How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Search

A new kind of customer is looking for you. Instead of typing "plumber near me" into Google and scrolling, they ask a full question: "Who is a good family dentist in my neighborhood that is open on Saturdays?" They get back a short answer with a few names.

If your business is one of those names, you have a real shot at the call. If it is not, you never even knew you were in the running.

This guide is for owners who would rather understand how this works than be sold on it. No jargon. Just what changed, what the research says, and what to fix first so more of those questions turn into calls and booked appointments.

How many customers are asking AI who to hire?

More than most owners think. BrightLocal surveyed 1,002 US adults for its 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey and found that 45% had used AI tools to get local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6% the year before. ChatGPT was the most used tool (31%), followed by Google's AI Mode (23%). AI is now the third most used source for local recommendations, behind only Google and Facebook. (BrightLocal, March 2026)

Age makes a big difference. In the same research, 64% of adults aged 30 to 44 had asked AI for a business recommendation, compared with 24% of people over 60.

Being named is only half the job

Here is the part most "AI search" advice skips. People use AI to build a shortlist, and then they check. In a separate BrightLocal study of 1,227 US consumers, only 18% of people who use AI for local searches felt ready to contact a business the AI recommended. Of the people who started their latest search on an AI tool, just 2% used it as their only channel, and 43% went on to check Google. (BrightLocal, July 2026)

That same study found that 73% of people started their latest local business search on a phone.

So the real path looks like this: a customer asks AI, sees your name, then pulls up your website or your Google listing on their phone to decide. That moment decides whether your phone rings.

Fewer clicks, so every visit counts more

AI answers also mean fewer people click through at all. Pew Research Center studied the real browsing of 900 US adults. When a Google search showed an AI summary, people clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there was no summary. They clicked a link inside the AI summary itself on just 1% of visits. (Pew Research Center, July 2025)

Google, for its part, says the clicks that do come from search pages with AI Overviews tend to be higher quality, meaning people spend more time on the site. (Google Search Central)

Put those together and the lesson is simple. You may get fewer visitors from search, but the ones who arrive are closer to buying. Your site has to be ready for them.

Step 1: Make sure AI tools are allowed to read your site

This is the most common hidden problem, and it costs nothing to check.

• ChatGPT. OpenAI says sites that block its search robot (called OAI-SearchBot) will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. (OpenAI)
• Google. To show up as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be in Google's index and eligible to appear in regular Google Search with a short description. Google also says its robot should be allowed in by your site's settings and by your hosting and security services. (Google Search Central)

Ask whoever manages your site one plain question: "Are Google's and ChatGPT's search robots allowed to read our pages, including through our security settings?" If someone switched on a setting that blocks AI robots, make sure it still lets the search robots through.

Step 2: Say clearly what you do, where, and for whom

Google's advice here is refreshingly ordinary. It says there are no extra requirements or special tricks to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and you do not need new "AI files" or special markup. The same basics apply: helpful content written for people, important information written out as text, and a Google Business Profile that is up to date. (Google Search Central) If you want that groundwork handled for you, our SEO foundations service sets up the titles, structure, and page details that help you get found and get more calls.

For a local business, that means:

• One page per main service. A page about "emergency dental care" can be matched to a question. One page that lists 14 services in a single paragraph cannot.
• Your neighborhoods, in words. If you serve specific neighborhoods, say so on the page.
• Hours, phone and what to expect, written out. If your Saturday hours only live inside a flyer image, a customer's question about Saturday hours has nothing to match.
• The same details everywhere. Your name, phone and hours should match on your site, your Google Business Profile and anywhere else you are listed. Customers do check: BrightLocal found 88% of AI users fact check the reviews AI tools cite, either by checking whether a review is real or by looking at the source. (BrightLocal, March 2026)

There is a timely reason to get this right. On October 15, 2026, Google announced it is testing a new section at the top of some AI answers that highlights the official websites where people can complete a task, with a note on why each link is useful. (Google, October 2026) For a local business, that task is usually "call" or "book." You want your own site to be the obvious official place to do it.

Step 3: Show up fast on a phone

Remember that 73% start on a phone. Portent looked at about 100 million page views across 20 business sites and found that for sites that collect leads, a page that loads in 1 second converts 3 times better than one that loads in 5 seconds, and 5 times better than one that takes 10 seconds. (Portent, 2022)

A visitor who came from an AI answer has usually just read two or three other names. If your page sits blank, the next business on the list is one tap away.

Step 4: Make the next step impossible to miss

Being fast and easy to find still fails if the visitor does not know what to do next. Check these on your own phone:

1. Can someone call you with one tap from the top of the page?
2. Is there one clear main action (call, book, or request a quote) instead of five competing buttons?
3. Are the questions people ask AI (insurance, parking, hours, how soon you can come out) answered on the page, close to that button?
4. Is there proof near the button, like a short customer quote or photos of your real work?

A five minute test you can do today

Open ChatGPT and Google on your phone. Ask the question a customer would ask, in their words: "Who is a good [your service] in [your neighborhood]?" Write down who shows up. Then tap through to your own site and count how long it takes to find a way to call or book.

If you do not show up, or it takes more than a few seconds to reach your phone number, those are the first things to fix. Being found, loading fast and making the next step easy only pay off together. Fix one and skip the others, and the customer still calls the business down the street.

Want a second set of eyes? See the client work that turns searches into calls and booked appointments and tell us about your business. We will send back a short, plain note on what to fix first.