Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my business?
Because something stops it finding, reading or trusting you, and another business is easier to name. It's rarely one big problem. Usually it's two or three small ones.
ChatGPT doesn't keep a list of approved businesses. For buying questions it usually searches the web, reads a handful of pages, checks the shortlisted businesses' sites and names the ones whose facts are clearest. Drop out at any of those stages and you don't get named. The seven causes below follow those stages, in order.
Is ChatGPT answering from memory instead of searching?
Sometimes. For some questions it answers from its training data, which has a cut-off. If you weren't widely written about before then, it won't know you.
You can usually tell from the sources. An answer with no sources listed probably came from memory. Ask the same question again in a fresh chat with "search the web" added. If you appear when it searches but not otherwise, the gap is in what the model learned, and that closes slowly as mentions of you build up. Our LLM SEO guide explains the difference.
Can ChatGPT reach your website?
Not if robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot, or bot protection turns it away. Check this first, because nothing else matters until it's fixed.
- robots.txt: look for a Disallow rule under OAI-SearchBot, or a blanket rule that catches every bot.
- Bot protection: some hosting and security services can block AI crawlers, and some switch that on by default. Check the settings.
- Cookie walls and sign-ins: if the text only appears after a click or a login, a crawler may see nothing.
- GPTBot is a different crawler. Blocking it stops training use, not ChatGPT search.
Are your pages in Bing?
If they aren't, ChatGPT search may never see them. It leans on Bing, and plenty of businesses that rank in Google have never been set up there.
Search Bing for site: followed by your domain and see what comes back. If key pages are missing, set up Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and turn on IndexNow. Add a Bing Places listing too, with the same details as your Google Business Profile.
Can ChatGPT read your facts once it gets there?
Only if they're in plain text. Facts inside images, PDFs, sliders or text that loads with scripts are easy to miss.
A quick test: view the page source, or turn JavaScript off, and see whether your services, areas and contact details are still there. If they vanish, so do you.
Is there anything to compare you on?
Often not. When someone asks for a recommendation, ChatGPT lines up prices, turnaround, location and what's included. "Contact us for a quote" gives it nothing to line up.
You don't need a full price list. A "from" price, a typical timeline, the areas you cover and a clear list of what's included are enough to be in the comparison. Businesses that give those facts get described with them. Businesses that don't get skipped.
Do your details match everywhere?
If they don't, ChatGPT can't be sure who you are. A different name, address or description on each site makes you look like several businesses, or none.
Check your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, social profiles and the main directories in your sector. Pick one name, one address format, one phone number and one short description, and use them everywhere. This matters even more if your name is close to another company's.
Are you in the places ChatGPT reads?
Your own site is one source among several. If comparison lists, directories, reviews and forum threads don't mention you, ChatGPT sees a gap where you should be.
Run your buyer question in ChatGPT and look at the sources it cites. Those are the pages that decided the answer. If you're not on them, that's your list: the directory to join, the comparison article to pitch, the reviews to ask for.
How do you check each cause, step by step?
Work through these checks in order. Each one rules out a cause before you spend time on the next.
- Ask ChatGPT three or four real buyer questions in a fresh chat, with search on, and save the answers and sources.
- Ask it what it knows about your business by name, and note anything wrong or out of date.
- Check robots.txt and your bot protection settings for OAI-SearchBot.
- Search Bing for your key pages, and set up Bing Webmaster Tools if they're missing.
- View the source of your main service pages and check the facts are there in plain text.
- Check each service page gives a "from" price or price signal, turnaround, areas and how to start.
- Compare your name, address, phone and description across your site and every listing.
- List the sources ChatGPT cited, and mark the ones you're missing from.
What should you fix first?
Access first, then facts, then everything else. If the crawler can't get in, every other fix is wasted.
Once ChatGPT can reach and read you, our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT has the full ten-step method that takes it from there.
Can anyone guarantee ChatGPT will mention you?
No. OpenAI doesn't publish how ChatGPT chooses businesses, and answers change between people, questions and days.
What you can do is remove every reason to leave you out. That's why we track a fixed set of questions every month, rather than trusting one test in one chat.