Why isn't my business showing up in ChatGPT?

How does ChatGPT find businesses in the first place?

ChatGPT does not rely only on what it was trained on. When its search features are used, OpenAI also looks at the live web. Its crawler documentation names three that matter here:

• OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features. If a site opts out, OpenAI says it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though it can still appear as a navigational link. A robots.txt change can take around 24 hours to take effect.
• GPTBot may crawl content for training OpenAI's generative models. That choice is separate from search.
• ChatGPT-User may visit a page when a person asks a question. OpenAI says this is user-initiated, robots.txt may not apply, and it is not used to decide Search visibility. Use OAI-SearchBot for search opt-outs.

A business can be missing from older training data and still appear in a search answer if the search crawler can find and read a clear page.

Reason 1: can its crawler read your site?

Open /robots.txt in a browser. Look for rules that name OAI-SearchBot or GPTBot, and for a blanket Disallow: / that would also cover them.

A content delivery network or firewall can still stop the crawler even when robots.txt looks open. OpenAI publishes IP ranges on the same documentation page, so a hosting team can allow those requests.

What good looks like: OAI-SearchBot is allowed, the important words are in the HTML, and a logged-out visit can read the same text a person can.

Reason 2: is the site in Bing or Google?

OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes uses other search providers as well as its own crawler. If the major search indexes have not accepted the pages, those features have less to work with.

In a private window, search Google for site:your-domain.co.uk. Google Search Console's Page indexing report shows which URLs are indexed. Google says a page must be indexed, and eligible to be shown with a snippet, before it can appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The same check is a sensible starting point here.

Do the same site: search on Bing. In Bing Webmaster Tools, submit an XML sitemap, and consider IndexNow to notify Bing when a URL changes. That notice does not mean the page will be crawled or indexed.

Reason 3: do the pages answer the question?

A crawler can reach a site and still find nothing useful to quote. For each service you want to be found for, there should be a page that states, in the first sentences, what the service is, who it is for, and where it is offered. Names, places and the offer belong in ordinary text, not only in images or PDFs.

What good looks like: one clear page per service, and per location if the facts differ, with the answer near the top, in words a person could copy.

Reason 4: does anything else confirm you?

Answer engines also look at what the rest of the web says. The business name, a short description and the address should be the same on your site and on the profiles and directories you already use.

That does not mean buying or planting mentions. Google's guide to generative AI features (last updated 10 July 2026) says seeking inauthentic mentions “isn’t as helpful as it might seem”, and that its quality and spam systems apply to those features too.

Reason 5: does the question even name a business?

Some prompts never name a company. “What is a limited company?” is a definition. “Who can help a company in Manchester with its accounts?” is closer to a shortlist. If buyers mostly ask the first kind of question, no amount of on-site work will force a name into the answer. Test the prompts your buyers really use, not the ones that would be convenient to win.

How can you test it yourself?

1. Open a logged-out or private window, so your own chat history does not shape the answers.
2. Write down five to ten questions a real buyer would ask, in their words, including the service and the place.
3. Ask each question in ChatGPT, and, if you want a fuller picture, in Perplexity and in Google AI Overviews or AI Mode, where they appear.
4. Record the date, the engine, who was named, and which page URLs were cited.
5. Repeat the same set about once a month. Answers can change between sessions, so one run is a snapshot, not a score.

What we will not promise

We use AI tools for research, content optimisation and AI-search monitoring, and we study how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI choose what to cite. We do not promise a ranking, a traffic figure, or a mention in any answer engine. A written check shows what the public answers already say, and which public pages could be clearer. It is not a way to buy a place in ChatGPT. There is more on how the work runs.

Questions

Can I pay to be listed in ChatGPT?

There is no paid product that buys a place in ChatGPT’s ordinary answers. OpenAI does sell ChatGPT Ads, and says sponsored placements are clearly labelled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s answers. On 10 November 2026 OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta: eligible businesses can claim a profile and, once verified, update key details. Claiming a profile does not mean ChatGPT will mention the business. Separate shopping and product-feed programmes exist; OpenAI says shopping is currently live for ChatGPT users in the United States. That is a product catalogue, not a general listing for a UK service business.

Does an llms.txt file get me into ChatGPT?

There is no documented evidence that OpenAI’s crawlers use an llms.txt file to decide who appears in search answers. Google’s guide says Google Search ignores these files; keeping one will neither harm nor help visibility in Google Search. It is harmless to publish one, but do not expect it to turn on a mention.

How long does it take to show up?

It depends on the pages, the indexes, and the questions people ask. OpenAI says a robots.txt change can take around 24 hours for its systems to adjust. That is only about crawler access, not a timescale for being named. We will not invent one.

Is this different from SEO?

The work overlaps heavily. A page that cannot be found is a weak source, and so is a page that never states the answer. There is a short guide on how SEO, AEO and GEO fit together.

Write to us

For a written check, write to hello@clearlyseen.co.uk. Name the business and the sites. Please do not send personal details about your customers, patients or clients.