September 15, 2026 · 4 min read
How to get recommended by ChatGPT and Google's AI answers
To be recommended by ChatGPT, your site must answer customer questions clearly, carry structured data, let AI crawlers read it and be mentioned elsewhere. techaine does all of this for small businesses.
How to get recommended by ChatGPT, in short
More and more customers no longer search Google for "accountant Leeds". They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini directly: "which accountant would you recommend in Leeds?". The assistant answers with two or three names. If yours isn't among them, for that customer you don't exist. The good news: you can influence this, and the steps are concrete.
Why you don't show up yet
AI assistants recommend what they can read easily and what looks trustworthy. A site with an "About us" page, three photos and a phone number tells them almost nothing: they don't know exactly what you do, for whom, where, or why you'd be a good choice. And if nobody else on the internet talks about you, the AI has nothing to check its information against.
How an AI reads your website
An AI assistant runs on an LLM, a program trained on vast amounts of text. When you ask it something, it often searches the web at that moment, reads a few pages and writes an answer from them. So you need two things: its crawler must be able to get into your site, and what it finds there must be clear and easy to quote.
Four things that matter
- Direct answers. Every page opens with a sentence like "We do X for Y in Z". An AI looks for exactly this kind of sentence, which it can copy almost word for word into its answer.
- Structured data. Code that visitors don't see (schema.org) and that says clearly: this is a business, these are its services, these are its frequently asked questions and their answers.
- Access for AI crawlers. robots.txt must let them in. Many sites block them by mistake. An llms.txt file shows them, in short, what matters on your site.
- Mentions elsewhere. Articles, business directories, Google reviews, profiles on industry platforms. For AI, they are proof that you exist and that others trust you.
How to write a page that AI will quote
- Use headings that sound like customer questions: "How much does…", "How to…", "What is…".
- Answer in the first sentence, then explain. Don't hide the answer behind three paragraphs of introduction.
- Include numbers and concrete details: towns, timelines, the kind of customers you work with.
- Add a frequently asked questions section with short, complete answers.
- Write simply, as if for a friend who isn't in your trade.
What you can do yourself this week
- Check that your home page says in its first sentence what you do, for whom and where.
- Fill in your Google Business Profile with the same details as your website.
- Ask three happy customers to leave a review.
- Write a frequently asked questions page with the ten most common questions you get on the phone.
Check it yourself
Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity exactly what a customer would: "who does X in my town?". Ask it in two or three ways and note who appears. That's your real competition in AI search. Then look at their websites: they usually have exactly the things above. Repeat the test once a month to see whether your changes are working.
Common mistakes
- Blocking AI crawlers without knowing it. Some security plugins or site themes do it by default.
- Writing only for the Google of ten years ago. Pages stuffed with repeated keywords convince no one any more, neither people nor AI.
- Different information in different places. If your address or services differ between your site, Google and Facebook, the AI doesn't know which to believe.
Your next step
If you want to take the first steps yourself, start with direct answers and a robots.txt check. If you'd rather have someone handle all of it, see our AI SEO service or write to us.