# Check if ChatGPT recommends your business

> Researched. Small business · Beginner · Content. Updated 2026-11-02.

Canonical page: https://www.aisetupsthatwork.com/setups/check-if-chatgpt-recommends-your-business/

## What it does
Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, record who they recommend and which pages they cite, then fix what keeps you out of the answers.

## Who it's for
Local and small businesses wondering whether AI assistants mention them when customers ask for a recommendation.

## Tools
- ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity
- A simple sheet to record results
- Access to your website's robots.txt

## Steps
1. Write 5 questions a real customer would ask, with your town, like who is the best plumber in Rutland VT.
2. Ask each assistant every question in a fresh chat with search turned on. Record who is named, in what order, and the pages cited.
3. Check your site allows the search crawlers you want. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is used for ChatGPT search results and is set separately from GPTBot, its training crawler.
4. Compare your pages with the pages that got cited: do they state services, area, hours and prices plainly?
5. Make your business details clear and consistent. Google documents LocalBusiness structured data with name and address required.
6. Re-run the same 5 questions monthly and compare.

## Copy-paste prompt
Adapt bracketed fields to your situation.
```text
I want to see whether AI assistants recommend my business. Help me plan the check.

Business: [NAME], [SERVICE], [TOWN, STATE]
Website: [URL]
Competitors I know: [NAMES]

Give me:
1. Five questions a real customer would type, using my town.
2. A simple table to record, per assistant and question: who was named, in what order, and which pages were cited.
3. After I paste my results: the three most likely reasons I was missing, based only on what I pasted, and one fix for each.

Do not guess results you have not seen.
```

## Guardrails
- What it touches: Chat input you provide (ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity; A simple sheet to record results).
- Needs your OK: Send, pay, publish, and account changes stay with you. Treat agent output as drafts first.
- Safety level: Read-only
- Asking with your business name in the question, which proves nothing.
- Blocking a search crawler in robots.txt by accident.
- Changing many things at once, so you cannot tell what helped.

## Tips
- Use fresh chats so earlier conversations do not steer the answer.
- Record the cited pages; they show what kind of page the assistants trust.
- Run it from a phone too; answers can differ by device and location.

## Estimates (labeled, not measured)
- Time saved: About 40 minutes for the first check, 15 minutes monthly.
- Money saved: Not stated in sources.
- Tool cost: Free tiers can run the checks. Prices: Not stated in sources.

## Sources
Summaries use the public sources below, not independent verification.
- OpenAI: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots (Overview of OpenAI crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search results, GPTBot for training, ChatGPT-User for user actions, set independently (read 2026-10-31 through a page fetch tool, not a direct browser open))
- Google: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business (LocalBusiness structured data: name and address required, recommended properties, JSON-LD (read 2026-10-31 through a page fetch tool, not a direct browser open))

## Get the free starter pack
Five beginner copy-paste AI setups, free by email: https://www.aisetupsthatwork.com/starter-pack/?utm_source=ai-agent&utm_medium=markdown&utm_campaign=setup-check-if-chatgpt-recommends-your-business

Related:
- [Make your website readable by AI](https://www.aisetupsthatwork.com/setups/make-your-website-readable-by-ai-agents/index.md)
- [Add business schema to your site](https://www.aisetupsthatwork.com/setups/add-business-schema-so-ai-can-find-you/index.md)
- [Optimize your Google Business Profile to show up locally](https://www.aisetupsthatwork.com/setups/optimize-your-google-business-profile/index.md)