What is OAI-SearchBot?

It is OpenAI's search crawler, the one behind ChatGPT's search features. A site that opts out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.

Can anyone guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend me?

No. A promise of placement is a promise about a system the seller doesn't control. Ask what the claim measures, and pay for work you can see.

How long does a robots.txt change take?

OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.

Does blocking GPTBot keep me out of ChatGPT search?

No. OpenAI sets its crawlers separately. Disallowing GPTBot says your content shouldn't be used for training, and OAI-SearchBot is the one for search.

What is the difference between a mention and a recommendation?

A mention is your name appearing. A citation is a link used to support an answer. A recommendation presents you as a suitable option for a need.

Does ChatGPT recommend local businesses?

It can, but nobody outside OpenAI controls whether it names yours. What you control is whether ChatGPT's search crawler is allowed to read your site, and whether your pages answer real customer questions.

OpenAI names OAI-SearchBot as its search crawler. It says sites that opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Allowing it makes you eligible, and that is all it does.

The catch is that anyone selling a guaranteed ChatGPT spot is promising something they don't run. Google is blunt about its own AI features: meeting every requirement doesn't mean a page gets served. Pay for work you can see.

What does ChatGPT draw on to name a business?

OpenAI documents one piece of it. OAI-SearchBot is the crawler for ChatGPT's search features. A site that opts out can still appear as a navigational link, but not in the search answers.

That page says nothing about how businesses are ranked. Treat any claimed recipe for getting picked as a guess.

Why can't anyone guarantee a recommendation?

Because only OpenAI runs it, and its crawler page covers access without saying how answers are picked. Google is explicit about its own AI features: a page that meets every requirement still isn't guaranteed to be crawled, indexed or served.

So ask what a visibility claim measures. Which assistant, which questions, which town, which day. A claim you can earn by asking a leading question proves nothing.

What can I do about it for free?

Three things, and each one fits in an afternoon.

Check that OAI-SearchBot isn't blocked. Look at your robots.txt, and ask whoever hosts your site about its firewall, because OpenAI asks sites to allow requests from its published IP ranges. A change can take about 24 hours to take effect.
Put plain facts on real pages: your services, your towns, your phone number and how you price jobs. Google says its AI features need no special files or markup, so there is nothing to buy here.
Ask ChatGPT the question your customer would type, once a month. Write down the answer and any links. How to track AI visibility shows how.

What do I do first?

Start with the robots.txt check. It is the only step OpenAI documents, and it costs nothing.

For the longer version, read how to get cited by ChatGPT and what to pay for with llms.txt and AI crawlers.

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