ChatGPT search
ChatGPT and your business
ChatGPT can look things up online while it answers and link the pages it used. This page explains how that search reaches a local business website, and the one setting that can keep a site out.
Every ChatGPT plan, including the free one
Definition
What ChatGPT search is
ChatGPT search is the part of ChatGPT that looks things up on the web before answering, then shows the pages it relied on as citations. OpenAI's help article says it can switch on by itself "when your question would benefit from current information", or a person can turn it on from the tools menu.
OpenAI lists search as available on every ChatGPT plan, including the free one, and to people who aren't signed in. So when a customer asks ChatGPT to suggest a Burnaby plumber, the answer they see can be built from live web results rather than from memory alone.
OpenAI Help Center, "Searching the web with ChatGPT" (page carries no date), read 2026-10-08.
Our work
What we do about ChatGPT
AI SEO Vancouver's work for ChatGPT starts with access, then moves to facts and pages, and is checked by asking ChatGPT directly.
- 01
Open the door
Robots.txt, firewall and CDN settings checked so OAI-SearchBot can reach your pages. You decide separately whether GPTBot is allowed.
- 02
Fix old facts
Out-of-date pages and listings that feed wrong answers are found, then corrected or removed where you control them.
- 03
Answer the questions
Clear pages on your own site answering what customers want to know, so a search has something accurate to cite.
- 04
Ask ChatGPT
Your agreed questions put to ChatGPT each month, with the full answer and every cited link saved and dated.
Not the same as Google
Why ChatGPT is a separate path
ChatGPT search takes a different route to the web from Google. OpenAI runs its own crawler for search, called OAI-SearchBot, and also sends rewritten queries to outside search providers. Its help article names Microsoft among the providers whose privacy policies apply.
That means a business can show up well in Google and still be missing from ChatGPT, or the other way round. The two systems are fed from different crawls and rank pages in their own ways, so each one has to be checked on its own.
OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers" (platform.openai.com/docs/bots, page carries no date) and OpenAI Help Center, "Searching the web with ChatGPT" (no date). Both read 2026-10-08.
The one setting
The setting that can hide a site
OAI-SearchBot access in robots.txt decides whether a site can appear in ChatGPT search answers. Sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers", according to OpenAI.
- OAI-SearchBot
- The crawler for ChatGPT search. OpenAI recommends allowing it in robots.txt and letting its published IP ranges through. If it's blocked, the site drops out of search answers, apart from plain navigational links.
- GPTBot
- A separate crawler that collects pages OpenAI may use to train its models. Blocking it is a training choice. OpenAI treats the two settings independently.
- ChatGPT-User
- The agent used when a person in ChatGPT asks it to open a page. OpenAI says it isn't used to decide what appears in search, and that robots.txt rules may not apply to it because a person started the request.
- Time to take effect
- OpenAI says a robots.txt change can take about a day to reach its search systems.
OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers", platform.openai.com/docs/bots (page carries no date), read 2026-10-08.
Local answers
How ChatGPT handles local questions
ChatGPT works out a rough location from the person's IP address and can turn a "near me" question into a search with a city in it. OpenAI's own example rewrites a request for restaurants near a San Francisco user into "top restaurants San Francisco."
OpenAI also says ChatGPT may pass location to "trusted third-party providers" that supply nearby business listings. OpenAI doesn't publish which listing sources it uses for any given area, so AI SEO Vancouver doesn't claim to know. What a business can control is that its name, area and services read the same on its own site and on the listings it manages.
Why matching facts matter for AI answers.
OpenAI Help Center, "Searching the web with ChatGPT" (page carries no date), read 2026-10-08.
Accuracy
ChatGPT answers can be wrong
ChatGPT search can cite the wrong page or repeat outdated facts, and OpenAI says so in its help article: "Search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect."
For a business owner, that's a reason to read each answer rather than only count mentions. A wrong phone number or a closed location in a ChatGPT answer usually traces back to an old page or listing that still says it. Fixing that source is the useful work.
OpenAI Help Center, "Searching the web with ChatGPT" (page carries no date), read 2026-10-08.
Limits
What we won't promise about ChatGPT
OpenAI decides what ChatGPT says, and AI SEO Vancouver won't promise a recommendation. Opening the crawler and fixing the facts makes a business possible to cite. It doesn't make citation certain.
- That ChatGPT will name or recommend your business.
- The same answer twice. ChatGPT answers vary between runs, accounts and locations.
- Knowledge of OpenAI's ranking. OpenAI doesn't publish how it orders search results, and no outside agency has that information.
- A paid route in. OpenAI's crawler page describes a separate bot for ads, which is advertising, not the organic answers this service works on.
OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers" (page carries no date), read 2026-10-08.
How we check
How we check ChatGPT, as of October 2026
Each month the AI SEO Vancouver tracker asks ChatGPT every agreed question, saves the complete answer, and records each cited link with its position. The report shows whether the business was named, whether its site was cited, and which competitors appeared.
Because one run can differ from the next, a single answer is treated as a sample. The month-on-month pattern is what the report reads. How we measure.
Last reviewed 27 October 2026
Message
Ask about ChatGPT for your business
Tell us your website and the work you want more of. A person reads every message and replies by email.
What happens next
- We look at your site and how it shows in Google today.
- On a short call we say whether the standard plan fits or whether you need a quote.
- If it fits, the setup month starts with a baseline you can compare against later.