How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT: What's Documented, What's Unknown and a Plan for QLD Trades

You get recommended by ChatGPT by making your business easy for its web search to find, read and trust. That means letting OpenAI's search crawler into your site, saying exactly what you do and which suburbs you cover in plain text, and earning genuine reviews and mentions elsewhere. It's the same work as good SEO for Google and AI answers, pointed at one more place your customers might ask.

This guide sticks to what OpenAI's help page on searching the web with ChatGPT and Google's guide to optimising for generative AI features in Search actually say. Where nobody outside those companies knows the answer, I say so, and I finish with a plan a Gold Coast tradie can work through between jobs.

Key Points

• OpenAI says ChatGPT may search the web automatically and rewrites a question into one or more targeted searches sent to search partners, naming Microsoft and Shopify.
• To be eligible for ChatGPT search, a site should allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl it and its host or CDN should allow OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses.
• OpenAI states that results are ranked on multiple factors and placement is not guaranteed, so nobody can honestly sell a guaranteed ChatGPT recommendation.
• Google says Google Business Profile can help services appear in Google's own AI responses, but no public documentation says whether it feeds ChatGPT.
• Google says you do not need llms.txt, special markup or AI-only rewrites, and that optimising for generative AI search is still SEO.
• Almost half of Australian adults, 48.6 per cent, have used generative AI at least once, but that figure measures use, not asking AI who to hire.

What do OpenAI and Google actually document?

OpenAI documents how ChatGPT searches the web, and Google documents how its own AI features in Search work. Neither publishes a recipe for getting named, so it pays to know which claims rest on their words and which rest on an agency's guess.

Here's the split, using only what the two companies have published.

What's documented and what isn't

Question	What the source says	Status
Does ChatGPT search the live web?	OpenAI says it may search automatically when a question would benefit from current information.	Documented
Who supplies its search results?	OpenAI names Microsoft and Shopify as search partners.	Documented
Does it know where the user is?	It uses an approximate location from the IP address and may share location with trusted third-party providers, for example for nearby business listings.	Documented
Which provider supplies local business listings?	OpenAI does not name one on its search help page.	Unknown
Does Google Business Profile feed ChatGPT?	Google says its profile can help in Google's own AI features. Nothing public says either way for ChatGPT.	Unknown
Can a business pay for or guarantee placement?	OpenAI says results are ranked using multiple factors and placement is not guaranteed.	Documented
Are the answers always accurate?	OpenAI warns results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect.	Documented
Do you need llms.txt or structured data?	Google says no for its AI features, and structured data is not required for generative AI search.	Documented for Google only

How does ChatGPT find local businesses?

ChatGPT finds local businesses by running its own web searches when a question needs current information. OpenAI says it typically rewrites your question into one or more targeted queries, and its own example turns 'good restaurants near me' into 'top restaurants San Francisco'.

Picture a homeowner in Burleigh Heads typing 'who's a good emergency plumber near me'. Going by OpenAI's example, ChatGPT could search for something closer to 'emergency plumber Gold Coast', using an approximate location taken from the IP address.

If memory is turned on, saved memories may also shape that rewrite. Two people asking the same question can end up triggering different searches.

OpenAI does not say which third party supplies nearby business listings. It says location may be shared with trusted providers for that purpose, and stops there.

So the practical move is to be findable for the rewritten search: your trade, your city and your suburbs, written plainly on pages that can be crawled.

That way you're covered whichever source ChatGPT leans on.

Does ChatGPT use Google Business Profile?

Nobody outside OpenAI can say whether ChatGPT uses Google Business Profile, because OpenAI has not documented it either way. Some agency pages say ChatGPT leans heavily on your profile and others say it ignores it, and neither side links to a source.

Google's position is clear for its own products. Google says Merchant Center and Google Business Profile can help products and services appear in its AI responses.

That's reason enough to keep your profile complete, and our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation for QLD trades walks through it field by field.

OpenAI does name Microsoft as a search partner. It doesn't say Bing Places listings feed ChatGPT, but a free, accurate Bing Places listing takes little time and closes one possible gap.

A complete Google listing pays off in Google's AI answers today, whatever ChatGPT turns out to use.

Is ChatGPT even where your customers look?

Some of your customers already use AI tools, but nobody has published reliable Australian numbers on how many use them to hire a tradie. The best Australian figure comes from the ANU's AI Adoption in Australia report: 48.6 per cent of adults have used generative AI at least once.

ANU produced the report in partnership with Google from a survey of more than 3,500 adults. It measures whether people have ever used generative AI, not whether they asked it to find a sparky.

