Your client asked ChatGPT about their own trade and their business was not named, so they are losing customers they will never hear from, and they sent this to you because you run the website. Most of what fixes it is SEO you already do, and Google's own guide says so. The part that is new is measurement: no ranking report tells you whether ChatGPT names the business or what it says about it. Run the twelve checks below. Eight are ordinary site work. Four set up the measurement, and those four are the ones your client is asking for.
If you are reading this, a client probably sent it to you with a line like "can you look at this?" They asked ChatGPT for a business like theirs, in their area, and it named other businesses. You run their website, so it landed with you.
Your first reaction may be that this is SEO with a new label. You are mostly right, and the first section of this post agrees with you in Google's own words. The second section is the part that is new, and it is narrower than the marketing around it suggests: nobody is measuring whether the business is named in the answer. The rest is twelve checks you can run on the site this week.
Is this just SEO?
For Google, largely yes. Google's guide to optimising for generative AI features, last updated 10 July 2026, says that from Google Search's perspective "optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO." The same guide says Google's AI features are "rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems," and Google's page on AI features says a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet before it can appear in an AI Overview or in AI Mode.
The guide also lists things you can ignore for Google. It says "you don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown" to appear in Google Search, that there is "no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces," and that "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search." It warns that "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem."
So if someone has told your client they need a special AI file, a rewrite of every page into fragments, or a package of placed mentions, Google's own documentation is on your side. Most of the fix is crawlable pages, clear content, consistent business facts and real reviews, which is work you already do or already quote for.
Then what is the gap?
The gap is measurement, and it sits mostly outside Google. Your reports tell you rankings, impressions and clicks. None of them tells you whether ChatGPT names your client when a customer asks for a business like theirs, or what it says about them when it does.
ChatGPT has its own route to the web. OpenAI's documentation names its own search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and says a site that blocks it will not appear in ChatGPT's search results. Perplexity documents its own crawler, PerplexityBot, on the same terms. A site can rank first on Google and still be invisible to both. One owner described exactly that in public: second on Google for his own product, and absent when he asked ChatGPT. The thread is linked in the references.
Some of the measurement now exists. Since 31 August 2026, Google's Generative AI performance report in Search Console shows, in Google's words, "how often URLs from your site appeared in generative AI features in Search," by page, country, device and date. Bing Webmaster Tools has had an AI Performance report in public preview since 10 February 2026, which Bing says shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot and AI-generated summaries in Bing, counted as citations.
ChatGPT has no equivalent. As of 11 October 2026, OpenAI's page for site owners describes four crawlers and offers no report. The only way to know whether ChatGPT names your client is to ask it, the same way every month, and write the answers down. That is the work your client is asking for when they forward this.
Your client has reason to ask:
The twelve checks
The first eight are site work, and most of them will already be done on a site you look after. The last four are the measurement. Run them in order, because a failure early in the list hides everything after it.
The site work
- Search Console is verified and a sitemap is submitted. When it is done, the Pages report shows a count for the site, and the sitemap status reads as successful.
- The pages that matter are indexed. Check the home page, each service page and the contact page with the URL Inspection tool. When it is done, each one reads as indexed rather than discovered or crawled.
- One version of the site exists. The www and bare domain, and http and https, all redirect to one address, and each page declares that address as canonical. When it is done, every variant you type lands on the same URL.
- The text is in the page source. Open view source on a service page and search for the business's phone number. If it only appears after JavaScript runs, a crawler that does not run scripts reads an empty page. When it is done, the phone number and the opening paragraph are in the raw HTML.
- The search crawlers are allowed in. Open robots.txt and confirm that OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot and Bingbot are not blocked, including by a security plugin or a firewall rule. OpenAI's documentation says changes to that file take about 24 hours to take effect. When it is done, none of the four is disallowed on the pages that matter.
- The business's identity is marked up once, correctly. Organization or LocalBusiness markup with the same name, address, phone and services as the visible page. Google says this is not required for its AI features and recommends it for rich results. When it is done, the Rich Results Test reads it without errors and every value matches the page.
- Each main service has a page that answers the customer's question. The heading is the question or a plain statement of it, and the first paragraph answers it: what the business does, where, for whom, and how to reach it. When it is done, someone who reads only that paragraph could call the business.
