How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business: a 10-minute self-test, then the fixes

There is no form to fill in and nothing to submit to OpenAI. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity name a business when what they read about it, on its own site and on other sites, clearly matches what the customer asked. So the first step is to find out what they say about you today. The fixes come from the gaps that test shows you.

First, test it yourself (10 minutes, free)

Most owners type their own business name into ChatGPT, read a friendly description and stop there. That only tests whether the AI knows you. New customers do not type your name. They ask for "a plumber in Austin who does weekend calls" or "the best bookkeeping software for a two-person cafe". The test that matters is whether you are found when they ask like that.

Write 5 questions a new customer would ask before they know you exist. Use their words: the service, the place, the problem. For example: "Who does same-day boiler repair in Leeds?"
Ask each question in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Use a private or logged-out window if you can, so your own history does not color the answers.
Mark each answer: named you, named you but got a fact wrong, or did not name you. Write down who it named instead.
Then ask 2 questions with your name in them, such as "What does [your business] do?" and "Is [your business] any good?". Note anything wrong: hours, prices, locations, services you do not offer.
Score it: count how many of the 15 "found" answers (5 questions times 3 AIs) named you.

Your score sheet (copy it into a note)

Buyer question	ChatGPT	Claude	Perplexity	Named instead
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Mark each cell: yes (named you), wrong (named you with a wrong fact) or no.

What your score means

Named in most answers: protect it. Keep your facts the same everywhere and re-test every month.
Named in some answers: you are on the edge. The fixes below are most likely to move you.
Named rarely or never: the AIs do not have enough clear, matching information about you yet. Start at fix 1.
Named, but with wrong facts: fix those first. Wrong hours or an old address send customers to the wrong place.

The businesses the AIs named instead are your real competition in AI answers, and they may not be the ones you compete with on Google. Look at their websites and listings. Notice how plainly they say what they do, for whom and where.

The fixes, in the order that usually matters

Say what you do, for whom and where, in one plain paragraph near the top of your homepage. Use the same words your customers used in step 1, not your internal names for things.
Answer buyer questions on your own site. Price ranges, area served, how fast, what is included, who it is not for. A short FAQ section works.
Make your facts match everywhere. Name, address, phone, hours and services should read the same on your site, your Google Business Profile and the main directories in your field.
Get described by others. Reviews on the platforms your customers use, listings in your trade's directories, a mention in a local or trade roundup. AIs lean on what other sites say about you, not only on what you say.
Add business details markup (schema.org Organization or LocalBusiness) so machines can read your name, address and services without guessing.
Check that you are not blocking AI crawlers by accident. Look at your robots.txt file and any "block AI bots" setting in your hosting or security service. Some services now switch this on by default.
Re-test every month. AI answers change from week to week. One test is a snapshot; a dated series shows what moved.

What we saw when we tested our own businesses

We built a tool that runs this test automatically, and the first businesses we ran it on were two small online businesses of our own. They scored 10 and 21 out of 100. The AIs knew little about either one and named competitors instead. That is common for a small business that has never looked at AI answers. It is a starting point, not a verdict.

Or let a tool do the asking

Disclosure: Would AI Pick You? is our product. The free check writes 8 buyer questions for your business, asks ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, reads every answer and gives you a score and your biggest fix, in about a minute. The full report ($49, one time) asks 20 questions, shows who the AIs name instead and what they get wrong, and includes a fix kit you can paste on your site today.

Check my business, free

Nobody can promise that ChatGPT will name you. What you can do is make it easy for the AIs to be sure about you, and keep checking what they say.