Becoming visible in ChatGPT starts with access: ChatGPT search can only show your website as a source if the crawler OAI-SearchBot may fetch your pages. After that, the content counts: clear answers to customer questions, correct business information and what other sites write about you. You cannot buy or force a fixed place in an answer. OpenAI itself says placement is not guaranteed.
Where does ChatGPT get information about your business?
ChatGPT has two ways of saying something about your business.
- From the model itself. A language model has processed a great deal of text during training. What it knows about your business from that is a snapshot with an end date, the knowledge cutoff. You cannot view or change that knowledge.
- From a web search. According to OpenAI’s help article on searching the web with ChatGPT, ChatGPT searches the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information. A user can also choose Search themselves. Answers that include a search can contain citations, and under Sources you find the links that were used and other relevant ones.
For you as a business owner, the second route is the interesting one. That is where your own website can appear as a source, with a link the reader can click.
Which bike shop in Zwolle can help me find an e-bike for a 25-kilometre commute?
For that distance, look mainly at battery range, motor position and maintenance. De Spaak Bike Shop in Zwolle explains on its website which battery suits which distance and offers test rides. It is also worth asking how many services a year the bike needs.
Bronnen: despaak.example.com › choosing-an-e-bike, bikeguide.example.com
OpenAI also says that ChatGPT search sometimes works with other search providers. ChatGPT then usually rewrites your question into one or more targeted searches and sends those to the providers. In the same article, OpenAI refers to the privacy policies of Microsoft and Shopify. OpenAI does not say which search index is used for which question.
How AI assistants then choose which sources to mention is covered in How do AI assistants decide which websites to mention?
Which OpenAI crawler do you need to allow?
OpenAI uses several crawlers, each with its own purpose. A crawler is software that fetches web pages. OpenAI’s crawler overview describes them like this:
| Crawler | Purpose | What happens if you block it? |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Showing and linking websites in ChatGPT’s search features | Your pages do not appear in ChatGPT’s search answers. A bare navigational link may still be possible. |
| GPTBot | Collecting content that may be used to train models | You signal that your content may not be used for training. This is separate from OAI-SearchBot. |
| ChatGPT-User | Visiting a page at a user’s request, for example when someone shares a link | robots.txt may not apply here. This bot does not decide whether you appear in search results. |
If you want to be able to appear in ChatGPT search, OAI-SearchBot needs access. OpenAI names two conditions: allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and make sure your hosting or CDN lets through traffic from OpenAI’s published IP addresses. That second point is often forgotten. A security setting that stops bots can block OAI-SearchBot while your robots.txt is fine.
Training and search can be handled separately. A robots.txt that refuses training by GPTBot and allows search looks like this:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /OpenAI says a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to take effect. More examples, including for the crawlers of Anthropic, Perplexity and Google, are in Allowing or blocking AI crawlers with robots.txt.
What helps after that?
Access only makes your website eligible as a source. OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results on several factors, intended to find relevant and reliable information. OpenAI does not say what those factors are. What you can do follows from how the search works: ChatGPT searches with a rewritten question, finds pages and picks what answers the question best.
Answer the questions customers really ask
People using ChatGPT often ask a long question that includes their circumstances. Say a bike shop in Zwolle gets the question via ChatGPT: “Which e-bike suits a 25-kilometre commute with a hill on the way?” A page that explains range, battery, motor position and maintenance for distances like that is more likely to fit as a source than a product list with no text.
The opening of the same page, before and after
VoorWelcome to our website! We stock a wide range of bikes for young and old. Feel free to drop by the shop.
NaDo you ride 25 kilometres to work every day? Then look mainly at battery range, motor position and maintenance when choosing an e-bike. Below, we explain what to look for on each point.
In practice, that means:
- Put the answer at the top of the page and expand on it afterwards.
- Use headings that name the question.
- Give concrete details: dimensions, delivery times, how prices are built up, terms.
- Stick to one topic per page.
In the Bing Webmaster Guidelines, Microsoft gives similar advice for Copilot: important information early on the page, facts stated explicitly and a page that makes sense without extra context. Those are Microsoft’s guidelines, not OpenAI documentation, but they describe well what a search system needs in order to pick a page as a source. We go into this further in Writing content AI assistants can cite.
