How to get your small business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

What we tested, and what came back

Most articles on generative engine optimization tell you what AI assistants probably look at. We wanted to see it. So we asked the same question each time: "Who is the best [trade] in [city]? Give me your top 5 and tell me where your information comes from."

We asked ChatGPT about five trades in five mid-sized US cities: a plumber in Tyler, Texas; HVAC repair in Boise, Idaho; an electrician in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a roofing company in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and house cleaning in Spokane, Washington. We asked Google AI Mode about three of them (Tyler, Boise and Spokane). Then we counted how often each kind of source showed up. The limits of a test this small are at the end of this guide.

ChatGPT described its first source in slightly different words each time: "local business data," "current local business listings." In practice that meant a Google-style star rating and the number of reviews. For the Spokane question, its answer opened with a map of business cards showing stars and a category, much like Google Maps.

Google AI Mode built its whole answer out of Business Profile cards. Each one had a rating, review count, address, hours, and Call, Directions and Website buttons, plus a sentence or two about the business.

Four things the test showed

1. Rating and review count came first, every time. Both assistants leaned on the star rating and on how many reviews a business had. ChatGPT's picks were rated between about 4.7 and 5.0. Review counts ran from about 19 (an electrician in Fort Wayne) to about 1,600. That low end matters if you're a small shop: a business with about 20 good reviews still made a top 5.

2. ChatGPT preferred other people's opinion of you. It never cited a business's own website as a source, in any of the five cities. In Fort Wayne it said it had cross-checked current local business listings with independent review sites "rather than relying on a company's own advertising." It named Expertise.com in all five cities, Angi in all five, and BBB and Birdeye in three. Its top 5 in Fort Wayne didn't match the Expertise.com list it cited, so it wasn't copying one list.

3. Google AI Mode linked your website. Every one of the 15 businesses it recommended had a link to its own site. It also linked review and directory sites (Yelp, Angi, Expertise.com, HomeAdvisor) and local Reddit threads. In Tyler, a Reddit comment was used to describe one company as being on the pricier side.

4. The two assistants didn't agree. In Spokane, only 2 of the 5 cleaning services were on both lists. There is no single "AI ranking" to climb. Each assistant pulls its own mix of sources.

For the plumber question, Google AI Mode included a business whose profile category was HVAC contractor but which also does plumbing. It's one case, but it suggests your profile categories affect which searches you're considered for (our reading). In Chattanooga, ChatGPT pointed out that 4 of its 5 roofers had an A+ BBB rating. It also flagged recent BBB complaints for one of them, so a bad record on a directory can travel into the answer too.

ChatGPT also never named a single "best." Each time it gave a shortlist, and in Boise and Chattanooga it told the reader to get several quotes. Being on the shortlist is the realistic goal.

What Google says about AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google's page on AI features says "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary". To be shown as a supporting link, a page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. Both features use what Google calls query fan-out, running several related searches across subtopics and data sources.

A second Google page, updated in July 2026, goes further. It says Google's generative AI features "are rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems". It names local businesses directly: "Using products like Merchant Center and Google Business Profiles can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results".

The same page lists things you don't need:

• No llms.txt or other new machine-readable files. Google says its Search doesn't use them.
• No special schema. "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add".
• No rewriting your pages into tiny chunks, and no special writing style for AI.
• No chasing mentions. "Seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem".

Google also addresses the labels. It treats "AEO" and "GEO" as names for the same job. From Google Search's point of view, optimizing for generative AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO". For a local business, ordinary local SEO is where AI search optimization starts.

In our test, a regular Google search for "best plumber in Tyler Texas" showed no Google AI Overview at all. It showed the usual map pack of three businesses. AI Overviews appear on some searches and not others, but the local pack and AI Mode both draw on the same Business Profiles. Google ranks those on relevance, distance and prominence, and says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

What OpenAI says about ChatGPT search

If you want to know how to rank in ChatGPT, OpenAI's help pages explain the mechanics. ChatGPT can search the web and "use location information to find local results". When it searches, it sometimes works with other search providers. It rewrites the question into one or more targeted queries and sends them to those providers. Its example is a question about good restaurants nearby turning into "top restaurants San Francisco".

