How to get your business cited by ChatGPT: a checklist
To get cited, give AI clear answer-shaped content and FAQ pages, schema markup, an llms.txt file, real reviews, consistent business details, and mentions on other reputable sites. Then check weekly. None of it is exotic. The work is doing all of it and keeping it that way.
The checklist
Each step below is one move plus a one-line how. Work through them in order if you can, but every item helps on its own.
- Answer-first content and FAQ pages. For each service, open with a plain sentence that answers the question, then add the detail, and add an FAQ in the words your customers actually use.
- Schema markup (Organization, Service, FAQ, Review). Mark up your organization, services, FAQs, and reviews with structured data so machines read your facts without guessing.
- An llms.txt file. Publish a short plain-text file at your root that tells AI crawlers who you are, what you offer, and where the key pages live.
- Collect real reviews. Ask happy customers for honest reviews on the platforms that matter for your field; both volume and recency count.
- Keep name, address, and phone consistent everywhere. Use the exact same business name, address, and number across every site, because a mismatch makes a model hesitate to name you.
- Get mentioned on directories and other sites. Earn listings, roundups, partner mentions, and relevant directory entries; each one is a vote the assistant can see.
- Keep content dated and fresh. Show a clear last-updated date and revise pages when the facts change, so an assistant trusts the page is current.
If you only have an hour
Do not try to do all seven at once. With one hour, spend it on the short-answer rewrite, the FAQ, and the schema markup. Those three pay back the most, because they fix how a model reads your pages in the first place: clear answer-shaped text it can lift, questions phrased the way customers ask them, and structured data that states your facts without guessing.
The rest (llms.txt, reviews, consistent details, off-site mentions, fresh dates) builds up over the following weeks. Start the slower items early, but do not let them hold up the quick wins that need nothing but your own pages.
How to check it is working
Measure it the same way every week. Write down five prompts a real customer would type, such as "best [your service] in [your city]" or "who should I hire for [your service]", and run those five across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI answers.
For each prompt, note whether you are named, whether a competitor is named instead, and how you are described. The trend across those five prompts is your scoreboard. More mentions, more often, and fewer answers that name a competitor but not you, is the win.
We do the checklist for you
Short on time? We run the whole checklist for you and give you a free visibility check first, so you can see which AI assistants already name your business, and which name your competitors instead.
FAQ
How long until I get cited?
For most small businesses the first changes show up about four to eight weeks after the structural work, reviews, and off-site mentions start landing. GEO moves faster than classic SEO because you are fixing how machines read you, not waiting months to climb a ranking.
Do reviews really matter for AI?
Yes. Reviews are one of the trust signals an assistant leans on when two businesses look otherwise equal. Volume and recency both count, so keep asking happy customers for honest reviews on the platforms that matter in your field.
What is an llms.txt file?
An llms.txt file is a short plain-text file at the root of your site that tells AI crawlers who you are, what you offer, and where the key pages live. A readme, written for assistants instead of people.
Can I do this myself?
Yes. Every item on the checklist can be done in-house with time and care: answer-first content, schema markup, an llms.txt file, reviews, consistent business details, and off-site mentions. You pay only if you want it done for you, or want to go faster.