How AI Decides Who to Recommend
There's no secret list and no one to pay. When ChatGPT searches the web, OpenAI says it rewrites the person's question into one or more targeted searches, reads the pages that come back, and builds its answer from them. Copilot works the same way through Bing.
That means AI can only recommend you for what the web already says about you, clearly and consistently. If your website is vague, AI is vague about you. If nobody else mentions you, AI has nothing to repeat. And OpenAI is plain about it: even when you do everything right, placement is not guaranteed.
You can't control the answer. You can control what it's built from.
Five Things That Make You the Answer
1. Let the AI crawlers in. OpenAI's search crawler is called OAI-SearchBot. Your website has to allow it, and your hosting has to let its traffic through. Ask whoever runs your site to check your robots.txt file. It takes five minutes, and if it's blocked, nothing else on this list matters.
2. Answer the questions your buyers actually ask. One question per page, in plain words, with the answer in the first two sentences. AI quotes pages that answer questions directly. It skips pages that sound like brochures.
3. Say the same thing about yourself everywhere. Your website, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube and every directory should carry the same business name, the same description of what you do, and the same answer to who it's for. When the web disagrees about you, AI hedges.
4. Put proof where AI can read it. Reviews, named testimonials, case studies and videos with clear titles. AI trusts what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself.
5. Check what AI says about you today. Ask ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity the question your ideal client would ask, without naming yourself. If you're a Bing Webmaster Tools user, its AI Performance report shows when your pages are cited in Copilot's answers.
The Real Problem Isn't Technical
Here's what most AI search checklists miss. AI can only recommend you for something if you've been precise about what that something is. "We help businesses grow" gives AI nothing to work with. "We help owner-run service businesses turn social media followers into booked appointments" gives it an answer.
That precision comes from knowing exactly who you serve, your Avatar, and saying it the same way every time, your Brand Voice. Fix that first, and every page you publish tells AI the same clear story. Skip it, and no amount of technical work will make you the obvious answer.
If you want AI to know exactly who you're for, start with the free working session: sixty minutes, live, no charge.
Take a seat at the next sessionLinks & Resources
For those who want to go deeper
They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan: on answering your buyers' real questions publicly, which is exactly the content AI search rewards.
Known by Mark Schaefer: on building a reputation that shows up wherever your customers look.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout: on owning one clear idea in the customer's mind.
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