ANU also found adoption is higher among younger Australians, people with tertiary qualifications and people in capital cities. Brisbane falls in that capital-city group, while the Gold Coast and Tweed sit outside it, so don't assume the national figure describes your local customers.

Treat ChatGPT as one more place to be found, alongside Google.

You get the upside without betting the business on a single channel.

What does AEO or GEO mean, and is it different from SEO?

AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) are names for getting your business cited in AI answers, and in practice they are SEO. Google says so directly: from its perspective, optimising for generative AI search is still SEO.

Google explains that its AI features use retrieval-augmented generation and 'query fan-out', where one question is broken into related searches. Its example turns a question about lawn weeds into a set of related queries.

That's why our position is that GEO is SEO with better-structured answers. A site with a clear page for each service and each common question gives those fanned-out searches more to find.

It's also why I sell it as one piece of work rather than a separate AI product. Holly Charters from Solar Set described the long-term approach in her five-star Google review: "Jerrell has been an amazing asset to our business to help improve actual SEO results. i love digital has provided a long term strategy that has delivered more organic leads and optimised our site setup. His approach offers a much more tailored and personalised approach than our previous experience with other providers. Highly recommend."

When the work is the same, you should only pay for it once.

How do I check whether ChatGPT already recommends me?

You check by asking ChatGPT the questions your customers would ask, in a way that controls for the things that change the answer. Answers vary because of approximate location, saved memories and the way ChatGPT rewrites each question.

• Ask while signed out as well as signed in, because OpenAI says web search is available to people who are not signed in, which strips out your saved memories and history.
• Ask the way a customer would, such as 'Who's a reliable electrician in Robina?' or 'Emergency plumber in Coomera tonight', rather than typing your business name.
• Run each question with and without a suburb or postcode, because OpenAI tells users that adding a city, neighbourhood or postcode improves local results.
• Note which businesses are named and which sites are cited as sources, because those citations show you where ChatGPT went looking.
• Repeat the same set of questions each month and keep the results in a simple spreadsheet, so you're always comparing like with like.
• Check what ChatGPT says about you once you're named, because OpenAI warns results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect.

Can I appear in ChatGPT if my site blocks bots?

No, not in ChatGPT search results. OpenAI says that to be eligible, a site should allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl it and confirm its host or CDN allows OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses.

A site can end up blocking it without the owner knowing in two common ways. One is a robots.txt file that blocks every bot, often left over from when the site was being built, and the other is a security plugin, firewall or CDN setting that challenges unfamiliar crawlers.

Robots.txt rules are written crawler by crawler, so allowing OAI-SearchBot does not mean allowing every bot. You can name it as allowed and make a separate choice about any other crawler you'd rather keep out.

Check OpenAI's own documentation for current crawler names before you change anything, and ask your web developer to confirm the firewall and CDN side.

Our standing rule is to leave AI search crawlers unblocked on every site we manage, including Googlebot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.

Fixing a blocked crawler is usually a quick job, and nothing else in this guide works until it's done.

What do I write on my site?

You write the details a customer needs to choose and book you, in plain text a crawler can read. Google favours first-hand, non-commodity content, and a tradie's real jobs, real suburbs and real process are exactly that.

• Give each service its own page, because a page for hot water repairs and another for blocked drains gives a rewritten search a clear match for each.
• Name the suburbs and towns you actually cover, such as Southport, Nerang, Robina, Coomera or Tweed Heads, and say plainly where your service area stops.
• Put your licence number, ABN and registered business name in text on the site, because a number painted on the van in a photo can't be read as text.
• Say whether you do emergency call-outs and when, in a sentence such as 'We attend after-hours emergencies across the northern Gold Coast'.
• Explain how quoting works, including whether quotes are free, whether you quote on site or from photos, and how quickly you reply.
• Write up real jobs with before-and-after photos, the suburb and what you fixed, because a job write-up is first-hand content no competitor can copy.
• Answer the questions customers ask on the phone, such as how long a job takes or what affects the price, high on the page rather than buried at the bottom.

Where should those answers sit on the page?

Those answers belong in visible text near the top of the page, not only in images, PDFs or hidden code. Our complete SEO checklist for 2026 covers the rest of the page basics, from titles to mobile speed.

A page that answers the customer's questions also answers ChatGPT's, so you write it once and it works for both.

How much do reviews matter, and where?

Reviews matter because they're third-party evidence that you do what your site says. Your Google reviews come first, because they sit on the Business Profile that Google says can help services appear in its AI responses.

