How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity
What actually helps AI assistants find and recommend your business, what's still hype (including llms.txt), and how to check what they say about you.
More people now ask an AI assistant “who’s a good landscaper in Meath?” or “find me an app developer in Ireland” instead of scrolling Google. The assistant searches the web, reads a few pages, and names a handful of businesses. Here’s what I do to make my clients’ sites one of them, and what I think is hype.
1. Let the AI crawlers in
Assistants can only recommend what they can read. Many sites block AI crawlers by accident, through a security plugin, a firewall setting or a copied robots.txt. Check yours: it should allow the search crawlers, such as OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User (Claude) and PerplexityBot (Perplexity). You can see mine at jahvix.com/robots.txt.
2. Don’t forget Bing
AI search tools draw on regular search indexes, and Bing’s matters more than most people think. Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools (it imports straight from Google Search Console) and submit your sitemap. I also use IndexNow, which tells Bing about new or changed pages within minutes.
3. Say plainly what you do, and where
AI assistants quote text. If your home page says “Crafting outdoor dreams” and nothing else, there’s nothing to quote. Write it out: what you do, for whom, where, and how to get in touch. “Patios, pergolas and gardens in Athboy, Trim, Navan and across Meath. Free quotes.” is a sentence an assistant can use.
4. Answer the questions people ask
FAQ sections work well, because people ask assistants questions and the assistants look for answers. Price, timing, area covered, what’s included: answer each one in a couple of sentences on your site.
5. Add structured data
schema.org data is a block of code that tells machines your business name, type, services, area and contact details in a standard format. Google uses it, and it removes guesswork for everyone else. Most good site builders and developers can add it.
6. Be mentioned somewhere other than your own site
This is the big one. Assistants trust a business more when other sites back it up: a Google Business Profile, reviews, directories for your trade, a local news mention, a supplier’s “where to buy” page. Make sure your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere.
What about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a plain-text summary of a website, written for AI tools. I add one to every site I build (here’s mine) because it takes minutes and does no harm. But I’ll be straight with you: there’s no good evidence yet that it gets you recommended more, and Google has said it doesn’t use it. Treat it as a bonus, not the plan. Points 1 to 6 matter far more.
Check what they say about you
Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the question your customers would ask, such as “best [your trade] in [your town]”, and see who comes up. Then ask directly about your business. If an answer is wrong or out of date, the fix is almost always on your website or your listings.
Want this done for you?
Every site I build gets all of the above as standard. See website development, read how I did it for Danny’s Landscaping, or send me your site and I’ll tell you what’s missing.