ChatGPT SEO: how to rank in ChatGPT when people ask for a local business
When asked for a local business, ChatGPT cited the business's own site in 80% of 154 answers, plus Google Maps, lists and review sites. What to fix first.
There is no ChatGPT ranking you can buy or submit to. When people ask ChatGPT to recommend a local business, it answers with links to the pages it used. In our test of 154 ChatGPT answers about local businesses in six Canadian cities, 80% cited a local business's own website, and about half cited Google Maps, "best of" lists or review sites. So ChatGPT SEO, or ranking in ChatGPT, mostly means being easy to find, and easy to check, in those places.
What ChatGPT cites when asked for a local business
On October 11, 2026, we asked ChatGPT questions such as Can you recommend a good plumber in Calgary, Alberta? for 11 kinds of business in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton, plus the same questions in French for Montréal. We asked each question twice in the ChatGPT app, with Canada as the location, and recorded every page each answer linked. 153 of the 154 answers linked at least one source.
| Source | ChatGPT answers citing it |
|---|---|
| A local business's own website | 123 of 154 (80%) |
| Google Maps | 72 of 154 (47%) |
| "Best of" list sites | 72 of 154 (47%) |
| Review sites and directories | 71 of 154 (46%) |
| Reddit and other forums | 3 of 154 (2%) |
The first row counts only sites we matched to a business in the public listings our sample came from. Among lists and review sites, ChatGPT cited ThreeBestRated in 35 answers, TrustAnalytica in 34, Yelp in 18, HomeStars in 16 and BestProsInTown in 14. The full method and data are in our study of local business websites and AI recommendations.
Why your own website matters most
Your website was the source ChatGPT used most, so it has to say plainly who you are, what you do and where you work. Across the four AI assistants we tested, the businesses they recommended had better-built websites than a random sample of the same kinds of businesses: a median score of 72 out of 100 on Connu's 25 checks, against 64. Only 22% of the recommended businesses' sites left out business details for search engines, against 47% of the random sample.
That is a correlation, not proof that fixing your site gets you recommended. The recommended businesses also looked busier: 32% of their sites had enough visitors for Google to publish real-visitor speed data, against 11% of the random sample. Still, the basics are cheap to fix:
- a page for each service you sell, with the towns you serve;
- a clear title and description on every page;
- your business name, address, phone number and type of business in structured data;
- the same name, address and phone number everywhere they appear.
Make sure ChatGPT can read your site
OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot to surface websites in ChatGPT's search results, and recommends allowing it in your robots.txt file. A second agent, ChatGPT-User, opens pages when a user asks ChatGPT to; because a person starts those visits, OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it.
Blocking is rarely the problem. Of the 716 local business websites we checked, none blocked OAI-SearchBot and 2 blocked ChatGPT-User. You also don't need an llms.txt file: in 30 days, no AI crawler asked for ours.
Get listed where ChatGPT looks for your trade
Which review sites and lists matter depends on the trade. Across all four assistants we tested, HomeStars was cited in 27% of answers about roofing companies and Houzz in 30% of answers about renovation contractors. For hair salons, the booking site Fresha and the list site TrustAnalytica each appeared in 13% of answers.
To find yours, ask ChatGPT the question your customers ask, with your town in it, and note which sites it links. Then:
- Claim or create your profile on the review sites it cites, and check that your details match your website.
- Ask customers for reviews where they already leave them. Ask everyone, not only happy customers, and don't pay for reviews: the FTC's rule bans buying fake reviews and paying for reviews with a particular sentiment.
- Before paying to appear on a "best of" list, find out how the list picks businesses.
Google Maps counts for ChatGPT too
ChatGPT linked Google Maps in 72 of its 154 answers. Gemini and Google AI Mode leaned on it even more: 77% and 70% of their answers cited it. A complete Google Business Profile, with the right categories, hours, website address and recent reviews, helps you in all of them. Our guide to SEO for contractors covers how Google ranks businesses on the map.
Check the website address in your listings too. In our sample, 15% of the businesses (162 of 1,056) had a listed website on a domain that no longer works.
Expect a different answer each time
ChatGPT doesn't give the same answer twice. For 72 of our questions, at least one of the two answers cited a business website. The two answers shared at least one business website in 52 of those 72 cases, and on average about two in five of the business websites cited were the same both times. Check more than once before you decide you're missing, and track the trend rather than a single answer.
What to do next
Start with what you control: make sure ChatGPT and Google can read your site and find your business details. Connu's free SEO score checker runs 25 checks of how easily Google and AI assistants can find, read and trust your website, and shows what to fix first. They are the checks we used in the study.