Staying ahead
How to get found in ChatGPT and AI answers
A customer asks ChatGPT for a good electrician near them, and it names three firms. None of them is you, and you only find out when someone mentions it.
How do AI assistants decide which businesses to recommend?
When an assistant answers a question about local businesses, it usually searches the web, reads what it finds and writes an answer from the sources it trusts most. So it recommends businesses whose facts it can find, read and check. If your prices sit in a PDF and nobody else mentions you, it has little to go on.
They search before they answer
For questions about businesses, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can look things up on the web while answering. Google's AI answers draw on pages already in its search index: Google's guide to AI features and your website says a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. If your site is hidden from search, it is hidden from these answers too.
They prefer facts they can quote
A page that says "boiler service from £85, across Leeds and Wakefield" gives an assistant something to repeat. A page that says "competitive rates, call for details" gives it nothing, so it quotes a rival who wrote the number down.
They look for agreement across sources
An assistant is more confident naming a café that its own site, a local guide and a review site all describe the same way. If your opening hours differ on three sites, you look less certain, and certainty is what gets you named. When sources disagree, the assistant may also repeat the wrong one, which is the problem our post on why AI makes things up explains.
Each assistant answers differently
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI answers each search and weigh sources in their own way, so you can be named by one and missing from another on the same question. Check all of them, and give most weight to the ones your customers use: a trade customer on a work laptop may live in Copilot or Gemini, a younger customer on a phone in ChatGPT. Our post on which AI model a small business should use covers how the main assistants differ.
Five steps to get into AI answers
- 01
Let the AI crawlers in
Your site has a small file called robots.txt that, in Google's words, tells crawlers which pages they can access. Some website themes and security tools block AI crawlers by default. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, so check yours with whoever runs your site.
- 02
Put your facts on the page, in words
Services, prices or price ranges, areas covered, opening hours and how to book. Write them as text on the page, not in an image or a PDF. Answer the questions customers ask you on the phone, in their words, each with a short direct answer. Google's LocalBusiness structured data lets you label hours and details in code too, as long as it matches what the page says.
- 03
Say the same thing everywhere
Your website, your Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles should agree on name, address, prices and hours. Pick one master list of facts and update every copy from it when something changes. Google's own tips to improve your local ranking start with a complete, verified profile and current hours, including holiday hours.
- 04
Get mentioned by sites assistants trust
Local guides, trade bodies, supplier pages and the local paper all count. The strongest mentions come from giving people something worth citing, such as real figures from your own jobs. Buying links for ranking is against Google's spam policies and can do more harm than good.
- 05
Check properly, not once
Write down 20 questions a real buyer would ask, put each one to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, and ask it more than once, because answers vary. Count whether you were cited, named or missing, and which rivals were named instead. Then fix and check again.
Which AI crawlers should you let in?
Let in the crawlers that fetch pages for search answers. Blocking those hides you from the answers. The crawlers that collect material for training future models are a separate choice: blocking them does not, by the providers' own accounts, remove you from search answers.
OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot
OpenAI's crawler guide says OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and sites that opt out won't appear in ChatGPT search answers. Blocking GPTBot tells OpenAI not to use your content for training. Most small businesses that want to be found should allow OAI-SearchBot.
Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User and ClaudeBot
Anthropic's help page on how its crawlers work says blocking Claude-SearchBot or Claude-User may reduce your visibility in Claude's search results. Blocking ClaudeBot is about training data, not search.
Google: Googlebot and Google-Extended
Google's AI answers use the normal Googlebot index. Google-Extended is a separate token for Gemini training and grounding, and Google's crawler list says it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search. Blocking Googlebot itself would take you out of both.
What our own AI audit found
| Type of question | How often AI named GigXchange | What it told us |
|---|---|---|
| Platform questions | 40% on ChatGPT (web) | Known by name, but not reliably |
| Directory questions | 2 of 24 | Rarely named, with 2,822 venues listed as of October 2026 |
| City-scene questions | 0 of 24 | Invisible on questions about a place |
- 40%of platform questions where ChatGPT (web) named GigXchange
- 2 of 24directory questions where AI named us
- 0 of 24city-scene questions where AI named us
- 10competitors counted on every answer
Source GigXchange's own AI visibility audit of 17 October 2026 - not flattering, which is the point.
How to run your own 20-question AI check
- 01
Write questions the way buyers ask them
Mix three kinds. Questions with your name in them ("is Smith Electrical any good?"). Questions about the job in your area ("who can rewire a house in Wakefield?"). And broad ones ("best electrician in West Yorkshire"). The second and third kinds are where new customers come from, and where most small firms are missing.
