ChatGPT SEO: How Small Businesses Get Found in ChatGPT

Short answer: ChatGPT SEO, for a small business, means making sure ChatGPT search can find, read and link to your website. OpenAI says that to make a site eligible, you allow its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and make sure your host doesn't block it. After that it's ordinary SEO done well: clear pages, accurate business details and real reputation. Nobody can promise you a mention.

This guide is for UK owners who want to know what's actually in their control. We've stuck to what OpenAI and Google publish, with links so you can check.

What ChatGPT SEO means for a small business

ChatGPT SEO is the work of making your site easy for ChatGPT search to find, understand and cite when someone asks a question your business can answer. When ChatGPT searches the web, its answers can include citations that link to the source.

You'll also hear it called answer engine optimisation (AEO), or LLM SEO. The labels change; the job is mostly the same. Google's own guide on generative AI features says that work aimed at AI search is still SEO from its point of view. If you'd like help with it, that's what our AI SEO services cover.

For most small businesses there are three parts:

Don't block the crawler that ChatGPT search relies on.
Make your pages clear enough that a quoted sentence still makes sense on its own.
Keep your name, address, phone number and services consistent everywhere your business appears online.

How ChatGPT search finds websites

OpenAI runs several web agents, and each one does a different job. Its crawler documentation, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers, describes them like this:

OAI-SearchBot is for search. OpenAI says it is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links".
GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's models. Blocking it tells OpenAI not to use your content for training. OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot.
ChatGPT-User visits a page when a person asks ChatGPT something that needs it. OpenAI says it doesn't crawl the web automatically and isn't used to decide whether content may appear in search.

OpenAI also says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for its search systems to adjust.

Its help article Searching the web with ChatGPT adds two useful points. First, ChatGPT search sometimes works with other search providers: it rewrites the question into one or more search queries and sends those to them. Second, it can use an approximate location, based on IP address, to give local results, so a search for "a plumber near me" depends on where the person is.

How ChatGPT chooses which sources to cite isn't published in detail. OpenAI says only that it ranks results using "multiple factors" and that "placement is not guaranteed".

Check you're not blocking ChatGPT: a five-minute robots.txt check

You can check this yourself without touching any code.

Open your robots.txt file in a browser. It sits at your domain followed by /robots.txt, for example yourbusiness.co.uk/robots.txt.
Look for a line that says User-agent: OAI-SearchBot. If the lines under it say Disallow: /, ChatGPT search is being told not to crawl your site.
Look for User-agent: * (the rule for every crawler). A Disallow: / under it blocks everything, including OAI-SearchBot, unless a separate OAI-SearchBot rule says otherwise.
Note any GPTBot line separately. Blocking GPTBot is about model training, not about ChatGPT search, so it's your choice either way.

To allow it explicitly, add these two lines:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

Then check with whoever runs your hosting. OpenAI's help article says your host or content delivery network must also allow traffic from OpenAI's published search crawler IP addresses. Firewall or bot-protection settings can block crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.

What Google says about optimising for AI answers

Google's position is that you don't need a separate playbook for AI answers. Its guide to optimising for generative AI features covers AI Overviews and AI Mode, and it says terms like AEO and GEO describe work that is "still SEO".

The same guide lists things you can ignore for Google Search:

llms.txt and other special files or markup. Google Search doesn't use them, so they neither help nor harm you there.
"Chunking" content into tiny pieces for AI. Google says there's no ideal page length.
Rewriting content just for AI. Its systems understand synonyms.
Inauthentic mentions around the web.
Over-focusing on structured data. No special schema is needed for AI features, though it's still worth using for ordinary rich results.

It also warns against making a separate page for every way someone might phrase a question. Doing that mainly to manipulate rankings or AI answers breaks Google's scaled content abuse policy.

Google's page on AI features and your website says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and even then inclusion isn't guaranteed.

These are Google's rules for Google. OpenAI hasn't published an equivalent list for ChatGPT, so we don't make claims about llms.txt or schema for ChatGPT either way.

The basics that help in ChatGPT and Google alike

The work that helps you in Google also gives ChatGPT search something worth citing. Start here.

