How to Get Found in ChatGPT: What Actually Matters
AI search has gone from something most business owners barely thought about to something I am now regularly being asked about.
The question is usually some version of:
“How do I get my business to come up in ChatGPT?”
There isn’t a button you can press or a special piece of GEO code that suddenly makes ChatGPT recommend your business.
There are, however, practical things you can do to make your website easier for AI search platforms to discover, understand and potentially reference.
I’ve also started seeing this happen with my own website, which makes this considerably more interesting than simply talking about AI search as a future trend.
Quick Answer
If you want your business to be found in ChatGPT and Google AI search, start by making sure your website can be crawled and indexed properly, then make your services, expertise, locations and answers to customer questions extremely clear.
Strong traditional SEO still matters. So do useful content, technically sound pages, internal links, accurate business information and genuine expertise.
There is no guaranteed ChatGPT ranking formula.
The goal is to make your website a clear, useful and trustworthy source that search engines and AI systems can understand.
1. Make Sure AI Search Can Actually Access Your Website
Before worrying about content strategy, check the basics.
OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot for websites that can appear in ChatGPT search results. If your website blocks OAI-SearchBot, your content will not be surfaced through ChatGPT’s search features.
That makes your robots.txt file one of the first things worth checking.
You should also look for more traditional problems such as:
- important pages accidentally set to
noindex - incorrect canonical URLs
- broken pages
- poor internal linking
- pages missing from your XML sitemap
- content that Google or Bing cannot crawl properly
This isn’t glamorous GEO work. It is basic technical SEO. If you want to get found in ChatGPT, the best place to start is with a website that is technically accessible, clearly structured and genuinely useful.
But if search systems cannot reliably access a page, everything else becomes fairly academic.
2. Get the SEO Fundamentals Right First
There is a lot of discussion about GEO, AEO and completely new ways of optimising websites for AI.
Some of it is useful. Plenty of it is overcomplicated.
Google’s own guidance is quite clear that traditional SEO fundamentals continue to apply to AI Overviews, AI Mode and other generative search experiences. Google describes GEO and AEO as terms being used in the industry, but says its generative AI search features are still built on Google’s existing Search systems.
So don’t abandon the basics.
Your important pages should still have:
- a clear purpose
- useful page titles and headings
- strong internal links
- descriptive URLs
- original content
- good technical accessibility
- relevant supporting pages
- a logical website structure
If your existing SEO is a mess, adding “AI optimisation” on top of it isn’t going to magically fix the problem.
3. Make It Extremely Clear What Your Business Actually Does
This is one of the areas I see businesses get wrong.
Their website looks attractive, but the copy is vague.
You might see headlines such as:
Helping Businesses Grow
or:
Solutions Designed Around You
That tells a search engine, AI platform or potential customer almost nothing.
A better website clearly states things such as:
- what services you provide
- what products you sell
- who you work with
- where you operate
- what problems you solve
- what makes your expertise relevant
If you are a commercial roofing company in Sydney, say so.
If you specialise in Shopify Google Ads management, say so.
If you manufacture aluminium windows in Melbourne, make that clear on the relevant page.
AI search systems need context. Don’t make them work unnecessarily hard to figure out what your business is about.
4. Create Strong Pages for Individual Services
Trying to explain everything your business does on one Services page is usually weak SEO and weak AI search optimisation.
Important services deserve useful individual pages.
For example, instead of one page vaguely covering:
SEO
Google Ads
AI Search
Shopify
Web Design
you are generally better off having dedicated pages explaining each important service properly.
Each page can then answer questions specifically related to that subject.
This gives search engines and AI systems much clearer information to work with.
It also means somebody searching for a very specific service lands on a page that actually answers their question.
5. Answer the Questions Your Customers Really Ask
This is where AI search creates an interesting opportunity.
People don’t always search AI platforms using two or three keywords.
They ask detailed questions.
For example:
“Why is my Shopify Performance Max campaign spending money but producing fewer sales?”
“How can I get my roofing company to appear when somebody asks ChatGPT for a roofer in Sydney?”
“Should I use one Performance Max campaign or split my Shopify products into several campaigns?”
Those questions contain far more context than a traditional keyword such as “Google Ads consultant”.
Your website should contain useful answers to the questions customers genuinely ask before buying.
That doesn’t mean adding 100 generic FAQs generated by AI.
It means understanding the real commercial questions customers ask and answering them properly.
6. Publish Content That Adds Something New
There is already an enormous amount of generic content online.
Creating another article that simply rewrites what the first ten Google results already say isn’t much of a strategy.
Google specifically recommends creating useful, reliable, people-first content and warns against producing large quantities of AI-generated pages without adding genuine value.
Your own experience is useful.
That might include:
- problems you repeatedly see in client accounts
- mistakes customers make before contacting you
- your opinion on common industry practices
- screenshots or examples
- original data
- practical processes you use
- questions clients have actually asked
- lessons from solving real problems
You don’t necessarily need to reveal confidential client information.
You do need to demonstrate that somebody with genuine experience is behind the content.
