How to optimize your business website to be recommended by ChatGPT
To optimize your business website to be recommended by ChatGPT, you need to understand two key areas:
- How ChatGPT sources and recommends content
- How to structure and optimize your site so it’s more likely to be surfaced
1. How ChatGPT Recommends Products or Services
ChatGPT does not browse the web in real-time by default (unless using the browsing tool). It relies on:
- Training data (public content before cutoff)
- Web-browsing tool (when enabled, it fetches live data from websites)
- Third-party integrations/APIs (e.g., for plugins or custom GPTs)
When ChatGPT recommends a product or service, it considers:
- Relevance to the user query
- Clarity and authority of the source
- Popularity and reputation of the site
- Freshness of information (if using browsing or custom tools)
- Structured and accessible content (easy to parse)
There’s no fixed ranking algorithm like Google’s PageRank, but it mimics human-like reasoning and defaults to content that is:
- Widely referenced
- Authoritative
- Clearly explains the value
- Easy to access and understand
2. Steps to Optimize Your Website for ChatGPT Recommendations
A. Improve Content Quality
- Create expert-level, long-form content that answers common questions in your niche.
- Use clear headlines, FAQs, and semantic structure (H1, H2, H3).
- Optimize for entities (e.g., if you sell “women’s hiking boots”, mention specific brands, materials, use cases, etc.)
- Include examples, use cases, and comparison content.
B. SEO Best Practices Still Apply
- Use descriptive meta titles and descriptions.
- Optimize for structured data (schema.org) – especially
Product,LocalBusiness,FAQ, andReviewschemas. - Ensure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and secure (HTTPS).
C. Build Authority & Mentions
- Earn mentions on reputable websites, forums, and blogs.
- Get backlinks from industry-specific publications.
- Create shareable content that is quoted or referenced in public forums (like Reddit, Quora, or Medium).
D. Structured and Discoverable Content
- Use FAQs and How-To articles – ChatGPT often paraphrases these.
- Provide downloadable guides or tools (like calculators) that are useful to your target audience.
- Create a clear About, Contact, and Services page.
E. Add Your Business to Public Databases
- Get listed on Google Business Profile, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Crunchbase, Clutch, or G2.
- Add to directories or marketplaces relevant to your niche.
- Publish press releases or articles that can be found on indexed news sites.
F. If You Have a Plugin or API: Integrate
- Businesses with public APIs, chatbots, or custom GPT integrations can directly surface in ChatGPT via tools.
- If you’re building a product, consider creating a GPT plugin or embedding ChatGPT into your site via API.
Bonus: Custom GPT Optimization
If you’re targeting GPTs that use web-browsing or have access to real-time search:
- Your site must rank well on Google/Bing – ChatGPT fetches from top 5–10 results.
- Make your URL slugs clean, use breadcrumb navigation, and internal links.
- Target keywords that match natural language questions, not just short phrases.
Final Insight
Become the best source of information on your subject. ChatGPT favors answers that are authoritative, helpful, and easy to summarize. If your content is structured for clarity and optimized for humans and machines, it’s more likely to be referenced in responses.
