How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
87% of ChatGPT citations correlate with Bing's top 10. Only 56% with Google. Your entire SEO strategy targets the wrong index.
SEE WHO CHATGPT RECOMMENDS INSTEAD OF YOUSeer Interactive, 2025
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
87% of ChatGPT citations correlate with Bing's top 10. Only 56% with Google. Your entire SEO strategy targets the wrong index.
See who ChatGPT recommends instead of youWhy is your business invisible to ChatGPT?
87% of ChatGPT citations match Bing's top 10 results. Google correlation? 56% (Seer Interactive, 2025). Your entire SEO strategy targets the wrong index.
Most B2B companies have never submitted a sitemap to Bing. Never opened Bing Webmaster Tools. They have spent six figures optimising for Google while ChatGPT builds its answers from somewhere else entirely.
Bing is not the whole story. OpenAI runs its own crawler (OAI-SearchBot) building a separate index. It has licensed data partnerships with Reddit, Reuters, the Financial Times, and News Corp. There is credible reporting that Google Search results feed into paid-tier responses too. The full architecture has never been disclosed.
This is AI search in 2026. No published ranking criteria. Infrastructure that shifts without announcement. If you are spending five or six figures on Google SEO, you have no idea what ChatGPT thinks of your site. No playbook from a traditional agency will tell you.
of UK senior decision-makers already use AI tools for supplier research (Magenta Associates, 2025). When they ask ChatGPT who to talk to, the answer comes from sources most businesses have ignored. Not a future problem. A revenue problem today.
Why is your business invisible to ChatGPT?
87% of ChatGPT citations match Bing's top 10 results. Google correlation? 56% (Seer Interactive, 2025). Your entire SEO strategy targets the wrong index.
Most B2B companies have never submitted a sitemap to Bing. Never opened Bing Webmaster Tools. They have spent six figures optimising for Google while ChatGPT builds its answers from somewhere else entirely.
Bing is not the whole story. OpenAI runs its own crawler (OAI-SearchBot) building a separate index. It has licensed data partnerships with Reddit, Reuters, the Financial Times, and News Corp. The full architecture has never been disclosed.
This is AI search in 2026. No published ranking criteria. Infrastructure that shifts without announcement. If you are spending five or six figures on Google SEO, you have no idea what ChatGPT thinks of your site.
of UK senior decision-makers already use AI tools for supplier research (Magenta Associates, 2025). When they ask ChatGPT who to talk to, the answer comes from sources most businesses have ignored. Not a future problem. A revenue problem today.
How does ChatGPT choose which businesses to recommend?
OpenAI does not publish ranking criteria. What we know comes from large-scale independent studies, reverse engineering, and patterns across hundreds of audits. It changes quarterly.
The strongest signals identified so far:
Referring domain count
The single strongest predictor. Domains with 32,000+ referring domains receive 3.5x more citations (Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025, 129,000 domains analysed). This is a traditional SEO metric, and it matters more here than anywhere else.
Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025Content depth
Articles over 2,900 words average 5.1 ChatGPT citations versus 3.2 for pieces under 800 words (Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025). Thin content does not get cited.
Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025Answer placement
44.2% of all ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of page content (Kevin Indig, Growth Memo, 2025, 18,012 verified citations). Put your answer first. Not in paragraph eight.
Kevin Indig, Growth Memo, 2025Crawler access
ChatGPT’s crawler does not render JavaScript. It reads raw HTML. If your site loads content through JS frameworks, ChatGPT cannot see it.
robots.txt configuration
OpenAI operates three bots: GPTBot (training data), OAI-SearchBot (search indexing), and ChatGPT-User (browsing). Block OAI-SearchBot by mistake and you disappear from live search results entirely.
These signals shift. New studies contradict old ones. OpenAI changes its infrastructure quietly. A checklist from twelve months ago is already wrong.
How does ChatGPT choose which businesses to recommend?
OpenAI does not publish ranking criteria. What we know comes from large-scale independent studies, reverse engineering, and patterns across hundreds of audits. It changes quarterly.
The strongest signals identified so far:
Referring domain count
The single strongest predictor. Domains with 32,000+ referring domains receive 3.5x more citations (Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025, 129,000 domains analysed). This is a traditional SEO metric, and it matters more here than anywhere else.
Content depth
Articles over 2,900 words average 5.1 ChatGPT citations versus 3.2 for pieces under 800 words (Higglo/SE Ranking, 2025). Thin content does not get cited.
Answer placement
44.2% of all ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of page content (Kevin Indig, Growth Memo, 2025, 18,012 verified citations). Put your answer first. Not in paragraph eight.
Crawler access
ChatGPT’s crawler does not render JavaScript. It reads raw HTML. If your site loads content through JS frameworks, ChatGPT cannot see it.
robots.txt configuration
OpenAI operates three bots: GPTBot (training data), OAI-SearchBot (search indexing), and ChatGPT-User (browsing). Block OAI-SearchBot by mistake and you disappear from live search results entirely.
These signals shift. New studies contradict old ones. OpenAI changes its infrastructure quietly. A checklist from twelve months ago is already wrong.
What does ChatGPT optimisation actually involve?
Your SEO agency optimises for Google. ChatGPT does not use Google's index. That single fact explains why companies with strong organic rankings still get zero ChatGPT citations.
