How to Rank in ChatGPT: A Practical Guide for Local Businesses

If you want to know how to rank in ChatGPT, start with how it answers. For questions that need current or local information, ChatGPT can search the web and cite what it finds, and OpenAI’s guide to searching the web with ChatGPT says it “ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information.” The same page adds: “Placement is not guaranteed.” People call this ChatGPT SEO, but there’s no position to track. It comes down to three jobs: letting ChatGPT’s search reach your site, giving it accurate pages and listings to draw on, and checking what it says about your business. Here’s each one, based on what OpenAI documents.

How ChatGPT answers a question

Without search, ChatGPT answers from what its model learned in training. With search or deep research, it “can access and cite real-time web sources to answer questions with more recent information,” according to OpenAI’s help article Does ChatGPT tell the truth?

That article also says models are trained on data up to a certain point and “responses do not incorporate information about events beyond that, unless tools are used.” OpenAI’s page on how its foundation models are developed says its models learn from information that’s publicly available on the internet, information from third-party partners, and information that users, human trainers and researchers provide. What the model learned about a small business may be thin or out of date, and OpenAI doesn’t describe any way for a business to edit it.

Search is where you have more say. OpenAI says “ChatGPT may search the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information,” and people can also pick Search from the tools menu. Answers that use search “may include citations,” and a Sources button, when available, lists the cited pages and other relevant links. On iOS and Android, relevant results may also include a map.

Don’t expect the same answer twice. OpenAI explains that there’s “an inherent element of randomness in how the model responds. As a result, the same question may yield different answers across different queries.” Location and memory can change answers too, as you’ll see below. Treat anything you see in ChatGPT as a sample, not a fixed spot.

Where ChatGPT search gets its information

ChatGPT search draws on OpenAI’s own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and on outside search providers that OpenAI sometimes partners with. OpenAI doesn’t say which provider answers which question.

OpenAI’s crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot “is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features.” Its search help adds: “ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers. When it does, ChatGPT search typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries that it sends those providers.” For how those providers may handle queries, the page points to Microsoft’s and Shopify’s privacy policies.

That rewrite matters for local businesses. In OpenAI’s example, someone in the San Francisco area asks “What are some good restaurants near me?” and ChatGPT may turn it into the search “top restaurants San Francisco.” A casual question becomes a plain search for a service and a place, so your pages should say plainly what you do and which towns you serve.

Since OpenAI doesn’t say which index serves which question, it also makes sense to be properly indexed in the major search engines. Step 2 of our guide on how to optimize for AI search covers Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Make sure ChatGPT’s search can reach your site

OpenAI’s requirement for search is simple: allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl your site, and make sure your host or content delivery network allows traffic from OpenAI’s published IP addresses.

OpenAI runs three agents worth knowing: OAI-SearchBot for search, GPTBot for collecting content that may be used to train its models, and ChatGPT-User for visits a person triggers by asking a question. OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can keep GPTBot out of training and still allow search. A few details are specific to ChatGPT:

• ChatGPT-User doesn’t decide what appears in search. OpenAI says it “is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search.” OAI-SearchBot is the setting that counts.
• Changes take about a day. OpenAI says that for search results, it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.
• Blocked pages can’t be read. OpenAI’s accuracy article notes the model may not be able to get information from a website “due to technical issues, paywalls or preferences set via robots.txt.” Keep your hours, services and service area on public pages, not behind a login.

The robots.txt lines, and how to check that a firewall or CDN isn’t turning AI crawlers away, are in Step 1 of our AI search guide.

What OpenAI says about local questions

ChatGPT uses location for local questions. By default it may use an approximate location based on the person’s IP address, and people can choose to share a more precise device location.

OpenAI’s search help says device location sharing “is optional and off by default.” With it on, “ChatGPT can use more specific information to answer questions about nearby businesses, local news, and weather.” The page also says ChatGPT “may share your location with trusted third-party providers that help provide more local information, such as nearby business listings or weather reports.” It doesn’t name those providers.

