How to get your business recommended by AI
By Fat Yak Media · Updated 2026-07-29
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT and AI assistants?
To be recommended by AI assistants, make your business easy to verify from public sources — one consistent name and set of details everywhere, a complete Google Business Profile with steady reviews, and a fast website that states plainly what you do, where you serve, and answers customers' real questions in clear, quotable language.
Key facts
- ▸AI assistants can only recommend what public sources let them verify — evidence beats assertion.
- ▸Pages that answer a question directly in the first sentences are the easiest for AI to quote.
- ▸Structured data — the machine-readable labelling on a page — tells software exactly what a business is, where it serves and what it offers.
- ▸The same checklist that wins AI recommendations strengthens Google Maps and search visibility.
Once you know where AI answers come from, the playbook writes itself: make your business the easiest one to verify and the clearest one to quote. Here’s the checklist, in order of impact.
1. Become one consistent fact
Software stitching you together from many sources needs those sources to agree. One exact business name, one phone number, one set of hours — identical on your website, Google profile, directories and socials. Every mismatch is a seam where the stitching fails, and the recommendation goes to the tidier competitor.
2. Keep your Google profile and reviews thriving
Assistants lean heavily on the same signals as Maps: a complete, active profile and a steady flow of genuine reviews with replies. The review routine pulls double duty here — every review is both social proof for humans and evidence for machines. Reviews that mention your suburb and the job type are especially quotable.
3. Say the obvious things in plain sentences
AI quotes text, so write the sentences you want quoted. “Fat Yak Plumbing serves Northside, Westgate and the inner suburbs, specialising in emergency repairs and hot-water systems” is machine-usable; a hero banner reading “Excellence. Delivered.” is not. Every important fact about your business should exist somewhere as one clear, complete sentence.
4. Answer real questions directly
Assistants assemble answers, so pages that are answers get used. Take the questions customers ask you every week and give each a page that answers it in the first breath, then adds the detail. (You’re reading exactly this pattern right now — it’s how this page is built.) This is where a question-answering content plan earns its keep twice: rankings today, AI citations alongside.
5. Label your pages for machines
Structured data is a behind-the-scenes label that tells software, unambiguously: this is a business, here’s its name, area, services, questions and answers. Invisible to visitors, load-bearing for machines. It’s built into every site we ship — retrofit it if your site predates it.
6. Be mentioned where AI reads
Local news, industry directories, supplier pages, community sites — third-party mentions are the corroboration that turns your claims into facts. A handful of genuine local mentions outweighs a hundred junk listings.
The quiet advantage
Most local businesses haven’t started any of this. The checklist above is unglamorous, entirely within reach, and currently uncontested in most markets. If you’d rather hand it over whole, that’s literally our job.
More questions, answered
How do I check what AI currently says about my business?
Ask the assistants what a customer would — "best [your service] in [your area]" — on ChatGPT, Google and a voice assistant. Then ask directly about your business by name. What comes back (or doesn't) is your baseline, and often your to-do list.
Does my website really matter if AI reads reviews and listings?
Yes — it's your one first-party source. Reviews prove you're good; your website is where the details come from — services, areas, pricing approach, answers. A vague site leaves AI guessing, and it doesn't guess in your favour.
Is there a trick to ranking in AI answers, like keywords used to be?
No trick that lasts. AI answers synthesise many sources, so the durable strategy is being genuinely well-evidenced everywhere — which is indistinguishable from just being a well-run, well-documented business.