How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

“Suggest a good packers and movers in Navi Mumbai.” “Which clinic in Vashi does root canal at a fair price?” More customers now type questions like these into ChatGPT, Gemini or Google, and get back a short list of businesses, written by AI. If yours isn't on that list, you don't exist for that customer.

Here is how these tools choose, and the steps that put your business in the answer.

The short answer#

How AI tools pick a business#

When you ask a question that needs current or local information, these tools run a web search behind the scenes, read a handful of pages, and write an answer from them, often with links to the sources.

• Google AI Overviews and AI Modeuse Google's own index. If a page isn't indexed, or ranks nowhere near the top for the question, it is unlikely to be cited.
• ChatGPT searchuses OpenAI's own crawler plus search partners, with Bing a major source. A site missing from Bing has a disadvantage.
• Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini work in similar ways, each with its own crawler or index.

So the AI isn't magic. It reads what is on the web, and it picks the businesses whose information is clear, consistent and confirmed by more than one source.

10 steps to get your business recommended#

1. Get indexed in Google and Bing

Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap to both, and fix every page that isn't indexed. Bing can import your sites from Search Console in a couple of clicks. If pages aren't showing on Google, start with why a website doesn't show on Google.

2. Let AI search crawlers in

Many sites block AI crawlers by accident, through a security plugin, a firewall setting or a copied robots.txt. OpenAI uses OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search and GPTBot for training; you can allow the first and block the second if you prefer. A robots.txt that welcomes search and AI search looks like this:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Google's AI Overviews use the normal Googlebot, so blocking “Google-Extended” does not remove you from them.

3. Say plainly what you do, where and for how much

Put a short factual paragraph at the top of your home and service pages: “Sharma Movers is a packers and movers company in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, shifting homes and offices across Navi Mumbai and Mumbai since 2015. Local 1BHK shifting starts at ₹6,000.” AI tools quote sentences like this almost word for word. They skip “We are passionate about excellence”.

4. One page per service and per area

A question like “website designer in Panvel” is best answered by a page about exactly that. Separate pages for your main services and the areas you serve give AI tools, and Google, something specific to cite.

5. Answer the questions customers ask

Price, timing, areas covered, what's included, how to choose. Put these as headings with a direct answer below each, add FAQs to service pages, and write blog posts for the bigger questions. This is AEO, and it is the content AI tools lift into answers.

6. Add structured data

Mark up your business with LocalBusiness (or the specific type, like Dentist or MovingCompany), plus Service, BreadcrumbList and FAQPage where they fit. Include your address, phone, opening hours, areas served and price range. Test it with Google's Rich Results Test.

7. Complete your Google Business Profile

Right category, every service listed, service areas, hours, photos, and a link to your website. Google's AI uses this information for local questions, and other tools see it echoed across the web.

8. Keep your details identical everywhere

Same business name, address, phone and short description on your website, Google, Justdial, IndiaMART, Sulekha, Facebook, LinkedIn and any industry directory. Conflicting details make an AI less confident about you, and it may mention someone else instead.

9. Earn reviews and mentions on other sites

AI tools give weight to what others say. Ask happy customers for Google reviews that mention the service and area (“shifted our office from Vashi to Thane”). Get listed in local directories, associations and news where you can. One honest mention on a trusted site is worth more than ten on spammy ones.

10. Keep the site fast and up to date

Slow sites get crawled less and abandoned more. Aim for 90+ on mobile PageSpeed (see how to fix a slow website). Update prices and dates when they change; AI tools that quote an old price make for awkward phone calls.

How to check if it's working#

• Ask the tools.Every few weeks, ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers would ask, like “best [your service] in [your area]”, and note who is mentioned and which sources are linked.
• Look at referrals. In Google Analytics, check traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com.
• Watch Search Console. AI Overview clicks are counted in normal Google search performance, so rising impressions for question-style searches are a good sign.
• Ask new customers how they found you, and track calls and WhatsApp clicks (see measuring enquiries). “ChatGPT suggested you” is an answer you will hear more often.

How long it takes#

If the site is already indexed and has clear pages, small changes like the summary paragraph and FAQs can show up in AI answers within weeks, as pages are recrawled. Building the reviews, mentions and rankings that make AI trust you takes months, the same as SEO, because it largely is SEO.

I build business websites with all of this set up from day one: fast pages, schema, FAQs, Search Console, Bing and AI crawlers allowed. If you're in Navi Mumbai, I'm a website designer and developer in Navi Mumbai; otherwise see freelance web development. Websites start at ₹4,999.