ChatGPT SEO: how do you get recommended by ChatGPT?
By Outnamed · Updated
Key points
- No one outside OpenAI knows exactly how ChatGPT picks companies, so be wary of anyone who claims to.
- ChatGPT writes each answer fresh, so the right goal is being named more often across many answers, not holding a position.
- One screenshot proves nothing; ask each buying question many times and count.
- What you control is your own pages, your facts and your reviews.
- Update pages on a schedule, because assistants and their sources change over time.
What is ChatGPT SEO?
ChatGPT SEO is a common name for the work of getting your company named in ChatGPT's answers to buying questions. A buying question looks like this: "What is the best invoicing tool for a freelancer?" or "Which dentist near me does implants?"
It is not a setting you switch on. ChatGPT writes each answer fresh, so there is no fixed list to rank on. The realistic aim is to be named in a larger share of answers over time, and nobody can promise that outcome. That includes us.
How does ChatGPT decide which companies to name?
OpenAI has not published how ChatGPT chooses companies, so the ranking factors are unknown. Anyone who lists them is guessing.
Two things are publicly known in general terms. The model learned from a large body of text before it was released. ChatGPT can also search the web and read pages while it answers, depending on the product settings and the question. When it searches, the pages it reads can shape the answer.
Which pages it reads and how it weighs them is not public, and it can change with any update. Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot each work differently, so the same question can produce different company lists in each. Treat every claim about "what ChatGPT likes" as a hypothesis until you have measured it.
See where you stand, free
Enter your website. You see what customers say about you, how you compare with the competitors people pick instead, and what to fix first.
Is ChatGPT SEO worth your time?
For software companies, buyers are already using these tools. In the G2 Buyer Behavior Report, June 2026 (1,000+ software buyers), 8 in 10 software buyers used an AI chatbot to find recommendations in the last two years. The same G2 report says 37% say chatbots shape their shortlist most, level with review sites at 38%.
One more data point, with a caveat. Ahrefs reported that, in its own traffic over 30 days, visitors from AI search were 0.5% of traffic and 12.1% of sign-ups. That is one company's site, not an average, and it does not predict what you would see. It does suggest that small traffic numbers can hide valuable visitors.
If your buyers are local customers rather than software buyers, the G2 figures do not describe them. Test your own market by asking the questions your customers ask.
How do you measure whether ChatGPT names your company?
Asking ChatGPT once and screenshotting the reply tells you almost nothing, because assistants rarely give the same list twice. You need repeated runs and a count. This is how to do it by hand:
- Write 10 to 20 buying questions in the words a customer would use, including your category, your city if you are local, and typical constraints such as team size or budget range.
- Ask each question 30 times in a fresh conversation each time, ideally with web search on, since that is how many people use it.
- Record every company named in every answer, including yours and Competitor B, Competitor C and so on.
- Count, for each question, in how many of the 30 answers each company appears.
- Repeat every month with the same questions, so you can compare like with like.
- Example with made-up numbers: Your company is named in 6 of 30 answers to one question, and Competitor B in 21 of 30. That tells you where the gap is. It does not tell you why.
- Example with made-up numbers: next month Your company is named in 9 of 30 answers to the same question. That is a change worth watching, but one month is not yet a trend.
What can you do on your own website?
Your site is the part you fully control. The aim is to make the facts a buyer asks about easy to find, easy to read and easy to quote. Nobody knows whether this makes ChatGPT name you, but it is useful for human visitors and search engines either way.
Outnamed does the measuring described above with the official programming interfaces of the assistants, then writes answer pages for the customer's own site, which the customer approves before they go live. You can do the same by hand with the steps below.
- Make one page per buying question, titled with the question in the words buyers use.
- Answer in the first two sentences, so the opening stands on its own if someone quotes it.
- Use your own facts: who the product or service is for, what it does not do, how it compares on features, limits, locations and opening hours. Do not pad with general advice.
- Keep key facts in plain text, not only in images, PDFs or scripts that need a click to load.
- Check your robots.txt file. OpenAI documents how its crawlers can be allowed or blocked, so make sure you are not blocking them by accident.
- Put a visible update date on each page and revisit it every month, as facts and competitors change.
Do reviews and community sites matter for ChatGPT SEO?
They can. When ChatGPT searches the web, it may read what others say about you, on sites such as Google reviews, Yelp, Trustpilot, G2, Capterra and Reddit. Whether and how much it uses them differs by question and can change over time.
What you can do is read your own reviews as a buyer would. Look for repeated complaints and repeated praise, answer reviews honestly, and fix what is true. Ask satisfied customers to leave a review. Do not write fake reviews or pay for them: the sites remove them, and they do not help real buyers.
What should you ignore in ChatGPT SEO advice?
Ignore any promise of a guaranteed mention, a top position or a date by which you will appear. The assistants decide, and the way they decide is not public.
Be cautious about tricks, such as hidden text or prompts planted on your pages. They are unproven, can harm your credibility, and assistants change quickly. A better use of your time is accurate pages, honest reviews and a monthly count.
| Area | Can you control it? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your own pages | Yes | Publish one fact-based answer page per buying question and keep it updated. |
| Crawler access | Yes | Check your robots.txt so you do not block crawlers by accident. |
| Reviews and forums | Partly | Earn honest reviews and fix real problems; do not fake anything. |
| Which companies ChatGPT names | No | Measure it monthly with repeated runs. |
Questions people also ask
Can you guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend your company?
No. ChatGPT writes each answer fresh, and OpenAI does not publish how it picks companies. Anyone promising a mention is promising something they do not control. You can only improve your inputs and measure the result.
How long does ChatGPT SEO take to work?
Nobody knows. Changes to your pages may be read at different times, and the assistant's behavior can shift with updates. Measure monthly with the same questions and judge the trend rather than a single result.
Why does ChatGPT give a different answer every time?
Its answers are generated each time, and with web search on, the pages it reads can differ between runs. That is why one result proves nothing. Asking the same question 30 times shows how often a company appears.
Does ChatGPT SEO work for local businesses?
It can matter, since people ask for local recommendations too. The G2 figures cover software buyers, so they do not describe your customers. Ask the questions your customers ask, include your city, and count who is named.
Should you optimize for other assistants separately?
Measure them separately, because Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot can name different companies for the same question. The groundwork is the same: clear, factual pages and honest reviews. Your counts will show where you differ.
What is the quickest way to see where you stand?
Do the manual count above for a handful of your most important buying questions. If you want a faster view, the Outnamed scan takes your website and email and shows in about a minute what customers say about you in public reviews, how you compare with competitors, and what to fix first.
Related guides
- AI brand monitoring: how to track what AI assistants say about you
- AI search optimization: a step-by-step plan for a software company
- AI visibility tool: what it measures and what to check before paying
- What is answer engine optimization (AEO)? AEO vs GEO vs SEO
Sources for the figures on this page: G2 Buyer Behavior Report, June 2026 (1,000+ software buyers); Ahrefs, own traffic over 30 days. These are their figures, not a forecast for your company. Outnamed does not promise a mention: the assistants decide. First published October 7, 2026.