Short answer: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot build recommendations from what they find on the web: your website, your business listings and what others write about you. OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers, so a mention cannot be bought. What works is letting their crawlers in, keeping your details identical everywhere, answering buyers' questions in Arabic and English, and earning genuine reviews.
This is for UAE business owners and marketing managers who suspect customers now ask an assistant for "a good family dentist in Al Barsha" instead of scrolling search results, and want to know what decides whether their name comes up. As of September 2026, part of it is measurable: Google says its Search Console report for AI Overviews and AI Mode reached all websites by 31 August 2026, Microsoft shows Copilot citations in Bing Webmaster Tools, and OpenAI tags the visits ChatGPT sends.
Every mechanism below comes from the companies' own documentation, linked so you can confirm it before acting, because these pages change often; where they say nothing, so does this article. The concept is covered in what GEO is and how it differs from SEO; this is the practical version, in seven steps.
How do ChatGPT, Google and Copilot find businesses to recommend?
When an assistant searches the web, it finds pages through its own crawler, a search partner or both, and for local questions it also uses business listings. None of the companies publishes a formula for who gets named, but each documents which crawler to allow and which business data it relies on.
| Assistant | How it finds web pages | Crawler to allow | Business data it points to | Where to measure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT search | OpenAI's crawler plus third-party search providers | OAI-SearchBot | Nearby business listings from providers OpenAI does not name | Visits tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google Search's own index | Googlebot | Google Business Profile and Merchant Center | Search Console's Generative AI performance report |
| Microsoft Copilot | Queries sent to Bing | Bingbot | Bing Places for Business | AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools |
| Perplexity | Its own crawler | PerplexityBot | Not stated on its crawler page | A prompt panel, as there is no official report |
Read the table as separate doors: a site Google indexes can still be missing from ChatGPT if a firewall blocks OAI-SearchBot, and a Google profile does nothing for your Bing Places listing. Google and OpenAI both describe answers built from searches run for each question, so one answer is a sample, not a ranking.
What should you fix first on your website and listings?
Fix access and identity first. An assistant cannot cite a page its crawler is blocked from, and Google and Microsoft both tie local answers to listings that must be accurate.
Step 1: Let the assistants' crawlers in
Check that robots.txt does not disallow OAI-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot or PerplexityBot. Training crawlers are a separate choice: OpenAI says you can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot to show you in search, and Google says Google-Extended does not affect inclusion in Google Search. OpenAI and Perplexity say changes take up to about 24 hours to register.
Google's checklist for AI features also asks you to allow crawling "by any CDN or hosting infrastructure". On Cloudflare, review the AI bot policies: from 15 September 2026, new domains block Training and Agent bots by default on pages that show ads, while Search bots stay allowed. Agent includes the fetchers that open a page when someone asks an assistant about it, and any training block also stops crawlers that mix search with training.
Then, in Google Search Console, check Settings, Search generative AI. Inclusion is the default; a site set to exclude will not appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Step 2: Look like one business everywhere
Use the same name, address, phone number and hours on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, directories and social profiles. Google's AI optimization guide says Business Profiles help businesses appear in its AI responses, and four of its Business Profile guidelines catch UAE businesses in particular:
- One script in the name. Repeating the name in two scripts is not acceptable, even when your shop sign is bilingual.
- A real address. P.O. boxes are not accepted, a virtual office is not eligible, and a co-working office qualifies only with clear signage, staff and customers there during business hours.
- Landmarks only when needed. They are allowed only where the street address does not pinpoint the location.
- A hidden address for service businesses. If customers never visit you, hide it and set a service area.
On your own site, keep one Arabic name and one Latin spelling and never vary them. If a profile is suspended, Google's appeal process asks for documents such as a business licence whose name and address match the profile, so a profile that mirrors your trade licence is the easiest to defend.
What should your website say, and in which language?
Your website should state plainly what you sell, where, for whom and roughly at what price, in the languages your customers ask in. An assistant can only connect you with a service or an area if something it can read makes that connection.
Step 3: Publish pages that answer buyers' questions
Give each service a page that says early on what it is, who it suits, how it is priced, how long it takes and which areas you cover, then answer the questions your sales team hears every week. Microsoft recommends clear headings, tables and FAQ sections; Google says you need not write specially for AI. Both describe a page written clearly for a buyer.
W3Techs finds English on 49.5% of the websites it can classify and Arabic on 0.6% (September 2026). No assistant company documents whether it searches in the language of the question, but one searching in Arabic has far fewer pages to choose from. Publish in the languages your customers use — usually Arabic and English, plus Persian when your customers are mainly Persian speakers — and write each natively. Choosing between Arabic and English for UAE marketing covers the decision, and what an Arabic version adds to a Dubai website's cost covers the budget.
Do reviews and outside mentions change what assistants say about you?
They can. Google says its AI features can reflect what is said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos and forums, and it is explicit that faked reviews and mentions do not count.
Step 4: Earn genuine reviews, and answer them
Ask every real customer for a review, using Google's review link or QR code, and reply to critical reviews as well as kind ones. Google's fake-engagement rules prohibit offering payment, discounts or free services for a review or for removing one, asking only happy customers for reviews, and reviews from current or former employees. Flag reviews that break those rules, keep replies factual and never threaten a reviewer: the UAE's cybercrime law, Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021, lists insulting and slandering others among its offences. This is general information, not legal advice.
