How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
ChatGPT runs a guest's question as web searches, through partners such as Microsoft and its own crawler, and for local places it leans on Yelp's listings and reviews. Let its crawler in and keep your Yelp and Tripadvisor pages complete.
Last updated
What ChatGPT reads
ChatGPT
- Crawler to allow
- OAI-SearchBot
- Training only
- GPTBot
- Search partnersIt rewrites the guest's question into one or more searches and sends them to other search providers; OpenAI names Microsoft among them.1
- OAI-SearchBotOpenAI's own search crawler. Sites that block it are not shown in ChatGPT's search answers.3
- YelpReviews, ratings, photos and business details, under a content deal Yelp describes on its own blog.4
- Tripadvisor, OpenTable and AppleAfter Yelp, Tripadvisor and OpenTable were the directories ChatGPT cited most for local businesses; Apple's business listings showed up too.5
- The guest's locationAn approximate location from the guest's IP address, or a precise one if they choose to share it.1
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Your checklist for ChatGPT
ChatGPT: questions owners ask
Can anyone guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No. OpenAI's help page says ChatGPT ranks search results on several factors and that placement is not guaranteed. Letting its crawler in only makes a site eligible.
Does ChatGPT use my Google Business Profile?
Not much, going by BrightLocal's August 2026 study: Google Business Profile was not among ChatGPT's top local sources, while Yelp was. Your Google listing still matters for Google's own AI answers.
Is ChatGPT search just Bing?
Nobody outside OpenAI knows the mix. OpenAI names Microsoft as a search partner and runs its own crawler. Studies disagree on how closely ChatGPT's citations follow Bing: Seer found a close match in early 2025, and Profound saw that match fall later the same year.
My business is outside the US. Does Yelp still matter?
Probably less. The Yelp findings come from businesses in the US, UK and Australia, and Yelp's table booking inside ChatGPT covers only the US and Canada. OpenTable bookings in ChatGPT work in every country OpenTable serves.
Should I block AI bots to protect my content?
Block GPTBot if you don't want your pages used to train OpenAI's models. Leave OAI-SearchBot open if you want to appear in ChatGPT's answers; the two are separate settings.
Free tools and terms to know
Where these facts come from
- ChatGPT sends rewritten queries to third-party search providers (Microsoft's privacy statement is linked), uses approximate or shared location, shows maps on iOS and Android, and books tables through OpenTable (global), Resy (US) and Yelp (US and Canada)
- A site is eligible for ChatGPT search if it allows OAI-Searchbot and its host or CDN allows OpenAI's searchbot IP addresses; placement is not guaranteed
- OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT search; opted-out sites are not shown in search answers; GPTBot crawls for model training
- Yelp's reviews, ratings, photos and business details appear in ChatGPT, and Yelp Reservations and Waitlist were added on 10 August 2026
- In ChatGPT's answers for 1,355 business locations in the US, UK and Australia, Yelp appeared as a source in 80%; Tripadvisor and OpenTable came next; Google Business Profile was not a top ChatGPT source (ChatGPT only, published 26 August 2026)
- Bing uses sitemap lastmod as a freshness signal for search results and AI answers (31 July 2025)
- 87% of SearchGPT citations matched Bing's top results (February 2025)
- ChatGPT's alignment with Bing results fell between April and July 2025 while alignment with Google rose (August 2025)
Read next
Free Search & AI audit
See what ChatGPT would find
The free audit reads your website and your listings on other sites. For ChatGPT, these are the parts that count.
It checks
- Your name, address and phone agree across your listings on sites such as Tripadvisor and Facebook
- Your home page says what kind of business you are in schema.org markup
- Your site answers common questions on a page of its own or in FAQ markup
- Guests can book from your site, through your own link or a booking tool
Then PlacePilot
- The report names each listing whose name, address or phone disagrees, so you can correct it
- The site PlacePilot builds puts your name, address, phone and hours in markup, answers guests' usual questions and shows your booking link
Not checked yet: Whether OAI-SearchBot can reach your site, your Yelp page, where you rank on Bing and whether ChatGPT names you today.