For restaurants, ChatGPT can look up reservation times, and “depending on the restaurant, it may show availability from OpenTable, Resy, or Yelp.” OpenAI also notes that “a VPN or network location may affect the approximate location,” and that if memory is on, saved location information may influence results.

Two things follow. Customers in different parts of town can see different answers, and your business listings deserve the same care as your website. Step 5 of our guide to AI search optimization covers keeping your name, address, phone and hours the same everywhere.

How to check what ChatGPT says about your business

Ask ChatGPT the questions your customers ask, in a chat that doesn’t use your history, with search on. Write down who gets named and which sources are cited, then open every source.

1. List 10 to 20 real questions. Use your customers’ words, from calls, emails and reviews. Mix the ways people ask: who does the job in your town, what it costs, whether you’re open on a given day, how you compare with another business, and what people say about you.
2. Start a clean chat. OpenAI’s temporary chat guide says to open a new chat, select Temporary, and choose Personalized or Unpersonalized before your first message. Unpersonalized “does not use memory, custom instructions, or plugins.” OpenAI’s search help also says “people who are not signed in can also use web search,” so a signed-out browser window works too.
3. Set the place. ChatGPT may estimate location from your IP address, so a check from your office reflects your office’s area. OpenAI suggests including your city, neighborhood or postal code in the question, so do that, and run the list for each main town you serve.
4. Turn on search. Select View all tools, then Search, or type / and choose Search. Because ChatGPT may also search on its own, run a few questions without it to see what a customer gets by default.
5. Record each answer. Note the businesses named, whether you’re one of them, what it says about you and the sources it cites. Select Sources, when it appears, for the full list.
6. Ask twice. Since answers vary, run each question again on another day before you decide anything.
7. Open every source. OpenAI’s own advice is to “open a cited source to check that it supports the answer” and to “review when it was published or updated.” Note anything on those pages about you that’s wrong, old or missing.

Here’s a simple log, with two rows for a made-up shop, Bluebird Auto Repair in the made-up town of Fairview:

Question	Businesses named	Sources cited	What it said about us	Fix
Who does brake repair in Fairview?	Three other shops	Two directory listings, a local news list	Not mentioned	Our brake page never names Fairview
Is Bluebird Auto Repair open on Saturday?	Bluebird	An old directory listing	Closed Saturdays (wrong)	Update that listing and our hours page

Keep the log and repeat it every month or two. It’s a sample of what some customers might see on some days, not a ranking report, and a missing mention in one run doesn’t mean you’re missing for everyone.

Give ChatGPT accurate pages to cite

Put the facts customers ask about on your own website, in plain words, so a search has something accurate to find. Each “missing” or “wrong” row in your log points to a page to fix.

• Services. A page for each main service, saying what’s included and who it’s for.
• Service area. The towns and neighborhoods you serve, by name.
• Hours. Regular and holiday hours, plus what happens after hours.
• Credentials. Licenses, certifications and insurance, where they apply to your trade.
• Policies. Warranties, cancellations, payment options and how quotes work.
• Prices. Only if you publish them, and then keep them current.

State each fact clearly, in the words customers use, and keep it the same on every page. Our guide to SEO content writing covers writing pages people want to read, and our on-page SEO checklist covers the titles, headings and links that tell search engines what each page is about.

Reviews and mentions on other sites

When ChatGPT searches, its answer can cite other websites too, such as review sites, directories and local news. What those pages say about you is part of what it can draw on.

OpenAI doesn’t publish what makes a page more likely to be cited, beyond saying results are ranked “using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information.” So don’t chase a formula. Make the pages people already read about you accurate and worth reading:

• Reviews. A steady flow of genuine reviews gives people, and anything that summarizes them, current detail about your work. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers how to ask every customer without breaking the rules.
• Listings and directories. If your check turns up a listing with an old address, phone number or hours, update it, or ask the site to.
• Local coverage. Mentions in local news, trade associations and community sites describe you in someone else’s words. Earn them with real work and real involvement.

When ChatGPT gets your business wrong

Find the source behind the wrong answer and fix it there. We didn’t find an OpenAI page that describes a way for a business to correct what ChatGPT says about it.

