How to get your business mentioned by ChatGPT and AI Overviews

How do AI tools decide which businesses to mention?

AI answer engines combine two sources. The first is what the model learned during training from the public web. The second — increasingly important — is live retrieval: ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews run web searches, read the top pages and summarise them, often with citations. In both cases, the AI can only mention you if it has seen clear, consistent information about you in places it trusts.

That means AI visibility builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Pages that rank, are easy to parse and state facts plainly are the pages AI tools quote.

Step 1: Let the right crawlers in

Check your robots.txt. Many sites block AI crawlers by accident through security plugins or CDN settings. If you want to be cited, allow the crawlers behind the answer engines, such as:

• Googlebot (Google Search and AI Overviews) and Bingbot (Bing, Copilot and many tools that use Bing's index)
• OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot (OpenAI)
• ClaudeBot (Anthropic) and PerplexityBot (Perplexity)
• Google-Extended, which controls use of your content for Google's Gemini models

Also make sure your important content is in the HTML itself, not loaded later by JavaScript — many crawlers don't run scripts.

Step 2: Make your entity facts unmistakable

AI systems think in entities: a company, its founder, its products, its location. Give them one consistent version of the facts.

• Use the same legal name, address, phone and email on your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Facebook and directories.
• Have a clear About page: who you are, what you do, who founded the company, where it's registered.
• Add Organization structured data with name, legalName, address, founder, sameAs links to your profiles, and your brands or products.
• Publish an llms.txt file — a plain-text summary of your company and key pages at your site's root.

Step 3: Answer the questions buyers actually ask

AI answers are built from passages that directly answer a question. Write content that makes those passages easy to find:

• Use question-style headings that match how people ask: "How much does a WhatsApp AI agent cost?"
• Start each section with a direct 40–60 word answer, then expand.
• Use numbered steps, bullet lists and comparison tables.
• Define terms clearly — definitions are among the most-quoted content.
• Show a visible "last updated" date and a named author.
• Add FAQ sections with FAQPage structured data.

Step 4: Publish something worth citing

AI tools prefer sources that add something: original data, a clear framework, a specific checklist, a well-argued comparison. Generic "10 tips" posts are interchangeable; a checklist built from real experience is not. A checklist built from hands-on experience is an example of the format.

Step 5: Earn mentions on sites AI already trusts

Being described by others matters as much as describing yourself. Answer engines frequently cite review platforms, industry directories, comparison articles, community discussions and news coverage. Practical ways to show up there:

• Get listed on relevant directories and review sites for your industry.
• Contribute expert answers in communities where your buyers ask questions.
• Pitch data or opinions to industry publications and podcasts.
• Ask happy clients for reviews on third-party platforms.
• Get included in "best X for Y" roundups by offering useful information to their authors.

Step 6: Measure AI visibility

There's no Search Console for ChatGPT yet, so build a simple routine:

1. List 20–30 questions a buyer might ask an AI tool about your category.
2. Ask them monthly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google (watch for AI Overviews).
3. Record whether you're mentioned, linked, or replaced by a competitor — and which sources are cited.
4. Track referral traffic from AI tools in GA4.
5. Improve or create pages for the questions where you're missing.

What doesn't work?

• Hidden text or "prompt injection" aimed at AI crawlers — it can get you penalised and erodes trust.
• Mass-produced AI content with nothing original in it.
• Inconsistent business details across the web.
• Blocking crawlers and expecting to be cited anyway.

Want help with SEO, AEO and GEO?

Our SEO, AEO and GEO service covers all of the above — from technical fixes and structured data to answer-first content and brand mentions — and reports honestly on what we can measure.