Does allowing GPTBot help me get cited?

GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler, and its setting is separate from the search crawler. You can allow OAI-SearchBot and still disallow GPTBot.

How long after I change robots.txt does OpenAI notice?

OpenAI says changes can take roughly a day to take effect. Check again after that before you decide the change did nothing.

Can an agency guarantee that ChatGPT will name my business?

No. ChatGPT is an independent system, so nobody else controls its answers. Ask any seller to define the prompt, the city, the date and how they checked.

What if ChatGPT gets my phone number wrong?

Fix the number at the source first. Check your website and your Google Business Profile so every place that lists you says the same thing.

How to get cited by ChatGPT: what you control

You can't make ChatGPT cite you, but you can stop blocking it. Let OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, reach your site, then publish pages that answer what a customer asks. Nobody can honestly promise more than that.

A mention is your name appearing. A citation is a link ChatGPT uses to back up an answer. A recommendation presents you as a good fit for what the customer needs. OpenAI's crawler page says OAI-SearchBot is for search and GPTBot is for training.

The catch is that an open door guarantees nothing. Blocking the crawler keeps your pages out of ChatGPT search answers, but allowing it doesn't put you in them.

What is the difference between a mention, a citation and a recommendation?

A mention is your business name showing up. A citation is a link used to support an answer, and a recommendation presents you as a fit for the customer's need. These are a measuring convention, not official OpenAI terms.

An answer can cite your article and never recommend your service. When you test, write down the sentence around your name and the link, so you know which one you got.

What lets ChatGPT find my website at all?

Your site has to allow OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says a site that disallows it won't appear in ChatGPT search answers, though it may still show up as a plain link.

Open yourwebsite.com/robots.txt and look for a line that disallows OAI-SearchBot or blocks every crawler. Your website host or firewall can also block it when robots.txt looks fine, so ask whoever runs your site. That is a quick question, and OpenAI says changes take roughly a day.

Where does ChatGPT get local business details?

OpenAI's crawler page covers access, not sources, so nobody outside OpenAI can hand you a complete list.

What any reader of the web can see is your website, your Google Business Profile and whatever other sites say about you. Keep your hours, service area and phone number matching in all of them. That helps customers who never open ChatGPT, too.

Can anyone guarantee ChatGPT will recommend me?

No. ChatGPT is an independent system, so an agency can sell you work but can't sell you placement. Google says the same about its own AI features: indexing and serving isn't guaranteed.

Ask a seller to define the prompt, the city, the date and how they checked. A leading question that names your business proves nothing.

What do I do next?

Ask ChatGPT the question your customer would type, with your town in it, and write down what it says. It costs a few minutes. Then read how to track AI visibility and what to pay for with llms.txt and AI crawlers. For the whole plan, see how to show up in AI search.

Other sites that describe you count too, and ProveWorth gives you a free page with your services and the customer reviews we read before publishing. You can get your free page or see how it works.

How do I get cited by ChatGPT?