How to get your business named by ChatGPT.

01What has actually changed

For twenty years, being found meant appearing in a list of ten blue links and persuading somebody to click yours. That still happens, and it still matters.

What is new is that a lot of people now type "who does boiler servicing near Forest Row" into ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s own AI summary, and get back a short answer naming two or three businesses. There is no list to scroll. You are either named or you are not.

This is worth taking seriously for a reason that has nothing to do with technology. The person asking has already decided to buy. They are not browsing. Being named in that answer is closer to a recommendation than to an advert.

02Where those answers come from

Assistants are not guessing. They are reading, and they read a surprisingly small number of things well.

They read your Google Business Profile, because it is structured, verified and kept current. They read structured data on your website, which is a block of information written in a format designed for machines rather than people. They read plain factual sentences on your pages. And they read what other sites say about you, particularly directories and local news.

What they do not read well is a page of images with the text baked into them, a site where the important facts only appear in a video, or a homepage that says "passionate about delivering excellence" and never mentions what you actually do or where.

03The structured data bit, explained properly

Structured data is a small block of code in the background of a page. It does not change how the page looks. It says, in a standard format every search engine and assistant understands, "this is a business, it is called X, it does Y, it covers Z, here are the opening hours, here is the phone number".

It sounds technical and it is genuinely not. It is a form with the boxes filled in. The reason it matters is that it removes ambiguity. Without it, a machine has to infer from your prose that you are a plumber in Crowborough. With it, you have told it.

Almost no small business has done this. That is the whole opportunity. It takes an afternoon and very few of your competitors have bothered.

04Write pages that answer the question

The second half is less technical and more about how you write.

Assistants quote text that reads like an answer. "We offer a range of competitively priced solutions" cannot be quoted, because it does not say anything. "A boiler service costs £95 and takes about an hour" can be quoted, because it is a fact.

So put the facts in sentences. What you do, where you do it, what it costs, how long it takes, what is included. If you are nervous about publishing prices, that is a separate conversation and a reasonable worry, but understand that vagueness is now a visibility problem as well as a trust problem.

05A short list you can work through

If you want to do this yourself, and you can, here is the order I would do it in.

• Fill in your Google Business Profile completely. Every category, every service, real opening hours, the area you cover, and photographs that are yours rather than stock.
• Add business structured data to your site, naming the business, the address, the phone number and the services.
• Write one page per service that says plainly what it is, what it costs and what is included.
• Add a frequently asked questions block to those pages, with real questions people ask you on the phone, answered in full sentences.
• Make sure your name, address and phone number are written identically everywhere they appear online.

06How you know it is working

Ask. Open ChatGPT and ask it who does what you do in your town, and see what comes back. Do it again in a few weeks.

This is the one part of getting found where you get an answer quickly. Google can take three to six months to move. The assistant side often shifts in weeks, because you have gone from giving them nothing to work with to giving them something.