For years, businesses have worked to get to the top of Google.
Now there is another place they want to appear: ChatGPT.
People are increasingly using AI to research products, compare companies, find local services and decide which businesses they should consider.
Instead of searching through a list of websites, someone can simply ask:
- “Who is the best roofing company in my area?”
- “What marketing agency should I use for SEO?”
- “Where can I find a reliable plumber near me?”
- “What are the best companies for commercial window installation?”
ChatGPT can provide an answer in seconds, sometimes mentioning specific businesses along the way.
That creates a new question for business owners:
Why is ChatGPT recommending some companies and not others?
And more importantly, what can you do to increase the chances of your business being one of them?
Can You Actually Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT?
There is no button you can press or advertising campaign you can buy that guarantees ChatGPT will recommend your business.
There is also no single optimization trick that puts a company at the top of an AI-generated answer.
Instead, AI systems rely on a combination of available information, search results, websites, third-party sources and other signals to understand businesses and determine what information may be useful in response to a particular question.
That means businesses need to think beyond simply ranking for a keyword.
Your company needs to be understandable, credible and discoverable across the web.
How Does ChatGPT Find Businesses to Recommend?
The exact process depends on the question being asked and the information available.
But think about it from the AI’s perspective.
If someone asks for a company that provides a particular service in Vancouver, the system first needs to understand:
What does this company actually do?
Where does it operate?
Does its website clearly explain those services?
Is there evidence elsewhere online that confirms the business exists and does what it claims?
Is the company relevant to what the person is asking?
Is there useful information available about the business?
The easier those questions are to answer, the easier it becomes for search engines and AI systems to understand your company.
This is why traditional SEO still matters, but it is no longer the entire conversation.
1. Make It Extremely Clear What Your Business Does
This sounds obvious, but many websites make it surprisingly difficult to understand exactly what the company offers.
A homepage might say:
“Building Better Solutions for Tomorrow.”
It sounds nice.
But what does the company actually do?
Compare that with a website that clearly communicates:
“We provide commercial roofing installation and repair throughout Metro Vancouver.”
The second version gives both people and machines much more useful information.
Your website should clearly identify your:
- Services
- Products
- Industries
- Locations
- Areas of expertise
- Customers you serve
Don’t make ChatGPT guess what your business does.
2. Create Dedicated Pages for Your Important Services
One page listing 20 different services isn’t necessarily enough.
If a service is important to your business, it should usually have enough dedicated content for search engines, AI systems and potential customers to understand it.
For example, an HVAC company might have separate pages for:
Air Conditioning Installation
Air Conditioning Repair
Heat Pump Installation
Heat Pump Repair
Furnace Installation
Furnace Repair
Each page creates additional context around what the company does.
It also gives your business a much stronger chance of being relevant when someone asks a very specific question.
3. Answer the Questions Your Customers Are Actually Asking
AI search is conversational.
People aren’t limited to typing two or three keywords anymore.
They can ask:
“How much does it cost to replace a furnace in Vancouver?”
“Is a heat pump worth it in British Columbia?”
“What size wine cellar cooling unit do I need?”
“Should I repair my concrete pool or replace it?”
Businesses should create content that genuinely answers these types of questions.
That can include:
- Frequently asked questions
- Buying guides
- Comparisons
- How-to articles
- Cost guides
- Service explanations
- Troubleshooting content
- Expert advice
This isn’t about stuffing hundreds of questions onto your website.
It’s about becoming a genuinely useful source of information within your area of expertise.
4. Build Authority Beyond Your Own Website
You can say you’re the best company in your industry.
That doesn’t necessarily mean anyone else agrees.
Third-party information can help establish additional context and credibility around a business.
Depending on your industry, this might include:
- Business directories
- Industry associations
- Professional organizations
- News coverage
- Reviews
- Local citations
- Partner websites
- Awards
- Relevant publications
Consistency matters too.
Your company name, location, services and other important business information shouldn’t tell one story on your website and another story everywhere else.
A strong digital presence isn’t built on a website alone.
5. Don’t Ignore Traditional SEO
With all the discussion around AI search, it can be tempting to think SEO is becoming irrelevant.
The opposite is closer to reality.
Many of the fundamentals that help search engines understand a website also make your information easier for AI systems to discover and interpret.
That includes:
- Clear site architecture
- Useful content
- Descriptive page titles
- Strong internal linking
- Crawlable pages
- Relevant keywords
- Fast, accessible websites
- Structured data
- Authoritative backlinks
- Up-to-date information
The goal isn’t to abandon SEO for AI.
The goal is to build a search strategy that considers both.
6. Use Structured Data to Give Search Engines More Context
Structured data, often referred to as schema markup, helps search engines understand what information on a page represents.
Depending on the business and page, structured data can provide additional context around things such as:
- Your organization
- Local business information
- Products
- Services
- Articles
- Events
- People
- Reviews and ratings where eligible
Schema isn’t a magic switch that makes ChatGPT recommend your company.
