for AI search tools to find, understand and trust you. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews build their answers from web pages they can retrieve and from what the wider web says about a business. The businesses they recommend usually rank well in normal search, have clear pages that say exactly what they do and where, keep their business details consistent across the web, have genuine reviews, and are mentioned on other trusted sites. There is no form to fill in and no way to pay for a mention.

Below is how these tools choose what to mention, what to fix first, what is different about Google AI Overviews, and how to check whether any of it is working.

How ChatGPT and other AI tools decide which businesses to mention

It helps to know where the answers come from, because it rules out a lot of bad advice. AI assistants answer from two sources.

• What the model learned in training. Large language models are trained on a huge snapshot of public text. If your business was written about widely before that snapshot, the model may already "know" you. You cannot submit your content for training, and a small local business is rarely well represented here.
• Live web results. This is where most business recommendations now come from. When someone asks ChatGPT for "a good accountant in Parramatta" or "the best plumber in the Eastern Suburbs", ChatGPT search looks the question up on the web, reads the pages it finds and cites them. Perplexity works the same way and shows its sources by default. Gemini and Google AI Overviews draw on Google's own search index.

The practical upshot: AI search sits on top of normal search. If your pages can't be crawled, don't rank, or don't clearly answer the question, the AI tool has nothing to cite. And because these tools look for agreement between sources before recommending a business, what other websites say about you matters as much as what you say about yourself.

Some people call this work "answer engine optimisation". In practice it is good SEO plus reputation, with a few extra checks.

Step 1: Make sure AI tools can actually reach your site

This is the most common silent problem, and the quickest to fix.

• Check robots.txt. ChatGPT search uses OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler, and Perplexity uses PerplexityBot. If your robots.txt, security plugin or hosting firewall blocks them, those tools can't read your pages. Blocking GPTBot (used for training) is a separate choice and does not stop you appearing in ChatGPT search results.
• Make sure Google and Bing index you. Check Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. ChatGPT search draws on search partners including Bing, so a site Bing doesn't index starts at a disadvantage.
• Put key information in the page text. Services, locations, prices and opening hours hidden in images, PDFs or content that only loads after interaction are harder for crawlers to read reliably.
• Keep the site fast and mobile friendly. This matters for ranking in Google, which in turn feeds AI Overviews and Gemini.

Step 2: Say clearly what you do, where and for whom

AI tools recommend businesses they can describe with confidence. If your homepage says "We deliver tailored solutions that empower growth", nothing in that sentence helps ChatGPT match you to a question. Compare it with "Licensed electrician in Newcastle specialising in switchboard upgrades and EV charger installs for homes and small businesses".

• One page per core service, written in the words customers use, with the suburbs or regions you serve.
• A plain About page with your business name, ABN, how long you have operated, who runs it and any licences or accreditations.
• Specific details: price ranges, turnaround times, what is included, who the service suits and who it doesn't. Specific facts are what AI answers quote.
• Natural, conversational language. People ask AI tools full questions. Write the way a good staff member would answer on the phone, without jargon.

Showing real experience and expertise also helps, both for Google and for AI tools deciding which source to trust. Named authors with real credentials, worked examples and honest advice all count. Our E-E-A-T SEO service covers how to demonstrate this properly.

Step 3: Write content that answers real questions directly

AI answers are built from passages that respond cleanly to a question. Pages that bury the answer under three paragraphs of introduction are less likely to be quoted.

• Start with the answer. Give a direct one or two sentence answer at the top of the page or section, then explain.
• Use question-style headings. "How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Brisbane?" is a heading an AI tool can match to a prompt.
• Break up detail. Use clear H2 and H3 headings, short paragraphs, lists and tables for steps, comparisons and prices.
• Cover the questions customers actually ask. Your phone calls, emails and sales conversations are the best source. Answer the hard ones too: cost, timeframes, what can go wrong.
• Offer something others don't. Original photos, your own pricing data, local knowledge and first-hand experience give an AI tool a reason to cite you rather than a generic article.
• Keep it current. Update prices, services and dates when they change. Out-of-date pages are less useful to cite and can lead to AI tools repeating wrong information about you.

You can use AI to help draft content, but publishing generic AI text works against you. If your page says the same thing as hundreds of others, there is no reason for ChatGPT or Google to pick yours. Have someone who knows the business add the specifics and check every claim.

Step 4: Get your business mentioned on other trusted sites

This is the step most businesses skip, and often the one that makes the difference. When ChatGPT or Perplexity answers "who is the best..." questions, it tends to cite directories, review platforms, "best of" lists, local news, industry sites and forum discussions, not just business websites. If your competitors appear on those pages and you don't, they get recommended.

