Someone types into ChatGPT: "find me a good physiotherapist in Antwerp who treats runners." It answers with three named practices, a sentence about each, and sometimes a link to their websites. No scrolling through ten blue links, no map pack, no ads. The customer reads the three names, picks one, and books. If your business is one of those names, you just won a customer who never saw your competitors. If it is not, you were invisible, and you will never know the question was even asked.
This is happening for every kind of question owners used to win through Google: "best accounting software for a one-person shop," "a reliable plumber near Ghent that does emergency calls," "a florist in Bruges that delivers same day." The answers name real businesses. So it is worth understanding where those names come from.
Where does ChatGPT find the businesses it names?
Two places: what the model learned during training, and what it finds when it searches the live web to answer your question. The second one matters far more for you, because modern ChatGPT runs a web search behind the scenes for exactly these kinds of questions, then reads the results and picks names to mention.
That means the raw material is mostly familiar. Your website. Review platforms like Google reviews and Trustpilot. Directories and listing sites. Local news articles. "Best X in Y" roundups on blogs. Supplier and partner pages that mention you. ChatGPT does not have a secret database of good physiotherapists. It reads the same public web you can read, very fast, and summarizes what it finds.
The practical consequence: if a search for "physiotherapist Antwerp runners" surfaces pages that clearly describe your practice, you can be recommended. If those pages do not exist, no amount of wishing helps.
What makes ChatGPT pick one business over another?
Honest answer first: nobody outside OpenAI knows the exact logic, and it changes between model versions. Anyone who sells you "guaranteed ChatGPT rankings" is guessing. But you can see the pattern by asking it questions in your own niche and looking at who gets named. A few inputs show up again and again.
Clarity wins. When your homepage says "physiotherapy practice in Antwerp, specialized in running injuries, evening appointments available," a machine reading it can match you to the question word for word. When it says "movement is our passion," it cannot. Vague brand copy that a human might forgive is a hard fail for software trying to figure out who you serve and where.
Reviews count. A business with 80 Google reviews averaging 4.7 gives ChatGPT something concrete to repeat: "well reviewed, patients mention short waiting times." A business with three reviews gives it nothing to say, so it says nothing.
Mentions matter. If a local newspaper covered your bakery, a food blog put you in "10 best sourdough bakeries in Flanders," and your flour supplier lists you as a customer, you exist in multiple independent places. One self-written website is a single voice. Five sites agreeing about you is evidence.
Why does consistent business information matter so much?
Because a machine has to decide whether "De Smet Fysio," "Fysiotherapie De Smet BV," and "De Smet Physiotherapy Antwerp" are one business or three. If your name, address, phone number, and service list differ across your website, your Google Business Profile, and two directories, you split your own evidence. Three weak mentions instead of one strong one.
Pick one exact business name, one address format, one list of services. Use them everywhere: website footer, Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, industry directories, your Facebook page. This is boring work, an afternoon at most, and it is one of the few things on this list you can finish completely in a single sitting.
What pages should you publish to show up in these answers?
Pages that answer the questions ChatGPT gets asked, phrased the way customers phrase them. Customers do not ask "physiotherapy services." They ask "who can fix my runner's knee in Antwerp" or "do physios do home visits." Each of those deserves a page or a clear section with a direct answer in the first two sentences.
A workable starting list:
- One page per service, with the city or region named in the title and the first paragraph
- A page that says plainly who you are for: "we work with freelancers and one-person businesses, not corporations"
- A pricing or "what does it cost" page, even with ranges, because cost questions are among the most asked
- Short answer-style articles for the real questions customers ask you on the phone every week
The test for each page: if ChatGPT read only this page, could it write one accurate sentence recommending you to the right person? "X is a physiotherapy practice in Antwerp specializing in running injuries, with evening hours and around 80 positive reviews." If your site does not contain the ingredients for that sentence, add them.
Is this different from regular SEO?
Mostly no, and that should reassure you. The work that gets you recommended by ChatGPT, clear service pages, consistent listings, real reviews, mentions on other sites, is the same work that ranks you in Google. You are not maintaining two separate strategies. The difference is presentation: Google shows a list and lets the customer judge, while ChatGPT picks two or three names and presents them as the answer. Being one of two named businesses is worth more than being result number four of ten, which is exactly why this deserves attention now rather than someday.
The one mental shift: write for the question, not the keyword. A keyword mindset produces a page stuffed with "physiotherapist Antwerp." A question mindset produces a page that says who you treat, what it costs, and how fast someone can get an appointment. The second one is what gets quoted.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There is currently no ad product that buys you a spot in ChatGPT's recommendations the way Google Ads buys a search position. The names it gives come from what it reads on the open web, which is why the unglamorous work of clear pages, reviews, and mentions is the actual lever.
How do I check whether ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask it the way a customer would, in plain words: "find me a good [your service] in [your city]." Try five or six phrasings and note who gets named and why. Answers vary between sessions and model updates, so treat it as a rough signal you check monthly, not a ranking you track daily.
How long does it take to start showing up?
Expect months, not days. ChatGPT leans on web search results, reviews, and mentions, and all three take time to build. Fixing inconsistent listings and publishing clear service pages can show effects within a few weeks of being indexed, while reviews and third-party mentions accumulate over a quarter or more.
When ChatGPT recommends businesses, it is repeating what the web says about you, so the job is making the web say something clear. Fonzy writes and publishes the kind of pages this takes, answer-first articles and service content built around the questions your customers actually ask. You keep running the business while your website builds the evidence. More on the bigger picture in how to get more customers.