Make sure the content is in the HTML
Text that only becomes visible after JavaScript has run in the browser can be missing for crawlers. Put your most important answers, product details and contact information in the HTML your server sends back. How to check this is covered in Can AI crawlers read your website?
Keep your business information consistent everywhere
ChatGPT can combine several sources in a search. If your website shows a different address, different opening hours or a different offer from your Google Business Profile or an industry site, an AI assistant has conflicting information to choose from. How to put that right is covered in Make sure search engines and AI know who you are.
Be findable outside your own website
A search does not only return your own pages. Comparison sites, trade associations, news articles and review platforms can appear in the results too. What they say about your business can therefore end up in an answer. You cannot arrange that with a technical setting. It takes real mentions: a correct listing in an industry directory, an interview, a collaboration that is written up somewhere.
What can you not control?
Some things are out of your hands. Know that before you spend money on someone who promises otherwise.
- A fixed place. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. Nobody can promise you a mention in ChatGPT.
- A paid source position. OpenAI’s explanation of search describes no way to buy a place among the sources. Adverts in ChatGPT are a separate part with their own bot, OAI-AdsBot.
- Every answer. Not every answer includes a search. Without a search, ChatGPT draws on the model, and you cannot update that knowledge.
- The same answer for everyone. OpenAI describes how ChatGPT can use a general location based on the IP address and how saved memories can influence a search query. Two people with the same question can therefore see different sources.
What is up to you and what is up to ChatGPT?
| You control this | Out of your hands | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and in your firewall or CDN | Whether ChatGPT searches the web for a question |
| Content | Pages that answer customer questions, with the answer at the top | Which page ChatGPT picks as a source |
| Business details | The same details on your own site and on other sites | What the model already knows about you from training |
| Placement | Making your page suitable as a source | A fixed or paid place among the sources |
| Following up | Asking a fixed set of questions at fixed moments | The same answer for every user |
How do you check whether ChatGPT mentions you?
A single question to ChatGPT tells you little. The answer can differ each time, by account and by location. If you want to follow it properly, record:
- A fixed list of questions your customers ask, in their own words.
- Whether the question was asked with or without Search, and whether you were logged in.
- The date and time.
- Which businesses and which source links appeared in the answer.
Repeat this at fixed moments with the same questions. Your server logs also show whether OAI-SearchBot fetches your pages. A visit from the crawler proves access, not a mention. How to set up a measurement like this is covered in How do you measure your visibility in AI answers?
Where do you start?
The first three points are about access and take little time. The rest is ongoing work on your content and on your listings elsewhere.
Seven checks for ChatGPT search
- Open
yourdomain.com/robots.txtand check that OAI-SearchBot is not blocked. - Decide whether you want to allow GPTBot. That decision is separate from visibility in ChatGPT search.
- Ask your hosting provider or CDN whether bot protection is stopping OpenAI’s traffic.
- Check that your most important content is in the HTML, without JavaScript being needed.
- Write or improve pages that answer concrete customer questions, with the answer at the top.
- Correct your business details on your website and on other sites where you are listed.
- Record a fixed set of questions and follow the answers at fixed moments.
How Outseen approaches this
Atlas, the research engine developed by Outseen, checks the public code of your website for things such as robots rules, HTTP responses and indexing instructions, and records for every finding what was found, at which URL and when. A technical check cannot establish whether ChatGPT mentions you. We check those AI answers by hand: with agreed questions, a fixed environment and a fixed time of measurement. Read more about this approach under GEO.
What does this mean for your business?
Start with access, because that is a yes-or-no question. If OAI-SearchBot is blocked in robots.txt or your hosting stops it, ChatGPT search cannot show your pages as a source, however good the content is. You can check this today, or ask whoever manages your website to check it.
After that, the work is about pages that answer your customers’ questions better than other sources do, and details that are the same everywhere. That work helps in Google too. Do not count on a fixed mention: follow a handful of real customer questions at fixed moments, so you can see whether anything changes.