After Google, the Australian directories I check first for clients are ProductReview, Localsearch, Oneflare, Yellow Pages and Trustpilot, because those are the sources we've seen Australian AI answers draw on. Advice built on American directories doesn't carry over to Queensland.

Keep your business name, phone number and service area identical on every listing.

Get reviews the honest way. Google says seeking inauthentic mentions is not as helpful as it might seem, and our guide to asking customers for Google reviews without feeling awkward has scripts, timing and the rules the ACCC enforces.

A steady trickle of genuine reviews keeps working for you long after the job is done.

What if I'm a one-person trade with few reviews?

A one-person trade can still compete, because the things you control most are how specific and accurate your information is, and size has nothing to do with either. Pick the services and suburbs you most want and describe them in more detail than anyone else does.

A sole-trader tiler who writes up bathroom jobs in Palm Beach and Currumbin has more to offer a search for 'bathroom tiler Palm Beach' than a franchise page listing every suburb in QLD.

Ask every happy customer for a review straight after the job, while it's fresh. Look for earned mentions too, such as a supplier's installer list, a local business association or a community newsletter.

Being small and specific works in your favour when the customer's question names a suburb.

How do Gold Coast, Brisbane, Tweed and suburb queries differ?

Each kind of question gets a different search behind it, because ChatGPT rewrites questions and works from an approximate location. OpenAI tells users to add a city, neighbourhood or postcode for better local results, so expect customers' questions to range from the whole Gold Coast down to a single suburb.

How South East Queensland questions change what your site needs

Type of question	Example a customer might type	What your site needs
City-wide	Best roofer on the Gold Coast	A clear statement of the city and the regions you cover
Suburb	Pool fencer in Coomera	Suburb names in text on service or area pages, backed by real jobs there
Postcode	Air con service plus a postcode	Suburb names and postcodes together on your area pages
Brisbane	Electrician on Brisbane's southside	A plain answer on whether Brisbane is in your area, and which parts
Cross-border	Plumber in Tweed Heads	A statement that you work in QLD and NSW, if you do, and that your licence covers it

Why does the border matter for location?

Approximate IP location matters most near the border. A customer in Tweed Heads or Coolangatta could be placed on either side, so a site that names both and states you work in QLD and NSW gives the rewritten search a match either way.

Only list areas you genuinely service. If ChatGPT names you for Brisbane's north and you don't go there, that's a wasted call for both of you.

Matching your pages to how locals phrase their questions means you show up for the jobs you actually want.

Do I need schema or llms.txt?

You don't need either to appear in Google's AI features, and OpenAI's search help page lists crawler access as the eligibility requirement, not either of these. Google says you do not need llms.txt, content chunking, rewrites made only for AI or special markup, and that structured data is not required for generative AI search.

We still add schema as ordinary SEO hygiene, because it can earn rich results in Google. We don't sell it as a way to get cited by AI.

One trap to avoid is marking up your own testimonials as review schema. Google's structured data policy excludes self-serving reviews from rich results, so that markup is either ignored or counts against you.

We do publish an llms.txt file at the root of every website we build or manage, and I'll be upfront about why. It costs next to nothing, there's no evidence it helps today, and it's a small bet in case AI providers start reading it.

Don't pay anyone extra for either, and keep your effort on the page content that does the real work.

What should I do this afternoon, this month and this quarter?

Start with the jobs that remove blockers, then build pages, then build reputation. Here's the order I'd work through for a busy trade business.

A prioritised plan for a trade business owner

When	Task	Why it matters
This afternoon	Check robots.txt and your host, firewall or CDN settings allow OAI-SearchBot	OpenAI says this is required to be eligible for ChatGPT search
This afternoon	Run your test questions signed out and signed in, with and without suburbs	Shows where you stand before you change anything
This afternoon	Put your services, suburbs, phone number and licence number in plain text on the home page	Gives crawlers and customers the basics without a click
This afternoon	Check your Google Business Profile is complete and claim Bing Places	Google documents its profile for its AI features, and Microsoft is a named ChatGPT search partner
This month	Build one page per main service and one per core service area	Gives rewritten and fanned-out searches a clear match
This month	Ask recent customers for Google reviews	Genuine reviews back up what your site claims
This month	Make your ProductReview, Localsearch, Oneflare, Yellow Pages and Trustpilot listings match	Keeps your details consistent across sources we've seen cited
This quarter	Publish job write-ups with before-and-after photos and the suburb	Builds the first-hand content Google says it favours
This quarter	Earn genuine mentions from suppliers, associations and local media	Google says inauthentic mentions are not as helpful as they might seem
This quarter	Re-run the same tests monthly and check the Generative AI performance report in Search Console	Tracks progress with like-for-like data

What happens after ChatGPT names you?