Three areas where ChatGPT works differently from everything your current strategy covers:
Bing foundation
ChatGPT's primary index is Bing, not Google. 87% correlation with Bing's top 10, just 56% with Google (Seer Interactive, 2025). If your site is not submitted, verified, and indexed in Bing Webmaster Tools, ChatGPT cannot find you. Most B2B companies have never registered.
Content ChatGPT extracts
44.2% of all ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of page content (Kevin Indig, 2025). ChatGPT does not read your whole page and pick the best bit. It pulls from the top. Front-load your answer. Write self-contained passages that directly address buyer questions.
Authority ChatGPT trusts
Domains with 32K+ referring domains get double the citation rate. But for AI specifically, brand mentions correlate more strongly than backlinks (0.664 vs 0.218, Zyppy, 2025). Getting talked about matters more than getting linked to. Third-party citations, review platforms, and editorial mentions all feed the signal.
None of this is theoretical. These are the specific mechanics ChatGPT uses to decide who gets cited. The challenge is that OpenAI changes its infrastructure without announcement, and the research that underpins these numbers gets updated quarterly.
For the broader picture across all six AI platforms, see our AI search visibility services. For how generative engine optimisation (GEO) complements ChatGPT-specific work, see our GEO guide.
What does ChatGPT optimisation actually involve?
Your SEO agency optimises for Google. ChatGPT does not use Google's index. That single fact explains why companies with strong organic rankings still get zero ChatGPT citations.
Three areas where ChatGPT works differently from everything your current strategy covers:
Bing foundation
ChatGPT's primary index is Bing, not Google. 87% correlation with Bing's top 10, just 56% with Google (Seer Interactive, 2025). If your site is not submitted, verified, and indexed in Bing Webmaster Tools, ChatGPT cannot find you. Most B2B companies have never registered.
Content ChatGPT extracts
44.2% of all ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of page content (Kevin Indig, 2025). ChatGPT does not read your whole page and pick the best bit. It pulls from the top. Front-load your answer. Write self-contained passages that directly address buyer questions.
Authority ChatGPT trusts
Domains with 32K+ referring domains get double the citation rate. But for AI specifically, brand mentions correlate more strongly than backlinks (0.664 vs 0.218, Zyppy, 2025). Getting talked about matters more than getting linked to. Third-party citations, review platforms, and editorial mentions all feed the signal.
None of this is theoretical. These are the specific mechanics ChatGPT uses to decide who gets cited. The challenge is that OpenAI changes its infrastructure without announcement, and the research gets updated quarterly.
For the broader picture across all six AI platforms, see our AI search visibility services. For how generative engine optimisation (GEO) complements ChatGPT-specific work, see our GEO guide.
What happens in a ChatGPT visibility audit?
This is not a keyword report. The AI visibility audit is a full infrastructure assessment of how AI platforms see your business right now, covering seven weighted categories:
A professional services firm in Manchester had strong Google rankings but had never submitted to Bing Webmaster Tools. ChatGPT could not find them on eight of twelve buyer queries. Their smaller competitor appeared on seven.
The ChatGPT layer runs 12 to 15 real buyer queries through ChatGPT Search in your market. Every response recorded. Your presence scored against your top three competitors.
That is one layer. We also assess whether ChatGPT's crawler can reach your pages, whether your content is structured for AI extraction, whether your schema provides the entity signals platforms need, and whether your technical performance meets the baseline for citation eligibility.
You get a prioritised action plan: what to fix, in what order, why it matters for AI citation specifically. Every recommendation tied to current research.
AI search visitors convert at 4.4x the rate of organic search visitors (Semrush, 2025). They are not browsing. ChatGPT already answered their question. They are arriving to confirm and contact. The only question is whether they land on your site or your competitor's.
Audits built and run by Mo Walji across six AI platforms for B2B companies in the UK and US.
15 minutes. No payment details required.
What happens in a ChatGPT visibility audit?
This is not a keyword report. The AI visibility audit is a full infrastructure assessment of how AI platforms see your business right now, covering seven weighted categories:
A professional services firm in Manchester had strong Google rankings but had never submitted to Bing Webmaster Tools. ChatGPT could not find them on eight of twelve buyer queries. Their smaller competitor appeared on seven.
The ChatGPT layer runs 12 to 15 real buyer queries through ChatGPT Search in your market. Every response recorded. Your presence scored against your top three competitors.
That is one layer. We also assess whether ChatGPT's crawler can reach your pages, whether your content is structured for AI extraction, and whether your schema provides the entity signals platforms need.
You get a prioritised action plan: what to fix, in what order, why it matters for AI citation specifically.
AI search visitors convert at 4.4x the rate of organic search visitors (Semrush, 2025). They are not browsing. ChatGPT already answered their question. They arrive to confirm and contact.
Audits built and run by Mo Walji across six AI platforms for B2B companies in the UK and US.
Book your free audit15 minutes. No payment details required.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
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See whether ChatGPT recommends your competitors instead of you.
The free audit runs 12 to 15 real buyer queries through ChatGPT in your market. You see exactly who gets cited, where your gaps are, and what to fix first across six AI platforms.
The companies establishing authority in their categories now will own AI citations for years. The window is open. Your competitors may already be moving.
GET YOUR FREE AUDIT15-minute call. No payment details required.
See whether ChatGPT recommends your competitors instead of you.
The free audit runs 12 to 15 real buyer queries through ChatGPT in your market. You see exactly who gets cited, where your gaps are, and what to fix first across six AI platforms.
The companies establishing authority in their categories now will own AI citations for years. The window is open. Your competitors may already be moving.
15-minute call. No payment details required.