How to Show Up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews

A customer in Highland asks ChatGPT for a bookkeeper who works with restaurants. Another types "best roofer near Wash Park" into Google and gets an AI Overview before any links. In both cases an AI writes the answer and names a handful of businesses. If yours isn't one of them, that customer may never reach your website.

There is no secret trick to fixing this. Google and OpenAI have both published how their AI search features find websites, and most of it is the same work that gets you found in regular search, plus a few settings that quietly lock AI tools out. Here is what they say, what I would do as a Denver small business, and how to check whether it's working.

The Short Answer

To show up in AI search, the bots that power it have to be allowed to read your site, Google and Bing have to have your pages indexed, and your pages have to say in plain words what you do and where you do it. After that, it comes down to what other sites and your reviews say about you.

How AI Search Decides Who to Mention

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google's guidance for site owners is direct: to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet," and "there are no additional technical requirements." Google says the same SEO basics apply to its AI features as to the rest of Search (Google Search Central).

Two details from that page are worth knowing:

• Both features may use what Google calls "query fan-out," running several related searches behind the scenes to build one answer. A page can get cited for a sub-question even if it doesn't rank for the main search.
• AI Overviews only appear when Google decides they add something, and Google says they "often don't trigger." Plenty of local searches still show the map and plain links.

ChatGPT

OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers along with content from its partners (OpenAI). Its help center says ChatGPT rewrites your question into shorter searches for those providers and can pass along your general location from your IP address. Its own example: "good restaurants near me" from the San Francisco area becomes "top restaurants San Francisco" (OpenAI Help). So a Denver customer's "near me" question can become a Denver search, and your pages need to say Denver to match it. The same page lists Microsoft among those providers, one reason I'd set up Bing too.

OpenAI also runs its own crawler for search, called OAI-SearchBot. A crawler is the program a company sends to read web pages. OpenAI is clear about what happens if you block it: sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers" (OpenAI crawler docs).

Perplexity

Perplexity works the same way. Its PerplexityBot crawler is what surfaces and links websites in Perplexity's answers, and Perplexity says that bot is not used to train AI models (Perplexity crawler docs).

Step 1: Make Sure the Bots Can Get In

Every website has, or should have, a small text file at yoursite.com/robots.txt. It tells crawlers which pages they may read. Open yours in a browser now. Ours is short: it allows everything except our private /api/ routes.

The thing to understand is that AI companies run separate bots for search and for training. You can block training without disappearing from search answers, and OpenAI's docs describe exactly that setup.

Sources for the table: OpenAI, Perplexity and Google.

Check your Cloudflare settings too

robots.txt is only half of it. Google's checklist says crawling has to be allowed "in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure." A CDN is a service like Cloudflare that sits in front of your site, and many small business sites run through one without the owner knowing.

Cloudflare changed its AI bot defaults on September 15, 2026. If your site was set to block AI training, Cloudflare now also blocks crawlers that do both search and training, and it names Googlebot, Applebot and Bingbot as examples (Cloudflare). If you, your web designer or your IT person ever clicked "Block AI bots," check that setting today. It could be hiding you from regular Google, not only from the AI tools.

Step 2: Get Indexed in Google and Bing

A page Google hasn't indexed can't appear in an AI Overview. Google recommends verifying your site in Search Console, its free dashboard for site owners. Once you're in, submit your sitemap (most site builders create one at /sitemap.xml) and use the URL Inspection tool on your main service pages to confirm Google has them.

Then do the same in Bing Webmaster Tools. It's free. Since February 2026 it has had an AI Performance report, in public preview, that shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, and which pages (Bing).

If your site is slow, broken on phones, or built so the text loads late, fix that first. Google lists page experience among the basics that still matter for its AI features. This is a big part of why I build fast, custom websites instead of plugin-heavy ones.

Step 3: Say Plainly What You Do and Where

AI tools answer questions by quoting and summarizing pages. Give them sentences worth quoting. Google's own advice includes "making sure that important content is available in textual form," which rules out the hero banner where your services live inside an image.

On each service page, the first paragraph should say what you do in the words customers use, and which Denver neighborhoods or nearby cities you serve. If you're comfortable sharing a price range, put it there too. A customer asking ChatGPT for "a plumber in Arvada who does tankless water heaters" gets businesses whose pages say those words.

Then add an FAQ section built from the questions customers ask you on the phone, and answer each one in the first sentence under it. Microsoft's own advice for getting cited in AI answers points to clear headings, tables and FAQ sections, and to keeping content current (Bing). When your prices or hours change, change the page the same week.

