How AI Tools Find a Business
When someone asks ChatGPT for a good accountant in Edmond, it doesn't answer from memory alone. It runs searches first. OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses outside search providers and its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. Perplexity runs its own crawler, PerplexityBot, to find the sites it links in its answers. Google's Gemini leans on Google's search.
So these tools aren't a separate internet. They read the same websites, profiles, directories and reviews you'd find in a search, then write a short answer that names a few businesses. That's why a business that can't earn a place in regular search results rarely gets named on its own merit.
Why the Tools Don't Agree
In September 2026, BMo Ventures asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the same six local questions. For five of the six, no single source was cited by all four. One leaned on business websites, another on directories like Justia and Expertise.com, another on review sites.
That's the practical point for a business owner. You're not trying to win one list. You're trying to be easy to find and consistent in every place these tools look, so whichever source a tool reads, it finds you.
Directories and listings matter more than most owners expect. Across the AI visibility checks BMo Ventures has run for local businesses, more than four in ten answers cited at least one directory or review site. And for a "best plumber in Oklahoma City" kind of question, ChatGPT sometimes cited nothing but Google Maps. On those searches, your Business Profile and listings are doing the work, not your website.
Where Each Tool Looks
| Topic | Where it looks | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Outside search providers, plus OpenAI's own crawler, OAI-SearchBot | Your site has to be open to OAI-SearchBot, and your listings beyond Google matter |
| Perplexity | Its own crawler, PerplexityBot, and the sites it links in answers | Your site has to be open to PerplexityBot; directories and review sites show up often |
| Gemini | Google's search | Your Google rankings and Business Profile carry over |
| Google AI Overviews | Google's search ranking and quality systems | Regular SEO is the work; there's nothing extra to add |
From each company's own documentation, read September 2026. Claude also searches the web when it answers.
When an AI Tool Gets You Wrong
Sometimes the problem isn't that a tool leaves you out. It's that it describes you with old hours, a past address or a service you stopped offering. The tools repeat what they find, so the fix is at the source. This is where keeping your name, address and phone the same across every directory and listing pays off: update your Business Profile, correct or claim the old listings, and make sure your own site says the current version plainly.
You can't edit an AI answer directly. You can change what it reads, and the answers catch up as the tools search again.
What to Fix First
Five fixes, in order:
Let the AI crawlers in
Check that your site doesn't block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. Both can be allowed or blocked in your robots.txt file, and some security settings can block AI crawlers without anyone noticing. If they can't read your site, they'll describe you from other sources or not at all.
Say plainly what you do and where
Each service page should state the service, the area you serve and who it's for in the first few lines. Vague pages give the tools nothing to quote.
Keep your details the same everywhere
Your name, address and phone should match on your site, your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business, Yelp and your industry's directories.
Build real reviews
Ask every customer for a Google review, and reply to what people say everywhere. Yelp asks businesses not to request reviews, so reply there but don't ask.
Answer the questions customers ask
A short questions section on each key page, written the way customers ask, in their words.
What you can skip: special AI files and schema tricks. Google says its AI features need no AI text files or special markup, and a 2026 industry study that added structured data to pages found no gain in the chat tools' answers.
Tip
Check your robots.txt
Open yoursite.com/robots.txt in a browser. If you see OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or a line that blocks every bot, ask whoever manages your site whether that's on purpose.
How to Check Where You Stand
None of the chat tools report to businesses, so the check is by hand. Pick five to ten questions your customers would ask, like "who's a good family dentist in Norman," and ask each tool once a month. Write down who's named, which sites the tool cites, and whether you're there.
When BMo Ventures runs this check, the first thing we compare is who the tools actually name against who the owner thinks the competition is. They're often not the same businesses. The other pattern that surprises owners: the most specific questions do best. A question that names a neighborhood, a road or a small town can surface a business that a broad "best X in the city" question never does, so include a few of those in your list.
Ask them in a fresh chat each time, because a tool that knows you've asked about your own business before can skew the answer. And expect some change from month to month even when nothing changed on your end. The trend over a few months is what matters.
BMo Ventures' AI search optimization work runs this check for you across all four tools, and fixes what it finds.
Common Questions
What is LLM SEO?
LLM SEO is another name for getting a business found and recommended by AI chat tools like ChatGPT, which run on large language models. You'll also see it called GEO or AEO. The work is mostly ordinary SEO, plus making sure the tools can reach and understand your site.
Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business?
No. ChatGPT now shows ads to some users, but OpenAI says ads run separately and advertisers can't shape its answers. BMo Ventures focuses on what you can control: whether the tool finds accurate, consistent information about you.
Does ChatGPT use Google's results?
Not directly. OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses outside search providers and its own crawler. Google's own AI features are the ones built on Google's search ranking.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
Not for Google. Google says its AI features need no AI text files or special markup. BMo Ventures would spend that time on your pages and profiles instead.