Get Recommended by ChatGPT: A 30-Day Plan

You can do the groundwork in 30 days: week one fixes your facts, week two tightens your profiles and reviews, week three publishes one strong page per service, and week four earns mentions and measures. That raises your odds of being named by ChatGPT. Nothing here can guarantee it.

This plan is the hands-on companion to the complete AEO guide. Plan on a few hours a week, mostly at a keyboard, with no skills beyond editing text on your own profiles and website.

Day 0: write down where you stand

Before you change anything, take a baseline so you can see movement later. Choose ten questions a customer would ask about your main service in your main city. The 10 questions customers ask AI gives fill-in templates. Ask each one in ChatGPT and write down whether you were named, how you were described and who else appeared.

If you would rather see it in two minutes, the free check shows the answer ChatGPT gives your customers, no card needed. Save a screenshot. You will want it on day 30.

Week 1: fix your facts everywhere

Make one plain document called your fact sheet. It is the single source you copy from every time. Fill in every line before you touch a listing.

• Business name, exactly as customers know it.
• Street address, exactly as it appears on Google Maps.
• One main phone number.
• Hours for each day, including the holidays you close.
• The cities and neighborhoods you serve.
• Each service, in the words a customer would use.
• Languages spoken, payment methods and insurance accepted, and whether you take walk-ins or only appointments.
• License, certification or membership numbers your trade uses.

Now compare. Check your website, your Google Business Profile, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps and any directory you know of, such as your chamber of commerce listing. Fix every mismatch at the source. Do your own website and Google profile first, because those are the two pages you fully control.

Put the same facts in text on your contact page, not only in an image or a PDF. An assistant cannot use words it cannot read. If you also want a plain-text summary for machines, an llms.txt file is a cheap fact sheet, and the dashboard generates one for you. Google's documentation says Google Search ignores such files, so treat it as a tidy extra rather than a lever.

Week 2: finish your profiles and start collecting reviews

Google Business Profile is the first profile to finish, because Google's own help says accurate information makes a profile more likely to show up in local results. Set the most specific primary category that fits, add every secondary category that is true, list your services, write a plain description and upload real photos. The Google Business Profile checklist for Valley businesses walks through every field.

Then build a review habit. Google's help pages describe how to create a direct review link or QR code, and its Maps content policy sets the rules for asking.

• Ask each customer right after the job, while they are pleased.
• Send the direct review link or QR code from your Business Profile.
• Do not offer discounts or gifts for reviews. Google's policy lists incentives as a violation.
• Reply to every review, good or bad, in a sentence or two that names the service. Your replies are text an assistant can read too.
• Never write reviews for your own business, and do not ask staff or family to. Google's policy calls out content based on a conflict of interest.

Week 3: build one strong page for each service

Assistants answer specific questions, so each main service needs its own page that answers them. Say a roofing company in Weslaco repairs shingle roofs, replaces whole roofs and handles storm damage. That is three pages, not one page with three headings.

• A title and first sentence that say the service and the place: "Roof replacement in Weslaco, Texas."
• Two or three plain sentences under it that answer the main question directly: what you do, where, and how to reach you today.
• What affects the price, stated honestly. If you cannot post prices, say what changes them and how you quote.
• Hours, the cities you serve and how to book, in text.
• Answers to the questions customers ask before hiring, written the way they ask them.
• Your real name, any license or certification details, and a real photo of your team or your work.

One page per service beats a homepage that lists everything. When you are ready to go further, how to write an article AI will cite covers what makes an article worth quoting.

Week 4: earn mentions, then measure

Mentions are the slow lever, so start with the ones you can earn honestly this week. Ask your local chamber of commerce whether your listing is complete. Check whether the suppliers and manufacturers you buy from have a page of local dealers or installers, and whether you are on it. If you sponsor a youth team or back a local cause, ask whether the organization's website can list you.

If something newsworthy happened, such as an opening, an award or a new service, a press release is one way to tell people, and that article is honest about what it can and cannot do. Do not buy mentions in bulk. Google's guide to generative AI features says seeking inauthentic mentions across the web is not as helpful as it might seem.

Then measure. Ask the same ten questions from day 0, in the same words, and compare. The Growrank dashboard does this every week across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity and shows which competitors are named instead of you. See plans and the free trial.

What should you expect on day 31?

Expect a cleaner record, not a guaranteed result. A fixed phone number or set of hours may show up quickly. Reviews and mentions build over months. If ChatGPT still does not name you on day 31, that is information: look at which questions you are missing on, and repeat the cycle for those.

After that, keep a monthly routine of ten questions and one fix. A record that stays accurate is one an assistant can keep trusting.

Frequently asked questions