How-to

How to check if ChatGPT can find and recommend your business

26 June 2026 · Zeb Choudhry

Customers are using ChatGPT to find businesses every day. If ChatGPT doesn't know about yours, those customers are going to your competitors instead — and you'll never know it happened.

Here's how to check where you stand and what to do about it.

Method 1: Ask ChatGPT directly

This is the quickest manual check you can do. Open ChatGPT (make sure web search is enabled — it's the globe icon) and try these types of queries, replacing the placeholders with your actual business details:

What is the best [your business type] in [your city]?

Can you recommend a [your business type] in [your area]?

Tell me about [your business name]

Who are the best [your business type] near [your postcode/area]?

Read the answers carefully. Does your business appear? What does ChatGPT say about it? Does it get your details right — location, what you do, how to contact you?

If ChatGPT either doesn't mention you or gets your details wrong, you have an LLM SEO problem worth fixing.

Important note: ChatGPT answers can vary. Run each query two or three times. If you never appear across multiple tries, that's a clear signal.

Method 2: Check Perplexity too

Perplexity is the other major AI search tool to check. It handles hundreds of millions of queries per month and often produces different results from ChatGPT because it uses a different approach to web search.

Go to perplexity.ai and try the same queries. If you appear in ChatGPT but not Perplexity (or vice versa), that tells you something specific about which signals you're missing.

Method 3: Run an automated ChatGPT visibility checker

Manual checks are useful but inconsistent. GetVisus runs a structured LLM SEO check that includes live probes against both ChatGPT and Perplexity, then combines those results with a technical analysis of your website to give you a full picture.

This is faster and more reliable than manually asking ChatGPT, because it tests multiple relevant queries for your business category and location, not just one.

What to do if ChatGPT doesn't mention your business

If the manual check confirms ChatGPT isn't recommending you, here are the five most common reasons and what to fix:

Fix 1

Add schema markup

Schema is structured data that tells AI tools exactly what type of business you are, where you are, and how to contact you. Without it, AI has to guess — and often gets it wrong or ignores you. If you use WordPress, plugins like Yoast or RankMath can add basic schema without any code.

Fix 2

Check your robots.txt isn't blocking AI crawlers

GPTBot is ChatGPT's crawler. PerplexityBot is Perplexity's. Many websites accidentally block them. Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt and check whether GPTBot or PerplexityBot appear in a Disallow rule. If they do, remove the block.

Fix 3

Make your content clearer and more factual

AI tools need to be able to summarise what you do in one or two sentences. If your website is full of vague marketing phrases like "passionate about excellence" or "driving business success," AI has nothing concrete to quote. Replace vague copy with specific facts: what you do, who you serve, where you are, what you charge, what makes you different.

Fix 4

Build your external presence

AI tools use third-party sources to verify that your business is real and trustworthy. Get listed on Google Business Profile, Yelp, Yell, TripAdvisor (if relevant), and any industry-specific directories. Make sure your business name, address and phone number are identical across all of them — inconsistency is a red flag to AI systems.

Fix 5

Publish an llms.txt file

An llms.txt file is a short plain-text file at the root of your website that gives AI crawlers a quick summary of who you are and which pages matter. It takes about 10 minutes to create. Here's how to do it.

How long does it take to appear in ChatGPT?

Results vary. Some businesses see improvement within days of fixing technical issues (like unblocking AI crawlers). Others take a few weeks as AI tools refresh their index and re-rank businesses.

The Fozias case study — a Liverpool restaurant that went from score 23 to 80 and became the top ChatGPT recommendation in their category — took around 90 days from start to finish. But they saw the AI start to mention them much sooner than that.

Track your progress by running the same manual queries once a month, or use GetVisus Pro for monthly automated tracking against your score.

Run a free ChatGPT visibility check

GetVisus checks whether ChatGPT and Perplexity can currently find and recommend your business — plus exactly what to fix if they can't.

Run free check