Step-by-step: how to get your business recommended by AI

This guide takes you from “I have no idea if ChatGPT knows us” to a clear routine for being recommended. Do the steps in order — each one builds on the one before. If you're new to the topic, start with What is AI SEO?

Step 1: Write down your customers' questions

Make a list of 10–20 questions a potential customer would type into ChatGPT when they need what you sell. Important: don't include your business name — you want to know if you're found by people who don't know you yet.

• Mix broad and specific: “good bakery in Stockholm” and “where can I buy gluten-free sourdough on Södermalm?”
• Include price and comparison questions: “how much does a bookkeeper cost for a small AB?”
• Write them in the language your customers use.

Step 2: Measure where you stand

Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini every question. For each answer, note: are you named? Linked? Who is named instead? This is your baseline — and your competitor list for AI search. (SEO Joe does this automatically, for all three assistants, and keeps the history.)

Step 3: Let the AI crawlers in

Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: * or under one of the AI crawlers, the assistants can't read your site. A safe, open setup looks like this:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml

The crawlers that matter for AI answers include OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot (Claude), PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended (Google's AI). If you want to opt out of AI training but still appear in answers, block only the training crawlers (like GPTBot) and keep the search crawlers allowed.

Step 4: Fix the search basics

The assistants find pages through search, so the classic basics still count:

• A unique title on every page, under ~60 characters, with what you offer and where.
• A meta description of 50–155 characters that would make you click.
• One H1 heading per page that says what the page is about.
• A sitemap.xml and a canonical link on each page.
• Fast pages that work on phones, and alt text on images.

Step 5: Say clearly who you are

Read your homepage as if you were a machine. Can you answer, from the text alone: what does this business do, for whom, where, and why choose it? If not, add a short paragraph that does. Use the same words you used in your customers' questions. Put your address, phone number and opening hours in text, not only in an image.

Step 6: Answer the questions on your site

Take the questions from step 1 where competitors were named and you weren't. For each one, make sure a page on your site answers it directly — a service page, an FAQ entry or an article. Start the answer with a direct sentence, then add detail. Assistants quote pages that answer the question in the first lines.

Step 7: Add structured data and llms.txt

Structured data tells machines your facts without ambiguity. At minimum, add an Organization or LocalBusiness block, and an FAQPage block for your FAQ. Our structured data tutorial has examples to copy.

Then add a short llms.txt at the root of your site:

# Corner Bakery

> Family-run sourdough bakery on Södermalm, Stockholm. Open daily 7–18.

We bake sourdough bread, cardamom buns and cakes to order. Gluten-free bread on Fridays.

## Pages
- [Menu and prices](https://www.cornerbakery.se/menu)
- [Order a cake](https://www.cornerbakery.se/cakes)
- [Find us](https://www.cornerbakery.se/contact)

Step 8: Get mentioned elsewhere — and keep measuring

This is the step that moves the needle most, and the one that takes longest. Look at where the assistants found your competitors in step 2 — the source links in their answers — and get onto those kinds of pages:

• Industry directories and “best of” lists in your area or niche
• Review sites your customers use (Google, Trustpilot, G2, Yelp — whichever fits)
• A complete, up-to-date Google Business Profile
• Local press, partners, suppliers and associations that can link to you

Finally, repeat step 2 every month. AI answers change, and the trend is what tells you whether your work is paying off.

A one-page checklist

• ☐ 10–20 customer questions written down
• ☐ Baseline: named in __ of __ answers; competitors noted
• ☐ robots.txt allows AI search crawlers
• ☐ Unique titles, descriptions and H1s; sitemap; canonical
• ☐ Clear “what, for whom, where” text on the homepage
• ☐ A page or FAQ answer for every question you lost
• ☐ Organization/LocalBusiness + FAQPage structured data; llms.txt
• ☐ Listed on the directories and review sites the assistants cite
• ☐ Monthly re-check