How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT: What Actually Works

ChatGPT is now used as a buying decision tool by hundreds of millions of people. "Best CRM for a small team", "which travel insurance is worth it", "what accounting software do most freelancers use" — these are the kinds of questions being asked every day, and ChatGPT answers them with brand names.

The brands that get named aren't necessarily the ones with the best websites. They're the ones that the internet collectively talks about most — and most positively. Understanding that distinction is the starting point for getting recommended.

How ChatGPT Actually Picks Brands to Recommend

ChatGPT draws on two distinct sources depending on how it's used:

Training data — Everything ChatGPT learned before its knowledge cutoff. This includes your website content, but also every forum discussion, review, news article, Reddit thread, comparison blog, and industry publication that ever mentioned your brand. The brand that is discussed widely, positively, and accurately across these sources builds a strong training-data profile.

Real-time web search via Bing — When web browsing is enabled (the default for ChatGPT Plus and in most usage contexts), ChatGPT searches Bing for current information. It shows strong correlation with Bing's top 10 results — so your Bing/Google search rankings matter for real-time queries.

An analysis of 23,000+ AI citations by Omniscient Digital found the strongest predictors of ChatGPT mentions were:

1. Brand search volume (0.334 correlation) — How often people search for your brand by name. This signals to AI that the brand is well-known and trusted.
2. Multi-platform presence — Brands appearing across 4+ channels (website, review sites, news, social, directories) are significantly more likely to be cited.
3. Third-party mentions — Reddit, Trustpilot, G2, press coverage and industry comparisons carry disproportionate weight.
4. Schema markup — Pages with structured data are 3x more likely to earn citations.

The Third-Party Source Problem Most Brands Miss

Most brands optimise their own website for search. Few systematically build their third-party presence for AI.

This is the gap. According to LinkSurge's 2026 analysis, 91% of AI-generated answers cite third-party sources. Your own website accounts for just 9% of brand mentions in AI responses.

Reddit alone accounts for 40% of AI citations. When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best CRM for startups?" and a Reddit thread from r/startups comes up where 12 people recommended Pipedrive — ChatGPT learns that Pipedrive is trusted by startup founders. Your brand FAQ page doesn't compete with that signal.

The implication: to get recommended by ChatGPT, you need to be talked about by real people in real places — review sites, forums, industry publications, comparison articles, expert roundups.

Six Things That Drive ChatGPT Recommendations

1. Reddit presence in the right communities

ChatGPT cites Reddit more than any other source type. Be present — genuinely helpfully, not promotionally — in the subreddits where your category is discussed. Answer questions, share data, be the expert who shows up when someone asks about your space. Over time, your name appears in threads. Those threads feed ChatGPT's understanding of which brands people trust.

2. Review site coverage

Trustpilot, G2, Capterra, Google Reviews, Clutch — ChatGPT references these when forming opinions about brands. More reviews, higher ratings, and specific feature-level reviews all help. Actively encourage reviews from existing customers. Respond to negative reviews publicly (ChatGPT sees your responses too).

3. Media mentions and press coverage

A single article in a relevant publication — whether it's a trade magazine, a national newspaper, or a respected industry blog — carries significant weight in AI training data. Pitch stories, contribute expert commentary, co-author research. These create permanent third-party signals that AI draws on.

4. Comparison and "best of" content

Articles like "Top 10 project management tools" or "Best accounting software for freelancers" directly influence ChatGPT recommendations. Get your brand featured in these comparisons — both by earning inclusion on authoritative sites, and by creating your own comparison content that positions you clearly in the category.

5. Brand search volume

Brand search volume is the single strongest predictor of AI citations. The more people search for your brand by name, the more AI perceives you as known and trusted. This is circular but real: invest in brand awareness campaigns, make your brand name memorable and distinctive, and your AI visibility follows over time.

6. FAQ-format content on your own site

When ChatGPT does browse your website, it extracts from pages that directly answer questions. Every "how to", "what is", and "best [X] for [Y]" query needs a page on your site that answers it clearly and immediately. The format matters: lead with the direct answer, then expand. This is what ChatGPT quotes from.

What Doesn't Work

• Keyword-stuffed content — ChatGPT doesn't rank pages by keyword density. Thin content designed to rank on Google has no value for AI citation.
• Promotional language — AI avoids content that reads as advertising. If your "About Us" page is full of superlatives and marketing claims, ChatGPT either ignores it or hedges its description of you.
• Inconsistent brand description — If your website says one thing and your LinkedIn says another and your Crunchbase listing says a third — AI models don't know which version to trust. Consistency across all sources is foundational.
• Waiting for ChatGPT to find you organically — AI models update their knowledge over time, but the brands that proactively build third-party presence compound their visibility advantage continuously.

How to Check If ChatGPT Is Recommending You

The most direct method:

1. Open ChatGPT (with web browsing enabled)
2. Ask the questions your customers ask: "what's the best [category] for [use case]?", "which [brand type] would you recommend?", "compare [you] vs [competitor]"
3. Run each question 5-10 times — ChatGPT varies its responses, so single tests are unreliable
4. Record which brands appear and how they're described
5. Compare your appearance rate to competitors

For systematic monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews — specialist AI visibility tracking tools automate this across hundreds of queries and show trends over time.

Frequently Asked Questions