How to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT

In the free checkEvery paid plan

ChatGPT recommends a brand when the pages it reads for a question describe that brand clearly as a fit for exactly that question. For live answers it searches the web, so your site must be open to OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and the pages that rank for your buyers' questions must name you. Training data matters too, but you cannot change it quickly.

Updated November 1, 2026

How ChatGPT builds an answer about brands

ChatGPT answers in one of two ways. Without search, it writes from what the model learned in training, which is months old and cannot be checked. With search, it looks up pages for the question and writes the answer from them, with links to its sources. Buying questions such as "best payroll software for a ten-person agency" are typical search cases, because the answer depends on current products and prices.

For the search case, OpenAI documents one hard rule: sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. They can still appear as plain navigational links. So the first job is access, the second is being on the pages ChatGPT reads.

Recommended or only mentioned?

Being named is not the same as being recommended. "Popular options include A, B and your brand" is a mention. "For small agencies, go with your brand" is a recommendation. In our experience the difference comes from how specific the sources are about you: a page that says who you are for, where you operate and what you cost gives the answer something to commit to. A homepage that only says "the all-in-one platform" does not. This is an observation from reading answers, not a documented rule, so measure it for your own questions.

State your category, audience, country and price as plain text on your site, the same way on every page and profile.
Answer the buyer question on its own page, answer first (answer-first content).
Be named on the third-party pages that come up for the question: roundups, reviews, directories and industry media.
Publish honest comparison pages for the "X vs Y" and "X alternatives" questions your buyers ask.

Why the same question gives different brands

ChatGPT samples its wording and may search differently each time, so one screenshot proves little. Ask the same question several times, in your buyers' language and country, and count how often you are named. The full routine is in how ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend and how to track AI visibility.

Which crawlers matter

OAI-SearchBot
Finds and indexes pages for ChatGPT search.
If you block it: Your pages are not shown in ChatGPT search answers (navigational links can still appear). OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to apply to search.
GPTBot
Collects pages that may be used to train OpenAI's foundation models.
If you block it: Signals that your content should not be used for training. It does not remove you from ChatGPT search; that is OAI-SearchBot's rule.
ChatGPT-User
Fetches a page when a user's request needs it; not an automatic crawler.
If you block it: OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to these user-initiated fetches, and ChatGPT-User does not decide whether you appear in search.

What to do, by evidence

Each step carries an evidence grade, as in every report: A documented by the vendor, B backed by a study, C untested. Start with A and B.

A · documented: The vendor's own documentation describes this.Source: OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and in any CDN or firewall rule. Check it with the AI crawler checker.
B · studied: An experiment or a large study of AI answers backs it. Not guaranteed for your brand.Source: AI search source study (Chen et al., 2025)
Get listed and reviewed on the third-party pages ChatGPT cites for your questions. A large study of AI search answers found they cite mostly third-party (earned) sources.
B · studied: An experiment or a large study of AI answers backs it. Not guaranteed for your brand.Source: GEO study (Aggarwal et al., 2023)
Add concrete facts to the pages that already get cited: numbers, prices, named sources. The GEO study measured more visibility in generative answers for this kind of edit.
C · untested: No documented or studied effect yet. Optional.Source: Citation study (Zhang et al., 2026)
Publish comparison pages for the competitors buyers ask about. Cited pages often contain comparison content, but a causal effect is not shown.
C · untested: No documented or studied effect yet. Optional.
Add an llms.txt file. Cheap, but no vendor documents using it for answers (llms.txt guide).

What Nodpick measures in ChatGPT

Whether the answer names your brand, and in which position among the brands it names.
Whether it recommends you, only mentions you or warns against you, with a recommendation rate once there are enough answers.
Who is named instead of you, and your share of voice against them.
Which domains ChatGPT cites for your questions, and whether one of your own pages is among them.
ChatGPT is in the free check and in every paid plan. Paid plans ask every week and ask again when your mention flips.

How the score and its range work

Common questions

Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT?

No. GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler. Whether your pages can be shown in ChatGPT search answers depends on OAI-SearchBot, which has its own robots.txt rule.

How long until a robots.txt change shows up in ChatGPT?

OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update for its search systems to adjust. Being cited after that still depends on whether the pages ChatGPT reads name you.

Can I pay to be recommended in ChatGPT answers?

Not as a ranking inside the answer. Be careful with anyone who promises a placement. What you can influence is access, clear facts and presence on the pages the answers draw on.

Why does ChatGPT name my competitor and not me?

Look at the sources cited for that question. Usually they are roundups, comparisons or reviews that list the competitor and not you. Getting onto those pages, or publishing a better answer yourself, is the fix with the best evidence.

Does ChatGPT answer differently in German?

Often, yes. The language and country of the question change which pages search finds, so a German question for Germany can name other providers than the same question in English. Measure in the language your buyers use.