How to Get Your Business to Show Up in ChatGPT and Other AI Answers

The question was typed on a Saturday night, on a couch, by a man who was finishing construction on his house in Phoenix:

"I want to install solar panels on a house in Phoenix. Which companies are trustworthy, and what should I ask before signing?"

The answer came back in seconds. A checklist of things to watch for (panel warranty, utility interconnection approval, installation time) and, right below it, three local companies, each with a sentence on why it was worth considering. The second one was Sandra's, who had started her solar company three years earlier. Next to the answer, the sources: a page from her website, a story from a local news outlet, her Google business profile.

Joe's company didn't show up. Eleven years in business. Hundreds of roofs installed. A crew that plenty of people in town considered the best.

On Monday, the man on the couch requested quotes from two of the three companies on the list. Joe never knew that conversation happened. That's what makes this problem so hard to see.

What is GEO and how do you show up in AI answers?

GEO, short for generative engine optimization, is the work of making your business understood, found and cited by artificial intelligence assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers. Nobody can buy or guarantee a spot in those answers, and they change from person to person and from question to question. What you control is the raw material these tools read: clear pages that answer your customer's questions, consistent information about your business, detailed reviews and mentions on third-party sites that confirm who you are.

In short: AI doesn't pick the best business. It picks the business it managed to understand and verify.

How AI decides who to cite

Simplifying a lot, an AI assistant arrives at an answer about businesses in two ways.

The first is what it learned during training, from an enormous amount of public text. That changes slowly, and you have almost no influence over it in the short term.

The second is real-time search. When the question involves something local, recent or commercial, many assistants search the internet, read a few pages and build the answer from them, often showing their sources. This is where GEO happens. And this is where Joe and Sandra's story explains itself.

What the AI read about each of them

Tipped off by a friend, Joe asked the same question and found an uncomfortable picture.

His website had a nice homepage with the line "Quality and commitment since 2015," a photo gallery with no captions and a contact form. No page explained how installation works, how long it takes, what changes on the electric bill or how interconnection approval goes. There was nothing there that answered the question of the man on the couch. Sandra's website had a page for every common question, written in plain language, with the city in the text: "How long does it take to install solar in Phoenix," "How utility interconnection approval works," "Solar on a single-story or two-story home: what changes." Each one opened with a direct answer, two or three sentences long. On Google, Joe's profile had few reviews, most of them just stars. Sandra's had many, and several described the job: roof type, timeline, how the service went. Off her site, Sandra had been interviewed by a local news outlet about demand for solar, was listed as a member of the local chamber of commerce and had already appeared on a regional podcast. Joe, with eleven years in business, appeared nowhere except on his own website.

Joe had more experience. Sandra had more public proof of the experience she had.

What to do, in practice, to get cited

There is no shortcut, and anyone who promises to put your business "at the top of ChatGPT" is promising something nobody controls. But there is work that greatly increases your chances of being found and cited. It's what Joe started doing, in this order:

1. Ask the AI what your customer would ask. Write five real questions the way a customer would, and put them to two or three different assistants. Note who shows up and which sources are displayed. Repeat once a month. That's your starting point and your way of measuring.

2. Create pages that answer the questions. One question per page or per section, with the direct answer up front, in two to four sentences, and the details after. Say the city and the service in plain words. If you already have a blog, this piece shows how to attract customers through Google with content, which is the same foundation.

3. Keep your business details identical everywhere. Name, address, phone, hours and services the same on your site, on your Google Business Profile and in the directories where you're listed. Conflicting information makes the machine suspicious.

4. Take care of your Google Business Profile and your reviews. Ask for a review at the moment the customer is happy and invite them to describe the job done, not just leave stars. This piece shows how to show up on Google when people search for your service in your city.

5. Get mentioned on other sites. Local press, business associations, partners, podcasts, industry lists. Each mention is an independent confirmation that you exist and do what you say.

