How a business gets recommended by ChatGPT and Google's AI

This guide is written by RHAM, a brand identity app, not an SEO agency. Everything it says about how Google, ChatGPT and Bing work comes from their official documentation, read on 3 October 2026 and listed at the end. Where the documentation says nothing, neither does the guide.

Where AI assistants find the businesses they recommend

Google. AI Overviews and AI Mode, which is available in Romania and in Romanian, answer from the Search index: the system retrieves relevant, up-to-date pages, then writes the answer with links to them. To be shown there, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet, and the site must not be excluded from generative AI features in Search Console (by default it is included). Nothing else is required: Google says no special optimization is needed.

ChatGPT. ChatGPT search reads the web with a crawler called OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says sites that opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. ChatGPT sometimes also sends the question to other search providers; for how they process it, OpenAI points to Microsoft's privacy statement, among others. For local questions, ChatGPT may use the asker's approximate location. Placement is not guaranteed, OpenAI says.

Copilot and Bing. Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report that shows how often your site is cited in Microsoft Copilot and in AI-generated summaries in Bing. For local businesses, Microsoft also recommends Bing Places for Business, so that the address, hours and contact details stay current.

1. A verified, complete Google Business Profile

Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results, and its guide to AI search adds that a Business Profile helps you be visible in AI responses too. Google also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

• Verify the business, so Google knows you are entitled to represent it.
• Fill in everything: the address, the hours (holiday hours included), the exact category and real photographs. If you go to your customers and do not receive them at your premises, Google asks you to hide the address and set a service area.
• Keep it current: on its page about AI features in Search, Google itself reminds you to check that your Business Profile information is up to date.
• Do the same in Bing Places, for Bing and Copilot.

2. Steady reviews, asked for honestly

For local search, Google says prominence is partly based on how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. The rules are simple:

• Ask after every job that went well, with the link or QR code Google gives you, for example in your thank-you message.
• Reply to all of them, the negative ones included, briefly and politely.
• Offer nothing in return: a discount, a free product or any other incentive for a review is, for Google, fake engagement, and it is strictly prohibited.
• Ask steadily, not in one campaign: reviews from two years ago say little about how you work today.

3. A website AI can actually read

All three read pages, so your website is where you say, in your own words, what you do, where and for how much. Google asks that important content be available as text; a photo of your price list is not text.

• Text, not pictures of text: the services, the area, the hours, the phone number and at least a price range, written on the page. What the home page should hold is in a website for a small business.
• Let the crawlers in: in robots.txt, and also at your host or CDN. Google asks that crawling be allowed by any hosting infrastructure too, and OpenAI asks you to allow OAI-SearchBot and the IP addresses it publishes.
• Verify the site in Google Search Console and check the “Search generative AI” setting: by default the site is included in Search's AI features; if someone excluded it, it no longer appears in them.
• Add it to Bing Webmaster Tools too, for free. That is also where the AI Performance report lives.
• Keep information current: Microsoft writes that a stale fact produces a misleading response.

4. The same name, address and phone number everywhere

Google asks that the name on your profile be your real-world name, the one used consistently on your storefront, website and stationery, and it does not accept extra words stuffed into it. A legal suffix such as “SRL” or “Ltd” belongs in the name only if it appears consistently on your signage, business cards and invoices. Microsoft explains why this matters for AI too: when two sources contradict each other, a system that silently picks one of them may confidently assert the wrong thing.

• Choose one form of the name and use it everywhere: the site, the Google profile, Bing Places, Facebook, Instagram, listings, invoices. If you are still choosing the name, check it first using the steps in how to name a brand.
• The same for the address, always written the same way, and for the phone: a local number you control yourself.
• When you move or change numbers, change them everywhere in the same week.
• Use the same one-sentence description everywhere: what you do, for whom and where.

5. A page for each real service

Faced with a complex question, Google splits it into several related searches and looks for an answer to each. A clear page for every service you actually offer, say “boiler installation in Cluj”, with what it includes, the area, a price range and its frequent questions, gives it an answer to link to. As for how to write the page, Microsoft recommends clear headings, tables and FAQ sections.

Google sets the limit as well: pages made for every variation of a search, mainly to manipulate rankings or AI responses, violate its scaled content abuse policy. So one page per real service, not one per way of phrasing the question.

6. A dated record of where you stand

You cannot see your position inside an AI-written answer, but you can write down what a customer sees and compare from one month to the next. Once a month:

1. 01Ask ChatGPT, Copilot and Google's AI Mode two or three questions a customer would ask (your trade plus your town). Write down the date, which businesses appear and whether you do.
2. 02Open the generative AI performance report in Search Console: it shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, page by page.
3. 03Open the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools: how many citations you had and which pages were cited.
4. 04Change one thing a month, a new page or a completed profile, and compare the month after.

Google warns you to be wary of tools that promise rankings or claim to use “internal” Google metrics: no third-party tool has access to its ranking or AI systems.

What you can skip

• Do not count on llms.txt for Google. llms.txt is a 2024 proposal for a text file that tells AI agents what matters on a site, used mostly for technical documentation. Google says its Search does not use such files: they neither help nor hurt.
• Do not rewrite your site “for AI” or chop it into small chunks: Google says there is no need.
• Do not buy mentions: Google writes that seeking inauthentic mentions across the web is not as helpful as it might seem.
• Do not block search crawlers to “protect” the site: without OAI-SearchBot you are not in ChatGPT search, without Googlebot not in Google either.
• Do not pay anyone who guarantees you the top spot: Google says local ranking cannot be bought, and OpenAI that placement in ChatGPT is not guaranteed.

What RHAM helps with, and what it does not

RHAM does not create your Google profile, does not ask for reviews on your behalf and does not list you in directories. It helps with the part that has to be identical everywhere: how the business looks and sounds. The logo, colours and typefaces are the same in every file, and the positioning (what you do and for whom), the “About us” text and the website copy are written once, from the same brand strategy. You check them, put them in your own words and then use them the same way on the Google profile, in Bing Places and on social media. The facts, meaning the address, hours, phone number and prices, are yours to add.

The presentation site RHAM composes from the brand downloads as a folder that you upload to your own domain. Your email, phone, address and company details go into the brief once, and the site uses them the same way everywhere. The README inside lists the steps: your own domain (typed at export, so the page knows its address), Search Console, submitting the sitemap, and a business profile with the same name, address and phone number. The rham.ro/s/… address is good for showing the site to someone; until the brief has a contact email or phone, the page is marked noindex, which means search engines leave it out of their index.