Firefly.

How to get cited by ChatGPT

This guide shows what a business can do to be named and linked when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Google or Perplexity for a recommendation.

Owners ask the same thing in other words: how to get recommended by ChatGPT, how to show up in ChatGPT, or how to get a business on ChatGPT. The work is the same in each case.

Nobody outside these companies can set what their assistants say. A business controls its own website and its listings and can ask for reviews, and the answers link to all three kinds of source.

Firefly sells an AI visibility audit, so it has an interest in this subject. The guide relies on the companies’ own documentation and two published studies, and each source is listed.

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The four steps, in order

  1. Learn how an assistant finds a business

    The companies’ own documents describe how an assistant finds and links a website.

  2. Separate what you control from what you cannot

    A business controls several of the sources the answers link to, and it cannot set the answer itself.

  3. Do the work in this order

    The website comes first, then the listings, the reviews and the other websites that name the business.

  4. Check progress with the buyer’s questions

    The same buyer’s questions are asked again after each round of fixes, and the answers are saved.

The last section describes Firefly’s free first review and its full audit, for an owner who wants the record made for them.

1. Learn how an assistant finds a business

Each company publishes a document for website owners. Those documents describe how the assistant reads websites and links to them.

Two published studies add how many buyers ask an assistant, and which kinds of website the answers link to.

ChatGPT
OpenAI states that a program called OAI-SearchBot reads websites so that they can be shown in ChatGPT’s search features. A website that blocks OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, although it can still appear as a navigational link.
Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google states that these features may run several related searches for one question, and that its models then identify supporting web pages to link. A page can be a supporting link only if Google has indexed it and can show it in Google Search with a snippet, which is the short extract under a search result.
Perplexity
Perplexity states that PerplexityBot reads websites so that they can be shown and linked in its search results. When a user asks a question, Perplexity may also visit a web page to help answer it and link to that page.
How many buyers ask an assistant
In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 adults in the United States, 45% said they use ChatGPT or another AI tool for recommendations of local businesses. The figure a year earlier was 6%.
Which websites the answers link to
Yext studied 6.8 million sources cited in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in July and August 2025. Businesses’ own websites made up 44% of those sources and business listings 42%. Reviews and social media made up 8%. Yext sells software for a brand’s visibility, and the study covered retail, financial services, healthcare and food service.

These documents describe how the assistants find web pages and link to them. They do not say how an assistant chooses one business over another, and this guide makes no statement about that.

We read these five sources on 8 October 2026.

2. Separate what you control from what you cannot

A business controls four of the sources that the answers link to.

It does not control the answer, and the last two rows say what the documents state about that.

Your own website
You decide whether the assistants’ programs may read your website, and what its pages say. OpenAI and Perplexity each recommend allowing their search program in the website’s robots.txt file, which is the file that tells such programs what they may read.
Your listings
You control what your Google Business Profile and your directory listings say. Google names an up-to-date Business Profile among the practices that apply to its AI features.
Your reviews
You can ask customers for reviews and answer each one, and the customers decide what the reviews say.
Other websites that name you
You can ask the publisher of a list, a directory or a local guide to add the business or to correct its entry, and the publisher decides what appears.
The answer itself
Each company decides what its own assistant says. Nobody outside the company can set the answer, or the order in which businesses appear in it.
Paying for a place in the answer
Google’s help page for advertisers states that ads can be shown above, below or within its AI Overviews, and that an advertiser cannot target those placements directly. OpenAI’s document refers to web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. We found no statement in these documents that a business can pay to be named in the written answer.

Nobody can guarantee that an assistant will name a business, and Firefly does not offer such a guarantee.

The statement about advertising in Google’s AI Overviews comes from this page, read on 8 October 2026. The other documents are listed under step one.

3. Do the work in this order

The order runs from the sources you fully control to the ones you can only ask to change.

The statements about each company in this step come from the documents listed under step one.

First, the website can be read
Check that the robots.txt file does not block OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Google’s own program, and that Google has indexed each important page. OpenAI states that its systems take about 24 hours to adjust to a change in robots.txt, and Perplexity states up to 24 hours.
Second, the pages state the facts in text
Put your services, the places you serve and your opening hours into the text of the pages. Google asks that important content be available in text, and that any structured data match the text a visitor can see. Structured data is a set of labelled facts in a page’s code.
Third, the listings agree with the website
Bring the Google Business Profile and each directory listing into line with the website on name, address, telephone number, opening hours and services.
Fourth, reviews
Ask recent customers for a review, and answer each review you receive.
Fifth, the websites the answers link to
Read the answers you saved and list the websites they link to. Where a list or a directory in your trade leaves the business out or describes it wrongly, ask its publisher to add or correct the entry.

Google states that a website needs no new machine-readable file, no AI text file and no special markup to appear in its AI features. An owner does not need to buy one for those features.

4. Check progress with the buyer’s questions

An owner checks progress by asking the assistants the questions a buyer would ask.

Ask them once before the work starts, so that there is a first record to compare with.

Write the questions
Write the questions a buyer would type, in a buyer’s words. Most should describe a need and a place without naming the business, and one should ask about the business by name.
Ask each assistant
Put each question to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search switched on.
Save every answer
Copy each answer in full, with its date and the websites it links to. A dated record lets you set one month’s answers beside the next month’s.
Note four things
For each answer, note whether the business is named, where it sits in the list, which competitors are named and whether the description is correct.
Ask again after each round of fixes
Put the same questions to the same assistants and compare the two records.

No fix guarantees a change in the answers. The record shows whether the answers changed, and an owner can check it line by line.

The next step: a free first review, then the full audit

An owner can carry out every step in this guide without Firefly.

Firefly’s AI visibility audit does the same work and delivers it as a written record. The first review is free, and you can request it on the audit page.

The first review is delivered within two business days. It's a real human analysis of your brand, not an automated PDF.

The full audit is paid work at a fixed price. Three pages describe the audit for one field each: law firms, restaurants and hotels and hospitality groups.

First review
Free
Full audit, one location
$1,500
Each additional location
$400

Questions and answers

How do I get my business cited by ChatGPT?

Make sure OpenAI’s search program, OAI-SearchBot, is allowed to read your website, and state your services and your location in the text of the pages. Then correct your listings, ask for reviews, and look at the websites the answers link to.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

OpenAI’s document for website owners refers to web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, and Google’s help page states that ads can be shown above, below or within its AI Overviews. We found no statement in these documents that a business can pay to be named in the written answer.

Can anyone guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my business?

No. Each company decides what its own assistant says, and nobody outside the company can set that.

Do I need a special file or markup to show up in AI answers?

Google states that a website needs no new machine-readable file, no AI text file and no special markup to appear in its AI features. The page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.

What happens if my website blocks OAI-SearchBot?

OpenAI states that a website which blocks OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. The website can still appear as a navigational link.

How do I check whether ChatGPT names my business?

Write the questions a buyer would type and put them to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search switched on. Save each answer with its date, and ask the same questions again after each round of fixes.

What does Firefly’s AI visibility audit cost?

The first review is free. The full audit costs $1,500 for one location and $400 for each additional location.

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