After ChatGPT names you, the customer still has to find you, trust you and book you, and that part happens on your own site and listing. A recommendation is only worth something once it becomes a booked job.

If someone checks you before ringing, they'll land on your website or your Google listing. Make sure your phone number is tap-to-call on mobile, your quote form is short and your reviews are easy to find.

Answer the phone or call back quickly, and ask every new customer how they found you. 'ChatGPT told me' is a lead source worth writing down.

Getting the booking basics right turns every recommendation, from any source, into more work in the diary.

What about Google AI Overviews, Copilot and Perplexity?

The same foundations work across all of them, because each one draws on web content it can find and read. Google's guidance covers its generative AI features in Search and says the work is still SEO.

For Google, the documented extras are Google Business Profile and Merchant Center, plus the Generative AI performance report in Search Console so you can see how you're showing up.

Copilot is Microsoft's assistant, and Perplexity runs its own crawler, PerplexityBot, which we leave unblocked alongside the others. Neither changes the plan above.

Do the groundwork once and it carries across every AI tool your customers might try.

Is it worth the effort versus Google Business Profile and Google Ads?

Yes, because most of the effort is work you'd do for Google anyway. Service pages, suburb pages, reviews and a complete profile help in Google Search, in Google's AI features and, as far as anyone can tell, in ChatGPT.

This work doesn't replace your Google Business Profile, which Google documents as a route into its AI answers. It doesn't replace paid ads either, which put you in front of people searching right now while organic work builds.

Building the foundations first means every channel you pay for later has a stronger site to land on.

How do I avoid agencies selling guaranteed ChatGPT rankings?

You avoid them by asking who stands behind the guarantee. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed, so an agency promising a guaranteed ChatGPT spot is promising something OpenAI itself won't.

Google also says no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. A dashboard showing your 'AI ranking score' is measuring its own test questions, not the system itself.

• Be wary of guaranteed placement in ChatGPT, AI Overviews or any AI tool, because neither OpenAI nor Google offers one.
• Be wary of paid packages for llms.txt or schema sold as AI citation tools, because Google says neither is required.
• Be wary of brand-mention seeding or fake reviews, because Google says inauthentic mentions are not as helpful as they might seem.
• Be wary of headline percentages with no link to a source you can open and read yourself.
• Look for an agency that tells you what's documented, what isn't and what it's guessing, so your money goes on the parts that work.

How long does it take, and how do I measure it?

There's no fixed timeline, because ChatGPT may search the live web and your results depend on when changes are crawled, how competitive your trade and suburb are, and how ChatGPT ranks what it finds. Our guide on how long SEO takes for Gold Coast trades sets realistic expectations, including for AI answers.

Measure it in three ways. Re-run the same test questions each month, check the Generative AI performance report in Search Console for Google's AI features, and look for visits from ChatGPT in your website analytics referrals.

Then ask every caller where they heard about you. That single question gives you an answer no tool can.

Tracking the same things each month shows you whether the work is paying off, in plain numbers you can trust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business? No guaranteed paid route into ChatGPT's recommendations exists. OpenAI says results are ranked using multiple factors and placement is not guaranteed, so treat any agency promising a guaranteed spot as a red flag.

Does ChatGPT use my Google Business Profile? Nobody outside OpenAI knows, because OpenAI hasn't documented it either way. Google does say its Business Profile can help services appear in Google's own AI responses, so keeping it complete is worth doing regardless.

How do I know if my website is blocking ChatGPT? Check your robots.txt file and your host, firewall or CDN settings for anything that blocks OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says a site should allow OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses to be eligible for ChatGPT search.

Do I need an llms.txt file to show up in ChatGPT? No, you don't need one. Google says llms.txt and special markup are not needed for its AI features, and OpenAI's search help page lists crawler access as the requirement, so don't pay extra for either.

How long before ChatGPT starts recommending my business? There's no fixed timeline, because ChatGPT may search the live web and ranks results on multiple factors. Re-run the same test questions each month and ask every caller how they found you to track progress.

Can a sole trader with only a few reviews get recommended? Yes, a sole trader can compete by being more specific than bigger businesses. Describe your services and the suburbs you cover in detail, write up real jobs with before-and-after photos, and ask every happy customer for a genuine review.

Get found on Google and named in AI answers

We'll check whether ChatGPT and Google can reach your site, run the questions your customers would ask, and show you which fixes come first. You'll get a plain-English plan for your trade and your suburbs, with no guaranteed rankings and no AI add-ons you don't need.

Get a free quote