Long, specific questions are where small sites win. In our own Search Console data, a question as specific as "which denver agencies will build a brand guide and train our staff to use it?" already shows our homepage at position four. Specific questions have far less competition than "marketing agency Denver."

If you can't describe what makes you different in two sentences, that is a positioning problem before it's a search problem, and no amount of SEO fixes it.

Step 4: Fill Out Your Business Profiles

For local searches, your Google Business Profile carries a lot of weight, and Google's AI features guidance lists keeping it up to date as one of the basics.

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence is partly based on "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have." It also says "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking" (Google Business Profile Help). So:

• Verify the profile and pick the most accurate primary category.
• Fill in hours, services, photos and a description that matches your website.
• Ask happy customers for reviews, and reply to the ones you get.
• If you don't serve customers at your address, Google asks you to remove it and set a service area instead. You can list up to 20 cities or ZIP codes (Google).

Then claim your free Bing Places listing with the same details. Microsoft says it helps keep your address, hours and contact information current and eligible for its AI answers to location-based questions.

Step 5: Earn Mentions Outside Your Own Site

Your website says you're good. AI tools look for other sources that agree. ChatGPT search leans on outside search providers, and Google's prominence factor counts links and reviews, so the places that already rank for your industry in Denver matter.

My read on where to start:

• Get listed, with the same business name, phone and website, on the directories your customers check: Yelp, the BBB, your industry's directory, your chamber of commerce. If you run a restaurant, keep your OpenTable, Resy or Yelp listing current. OpenAI says ChatGPT can show reservation availability from those three.
• Look at which sites the AI tools cite when you ask them about your industry (Step 6 shows how), and work on getting onto those lists, local "best of" roundups and partner pages.

Step 6: Check Whether It's Working

Search Console has a Generative AI performance report that shows how often your pages were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country and device (Google). It counts impressions, not clicks, and it only appears once your site has enough of them. Clicks from those features still land in the regular Performance report under the "Web" search type, mixed in with everything else (Google). Bing's AI Performance report covers Copilot. In your analytics, look for visits referred by chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai.

For ChatGPT and Perplexity, write down 5 to 10 questions your customers ask, the way they would ask them. "Who's a good family dentist in Lakewood that takes walk-ins?" is better than "dentist Denver." Once a month, ask the same questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and note whether you're mentioned and which sites get cited. Keeping the questions the same is what makes one month comparable to the next.

Also ask every new customer how they found you.

Expect this to take time. Google notes that recrawling a page "can take anywhere from several days to several months," and reviews build slowly.

What You Can Skip

Special AI files and markup. You'll see advice to add an llms.txt file, a proposed format for describing your site to language models. Google says its AI features have no additional technical requirements. Our site publishes one because it generates itself from content we already have, but I wouldn't pay anyone to write one for you. Regular structured data (code that labels details like your hours and address for search engines) is still worth having for normal search. Google's AI search advice asks that it match what's visible on the page (Google).

Anyone selling guaranteed AI rankings. Nobody controls what ChatGPT or Google's AI says, and Google states plainly that you can't pay for better local ranking.

Common Questions

Is SEO dead now that AI answers questions?

No. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same SEO basics as the rest of Search, and ChatGPT pulls from search providers. The work in this article is SEO. My read on what changed: that being one of the few names in an answer matters more than being link number seven.

What are AEO and GEO?

Answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization: two new names for getting cited in AI answers. Microsoft calls its AI Performance report an early step toward GEO tooling, so the label is sticking. The steps above are the job under any name.

Can ChatGPT do my SEO for me?

It can help. It's good for brainstorming the questions customers ask and tightening a rough FAQ answer. It can't collect your reviews or know your real prices. Google says AI tools are fine for research and structure, but using them to churn out pages "without adding value for users may violate" its spam policy, and every AI-written line needs a human fact-check (Google).

The Short Version

• Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and make sure Googlebot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot aren't blocked. Check Cloudflare's AI bot setting if your site uses it.
• Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and confirm your service pages are indexed.
• Put what you do, for whom and where in plain text at the top of each service page, plus an FAQ in your customers' words.
• Complete your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, and keep asking for reviews.
• Get listed where your customers and the AI tools already look.
• Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google your customers' questions once a month and write down who gets mentioned.

This is the work our Search & AI Visibility plan does every month for Denver businesses, along with content and plain-language rank reports. It's $750 a month for both Google and AI search, or $500 for one, with no minimum contract. If you'd rather do it yourself, the list above is the job.

Not sure whether AI tools can see your site? Book a free consultation and I'll check it with you. No pressure, no pitch.