But creating a technically clear and well-structured website makes it easier for machines to interpret the information you’re publishing.
7. Create Content Worth Citing
This is where AI optimization becomes particularly interesting.
If every company in your industry publishes essentially the same generic content, there is very little reason for your website to stand out.
Instead of publishing another article called:
“5 Benefits of Hiring a Professional Plumber”
consider creating something genuinely useful.
For example:
“How Much Does a Plumber Cost in Vancouver in 2026?”
“Heat Pump vs Furnace in BC: Cost, Efficiency and Rebates Compared”
“Google Ads vs SEO: Where Should a Small Business Spend $2,000 a Month?”
“What Size Wine Cellar Cooling Unit Do You Actually Need?”
Original research, expert insights, useful comparisons, statistics, detailed guides and first-hand experience can make your content more valuable to both people and AI systems.
Don’t just create content to rank.
Create content that deserves to be referenced.
8. Strengthen Your Local Presence
For businesses serving specific cities or regions, location matters.
If you want to appear when someone asks ChatGPT for a particular service in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto or another market, your online presence should provide clear evidence that you actually serve that area.
That can include properly developed location pages, accurate business listings, locally relevant content and consistent information about the areas you serve.
But avoid creating dozens of nearly identical city pages where only the location name changes.
Useful local pages should provide genuine value to someone looking for that service in that market.
9. Keep Your Information Current
AI recommendations aren’t much use if they’re based on outdated information.
Businesses change.
Services change.
Locations change.
Employees change.
Products change.
Hours change.
Websites often accumulate years of outdated pages without anyone noticing.
Regularly reviewing important business information helps ensure that both customers and machines are finding an accurate representation of your company.
10. Think About Mentions, Not Just Rankings
Traditional SEO has conditioned marketers to ask:
“What position are we ranking?”
AI search introduces another question:
“Where is our brand being mentioned?”
Your company might appear in an AI-generated comparison, recommendation or answer without the experience looking anything like a traditional Google search result.
That means businesses should increasingly pay attention to:
- Brand mentions
- AI citations
- Referral traffic from AI platforms
- The questions where their company appears
- The competitors appearing alongside them
- Which sources AI platforms reference
Search visibility is becoming broader than a list of ten blue links.
What Is GEO, AEO and LLMO?
You may have already seen several new acronyms associated with AI search.
GEO generally refers to Generative Engine Optimization.
AEO generally refers to Answer Engine Optimization.
LLMO refers to Large Language Model Optimization.
The terminology is still evolving, and marketers don’t always use these terms in exactly the same way.
But the broader idea is relatively simple.
Traditional SEO focuses heavily on improving visibility in search engines.
AI search optimization expands that thinking to how your company, expertise and content are discovered, understood and potentially surfaced within AI-generated answers.
For most businesses, these strategies shouldn’t exist separately.
SEO and AI visibility increasingly need to work together.
How Do You Know If ChatGPT Can Find Your Business?
Try asking the questions your customers might ask.
Not just your company name.
Ask things like:
“Who are the best [service] companies in [city]?”
“Which companies provide [specific service] in [location]?”
“Where can I find [product] in [city]?”
“Who specializes in [specific problem] near me?”
Then look at the results.
Does your business appear?
Which competitors appear?
What information does ChatGPT provide about them?
What websites or sources are being referenced?
Repeat the exercise across different relevant questions rather than relying on one prompt.
This can begin to reveal where your business has strong AI visibility and where there may be gaps.
Can You Guarantee That ChatGPT Will Recommend Your Business?
No.
And be cautious of anyone who tells you they can.
No legitimate SEO or AI optimization strategy can guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend a particular company for every relevant question.
AI-generated answers can vary based on the query, available information, location, context and changes to the underlying systems.
What businesses can do is increase their chances of being discovered and understood.
That means creating a strong website, publishing useful content, building authority, maintaining accurate information and making it exceptionally clear who you are, what you do and why you’re relevant.
SEO Is No Longer Just About Ranking on Google
For more than two decades, businesses have competed for visibility on search engines.
That isn’t disappearing.
But the places where customers discover companies are expanding.
Someone might find your business through Google.
Someone else might ask ChatGPT.
Another customer might use Gemini, Perplexity or another AI-powered search experience.
The businesses that adapt won’t necessarily abandon traditional SEO.
They’ll build on it.
The goal is no longer simply to rank for a keyword.
It’s to make your business easy to find, understand and trust wherever your customers are searching.
At A&G Creative Group, we’re continuing to evolve our SEO strategies around how people are discovering businesses through both traditional and AI-powered search. If you’re wondering whether your company is visible in ChatGPT and other AI search experiences, we can help identify where you’re appearing, where your competitors are showing up and what opportunities exist to strengthen your visibility.
Ready to start exploring your brand story?