Step 5: Get mentioned on websites you do not control
Earn mentions where buyers look: member directories of your chamber of commerce or free zone where they exist, industry associations, trade and local press, partners' client pages, judged awards, and "best of" lists that explain their criteria. The honest route is slow — a real number for a journalist, a partner who names you — and Google says seeking inauthentic mentions "isn't as helpful as it might seem", because its AI features depend on systems that reward quality and block spam.
Does structured data help assistants recognise your business?
It helps machines identify you, but it is not a switch for AI answers. Google says its AI features need no special schema.org markup, while Organization markup helps it tell your organisation apart from others.
Step 6: Describe the same facts in structured data
Add Organization markup to your home page, or the most specific LocalBusiness type if customers visit you, with the same name, address, phone and logo as your listings and a sameAs list of your official profiles. Mark up only what the page visibly shows, as Google's structured data policies require. And do not expect FAQ markup to earn a special listing: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026, according to its Search Central changelog. A visible FAQ still helps the reader.
How can you tell whether ChatGPT recommends your business?
By asking systematically: a fixed panel of buyer prompts, run monthly in each language and logged the same way. The companies' own reports add impressions, citations and visits, but not what the answers said about you.
Step 7: Run a monthly prompt panel
Write 20 prompts a buyer would type and run each in English, Arabic and, where relevant, Persian on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Copilot and Perplexity: up to 240 checks a month. Use a UAE connection without a VPN and no saved memories, since OpenAI says ChatGPT may estimate your location from your IP address and use saved memories when rewriting a search.
| Field | What to log |
|---|---|
| Prompt | Exact wording, unchanged month to month |
| Language and assistant | For example, Arabic on Copilot |
| Named? | Yes or no, and which competitors appeared |
| Description | What it said about you, and whether it is accurate |
| Sources cited | The pages it linked |
| Conditions | Date, signed in or not, memory on or off |
Track the share of checks that name you over months, not your position on one day.
Use the reports the companies now publish
- Google: the Generative AI performance report shows AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions by page, device and country.
- Microsoft: AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools shows which pages Copilot and Bing's AI summaries cite, and the phrases behind them.
- OpenAI: ChatGPT adds
utm_source=chatgpt.comto the links it sends, according to its publisher FAQ, so those visits show up in your analytics.
Which AI visibility tricks can you ignore?
Ignore anything that promises a shortcut the companies have ruled out themselves.
| What you hear | What the companies say |
|---|---|
| Publish llms.txt and assistants will pick you | Google says Search ignores llms.txt; OpenAI's and Perplexity's crawler pages do not mention it for search. The proposal is about helping AI agents use a site. |
| Repeat your keyword more often | Google says its AI systems understand synonyms, so you do not need every phrasing. |
| Post several blogs a day | Google says mass-producing pages for query variations to manipulate AI answers breaks its scaled content abuse policy. |
| Only your website counts | Google says its AI features can reflect blogs, videos and forum discussions. |
| An agency can guarantee you a place | Google says even a page that meets every requirement is not guaranteed to be shown. |
We publish an llms.txt file ourselves because it costs almost nothing, not because we expect it to win recommendations. Crawler access, entity consistency, trilingual content, structured data and a monthly prompt panel are what 4AI's SEO and GEO programme covers, from AED 7,500 a month excluding VAT; reviews and outside mentions still have to be earned by the business itself. We do not guarantee rankings or AI mentions. Whoever you hire, including us, hold them to the checklist for vetting a Dubai marketing agency, and compare fees with what SEO retainers cost per month in Dubai.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business?
No. OpenAI's ads principles, published on 16 January 2026, say ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers and are always separate and clearly labelled. OpenAI announced its first ad tests for the US, so check its own pages for availability in the UAE. Anyone selling placement inside the answers is promising something OpenAI says its ads do not do.
How long does it take to start appearing in AI answers?
Access fixes register quickly: OpenAI and Perplexity say robots.txt changes take effect within about 24 hours. Anything that depends on crawling, reviews and mentions is slower; Google notes that recrawling can take from several days to several months. 4AI's published expectation for content-led SEO is three to six months, so plan AI visibility on a similar horizon.
Why does ChatGPT describe my business wrongly?
Often because the pages it found disagree about you, or an outdated page is the clearest source. OpenAI says search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect. Open the cited sources, fix the ones you control, ask the others to update, and use IndexNow, which Microsoft says helps AI systems reference the current version of a page.
Does asking in Arabic change which businesses ChatGPT recommends?
It can, so test it rather than assume. No assistant company documents whether it searches in the language of the question, but far fewer websites are written in Arabic than in English, so the pages behind an Arabic answer differ. Run your prompt panel in every language your customers use and compare each separately.
Does my Google Business Profile affect ChatGPT?
For Google's own AI answers, yes: Google says Business Profiles help businesses appear in them. For ChatGPT, OpenAI says nearby business listings come from third-party providers it does not name, and Microsoft points to Bing Places for Copilot. Keep your Google, Bing and Apple listings identical, since no single profile is documented as covering every assistant.
Is appearing in AI answers worth it if nobody clicks through?
Yes, with honest expectations. Some questions are answered without a visit, and no reliable figure shows how many in the UAE. A buyer who sees your name can still search for you or call, and Google says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality. Track impressions alongside the enquiries those pages bring in.