- 02
Ask each assistant, more than once
Put every question to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, in a fresh chat each time, and ask each one at least twice. Answers change from one asking to the next, so one go tells you very little.
- 03
Score each answer the same way
Cited with a link to your site, named without a link, or missing. Write down every rival that was named. After 20 questions you can see a pattern: perhaps you are named when people use your name, and missing when they ask about your town.
- 04
Fix the gap the pattern shows
Missing on town questions usually means no page about that town and that job. Named with wrong facts usually means your facts disagree across sites. Named for a rival's speciality usually means your own pages never say what you do best. Fix one, then re-run the same 20 next month.
What doesn't work, or isn't proven
Plenty of advice about AI search is guesswork sold with confidence. Be wary of anything that promises a placement, and of any single trick presented as the answer.
Nobody can promise you a mention
The assistants decide what to say, and they change how they decide without telling anyone. Anyone who guarantees you will be recommended is guessing. What you can control is how easy you are to find, read and check. What we can show you is measured: GigXchange's own numbers are on our proof page.
An llms.txt file is one signal, not a fix
An llms.txt file is a plain summary of your business written for AI systems. It is a young convention that not every engine follows, and Google says there are no extra requirements or special files needed for its AI answers. It is cheap and can help, but it won't carry a thin website.
A chatbot on your own site won't get you found
A chat window on your website only helps people who have already found you. Being found happens in the assistant the customer already uses, which is why some businesses now offer a connector that lets those assistants look up their prices and availability directly. Our post on AI agents vs chatbots explains the difference.
Fake or paid-for reviews
Reviews help assistants trust you, so the shortcut is tempting. It is also against the law: the CMA's short guide for businesses on consumer reviews says you must not write or commission fake reviews, or publish incentivised reviews without saying so. Ask real customers instead, every time a job goes well.
Common mistakes that keep small firms out of AI answers
Most of these take an afternoon to fix. The hard part is knowing they are there.
Blocking every bot to be safe
A security plugin set to block all bots stops the search crawlers along with the scrapers. Check the robots.txt and the plugin settings, and allow the search crawlers by name.
Prices and areas hidden in PDFs and images
A price list as a photo of a printed sheet is invisible to most crawlers. Type it onto the page. If you cover 15 towns, say which 15. A page for each town and service you cover is the job of Programmatic Local SEO.
Writing for search engines instead of people
Pages stuffed with "best plumber Leeds" read badly and give an assistant nothing new to quote. Google's guide to helpful, people-first content asks whether your page offers original information, and your own jobs, prices and photos are exactly that.
Fixing the site and forgetting the profile
Owners often update the website and leave an old phone number or last year's hours on their Google Business Profile and two directories. Assistants see the disagreement and trust you less. Change the master list first, then every copy on the same day, and write down where each copy lives so nothing is missed next time.
Checking once and stopping
AI answers move month to month as the assistants change. One check is a snapshot. Our post on keeping up with AI without chasing launches sets out a monthly habit that fits around a working week.
Questions
08Asked and answered
Ask ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask, several times each in fresh chats, and note whether you are named and who is named instead. Do the same on Claude and Gemini, because each one answers differently. Our AI Visibility Audit does this on 20 questions across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, with a fix list.
Not the search crawlers, if you want to appear in AI answers: OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Crawlers that collect training data are a separate choice and, by the providers' accounts, don't affect search. OpenAI's crawler guide explains each one.
No: Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed, only pages that are indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. Good basics matter more than any extra file. Read Google's guidance on AI features; AI Search Readiness covers the basics it asks for.
Give other sites something worth citing, such as a free tool or real figures from your own jobs, rather than asking for links. Trade bodies, suppliers and local guides link to useful things. Never buy links or reviews. That is the job of our Authority & Citation Programme: a free tool, a stats page and an open dataset.
Yes, if you offer a connector that those assistants can read, so they get today's prices and availability instead of guessing from an old page. The customer stays in the assistant they already use, and the answer comes from your own system. See the AI Assistant Connector.
Expect months rather than weeks, and expect it to move up and down, so measure it regularly. Even with everything in place, GigXchange was named on 0 of 24 city-scene questions in our October 2026 audit. The AI Visibility Monitor asks the same questions every month and reports who is named.
Yes. Writing or commissioning fake reviews, and publishing incentivised reviews without making that clear, are banned under UK consumer protection law. Businesses that publish reviews must also take steps to stop fake ones appearing. The CMA's short guide on publishing consumer reviews sets out what is allowed.
This is general guidance, not legal or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a qualified adviser.