How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend Your Brand: A Step-by-Step Guide

Imagine a potential customer opens ChatGPT and types: “What are the best project management tools for remote teams?” The AI responds with a list of four products. Your competitor is on the list. You are not.

That scenario is playing out millions of times a day across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. These AI assistants are not just answering questions — they are making recommendations. And those recommendations are shaping purchase decisions before a prospect ever visits your website, reads your content, or talks to your sales team.

The question every marketing team should be asking right now is: how do we make sure our brand is the one AI recommends?

This guide breaks it down. We will cover how AI models actually decide what to recommend, the specific factors you can influence, and a practical playbook to get started this week.

How AI Models Choose What to Recommend

Before you can influence what ChatGPT says about your brand, you need to understand how it decides. AI language models do not have opinions. They construct responses based on patterns in their training data and, increasingly, real-time web search. Here is what matters:

Training Data Frequency

The more frequently your brand appears in the data these models were trained on — web pages, Wikipedia, news articles, forums, documentation — the more likely the model is to “know” about you. A brand mentioned in thousands of authoritative sources will be recommended far more often than one mentioned in a handful of blog posts.

Entity Association

AI models understand brands as entities linked to categories, attributes, and relationships. When someone asks about “the best CRM”, the model looks for entities strongly associated with the concept of CRM software. If your brand is clearly and consistently described as a CRM across multiple sources, you are more likely to appear. If your messaging is inconsistent or vague, the model may not make the connection.

Source Authority

Not all mentions are equal. A mention in a respected industry publication, a Wikipedia article, or a well-cited comparison piece carries far more weight than a mention on a low-authority blog. AI models implicitly weigh source authority when constructing responses.

Recency (For Models With Web Search)

Models like Perplexity and ChatGPT with browsing enabled can access current web content. For these models, the freshness and relevance of your content matters. A comparison article published last week has more influence than one from two years ago.

Competitive Context

AI models do not recommend brands in isolation. They respond to the competitive context of the query. If five brands are well-established entities in a category and yours is not, those five will be recommended and you will not — regardless of product quality.

The 7-Step Playbook to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

These are the specific, actionable steps that move the needle on AI visibility. They are listed in priority order — start at the top and work down.

Step 1: Audit Your Current AI Visibility

Before you optimise anything, you need to know where you stand. Ask the following questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity:

• “What are the best [your category] tools/products?”
• “Compare the top [your category] solutions”
• “What do you recommend for [problem your product solves]?”

Record whether you appear, what the AI says about you, and which competitors it recommends instead. Do this for at least 15 to 20 relevant prompts. This gives you a baseline.

You can do this manually, or use a platform like Soma AI's free audit to automate the process across all major models simultaneously.

Step 2: Fix Your Brand Entity

Your brand entity is the foundation. If AI models do not have a clear understanding of what you are and what category you belong to, nothing else matters. Here is your checklist:

• Website — Your homepage and about page should clearly state what you do, who you serve, and what category you compete in. Use schema.org Organization and Product markup.
• Wikipedia — If your brand qualifies for a Wikipedia page, make sure it is accurate, well-sourced, and properly categorised. If you do not qualify yet, focus on Wikidata.
• Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2, Capterra — Every major directory should have consistent, complete information about your brand. Same name. Same description. Same category.
• Consistency — The most common entity problem is inconsistency. If your website says you are an “AI marketing platform” but Crunchbase says you are a “digital analytics company”, you are confusing the model. Pick a description and use it everywhere.

Step 3: Create Content That Answers Real Questions

AI models construct answers by synthesising information from multiple sources. Your content needs to be structured so AI can easily extract the key points. Here is what works:

• Question-based headings — Use headings like “What is the best email marketing platform for small businesses?” with a clear, direct answer in the first sentence underneath.
• Comparison and list content — Articles like “Best [Category] Tools in 2026” are heavily referenced by AI models when constructing recommendation responses.
• FAQ sections — Structured FAQ content using schema.org FAQPage markup gives AI models clean question-answer pairs to extract.
• Data and evidence — Support your claims with specific numbers, case studies, and citations. AI models prioritise content that is evidence-backed.

Step 4: Get Third-Party Mentions and Citations

This is the most impactful and most difficult step. AI models trust third-party sources more than your own content. A mention in an industry analyst report, a G2 review, or a TechCrunch article carries far more weight than anything on your website.

Practical ways to build third-party citations:

• Industry publications — Contribute guest posts, offer expert commentary, and publish original research that journalists and analysts will cite.
• Comparison articles — Get listed in third-party comparison and “best of” articles. These are the single most referenced source type for AI product recommendations.
• Review platforms — Encourage customers to leave reviews on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and Product Hunt. AI models reference these heavily.
• Academic and research citations — If applicable, get your brand or methodology referenced in academic papers and research reports.