The page lists Microsoft's privacy statement among the search providers it points you to. So our reading is that Bing is one of the sources feeding ChatGPT. That's why claiming your free Bing Places listing is a sensible, cheap step. OpenAI also says ChatGPT may share your location with "trusted third-party providers" for things like nearby business listings, without naming them.

For your website, OpenAI says "Any public website can appear in ChatGPT search". The one technical condition is that you don't block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in your robots.txt file. Sites that block it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though a bare link to them can still appear. GPTBot is a different crawler, used for training AI models, and blocking it doesn't remove you from search.

ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends. So if your site runs Google Analytics, you can see whether any visits came from ChatGPT.

The checklist, in priority order

This order comes from what the assistants used in our test, checked against what Google and OpenAI publish. The ranking of the steps is our judgment.

1. Finish your Google Business Profile. Pick the most specific primary category, list your services, keep hours correct, and add your website link. Google names Business Profiles as a way to be visible in AI responses. Our Google Business Profile checklist has the steps.
2. Keep reviews coming in every week. Rating and review count were the first signals in both assistants. Ask every customer, the way Google's rules allow, as covered in our guide to getting more Google reviews.
3. Answer the bad reviews. A complaint on Google or BBB can show up in the answer, as it did in Chattanooga. Here's how to respond to a negative review.
4. Check the directories the assistants cited. Search your business name on Angi, BBB, Yelp and Birdeye. Where you have a listing, make sure the name, phone, service area and hours match your Google profile. Some sites, like Expertise.com, choose businesses themselves, so you can't simply sign up there.
5. Claim Bing Places. It's free, and Bing appears to be one of ChatGPT's search providers (our inference from OpenAI's help page).
6. Make your website say the basics in plain words. Name your services, the towns you cover, your hours and your phone number, on pages Google can index. Google AI Mode linked every recommended business's site. See what a contractor website needs.
7. Don't block the crawlers that matter. Check that your robots.txt doesn't block Googlebot or OAI-SearchBot.

Steps 1 and 2 overlap almost completely with regular map ranking, which we covered in how to show up on Google Maps. The work that gets you into the map pack is the same work the AI answers drew on in our test.

What we'd skip paying for

"LLM SEO" and AI visibility packages are now sold to small businesses as a monthly service. We build and run websites and don't sell SEO or AI optimization, so we have no stake in which way you go. Here's what Google's own guidance says you don't need:

• An llms.txt file or an "AI version" of your site. Google Search doesn't use them.
• Special AI schema markup. Google says there's no special schema you need to add.
• Rewriting your pages into short chunks for AI. Not required, per Google.
• Bought or planted mentions on random sites. Google says inauthentic mentions aren't as helpful as they seem.
• Anything promising a better local ranking for a fee. Google says there's no way to pay for one.
• A report that tracks your "AI ranking" from one query. In our test the two assistants gave different lists for the same question.

Some agency AI packages turn out to be profile work, review requests and a clear website. That's the list above, and you can do most of it yourself. Our local SEO guide for contractors covers the rest.

Next step: ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode the question from our test, with your own trade and town. Note which sites they cite, and fix your listing on each of them first.

How we ran the test, and its limits

We ran every question once, on 17 September 2026. ChatGPT was a free account in a temporary chat with no personalization. Google was set to US English and the US region. We ran the searches from outside the US, so the city name in the question carried the location. We asked ChatGPT about 5 cities and Google AI Mode about 3. We also tried Perplexity, but it now asks you to sign up before it answers, so we left it out.

That's a small sample. Another day, another account or a real local IP address could give different businesses and different sources. Read the table as a snapshot of which kinds of sources come up. We don't name any of the businesses the assistants recommended, only the platforms they drew on.