Clear answers near the top of the page

Put the direct answer first. If someone asks "do you cover Aldershot?", your page should answer in the opening sentence or two, then give the detail. A sentence that makes sense on its own is easier to quote and easier to scan.

Accurate business details everywhere

Your business name, address, phone number, opening hours and services should match on your website, your Google Business Profile and any directories you're listed in. Google's AI guide says an up-to-date Google Business Profile can help your services show in its AI responses as well as normal results. If you serve a local area, our guide to local SEO explains how to tidy this up, and there's more on SEO for Hampshire businesses if you're nearby.

Real reviews and real mentions

Ask happy customers for honest reviews, and earn mentions by doing things people talk about: a local partnership, a useful guide, a quote in the local paper. Don't buy reviews or plant fake ones. Google's guidance says seeking inauthentic mentions isn't as helpful as it might seem, and that its other systems block spam.

Active, consistent social profiles

Keep your social profiles up to date with the same details as your website. Google's Search Essentials advise you to tell people about your site and be active in communities. We don't claim social posts make ChatGPT cite you; neither OpenAI nor Google says they do. If you want help keeping profiles current, see our social media management service.

Using ChatGPT for your own SEO work, and where it goes wrong

ChatGPT is useful for first drafts, outlines and tidying rough notes. It's risky as a source of facts. Google's guidance on generative AI content puts it plainly: generative models "don't retrieve facts, but predict a likely sequence of words", so their output may contain mistakes.

Google says it is "critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content" before publishing, including page titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text.

A safe way to use it:

Use it for structure and wording, then check every fact, price, date and claim yourself.
Add what only you know: how you work and what customers ask.
Read the final page aloud. If it could describe any business in any town, rewrite it.

Can anyone guarantee you'll appear in ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed, and Google says the same about indexing and serving, including in AI Overviews and AI Mode. What you control is access (crawlers not blocked), clarity (pages that answer questions) and accuracy (consistent business details). Be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed mention count. Google's Search Essentials add that it costs nothing to appear in Google Search results, "no matter what anyone tries to tell you".

FAQs

What is ChatGPT SEO?

ChatGPT SEO is the work of making your website easy for ChatGPT search to find, read and cite. For a small business it mainly means allowing OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in robots.txt, then doing ordinary SEO well: clear answers, accurate business details and real reviews.

How do I get my business mentioned in ChatGPT?

Make sure OAI-SearchBot isn't blocked in your robots.txt and your host allows OpenAI's published crawler IP addresses. Then answer customer questions clearly, keep your business details consistent, and earn genuine reviews. None of this guarantees a mention; it makes your site eligible and easier to cite.

Can an agency guarantee my business will appear in ChatGPT?

No. No honest agency can. OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed, and ChatGPT chooses its sources using its own systems. An agency can improve your site's technical access, clarity and consistency, but it can't promise a mention or a mention count.

Should I block GPTBot or OAI-SearchBot?

They do different jobs, so decide separately. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is for ChatGPT search, and sites that block it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. GPTBot is for model training, and blocking it doesn't remove you from ChatGPT search. If you want to appear in ChatGPT search, OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot. Whether to allow GPTBot is your choice.

Do I need an llms.txt file or special schema for AI search?

Not for Google. Google's guide on generative AI features says Google Search doesn't use llms.txt or other special AI files, and no special schema is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. OpenAI hasn't published guidance either way for ChatGPT, so treat any claim that these files are required with caution.

Is ChatGPT SEO different from normal SEO?

Mostly, no. The one ChatGPT-specific step is allowing OAI-SearchBot. Everything else, such as helpful pages, a crawlable site and accurate business details, is standard SEO. Google says work aimed at AI search is still SEO.

Your next step

Open your robots.txt today and check the OAI-SearchBot and User-agent: * lines. Then pick your three most important pages and make sure each one answers its main question in the first two sentences. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on whether AI search can read your site, send us your URL or see our plans and prices. Phone: +44 7341 530400.

ChatGPT SEO: how small businesses get found in ChatGPT search