Guide · ChatGPT
How to get recommended by ChatGPT
There is no form to submit and no way to buy a place in ChatGPT’s answer. What you can do is make sure ChatGPT can find your pages, give it clear answers to quote, and earn mentions in the sources it reads. Here are the steps, in order.
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In short
Getting recommended by ChatGPT means being one of the brands it names when someone asks for options in your category. ChatGPT draws on what its model learned in training and, when it searches the web, on pages found through OpenAI’s own search crawler and its search partners, with Bing widely reported to be one of them. Rankry tracks whether ChatGPT names you for your buyers’ prompts, and which brands and sources it picks instead.
How it decides
How does ChatGPT decide which brands to recommend?
ChatGPT has two ways of knowing about your brand. The first is training: what the model absorbed from public web pages and other text before its training cutoff. The second is search: for many questions, especially about products, prices or anything recent, ChatGPT runs a web search, reads a selection of pages, and writes its answer from them, with links.
When it searches, ChatGPT rewrites the question into one or more queries and sends them to its search providers. OpenAI says ChatGPT search works with third-party search providers, and Microsoft Bing is widely reported to be one of them. OpenAI also runs its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, to surface sites in search answers. Pages that never make it into those indexes can’t be retrieved.
From what it retrieves and remembers, the model picks the brands that best fit the question. Brands described consistently across many independent sources, with clear statements of what they do and who they are for, are easier to recommend. A single page on your own site rarely carries a recommendation by itself.
Crawlers
Which OpenAI crawlers should I allow?
OpenAI uses separate user agents for separate jobs. Blocking the wrong one can take you out of ChatGPT search without you noticing.
| User agent | What it does | If you block it |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Finds and surfaces sites in ChatGPT’s search answers | Your pages are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links |
| ChatGPT-User | Visits a page when a user’s request needs it, for example when ChatGPT opens a link to answer a question | Robots.txt may not stop it, because the visit is user-initiated; OpenAI says it does not decide whether you appear in search |
| GPTBot | Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI’s foundation models | Your content is signaled as off-limits for training; this is a separate setting from search visibility |
| Bingbot | Microsoft’s crawler for the Bing index | Your pages can drop out of Bing, and with it out of the search partners that rely on Bing |
Roles as described in OpenAI’s crawler documentation. Check it for current user agents before changing robots.txt.
The playbook
How do I get my business mentioned by ChatGPT?
Work through these in order. The early steps remove blockers; the later ones build the reasons for ChatGPT to name you.
- 01
Allow OAI-SearchBot
Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and confirm OAI-SearchBot is not disallowed, either directly or through a catch-all rule. Decide on GPTBot separately: blocking training does not block search.
- 02
Get indexed in Bing
Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap, and use its URL inspection to confirm key pages are indexed. IndexNow can tell Bing about updates quickly.
- 03
Make pages readable without JavaScript
Load your pricing, product and comparison pages with JavaScript turned off. If the main text disappears, crawlers that don’t render scripts may see an empty page.
- 04
Say plainly what you are
Your homepage and key pages should state in one or two sentences what you sell, who it is for and where you operate. Use the same wording on your profiles across the web.
- 05
Answer the questions buyers ask
Write pages that answer real prompts directly: “best X for Y”, comparisons with named alternatives, pricing, use cases. Lead with the answer and use clear headings, tables and FAQs.
- 06
Earn mentions in sources ChatGPT reads
Get listed and reviewed where your category is discussed: review sites, forums and communities, industry publications and “best of” roundups. Start with what ChatGPT already cites for your prompts.
- 07
Keep facts consistent and current
Outdated prices, old product names and conflicting descriptions across sites make it harder for a model to describe you with confidence. Fix them at the source.
- 08
Measure with fixed prompts
Track the same set of buyer prompts over time and note whether ChatGPT names you, your position and which sources it cites. Change one thing, then compare.
Cited vs recommended
What’s the difference between being cited and being recommended by ChatGPT?
These are separate outcomes with separate causes, so track them separately.
Recommended
ChatGPT names your brand in the answer as an option. This is what most readers act on, and it usually needs consistent mentions across several sources.
Cited
ChatGPT links one of your pages as a source. A single strong page can earn a citation, even when the answer recommends other brands.
Both
The best case: you are named, and your own page is one of the sources behind the answer, so you shape how you are described.
Neither
You are absent. Check access first (crawlers, indexing), then whether any page, yours or anyone else’s, answers the prompt with you in it.
Third-party sources
Do reviews and Reddit help you get mentioned in ChatGPT?
