Getting Mentioned in ChatGPT and Perplexity: What You Can Do

How AI assistants work

Assistants with web search retrieve pages, summarise the content and sometimes name their sources. Others answer from their training. Both favour information that agrees across several places and is clearly worded.

What you can do

1. Create a facts page: Who, what, where, since when, for whom, on what terms. Unambiguous and compact. Example
2. Answer questions: Short, direct answers to typical customer questions, the answer first, then the details.
3. Add structured data: Business, services, questions and answers in machine-readable form.
4. Make your details consistent: The same data on your website, Google profile and in directories.
5. Allow crawlers: Check your robots.txt.
6. Show trustworthiness: Author, date, sources, contact details and legal notice.

Checking

Regularly put typical questions to several assistants and note whether and how you are mentioned. Wrong details can often be corrected through your own pages and listings.

Practical example: the checklist in practice

Suppose a photo studio in Esslingen writes down ten questions as a customer would ask them, such as “Which photo studio in Esslingen does application photos?” or “How much do business portraits cost?”. Each question is entered into ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google Gemini, which gives thirty answers. A table records: Is the studio mentioned? Are the address and service correct? Which source is linked? After four weeks the studio repeats the queries with the same questions. This produces a comparison that can be followed. Individual answers vary, so the trend across several rounds counts for more than a lucky hit.

Which content is used most readily

• Unambiguous statements with figures and conditions: “An application photo takes about 20 minutes” can be picked up, “quick and professional” cannot. Only state things you will actually stand by.
• Your own experience: A process, a price range or a checklist from your own practice is easier to recognise than general advice texts, which exist in their thousands.
• Consistent names: Write your company name the same way everywhere. An assistant links sources more easily when the name, place and service match.

Myth versus fact

• Myth: You can have yourself listed in ChatGPT. Fact: There is no directory to sign up to. Being mentioned results from sources, retrieval and training data.
• Myth: You can simply buy the answer. Fact: Depending on the provider there are advertising formats, but the answer itself cannot be bought across the board. Where ads appear, they are generally labelled.
• Myth: Once mentioned correctly, always mentioned correctly. Fact: Answers change with model updates and sources. Checking is an ongoing task.

Correcting wrong details

If an assistant gives, say, an old address or a service you never offered, first look for the source: is the detail in a directory, on an old page or on a review portal? Correct it there, adjust your own page and check again after a few weeks. Many services also offer a feedback form for faulty answers, which you can use in addition. There is no fixed time frame for it to take effect.

The difference between training and web search

When an assistant answers from its training, it reflects the state its data was in at the last update. New prices or a move show up there with a delay. If it uses web search instead, it can read current pages, provided they are accessible to it. Two things follow for you: keep your facts page up to date, and make sure the most important details are not only in images or documents but also as ordinary text that programs can read.

To be honest

Whether an assistant mentions you is for the system to decide. We lay the foundations. See GEO and AI visibility.