To get your business recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, make it easy for them to know exactly who you are and easy to verify that you are good. That means consistent business facts across the web, genuine reviews, clear pages that answer customer questions, accurate structured data, and mentions on other trusted sites. No one can pay or trick an assistant into recommending a business, and anyone who guarantees a result is guessing.
The practice is called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This guide covers what actually moves the needle for a small or mid-size business as of October 2025.
How do AI assistants decide who to recommend?
These assistants build answers from two sources: what they learned in training, and what they find on the web at the moment you ask. OpenAI launched ChatGPT search on October 31, 2024 and extended it to logged-in free users in December 2024. Perplexity is built around live web search with cited sources. When an assistant searches the web, it behaves a lot like a researcher: it reads pages, compares what different sources say, and favors information that agrees across places it trusts.
The company behind each assistant does not publish a ranking formula for recommendations, so treat any claim of “the algorithm” with caution. What we can say is that clear, consistent, well-supported information is easier to use, and conflicting or thin information is easy to skip.
For a local business, that means an assistant answering “who should I call for this in Marietta” will look for a business whose location, services and reputation are clear and agree across several places. If your hours differ on three sites or you have only a handful of reviews, you give it little to work with. A competitor with tidy, consistent information and a steady stream of reviews is easier to recommend, even if their service is no better than yours.
1. Is your business information consistent everywhere?
Assistants need to be sure that “Smith Family Dental” on your website, your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook and a local directory is one and the same business. Check that your legal name, address, phone number, hours, services and website address match everywhere. Fix old addresses and tracking numbers that disagree. State plainly on your About page who you are, where you operate and what you do.
This is the same work as local citation cleanup, covered in our Local SEO and Google Business Profile service, and it supports AI visibility too.
2. Do you have enough real reviews?
Reviews tell both customers and machines that real people used your service. Ask every customer, respond to every review, and spread them across the platforms people use in your field, for example Google, Facebook and Yelp or an industry site. Never buy or fake reviews. Review requests and replies are handled in our Review Growth and Reputation service.
3. Do you have pages worth citing?
Assistants quote pages that state an answer plainly. Build question-led pages for your main services and your most common customer questions.
- Put the direct answer in the first paragraph.
- Use headings phrased as questions customers really ask.
- Add a short FAQ with plain answers.
- Include comparisons, pricing factors and “who this is for” details that others do not publish.
- Show who wrote the page and why they are qualified.
- Update pages when facts change, and keep the date current.
See GEO and AEO for how BERI scores pages against these factors.
4. Can AI crawlers reach your site?
This is a common, fixable problem. OpenAI documents separate crawlers: OAI-SearchBot, which surfaces sites in ChatGPT search results, and GPTBot, which is used for model training. OpenAI states that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Perplexity says its PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results, and recommends allowing it if you want to appear. Review your robots.txt file and your security or firewall settings so you are not blocking the crawlers you want. Whether to allow training crawlers is a separate business decision.
A Technical SEO review checks this along with indexing and speed.
5. Is your structured data accurate?
Structured data (schema markup) is code that labels facts on your page: your business name, address, phone, opening hours, services, reviews and FAQs. It helps search systems read your pages accurately. Google has said there is no special markup needed for its AI features, and the data must match what is visible on the page. Use LocalBusiness, Organization, Service and FAQ markup where they fit, validate it, and keep it truthful.
6. Are other trusted sites talking about you?
AI answers often lean on sources beyond your own site: local news, industry associations, review sites, partner pages, directories and forums. Earn legitimate mentions by sponsoring or speaking locally, publishing useful data or guides, getting listed in respected industry directories, and answering questions in communities where you can add real value and follow the rules. Our Off-Site SEO and Authority work covers this without paid link schemes.
Checklist: how to test and track your progress
- Write 10 questions a customer might ask an assistant, such as “best pediatric dentist near Alpharetta” or “how to choose a pest control company.”
- Ask each question in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Record whether you are mentioned, cited or linked, and which competitors are.
- Open the cited pages and note what they have that yours lack.
- Fix business facts that do not match across the web.
- Check robots.txt and firewall rules for AI crawlers.
- Publish or improve one answer page each month.
- Repeat the test monthly, using the same questions.
Answers can change from one day to the next, so look for patterns across several tries and not a single result.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not in the answers themselves, and be wary of anyone who sells a guaranteed placement. Recommendations come from how credible, clear and consistent your information is across the web.
Is this different from regular SEO?
It builds on it. Good pages, clean technical health, reviews and links still matter. GEO adds attention to entity consistency, direct answers and third-party mentions.
How long does it take?
Fixing business facts and crawler access can show up quickly. Building reviews and outside mentions takes months of steady work.
Do I need a different strategy for each assistant?
The foundations are the same for all of them. Test in each one, because the cited sources can differ.
Want to know where you stand?
BERI Consulting tracks brand mentions and citations across AI assistants and fixes the gaps, as part of our Search and AI Visibility services. Book a discovery call or request a free website scan.