1. If it cites a source, open it. If the wrong fact is on your site or a listing you control, fix it. If it’s on someone else’s site, ask them to update it.
2. If there’s no source, the answer may have come from training. Without search, OpenAI says, “Responses are based on what the model has learned during training.” Make sure the correct facts are on your site, then ask again with search on.
3. Send feedback. OpenAI’s feedback page says to “click the thumbs down icon below any response to provide feedback.”
4. Report what crosses a line. OpenAI’s content reporting page covers content that “may violate OpenAI’s Terms of Use or applicable laws.” It says reported domains may be reviewed by its Model Quality team, “which may apply filters or other mitigations to help prevent ChatGPT from relying on unreliable sources in future responses.” It isn’t described as a way to fix ordinary business details.

How to measure visits from ChatGPT

Use Google Analytics, which has a channel for visits from AI tools such as ChatGPT. Search Console can’t help here, because it reports on Google Search.

Google’s list of default channels describes AI Assistant as “the channel by which users arrive at your site from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok,” and says it excludes Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. You’ll find channel data in the Acquisition reports. Search Console’s Performance report “shows important metrics about how your site performs in Google Search results,” so ChatGPT won’t appear there.

Visits are only part of it. A customer who reads your name in an answer and then calls you leaves no trace in either report, so ask new customers how they found you. Our guide to what a monthly SEO report should include shows how to read these numbers next to the rest of your search results, and Step 8 of our AI search guide covers the reports Google and Bing offer for their own AI features.

What doesn’t work

Anything that tries to buy or trick its way into the answer. Here’s what OpenAI’s own pages say about the common pitches:

• Buying ads to get mentioned. OpenAI’s ads help page says “Ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers” and that advertisers “have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT’s responses.” Ads are labeled and shown separately, below a response.
• Guaranteed placement. OpenAI says placement isn’t guaranteed, so a promised spot in ChatGPT is a promise nobody can keep.
• An llms.txt file. OpenAI’s crawler documentation doesn’t mention reading llms.txt files on other sites, and our guide to llms.txt covers what each AI company says about it.
• Tricks. Hidden text meant only for AI tools, fake reviews and hundreds of near-identical AI-written pages all try to fool the answer. OpenAI says reported domains may be reviewed and filtered, and customers who spot a trick will trust you less.

How we handle ChatGPT for clients

Work that helps a business show up in AI search, ChatGPT included, is part of our one monthly plan. We check that OAI-SearchBot can reach the site, keep service pages and the Google Business Profile accurate, publish three optimized blog posts a week built around customers’ questions, and list every task in a monthly report. Nobody can promise what ChatGPT will say, so we focus on what it can find.

Frequently asked questions

Can I pay to rank higher in ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers, and that advertisers have no ability to shape, rank or alter its responses. Ads in ChatGPT are labeled and shown separately from the answer, and OpenAI says placement in search results isn’t guaranteed.

Why does ChatGPT give different answers to the same question?

OpenAI says there’s an inherent element of randomness in how its models respond, so the same question can get different answers. For local questions, the person’s approximate location and any device location they share can change the answer, and if memory is on, saved details can shape the search ChatGPT runs.

Does ChatGPT use my Google Business Profile?

OpenAI doesn’t say. Its search help says ChatGPT may share a person’s location with trusted third-party providers that help with local information, such as nearby business listings, but it doesn’t name them. Keep your Business Profile and other listings accurate anyway, because customers read them directly.

How long does it take for ChatGPT to reflect changes to my website?

OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for ChatGPT search to adjust. It doesn’t publish a timeline for new or updated pages to show up in answers, so recheck your questions with search on after a few weeks.

Is ChatGPT SEO different from regular SEO?

Mostly it builds on the same work: pages that search tools can reach, clear facts and a good reputation. The parts specific to ChatGPT are allowing OAI-SearchBot, checking answers with real customer questions and fixing the sources ChatGPT cites.

Want ChatGPT and the rest of your search presence looked after every week? See what’s included in our $950 a month plan, or send us a question first.