How to show up in ChatGPT as a local business.

How an AI decides who to recommend

When you ask ChatGPT for a place, it doesn’t check a secret list. It does what you would do: search the web, read what it finds and sum it up. For a local business it usually looks at:

• Your website: what you do, where, at what price and for whom.
• Your Google profile and its reviews.
• Directories and guides: TripAdvisor, city guides, local press, blogs.
• Social media, especially if your profile has clear text.
• Consistency: if all those sources say the same thing, the AI trusts it more.

If your business only exists on Instagram, the AI has very little to read. Photos don’t tell it your hours or your speciality.

Seven steps so AI finds you

1. Have a website with real text

One page per key service, in simple sentences: «We are a fine line tattoo studio in Ruzafa, Valencia. We work by appointment». AI quotes sentences like that almost word for word.

2. Answer the questions people ask you

An FAQ with direct answers: rough price, how to book, whether there’s a terrace, whether you speak English. That is exactly the format AI engines look for.

3. Use structured data

LocalBusiness schema tells machines your name, address, hours, phone and languages without doubt. If your site doesn’t have it, ask whoever built it.

4. Let AI search bots in

Check your robots.txt file. AI search bots have names, like OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot or Claude-SearchBot. Block them and they can’t read you.

5. Look after your Google profile

The right category, current hours, recent photos and answered reviews. Gemini and Google AI Overviews draw on it heavily. See our Google Business Profile guide.

6. Get others to talk about you

A mention in a local guide, a post on a city blog or an interview counts for a lot. AI trusts what others say more than what you say.

7. Be consistent everywhere

The same name, address and description on your site, Google, Instagram and directories. Contradictions confuse AI.

What not to do

• Don’t stuff your site with keywords. Neither Google nor AI rewards it.
• Don’t buy reviews. Google detects them and AI reads reviews as text.
• Don’t hide information in images or PDFs. A menu in a photo is read by nobody but the client.

How to check if you appear

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity what your client would ask: «best hair salon in Benimaclet», «where to buy handmade candles in Valencia». Use a private window and note who comes up. Repeat every month.

Want us to do it?

It’s exactly what our AI search visibility service does, always together with local SEO, because the work serves both.

Your Google profile, one of the sources AI reads most, comes with Completa and Puesta a punto.