- The business facts match everywhere. The name, address, phone number and opening hours are the same on the site, the Google Business Profile and the directories that list the business. When it is done, there is no second version of the business for an engine to pick.
The measurement
- Write down five customer questions and ask them. Use the service and the area, never the business name: "who repairs generators in Ikeja" tells you something, "is Bayo Power any good" does not. Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode. When it is done, you have a dated list of who each engine named.
- Record what is said about your client. Where the business is named, copy what the engine says about it: services, area, hours, anything wrong. When it is done, you have a short list of errors to trace back to the listing or page that caused them.
- Open the two reports that exist. Google's Generative AI performance report in Search Console, and Bing's AI Performance report in Webmaster Tools. When it is done, you know which pages, if any, appear in Google's AI features and how often Bing's AI experiences cite the site.
- Repeat checks 9 to 11 on the same day each month, with the same questions. If the questions change, you are measuring the questions. When it is done, you can tell your client in one line whether they are named now where they were not before.
What to tell your client
Tell them what you found in checks 1 to 8 and what you fixed. Then send them the dated results of check 9, which is the thing they actually asked about. Nobody can promise them a date for being named: OpenAI, Google and Perplexity publish no timeline for how quickly a new or changed page is picked up. What you can promise is the monthly record, which tells both of you whether the work is moving the answer.
If checks 1 to 8 are clean and your client is still absent from the answers after a few months, the gap is usually off the site. The engines read reviews, directories and forum answers about a business. That work belongs with whoever handles the client's reputation and listings, and the monthly record from checks 9 to 12 shows them where to start.
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Most of the fix is the SEO you already do, and the new work is measuring whether the business is named in the answer. Run the eight site checks once, set up the four measurement checks monthly, and send your client the record.
One forward before you go: run check 9 today. Write down five questions a customer of this business would ask, ask them in ChatGPT, and send your client the names that came back. It takes fifteen minutes, and it answers the question they forwarded this to you about.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI visibility just SEO with a new name?
For Google, largely yes, and Google says so itself. Its guide to generative AI features says that from Google Search's perspective, optimising for generative AI search is still SEO. The difference is outside Google's report: whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini name the business when a customer asks, which no ranking tool measures.
Do I need to add an llms.txt file to the site?
Not for Google. Google's guide says Google Search ignores llms.txt and similar AI text files, and that adding one will neither help nor harm the site in Google. Some other services may read the file. It is a ten-minute job and it is not where the gap is.
Does schema markup make a business show up in ChatGPT?
No engine documents that it does. Google says structured data is not required for its generative AI features, and recommends keeping it for rich results. Organization markup that matches the visible facts is still worth having, because it states the business's identity in one consistent form.
How do I see whether a site appears in Google's AI Overviews?
Open Search Console and use the Generative AI performance report. Google says it shows impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for generative AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that it has been available to all websites worldwide since 31 August 2026.
Is there a report for ChatGPT like the one in Search Console?
As of 11 October 2026, OpenAI's page for site owners describes its crawlers and offers no visibility report. The way to measure ChatGPT is to ask it a fixed set of customer questions every month and record which businesses are named and what is said about them.
My client ranks first on Google. Why would ChatGPT leave them out?
Ranking and being named in an answer are separate results. OpenAI documents that ChatGPT's search results come through its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and that sites which block it will not appear. A page can rank on Google and still be blocked to that crawler, or silent on the exact question the customer asked.
What does Bing offer for this?
Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, in public preview since 10 February 2026. Bing says it shows how often a site's pages are cited as sources in Microsoft Copilot and in AI-generated summaries in Bing, page by page and over time.
References & sources
- Google Search Central, Guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search (last updated 10 July 2026; read 11 October 2026)
- Google Search Central blog, Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; all websites from 31 August 2026)
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website
- Bing Webmaster Blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (10 February 2026)
- OpenAI, OpenAI bots documentation (OAI-SearchBot, OAI-AdsBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User) (read 11 October 2026)
- Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers (PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User)
- Owner report, ranks 2nd on Google while absent from ChatGPT, r/SEO (November 2024)
- Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026 (5,119 US adults, February 2026)
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults)