ChatGPT optimization: how to get your business into the recommendations

ChatGPT SEO is the work that ensures ChatGPT mentions your business and links to your site when customers ask for recommendations. You cannot pay ChatGPT for a recommendation, and chatting with it does not change what it answers to other users. What matters is what it finds when searching the web: a site that OpenAI bots can read, pages that answer buyer questions directly, and brand mentions on trusted sites. At SGO, this is part of our SEO services which include GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization.

How does ChatGPT choose which businesses to recommend?

When a user asks a question requiring up-to-date info, ChatGPT searches the web, reads several pages, and synthesizes an answer with citations. Recommendations rely on search results, not ads. The process is similar to SEO but with three differences: the bot must read the site without JavaScript, the answer must be quotable, and the brand must appear on other sites.

What doesn't work

Repeating conversations with ChatGPT about your business won't change what it tells others, as its memory is stored per user. The llms.txt file is not a shortcut either: Google has clarified they do not use it, and no AI provider has committed to reading it.

Why it matters for businesses in Israel

According to StatCounter, as of September 2026, ChatGPT held 66.06% of chatbot usage in Israel. A customer looking for a service provider asks ChatGPT first.

Step 1: How to make sure ChatGPT can read your website

Checking that OpenAI’s bots receive the full content from the server. According to OpenAI documentation, there are four bots, each with a distinct role:

• OAI-SearchBot: Scans websites to display them in ChatGPT search results. A site that blocks it will not appear in answers, except for navigational links.
• ChatGPT-User: Visits a page when a user requests it. Robots.txt rules do not always apply to it.
• GPTBot: Collects content for training models. You can block this bot without affecting your search visibility.
• OAI-AdsBot: Checks ad landing pages.

The technical check most businesses overlook

A robots.txt file that permits the bot doesn't guarantee the server allows it. A firewall or bot protection can return a 403 error before the request even reaches the site. At SGO, we test this with an actual server request using the bot’s identity, rather than just reading the file.

Content served as HTML

Pages where text is rendered only in the browser via JavaScript may appear empty to a bot. Text, prices, and FAQs should be present in the HTML that the server sends.

Step 2: How to write pages that ChatGPT will cite

We create one page for every question customers ask before buying and open it with a direct answer. Questions like "How much does an ecommerce site cost?" or "Which company is recommended for WordPress maintenance?" are exactly what people type into ChatGPT.

First-sentence answer

The first sentence of every paragraph answers the heading's question. An engine looking for a short answer will find it without reading the entire page.

Cited figures

A price range with a date, delivery time, number of projects, and comparison tables provide the engine with quotable facts. It is better to delete numbers that have no source.

Brand name within the answer

When the response includes the business name, for example, "At SGO, maintenance starts at ₪65 per month," the engine can link the brand to the query.

Step 3: Why off-site brand mentions are essential

Because ChatGPT looks for confirmation from additional sources before recommending. In an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, YouTube mentions had a correlation of about 0.737 with AI visibility, brand mentions on the web 0.656, and branded anchor text 0.527. Backlink volume showed a very weak correlation.

What the engines cited for SEO agency queries

In SGO’s weekly audit in October 2026, when ChatGPT and Gemini were asked about SEO agencies in Israel, they relied heavily on directories and ranking sites: expert.co.il was cited 34 times, Clutch 19 times, GoodFirms 15 times, and YouTube 14 times. For your business, this means a complete, updated profile in industry directories and genuine customer reviews are just as valuable as on-site articles.

What to avoid

We do not write fake reviews, invent awards, or publish claims that cannot be verified. AI engines compare sources, and a claim appearing only on the business's own site will not hold up.

How is ChatGPT optimization measured?

We measure success in three layers and never present low-level achievements as top-tier results: whether the bot reaches the site, if the content is written to be quotable, and if ChatGPT actually recommends the business.

Weekly question bank

At SGO, we build a bank of 40 to 60 common customer questions for every client and test them weekly in ChatGPT and Gemini. For each question, we track if the business was mentioned, its position, if the site was cited, and who was recommended instead. Any question where the business is missing becomes a task: creating a page that answers it or targeting the sources the engine relies on.

Citations measured by an external tool

Ahrefs tracks how many times site pages are cited in AI engine responses. In August 2026, an SGO client, an appliance store, recorded 83 citations across 41 different pages.

What is the difference between ChatGPT optimization and Google SEO?

These two channels do not compete with each other. A page that ranks high on Google and answers a question directly is also a natural candidate for citation, which is why at SGO they are managed together.

How much does ChatGPT SEO cost at SGO?

AI search optimization is included in SGO's SEO packages, which start at ₪2,500 per month. The package includes an AI bot access audit, a bank of buying questions tracked weekly on ChatGPT and Gemini, writing and optimizing pages for questions where the business isn't mentioned, and a list of external sources worth appearing in. Purchasing a sponsored article or a paid directory profile is your choice and is always presented for your approval first.

Timeframe for results

Fixing bot access takes effect within days. A new page must be indexed by the search engine ChatGPT pulls data from, while external mentions are built over months. This is why we measure weekly and report on trends rather than promising a specific spot in a response.

ChatGPT SEO FAQ

Last updated: October 2026