6. Check the technical basics with whoever manages your site. The site must be accessible to search engines, and the robots.txt file should not block the crawlers of the assistants you want to reach, such as OAI-SearchBot, used in ChatGPT search. Structured data (the code that tells machines what your business is and where it's located) helps too.

And to find out whether it's working, add one option to the question you ask every new customer: "How did you find us?" When someone answers "I asked an AI," write it down. That's how an invisible channel starts to become visible.

One honest caveat: GEO is a channel you build, like SEO. The first 30 days are for creating the pages, fixing the details and asking for the first reviews, not for demanding guaranteed presence in the answer.

Which side of the answer you're on

There's the business that is good and hopes the market will discover it.

And there's the business that is good and leaves proof of it scattered across the places where the market looks.

For a long time, the first could live on word of mouth. But word of mouth now also passes through a machine that reads, compares and summarizes. And it only repeats what it can verify.

Notice that almost nothing that put Sandra in the answer was done "for the AI." These were ordinary customer acquisition channels, well executed: pages that answer questions, a Google profile, reviews, local press relations, a podcast appearance, a chamber of commerce membership. Each one brings in customers on its own. Together, they also build the reputation the assistants read.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide brings all of these channels, and dozens more, together in 10 parts. Getting cited by AI assistants is one of them, alongside a blog built around search intent, your Google Business Profile, reviews, press relations and podcast appearances. Each channel comes with what it is, a practical example, the first step to test it, who it works best for and what it costs to test. And the scoring worksheet helps you pick, from among them, the three that make the most sense for your business right now, with a 30-day plan, day by day, to start the first one.

Next step

Don't depend on a single way to win customers

Everything in this article works better when new customers arrive every month. Most businesses depend on two or three channels and suffer when one of them slows down. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide shows 100 ways to win customers, a practical example of each one and the first step to test it spending little or nothing.

• ✓The 100 channels, one by one, from the best known to the ones almost nobody uses
• ✓A practical example and a low-cost first step for each channel
• ✓A simple way to choose the channels that fit your business now
• ✓Bonus: Channel scorecard
• ✓Bonus: 30-day test plan

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee

Access is immediate, as a PDF delivered to your inbox. One-time payment, it costs less than a day of ads, and it comes with a 7-day guarantee through Hotmart. You don't have to do everything at once: start with one channel, measure for 30 days and add the next.

The next time someone asks a question from the couch, the difference will be what the machine finds when it looks for you.

Joe and Sandra are characters created for this text.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?+

There's no way to guarantee or buy a place in the answers, but you can raise your chances of being cited. Create pages that directly answer your customers' questions, keep your business details identical across your site, Google and directories, collect detailed reviews and earn mentions on third-party sites. Also make sure your site doesn't block the search crawlers of the assistants.

What is GEO?+

GEO stands for generative engine optimization: the work of making your business understood and cited by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. It draws heavily on the foundation of SEO, such as clear content and reputation, with a focus on direct answers and on information the AI can confirm across several sources.

Does GEO replace SEO?+

No. The two support each other: many assistants search the web to build their answers, and well-ranked, clear pages tend to be the ones read. A business that takes good care of its SEO, its Google Business Profile and its reputation is already doing a large part of the GEO work.

Where can I find a step-by-step for testing channels like GEO and SEO?+

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide covers these channels with an example, a first step and a cost to test, within the content and search part. It includes a worksheet to pick your first three channels and a 30-day test plan, day by day.

Does it work for my type of business?+

Yes. The channels cover local businesses, service providers, online stores, B2B companies and professionals. The guide helps you pick the ones that fit your case.

How do I receive the guide?+

Right after payment, Hotmart sends the access to your email. You can read it on your phone, computer or print it.

What if I don't like it?+

You have a 7-day guarantee. If it isn't for you, ask for a refund through Hotmart within that period.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide

100 ways to win customers without depending on a single source of sales

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee