Getting found
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
Your customers are already asking ChatGPT who to call, and it names a first choice. If that name is not yours, it is somebody else's. Ask it for a mobile mechanic near Soham and its first choice is SV Autos, a business we built that launched in July 2026.
The short version
- Your customers are asking ChatGPT who to call, and it names a first choice.
- For a mobile mechanic near Soham, that first choice is SV Autos, a business we built that launched in July 2026.
- At Fixr Systems, being found by AI is part of one plan with SEO, from £500 a month.
Is ChatGPT recommending your business?
Try it now. Ask ChatGPT who it would recommend for your trade in your town. Whatever it says is what your customers are being told.
If your business is not in the answer, another one is. On Google you can sit fifth and still be seen, but ChatGPT names the businesses it has chosen and leaves the rest out.
What ChatGPT says about a mobile mechanic near Soham
On 8 October 2026 we asked ChatGPT: "Who is a good mobile mechanic near Soham?" Its answer was: "my first choice would be SV Autos Mobile Mechanics".
It went on: "I'd pick SV Autos over a generic garage if you specifically need someone to come to your driveway."
SV Autos launched in July 2026 and has 10 reviews. ChatGPT made it the first choice, and mentioned a local garage with 54 reviews only as a comparison. A business does not have to be the biggest to be the one ChatGPT names.
Why did ChatGPT recommend SV Autos?
Because the website told it what to say. ChatGPT gave its reasons: the reviews, the call-out price, that the repair price is agreed before work starts, and the towns covered. Every one of those is stated plainly on the website and the Google Business Profile we built.
ChatGPT can only recommend what it can explain. A website that says nothing specific gives it nothing to recommend.
Does being recommended by ChatGPT bring enquiries?
It has for SV Autos. Two of James's customers told him they found SV Autos by asking ChatGPT.
By the end of September 2026, ChatGPT had sent 8 visits to the SV Autos website. 3 of them ended with the visitor filling in the enquiry form or tapping to message on WhatsApp. (Source: Google Analytics, 25 July to 30 September 2026.)
Someone sent by ChatGPT arrives already recommended. They are not comparing ten websites, because the comparing has been done for them.
How many people now search with ChatGPT?
13.0 million UK adults visited ChatGPT in June 2025, up from 4.4 million a year earlier. ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, against 368 million in the same months of 2024. (Source: Ofcom, The Era of Answer Engines and Online Nation 2025.)
OpenAI says more than 900 million people use ChatGPT every week. People now ask it the questions they used to type into Google, including who to hire.
Which sites we built does ChatGPT send people to?
SV Autos is not the only one. Each line below comes from a record we hold.
| What ChatGPT did | How we know | |
|---|---|---|
| SV Autos | Named it as its first choice for a mobile mechanic near Soham | ChatGPT's answer, 8 October 2026 |
| Woodwork UK | Sent its first visitor 7 days after launch, and in late September 2026 sent more visitors than Google | Google Analytics |
| NearbyUK | Cited it as a source in two of ten test questions, 12 days after launch | Our test, 23 September 2026 |
| UK Homesteading | Sent visitors in September 2026 | Google Analytics |
What is ChatGPT SEO, and what gets a business recommended?
ChatGPT SEO is the work that makes a website one ChatGPT can use in its answers. You will also see it called AEO or GEO, and our guide explains the difference between GEO, SEO and AEO.
Four things have to be true. ChatGPT has to be able to read your site, and OpenAI's own guidance says a site must let its search crawler in to appear in ChatGPT's answers. The pages have to be built so an AI can quote them.
The answers have to match the way people ask the question. And the site has to earn trust through the quality of what is on it.
Doing those four things well, on every page, is the work. It is what our AI search optimisation does for you.
What this means for your business
Three times as many UK adults used ChatGPT in June 2025 as a year before. The business it names gets the call.
We build your website to be that business, as one plan with SEO from £500 a month. Tell us your trade and your town.
Tell us your trade and your town, and we respond to enquiries within two working days.
Before you ask
How long does it take to be recommended by ChatGPT?
It varies by site. ChatGPT sent its first visitor to Woodwork UK 7 days after launch, and to SV Autos on day 27.
Does ChatGPT recommend small local businesses?
Yes. On 8 October 2026 it named SV Autos, a business launched in July 2026 with 10 reviews, as its first choice for a mobile mechanic near Soham.
Is ChatGPT SEO different from normal SEO?
It is built on it. A site that Google can read and trust is the starting point, and the work for AI answers sits on top. We do both in one plan.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
Nobody can promise a recommendation, and we do not. We build the site so ChatGPT can read it, quote it and trust it, and every month we show you what happened.
Sources
- ChatGPT's answer to "Who is a good mobile mechanic near Soham?", screenshot taken 8 October 2026, checked 8 October 2026
- Ofcom, The Era of Answer Engines, discussion paper, 4 November 2025, checked 8 October 2026
- Ofcom, From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025 (Online Nation 2025), checked 8 October 2026
- OpenAI, Scaling AI for everyone, checked 8 October 2026
- OpenAI, overview of OpenAI crawlers, checked 8 October 2026
- Fixr Systems case study: SV Autos, figures from Google Analytics, checked 8 October 2026
- Fixr Systems case study: Woodwork UK, figures from Google Analytics, checked 8 October 2026
- Fixr Systems case study: UK Homesteading, figures from Google Analytics, checked 8 October 2026
About the author
Ben Criddle founded Fixr Systems and has been building for UK small businesses since 2024: web design, SEO and AI search, AI automation and custom software. He builds every project himself, and writes and checks every guide on this blog against the sources listed with it. Recent work includes a mobile mechanic's website that reached page one of Google for 394 keywords within nine weeks of launch, measured in Search Console, and a WhatsApp CRM that has brought more than 17,000 leads into one system for a courier training business.
Where to go next
- AI search optimisationTell us your trade and your town, and we respond to enquiries within two working days.
- The SV Autos case study
More from the blog
GEO vs SEO vs AEOWhat each one means, how they overlap and whether you need all three.
SEO for AI: quoted 29,900 timesWhich pages Microsoft Copilot quoted from two sites we built, and what they have in common.
Website not showing up on GoogleThe six reasons a site stays invisible, and how to tell which one is yours.
A website for a new business: the SV Autos storyHow a new mobile mechanic went from a logo to his first lead in a week.
What to look for in a booking systemWhat it should do, what your customer sees, and what stays yours.
What is bespoke softwareWhat it means, real examples, and when it beats buying something off the shelf.