They often do, because they are among the pages ChatGPT can retrieve when it searches for recommendations. Review platforms such as G2, Capterra and Trustpilot, community threads on Reddit, and editorial roundups are common sources for “best” and “alternatives” questions. Which ones matter in your category is something you can check: look at the sources ChatGPT cites for your prompts.
Earn these mentions honestly. Ask real customers for reviews, take part in discussions where you have something useful to add, and give journalists and list authors accurate information. Fake reviews and spam break platform rules and can backfire on how you are described.
Treat each source as the fix for a specific gap. If ChatGPT cites a comparison article that lists three competitors and not you, that article is your next outreach target. If it cites a Reddit thread, the question in that thread is a prompt worth answering on your own site too.
Avoid these
What doesn’t work for getting into ChatGPT answers?
Some common tactics waste time or make things worse.
- Blocking every AI bot with one rule, then wondering why ChatGPT search ignores you
- Stuffing pages with your brand name or keyword lists
- Publishing pages that only say you are the best, with no specifics
- Buying or faking reviews
- Hiding key content behind logins, script-only tabs or PDFs
- Checking once in your own logged-in ChatGPT and treating it as the answer
- Expecting one press release to change answers across every prompt
- Changing your tracked prompts every week, so nothing is comparable
Test it
How do I check whether it’s working?
Progress in ChatGPT shows up as a trend across many answers, not as one result.
- 01
Fix a prompt set
Choose 10 or more buyer prompts without your brand name, and keep them unchanged from week to week.
- 02
Check in a clean session
Use a logged-out or private session with memory off, so your own history doesn’t steer the answer.
- 03
Log every answer
Record whether you were named, your position, the competitors named and the sources cited.
- 04
Compare over weeks
Look at the share of answers that name you before and after each change, not at single answers.
- 05
Or let Rankry run it
Rankry asks ChatGPT your prompts through OpenAI’s API with web search, one answer per prompt per run, daily by default, or every 3 or 7 days if you choose. Each run keeps your position, the brands named, the sources and the full answer.
Guides
Keep reading
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
Make sure ChatGPT can find your pages (allow OAI-SearchBot, get indexed in Bing, keep key text in the HTML), state clearly what you offer and who it is for, publish pages that answer buyer questions directly, and earn mentions on the review sites, forums and articles ChatGPT cites. Then track the same prompts over time.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not inside the answer. There is no paid placement in ChatGPT’s answers; where ChatGPT shows ads, they are labeled and kept separate from the answer itself. A place in the answer comes from your site and from what others publish about you.
Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT?
No. GPTBot is OpenAI’s training crawler, and blocking it tells OpenAI not to use your content for training. Visibility in ChatGPT search depends on OAI-SearchBot, which you control with its own robots.txt rule.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
OpenAI says ChatGPT search partners with third-party search providers and rewrites questions into queries it sends to them. Microsoft Bing is widely reported to be one of those providers, so being indexed in Bing is a sensible baseline. OpenAI also runs its own search crawler, OAI-SearchBot.
How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT?
When ChatGPT searches, a page can be used once it has been crawled and indexed by the systems ChatGPT relies on, which can take days or weeks. Building enough third-party mentions to be recommended usually takes longer. What the model learned in training only changes when new model versions ship.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitors and not me?
Usually for one of a few reasons: ChatGPT can’t access or find your pages, your pages don’t answer the question directly, competitors appear in more of the sources ChatGPT cites, or your brand is associated with a different category. The sources cited in answers where competitors win will show you which applies.
Do I need to rank on Google’s first page to appear in ChatGPT?
There is no such rule. OpenAI documents its own crawler and third-party search providers as ChatGPT’s sources. Pages that are crawlable, useful and linked to tend to do well in any search index, so solid SEO helps, but a first-page Google ranking is neither required nor a guarantee.
Does ChatGPT give the same answer to everyone?
No. Answers vary between runs, models are updated, and the consumer app can personalize answers using memory, past chats and location. That is why you should check in a clean session and measure across many prompts and repeated runs.
Can ChatGPT say wrong things about my brand?
Yes. It can repeat outdated prices or old product names, or confuse you with another company. Find which sources the wrong facts come from, correct your own pages first, then update profiles and listings. Re-check the same prompts afterward.
How does Rankry track ChatGPT?
Rankry sends your prompts to ChatGPT through OpenAI’s API with web search, one answer per prompt per run, at your chosen interval: daily, every 3 days or every 7 days. It records whether you are named, your position, the competitors named, the sources and the full answer for every new run, so you can see the trend.
See whether ChatGPT recommends you
Rankry writes buyer prompts from your site and shows which brands ChatGPT and the other AI engines on your plan name instead.
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