• Search for your own key questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and note which third-party pages get cited. Those are your target list.
• Get listed on the directories and review sites that matter in your industry, such as trade associations, industry directories and platforms like Yelp, Hipages, Houzz or ProductReview where relevant.
• Earn coverage in local media, industry publications, podcasts and supplier or partner websites. A genuine mention or link from a trusted site helps both Google rankings and AI recommendations.
• Take part where your customers ask questions, such as Reddit, industry forums, Facebook groups and LinkedIn. Helpful, honest answers under your real name build the kind of mentions AI tools pick up. Spam does the opposite.

Step 5: Build reviews and keep your business details consistent

For local businesses, reviews and listings carry a lot of weight. AI tools summarise what customers say, and when asked for a recommendation they lean towards businesses with a steady stream of genuine, detailed reviews.

• Ask every happy customer for a Google review, and encourage them to mention the service and suburb in their own words.
• Reply to reviews, good and bad. It shows the business is active and gives context to anyone, human or AI, reading them. See how quickly you should reply to Google reviews.
• Keep your name, address and phone number identical on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook and directories. Conflicting details make it harder for AI tools to be sure which business is which.
• Fill out your Google Business Profile completely: categories, services, service areas, hours and photos. Our local SEO service handles this for Australian businesses.

Step 6: Add structured data that describes your business

Structured data (schema markup) is code that states facts about your business in a format machines can read without guessing. It won't get you mentioned on its own, but it removes ambiguity.

• Organization or LocalBusiness schema on your homepage or contact page: business name, logo, address, phone, opening hours, service area and links to your social and directory profiles (the sameAs property).
• Service, Product or Article schema on the relevant pages, with details that match the visible content.
• Keep it accurate. Markup that contradicts the page or your Google Business Profile does more harm than good.

You may also hear that adding an llms.txt file will get you into ChatGPT. There is no evidence that it affects which businesses get cited. We cover the details in our honest guide to llms.txt.

How Google AI Overviews are different

AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries at the top of many Google results, and Google's AI Mode works in a similar way. They matter to Australian businesses because most local searching still happens on Google. A few points are specific to them.

• They are built on Google's normal index. Google has said that to appear as a source in AI Overviews, a page needs to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in Search. There is no extra markup, file or submission. If a page doesn't rank anywhere near the first page for a topic, it is unlikely to be cited for it.
• Match the type of query. AI Overviews appear most often on informational, question-style searches. Look at what currently shows for your target questions and which pages are linked, then make sure your page answers the same question more clearly and specifically.
• Answer early, then go deep. A clear answer near the top of the page, followed by well-headed sections that cover the follow-up questions, gives Google passages it can use.
• Use internal links to show related topics. Link your service pages, guides and FAQs to each other with descriptive anchor text so Google understands what your site covers in depth.
• Watch your snippet controls. A nosnippet or very low max-snippet setting will also limit how your content can be used in AI Overviews.
• Google-Extended is not a ranking switch. Blocking the Google-Extended token stops your content being used to train Gemini models, but Google says it does not affect inclusion in Search or AI Overviews.

How to check whether it's working

AI visibility is harder to measure than rankings, but you can get a useful picture.

• Ask the tools yourself. Each month, run the 10 to 20 questions your customers would ask ("best physio in Bondi", "how much does a pool fence cost in Perth") in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google. Record whether you are mentioned, how you are described and which sources are cited. Results vary between runs, so look for trends rather than single answers.
• Check your referral traffic. In Google Analytics, look for visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com. ChatGPT often adds a utm_source=chatgpt.com tag to links it sends.
• Use Search Console. Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the normal Performance report. They aren't broken out separately, but rising impressions on question-style queries are a good sign.
• Ask new customers how they found you. Add "ChatGPT or another AI tool" as an option on your enquiry form. Many AI-influenced customers end up searching your name directly, so this catches what analytics misses.

For a quick starting point, run your site through our free AI search visibility scanner. It checks the technical basics that affect whether AI tools can read and understand your site.

What doesn't work

• Keyword stuffing and spammy links. These didn't work well in Google and they don't persuade AI tools either.
• Mass-produced AI content. Hundreds of thin pages add nothing new for an AI tool to cite and can drag down how Google sees the whole site.
• Fake reviews or planted forum posts. They breach platform rules and Australian Consumer Law, and they tend to get removed.
• Expecting instant results. Live search results can pick up a well-optimised page quickly, but building enough mentions and reviews for AI tools to recommend you confidently takes months, not days.

Where to start

If you only do three things this month: check that AI and search crawlers can reach your site, rewrite your main service pages so they say clearly what you do and where, and start a steady routine of asking for Google reviews. Then work on getting listed and mentioned on the third-party sites that AI tools already cite for your industry.

If you would like help, our AI search optimisation service covers ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity alongside traditional SEO.

ChatGPT and AI Overviews FAQs