Step 5: Optimise for AI Models With Web Search

Perplexity, ChatGPT with browsing, and Google Gemini can search the live web. For these models, traditional web optimisation still matters. Make sure:

• Your content is crawlable and loads quickly
• Your pages have clear, descriptive titles and meta descriptions
• Your schema markup is complete and accurate
• Your content is fresh and regularly updated
• Your site provides an LLM.txt file — a growing convention for telling AI crawlers what your brand is and where to find key information

Step 6: Monitor Across All Models, Weekly

AI models update frequently. Your visibility can change overnight. What worked last month may not work this month — and a competitor might start showing up where they were not before.

Set up weekly monitoring. At minimum, manually check the same 15 to 20 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity each week and track changes. Better yet, use an AI visibility platform that automates this across all models and prompts continuously.

Step 7: Iterate Based on Data

AEO is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing discipline. Use your monitoring data to identify patterns:

• Which prompts does your brand appear on? Which ones are you missing?
• Which competitors appear where you do not? What are they doing differently?
• Are there entire categories or use cases where you are invisible?

Use these insights to prioritise your next actions. Focus on the prompts and categories where you are almost showing up — those are the quickest wins.

Practical Tips by AI Model

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

ChatGPT draws heavily on its training data but increasingly uses web search (Bing integration). It weighs Wikipedia, authoritative web content, and structured data heavily. For ChatGPT Search specifically, ensure your content is well-optimised for Bing.

Claude (Anthropic)

Claude tends to be more conservative in its recommendations and often qualifies its suggestions with nuance. It places high value on factual accuracy and will often cite specific features. Make sure your product descriptions are specific and accurate.

Gemini (Google)

Gemini reads Google Search results, so traditional SEO provides a direct boost. It also weighs Google Business Profile data for local searches. If you have a Google Business listing, keep it current.

Perplexity

Perplexity is the most citation-dependent model — it always shows its sources. This means your content needs to rank well enough in web search to be found, and needs to be structured clearly enough for Perplexity to extract relevant information. Focus on clear headings, direct answers, and freshness.

What Does Not Work

Some tactics that might sound logical actually do not help with AI visibility:

• Keyword stuffing — AI models understand context, not keyword density. Overloading pages with keywords can actually hurt your credibility signals.
• Paid ads — There is currently no way to buy your way into ChatGPT or Claude recommendations. It is purely earned.
• Low-quality backlinks — AI models implicitly weight source authority. Hundreds of spammy links do nothing. A few mentions from authoritative sources do everything.
• Ignoring competitors — If you do not know who AI recommends instead of you, you cannot develop a strategy to displace them. Competitive intelligence is essential.

Regional Considerations

United States

The US market is the most competitive for AI visibility. Enterprise brands have been investing in AEO since 2024. Focus on specific niches and long-tail prompts where competition is thinner. The “best [tool] for [specific use case]”pattern often has less competition than broad category queries.

Europe and United Kingdom

AI adoption in Europe is growing fast. Localisation matters — a brand that answers questions about “the best solution for UK businesses” will outrank generically positioned competitors for UK-specific queries. Invest in region-specific content.

Africa

Africa represents the biggest untapped opportunity in AEO. AI adoption is growing across Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya, but very few businesses on the continent have started optimising for AI visibility. If you are an African business, starting AEO now gives you a massive first-mover advantage. Read our guide on AEO strategy for African businesses for a deeper dive.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get ChatGPT to recommend my business?

Build a clear brand entity (consistent descriptions across all platforms), create authoritative content that directly answers questions in your category, earn third-party mentions and citations, and monitor your visibility regularly to iterate on what works.

Can ChatGPT recommend products?

Yes. ChatGPT actively recommends products, tools, and services when users ask for suggestions. It bases recommendations on its training data and (with browsing enabled) current web content. Getting recommended requires strong entity signals and authority.

How to do SEO for ChatGPT?

The term for this is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). It shares some principles with SEO — quality content, authority, technical excellence — but adds entity optimization, question-first content structure, and AI-specific monitoring. Read our complete AEO guide for the full framework.

How to rank on AI search engines?

Follow the 7-step playbook above: audit your current visibility, fix your brand entity, create question-answering content, build third-party citations, optimise for web search, monitor weekly, and iterate based on data. Consistency and patience are key — most brands see meaningful results within 60 to 90 days.

How to appear in AI answers?

To appear in AI-generated answers, your brand needs to be (1) a clearly defined entity in the AI model's understanding of the world, (2) associated with the right category and use cases, and (3) mentioned by authoritative third-party sources. Start by auditing whether AI models currently know your brand exists.

Getting Started

The brands that will dominate the AI era are the ones starting now. AI models update monthly. Every month you wait, competitors establish themselves more deeply and become harder to displace.

The first step is always the same: find out where you stand. Run a free visibility audit, see what AI says about your brand, and start from there.