How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants

How AI assistants pick businesses

When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot for "a good plumber near me" or "a guest house that takes dogs", the assistant usually searches the web first. It then reads the pages it finds and names the businesses that best match.

Different assistants lean on different search engines. ChatGPT search and Copilot draw heavily on Bing. Gemini and Google's AI answers use Google's own index. Many assistants also read business listings, review sites and directories.

So the basics are the same as good search engine work, with one difference: the assistant needs clear facts in plain text that it can quote, and it trusts you more when other sites say the same things about you.

The eight steps

• 1. Put your facts on your own site, in plain text: what you do, for whom, where you work, how you price, and how to contact you.
• 2. Give each service its own page, and open each page with a direct answer to the question a customer would ask.
• 3. Add real questions and answers in your customers' words.
• 4. Get indexed: register your site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submit your sitemap.
• 5. Don't block AI crawlers. Check that your site allows the bots that AI search tools use.
• 6. Get listed: claim your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing if you qualify, and add your business to trusted South African directories and your industry's listings.
• 7. Ask for reviews from real customers on the platforms that matter in your industry.
• 8. Keep your name, area, phone number and description the same everywhere.

Your own site's facts

Your website is often the first source an assistant reads about you. Many small business sites hide the important facts in images, sliders or vague slogans like "quality you can trust". An assistant can't quote that.

Write the facts out: "We do mobile car valets at your home or office, in these suburbs, seven days a week." Add structured data that matches what the page says. Keep the site fast and readable on a phone, and put a visible date on pages that change, such as prices.

Listings and reviews

Assistants check whether other sites agree with what your site says. Mentions on reputable sites, such as directories, review platforms, local news and industry bodies, appear to matter more than links alone.

Look for the listings that serve your industry in South Africa, such as review sites, trade directories and travel or booking platforms, and fill each profile in properly. A few complete, consistent listings are worth more than dozens of half-empty ones.

Consistency

If your site says one phone number, your Google profile another, and an old directory a third, the assistant has reason to doubt all of them. Use one business name, one phone number and one description of your area everywhere. Update or remove old listings.

Test it every month

Write down ten to twenty questions a customer might ask, such as "best plumber in my area". Each month, ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and note whether you're named and which sources are cited. The cited sources show you where to be listed next.

What's hype

• "Pay to be listed in ChatGPT." There's no paid placement in the answers themselves.
• llms.txt on its own: a summary file for AI tools is cheap to add, but there's little evidence that it gets you cited by itself.
• "Special AI schema." Structured data is good hygiene, but it has to match the visible page, and it's no shortcut.
• Instant results. Indexing, listings and reviews take weeks to months to show up in answers.

Where Peak Software helps

We build websites that give search engines and AI assistants clear facts to read: a page per service, direct answers, real questions and answers, structured data that matches the page, and indexing on Google and Bing. A short call, then a written plan and one fixed price before work starts. We work remotely with businesses across South Africa.

Questions