Guide
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT in Australia
There's no form to fill in and no fee that gets you into ChatGPT's answers. It recommends the businesses the web describes clearly, consistently and well. These seven steps are what that takes for an Australian local business.
1. Find out where you stand
Write down 10–20 questions your customers would actually ask, like "who can fix a leaking tap today in Wanneroo?" or "best brunch in Leederville". Ask each one several times in ChatGPT, and in Perplexity and Google's Gemini too. Note who's named and which sites are cited.
Ask more than once because the answers vary a lot. An Australian study by Dossis Digital found ChatGPT repeated the same recommendations only 8% of the time.
2. Fix your details everywhere
Your business name, address, phone number and hours should be identical on your website, Google Business Profile and every directory. Search for your business name and old phone numbers to find stray listings. Merge or remove duplicates. Assistants repeat what they find, including mistakes.
3. Complete your Google Business Profile
Google's AI relies on it most, and other assistants use Google results too. Choose the most specific category, list every service, set accurate hours including public holidays, and add real photos. Our guide on how Google's AI chooses local businesses has the full checklist.
4. Make your website easy to quote
In our Perth study, ChatGPT cited a business's own website in 81% of its answers. Give it something clear to quote:
- A page for each main service, saying which suburbs you cover.
- Your name, address and phone number on every page.
- Licence numbers, accreditations, warranties and years in business.
- Answers to the questions customers ask, in their words.
- No blocking of search and AI crawlers in your site settings.
5. Be listed where AI looks for your industry
The sites that get cited differ by industry. Across Australian trades, the Dossis study saw hipages, Oneflare, ProductReview, Localsearch and Yellow Pages cited. In our Perth testing, trades were matched to government licence pages, car repairers to review sites like Birdeye and Word of Mouth, and hospitality to local guides like The Urban List and Time Out. Get listed on the ones that apply to you, with full, accurate details.
6. Build real reviews, the right way
Assistants quote star ratings and review counts when they recommend someone. Ask every customer for a review with a simple link or QR code, and reply to every review. Don't pay for reviews, write them yourself, or only ask customers you expect to be happy. Under Australian Consumer Law that can be misleading, and the ACCC has fined businesses millions for it. Google's rules ban review incentives too.
7. Measure every month
Re-ask the same questions the same way each month and track how often you're named on each assistant. Details and reviews tend to show up first. New pages and new listings build over months.
All seven steps on one page: get the free 23-point checklist.
What not to waste money on
- Guarantees. Nobody controls what an AI says. Be wary of anyone promising "#1 on ChatGPT".
- Magic files and code. There's no evidence that an "llms.txt" file changes AI answers, and Google says no special markup is needed.
- Fake reviews and review gating. Illegal, and they can get your reviews removed.