That is far more useful than publishing 50 generic “ultimate guides”.
7. Build Clear Connections Between Related Pages
Internal linking matters because it helps both visitors and search engines understand how the different parts of your website relate to each other.
For example, this article is about how businesses can improve their visibility in AI search.
It should therefore link to my AI Search Optimisation & GEO consulting service, where I explain how I review and improve AI search visibility for businesses.
A Shopify advertising article might link to:
- Shopify Google Ads services
- Performance Max consulting
- Google Merchant Centre help
- Google Ads audits
Think in topics rather than isolated pages.
Your website should make it obvious which page is the main authority on a subject and which supporting articles provide more detailed information.
8. Use Structured Data Where It Actually Makes Sense
Structured data can help search engines understand information about a page and the entities it describes.
Google uses structured data to better understand page content and information about things such as organisations, products and people.
That does not mean adding every schema type you can find.
Use appropriate structured data accurately.
Depending on the website, that may include:
- Organisation
- LocalBusiness
- Product
- Article
- Breadcrumb
- FAQ-related markup where supported and appropriate
Don’t add markup describing content that doesn’t actually exist on the page.
And don’t assume schema is a shortcut to being cited by AI.
It is one part of making your website easier to understand.
9. Don’t Ignore Google Business Profile and Merchant Centre
AI search isn’t only about blog content.
Google specifically notes that information from Google Business Profiles and Merchant Center can help products, services and local businesses appear across Google Search experiences, including generative AI features.
For a local business, your Google Business Profile should accurately reflect things such as:
- business name
- category
- services
- location
- opening hours
- website
- contact details
For an eCommerce business, product data matters.
Accurate titles, descriptions, prices, availability, product identifiers and Merchant Centre information give Google much better information about what you actually sell.
This is another reason I don’t see AI Search Optimisation as a replacement for SEO, Google Merchant Centre or good website management.
These systems increasingly overlap.
10. Help Search Engines Discover New and Updated Content
Publishing a new page doesn’t mean every search engine instantly knows about it.
Submit important new content through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools where appropriate.
IndexNow is another useful tool. It allows participating search engines to be notified when URLs are added, changed or deleted, which can help them prioritise crawling those URLs. It does not guarantee indexing or rankings.
If your SEO plugin already supports IndexNow, enabling it is a sensible technical improvement.
Just don’t confuse faster discovery with better rankings.
The page still needs to be worth indexing.
11. Measure Whether AI Search Is Actually Sending Traffic
AI visibility shouldn’t become another vague marketing metric that nobody can verify.
OpenAI says referral traffic from ChatGPT Search can be measured in analytics, and ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral URLs.
That means you can look for actual ChatGPT traffic in analytics rather than relying entirely on manual searches.
Google has also introduced dedicated Generative AI performance reporting in Search Console for visibility across features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The reporting around AI search will continue developing.
Start measuring now so you have something to compare against later.
12. Don’t Waste Time on Every New GEO Trick You Read About
This area is moving quickly, which inevitably attracts shortcuts and questionable advice.
Google specifically says you don’t need special AI text files or new machine-readable files such as llms.txt to appear in Google’s generative search experiences. It also warns against chasing artificial mentions around the web purely to manipulate AI visibility.
I would also be wary of anyone guaranteeing:
“Number one rankings in ChatGPT.”
Nobody controls ChatGPT’s answers in that way.
A better approach is much less exciting:
Build a technically sound website.
Explain your business clearly.
Publish useful content based on real expertise.
Answer the questions potential customers ask.
Build genuine authority.
Make important information easy to find and understand.
Then measure what happens.
SEO and GEO Should Work Together
I don’t see traditional SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation as two completely separate services.
There is considerable overlap.
Good technical SEO helps content get discovered.
Good website structure helps systems understand it.
Useful service pages explain what you do.
Expert content demonstrates knowledge.
Internal links establish relationships between topics.
Accurate business and product information provides context.
AI search adds another reason to get these things right.
The difference is that we now need to think beyond ten blue Google links and consider how businesses may be discovered inside generated answers as well.
Want to Know How Visible Your Business Is in AI Search?
If you’re unsure whether your website is well positioned for ChatGPT, Google AI search and other AI-powered search experiences, I can review it.
My AI Search Optimisation & GEO service looks at your current visibility, website structure, important pages, content, crawlability and other factors that may be making your business easier or harder for AI search systems to understand.
There are no guaranteed ChatGPT rankings and no magic GEO switch.
The aim is to identify the practical improvements worth making and ignore the hype.
Request an AI Search Visibility Review
Phil Adair is a Sydney-based Google Ads consultant with more than 17 years of hands-on experience. He specialises in Shopify and eCommerce advertising, including Performance Max, Google Shopping, Merchant Centre and product feeds, and also manages selected lead-generation campaigns for service and B2B businesses.
Phil works directly on every account, with no junior account managers or offshore handovers. His focus is practical: reduce wasted ad spend, fix tracking and product feed problems, and improve profitable sales.
Learn more about Phil Adair or request a free Google Ads audit.