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Guides · 2 October 2026

How to get your business recommended by AI

Short answerThere's no switch to flip. AI assistants name businesses they can find, verify and describe confidently. Make your listings complete and consistent, put clear details on your website, earn genuine reviews and mentions, don't block crawlers, and then test what AI says. Nobody can guarantee a recommendation.

The order that makes sense

  1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. Correct name, category, hours, address, phone, services and photos. Google lists it as a key input for local results.
  2. Do the same on Apple Business Connect and Bing Places. They feed Apple Maps and Siri, and Microsoft's Copilot and Bing, which ChatGPT search sometimes uses. See which listings AI uses.
  3. Make your website say it plainly. What you do, where, your hours and prices, in text rather than only in images or PDFs. Answer the questions customers ask.
  4. Don't block the crawlers. Check your robots.txt isn't turning away search and AI bots by accident.
  5. Earn genuine reviews. Ask real customers, reply to them, and never buy or fake them.
  6. Be mentioned in real places. Local directories, trade bodies, local press and your own social profiles, all with the same name, address and phone.
  7. Test, then repeat. Ask the assistants about you every month. See the five-minute test.

What you can skip

Google says you don't need special AI markup, an llms.txt file or "chunking" content to appear in its AI features, and that structured data is not required. Pursuing artificial mentions isn't effective. Good basics beat tricks. See do I need an llms.txt file?

How long does it take?

There is no fixed time. Listing fixes can show quickly in some places and slowly in others. Be wary of anyone who promises a date or a position.

Questions people ask

Do I need a website to be recommended?

Not always. A complete Google Business Profile and consistent listings come first. A clear website helps AI describe you accurately.

Does this work for a very small business?

Yes. AI answers for local questions often include small businesses when their details are complete, consistent and well reviewed.

Can you guarantee I'll be recommended?

No, and be cautious of anyone who does.

Related guides

Sources

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