5 Steps to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Perplexity (Easy Guide for Busy Owners)

If customers in Central Alabama ask ChatGPT or Perplexity for a landscaper, restaurant, realtor, or other local service, you want your business to be easy to find, understand, and trust.

There’s no secret button that guarantees an AI recommendation. The practical work is making sure your business information is clear and consistent wherever customers, and search tools, look for it.

That matters because being hard to find can cost real money. For example, if a business misses one $450 job each week, that’s $23,400 in potential annual revenue before expenses. That’s an illustration, not a promise or industry benchmark. Use your own average sale to see what missed visibility could mean for you.

Here are five manageable steps to improve your chances of being found.

1. Make your business details consistent everywhere

Start with the basics: your business name, address or service area, phone number, website, hours, and services.

Make sure those details match across your website, Google Business Profile, and the other reputable directories or industry sites where your business appears. If your hours differ from one listing to another, or an old phone number is still online, customers may hesitate, and search tools may have a harder time figuring out which information is current.

For a service business, be specific about where you work. “Serving Central Alabama” is a start, but naming the communities you actually cover (such as Prattville, Millbrook, Wetumpka, or Montgomery) can help people recognize that you’re relevant to their search. Don’t list places you don’t serve just to attract more searches.

If you have multiple locations, give each one its own accurate page and details.

Google explains that local results are influenced by relevance, distance, and prominence. Its guidance on improving local rankings also recommends keeping your Business Profile information complete and accurate. A complete profile doesn’t guarantee a top spot, but it gives customers and search tools clearer information to work with.

2. Give each important service a clear page

A single homepage that says “We do it all” may leave potential customers guessing. Give your main services room to be understood.

A landscaping company might have separate pages for lawn maintenance, drainage, and landscape design. A restaurant could clearly lay out its menu, hours, location, and reservation details. A realtor can explain the areas served and the kinds of buyers or sellers they work with.

Each page should answer everyday questions:

• What do you offer?
• Who is it for?
• Where do you provide it?
• What should someone expect next?
• How can they call, book, or request a quote?

Use plain, specific headings and keep important information in readable text, not only in a graphic, image, or social post. If you have a service area, explain it plainly. If prices vary, say what affects the price and how a customer can get an estimate.

The goal isn’t to write pages for a robot. It’s to help a real person quickly work out whether you’re a fit. Clear, useful pages also give answer engines better information to understand and potentially reference.

3. Make sure search tools can access the pages you want found

A well-written page can’t help much if search tools can’t access it.

Some websites have settings that block automated crawlers. A web developer or SEO professional can check that your public service and location pages aren’t accidentally blocked by your site settings, firewall, or hosting provider. OpenAI publishes information about its web crawlers, and Perplexity explains how its crawlers access websites.

You don’t need to become a technical expert or change these settings yourself. Ask your website support person to check whether public pages you want included can be crawled by OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Keep private, customer-only, or sensitive information restricted.

And remember: allowing a crawler to access your website is not a promise that ChatGPT or Perplexity will recommend you. It simply removes one possible obstacle.

4. Add helpful details that build trust

Accurate business information is the foundation. Genuine proof and useful details help complete the picture.

Keep your Google Business Profile current, respond professionally to reviews, and ask real customers for honest feedback. Don’t buy reviews or pressure people to leave only positive ones. A review should reflect a real customer’s experience.

Then look for trustworthy places that can confirm your business exists and does the work you say it does: a local chamber, professional association, licensing directory, reputable industry platform, or local publication. Keep your details consistent there, too.

On your website, you can also use structured data: code that labels information such as your business name, address, phone number, and hours. Google’s Local Business structured data guide explains how it works. The details in the code should match what customers can actually see on the page. Structured data can help clarify your business information, but it isn’t an AI recommendation shortcut.

5. Check what customers, and AI tools, actually find

Once the basics are in place, test the experience from a customer’s point of view.

Try prompts that include the town, service, and need, such as:

• “Who provides lawn drainage work near Prattville, Alabama?”
• “Where can I find a casual restaurant in Montgomery with outdoor seating?”
• “Which realtors help first-time buyers in Millbrook?”

The answers may change, and the same prompt may not produce the same result each time. Treat this as a practical spot-check, not a formal ranking or guarantee. Notice whether your business appears, whether its details are right, and which sources the tool cites. If you find old hours or the wrong service area, fix the source information on your website or listing.

Also track the outcomes that matter to your business: calls, quote requests, bookings, and customers who say they found you online. More visibility is useful when it helps the right people take the next step.

AI optimization SEO starts with clear, trustworthy information

You don’t need to chase every new AI trend or hand control of your business to an unpredictable agent. Getting found in AI answers is a different challenge from letting AI act on your behalf. You can work on your visibility without asking a tool to make decisions for your staff or customers.

AI isn’t going away, and it will keep changing how people look for answers. The sensible move is to get comfortable with the parts that can make your business easier to find, while keeping people in charge of important decisions.

This work overlaps with local SEO, website content, and what’s often called GEO or AI optimization. A practical small business marketing agency can help connect those pieces so your website and listings support stronger local business lead generation, not add another confusing platform to your day.

Sharon Gainey Digital works with businesses in Central Alabama and beyond on websites, SEO, GEO, and AI optimization. If you’re unsure where to start, call (334) 946-0014. We’ll talk through what you have, what may be getting in the way, and a sensible next step.