Being cited by ChatGPT: the seven concrete levers for an SME

If you don't yet know what AI visibility is, start with our definition article. Here, we move to action. One principle guides everything that follows: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Le Chat, or Copilot rely on what they have learned and, for some, on direct search. They cite sources they judge to be reliable and consistent. Your job is to make your company easy to understand and easy to verify.

ILever 1: a page that says what, where, and for whom

Reread your homepage as a stranger. Can you understand in two sentences what you do, your area and your clientele? Many small business websites say 'expertise' and 'quality' without ever writing 'plumber heating engineer in Rennes, emergency repairs and boiler replacement for homeowners'. An assistant cannot recommend what it does not understand.

IILevers 2 and 3: consistent listings and genuine reviews

Your name, address, phone number and hours must be identical everywhere: website, Google Business Profile listing, Bing Places, professional directories, social media. An old address in a directory is enough to sow doubt. Also complete your Google listing: exact category, services, service area, recent photos.

Reviews are a source that assistants can read and summarize. Ask for them simply, at the right time: after a successful job, at the handover of keys, at the time of the bill. Respond to each one, including criticism, calmly. Never buy reviews and never write them yourself: fake reviews are prohibited and can be detected.

IIILevers 4 and 5: answering real questions, and telling the robots

Customers ask specific questions: 'How much does it cost to install an oak staircase?', 'Do you deliver on Sunday?', 'Do you accept dogs?'. Note the ones you hear on the phone and answer them on your site, in a FAQ or on service pages. Give price ranges when possible, your timelines, your areas. These answers are exactly what an assistant is looking for.

To verify the result, Google's rich results testing tool indicates whether your structured data is being read correctly. They guarantee nothing on their own, but they remove ambiguities.

IVLever 6: existing in the sources that AI reads

An assistant trusts a company more if other sites mention it. These external mentions count: an article in the local press, a listing on your professional federation's website, a list of members of a merchants' association, a page from the chamber of trades, a partner who recommends you. A carpentry business that restored the woodwork in a community hall can ask the town hall to mention it in its online newsletter. Each exact mention strengthens the coherence of the whole.

VLever 7: a site that robots can read

A very beautiful site can remain unreadable to a robot: text embedded in images, slow pages, content that only appears after a click, robots.txt file that blocks everything. Assistants that do live searches use their own robots, like OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT or PerplexityBot for Perplexity. Check with your provider that these robots are not blocked if you want to appear in their answers.

VIThe action plan, from simplest to most demanding

No need to do everything in one week. Follow this order, which goes from the lightest effort to the heaviest, and measure before you start so you can compare later.

Then redo your survey with the same questions, a few weeks later. Results may not move right away, and no lever guarantees a citation. I advise you to judge based on several surveys, not just one. If you want a broader diagnosis of your site, ABYS's free AI audit gives you a score and leads.