How to Show Up in ChatGPT When Someone Asks for a Business Like Yours
More people are skipping the search results and just asking an assistant: "Who is a good plumber near Monticello?" "Best dentist in Buffalo, MN?" "Who builds...
More people are skipping the search results and just asking an assistant: "Who is a good plumber near Monticello?" "Best dentist in Buffalo, MN?" "Who builds websites in the area?" ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity answer with a short list of names. Here is how to become one of the names.
First, understand what the AI is doing
An assistant is not showing you ten blue links. It is reading the web, forming an understanding of businesses, and stating a few it trusts as the answer. To be picked, you have to be *legible* (easy for the AI to understand) and *trusted* (clearly a real, consistent, well-regarded business). You cannot trick it. You can only become genuinely clear.
The steps that actually work
- Add an llms.txt file to your site. It is a plain-language map of your business that AI crawlers read directly: what you do, where you serve, your services, your story. Think of it as a briefing written for the assistant.
- Add deep structured data (schema). This tells the AI exactly what you are, your hours, services, location, and reviews, in a format it trusts.
- Write question-shaped content. Pages that answer the real questions people ask, in plain words. Assistants lift clear answers verbatim. Vague marketing copy gives them nothing to quote.
- Keep your details identical everywhere. Same name, address, and phone on your site, your Google Business Profile, and every directory. Inconsistency makes the AI unsure, and unsure means unmentioned.
- Build real trust signals. Reviews, a legitimate Google Business Profile, mentions around the web. These tell the model you are a real, recommendable business.
Why local businesses have the edge right now
Competition for national queries in AI answers is fierce. But "web designer near Monticello" or "auto shop in Big Lake" is wide open. The businesses that structure themselves for AI now, before their competitors even know this is happening, get to be the default answer for their town. That window is open today and will not stay open.
The honest truth
There is no shortcut. Getting recommended by AI means becoming the clearest, most consistent, most trustworthy version of your business online. Which is good news: the work that gets you into AI answers is the same work that makes you better in every other channel too.
We build the AI layer, llms.txt and deep schema, into every site, and we consult on it directly. See our AI consulting page.