guide
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
To get ChatGPT to recommend your business, be named in plain text on the pages it reads when it searches the web: third-party “best of” roundups, review sites and forum threads. Then give it a site that says who you serve, what you do and what it costs, in sentences it can quote. In our October 2026 test of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, the only agency named by all four answers reached them through other companies’ lists, not its own website.
By Mad MethodUpdated 5 steps · 1 study
Get onto the lists the engines read
When ChatGPT searches the web for a recommendation, it reads “best X for Y” roundups and builds its shortlist from them. Find the roundups that already rank for your category and get included: pitch the author, offer a real case study, or earn the mention with work they can check.
what we saw
Every source ChatGPT cited in our test was a third-party roundup (understoryagency.com, saasagency.org, saashero.net, brandidentitydesk.com). NoGood, the only name in all four answers, came in through lists like these.
Publish an honest comparison of your own category
A “best X” page on your own site can be cited too, but only if it reads like a fair guide. Name real competitors, say who each one suits, and include yourself where you genuinely fit.
what we saw
Perplexity cited three of Metabrand’s own “best agencies” guides and put Metabrand first. Claude used the same source and told the reader the claim came from Metabrand’s own site, so a one-sided list gets flagged.
Say who you’re for in one quotable sentence
Engines match a company to a request using phrases they can lift word for word. Write a line that states your customer and stage plainly, like “for Seed to Series A B2B SaaS”, and repeat it on your homepage, your profiles and the lists you appear on.
what we saw
Gemini described Kalungi as “purpose-built for Seed to Series A B2B SaaS”. Perplexity and Claude both described Metabrand as built for “seed to Series A” startups.
Put prices and facts on the page, as text
If your starting price, timeline and location only live in a PDF, a sales call or an image, an engine can’t repeat them. State them in HTML text on a page that’s easy to find.
what we saw
Perplexity and Claude both quoted Metabrand’s starting prices ($15K for identity, $25K with a website). Claude quoted SaaStorm’s “from $4,500/month”. The engines repeated prices that were written down.
Show up where buyers ask each other
Forum threads where buyers ask for recommendations are sources too. Answer those questions under your own name with useful detail, not a pitch.
what we saw
Gemini cited a Reddit thread from r/DigitalMarketing alongside agency roundups when it built its answer.
the evidence
what we tested.
The prompt: “Who’s the best brand and growth agency for a Series A SaaS startup?”
How: One live API call per engine with web search on, on 21 October 2026: GPT-5.5, Perplexity Sonar, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash. One turn, no system prompt. These are API models, so answers in the logged-in apps can differ.
| agency | ChatGPTGPT-5.5 | PerplexitySonar | ClaudeSonnet 5.5 | Gemini3.6 Flash | answers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NoGood | named | named | named | named | 4 |
| Metabrand | named | named | named | not named | 3 |
| Kalungi | named | not named | named | named | 3 |
| Clay | not named | named | named | named | 3 |
| Ramotion | named | named | not named | named | 3 |
| GrowthSpree | not named | named | not named | named | 2 |
| Mad Method | not named | not named | not named | not named | 0 |
- One agency, NoGood, was named in all four answers. Four more were named in three.
- Every other agency was named by one engine only. The engines agree on a small core and disagree on everything else.
- We weren’t named by any of them. This guide is the playbook we’re now running on our own site, and we’ll publish the re-test.
every name each engine gave
- ChatGPT (GPT-5.5)
- NoGood, Metabrand, Kalungi, Powered by Search, Ramotion, Omniscient Digital
- Perplexity (Sonar)
- Metabrand, Clay, Digital Surgeons, GrowthSpree, NoGood, Ramotion
- Claude (Sonnet 5.5)
- Ladder, Gripped, Kalungi, NoGood, SaaStorm, Scalerrs, Metabrand, Clay, Brickell Digital, Ration, Red Antler, Motto, Verve Agency
- Gemini (3.6 Flash)
- NoGood, Directive, Single Grain, Kalungi, Hey Digital, GrowthSpree, Focus Lab, Ramotion, Clay, Pony Studio
before you ask
fair questions.
How do I check if ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask the question your buyer would ask, in a fresh session with web search on, and write down every company it names and every page it cites. Do the same in Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, then repeat monthly. The cited pages are your to-do list: those are the sites you need to be on.
Do ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini recommend the same companies?
Only partly. In our test, one agency appeared in all four answers and four more in three of them, but most names came from a single engine. Each engine searched different pages, so being visible in one doesn’t mean you’re visible in the others.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization means structuring your site and your presence elsewhere so AI answer engines quote you as the answer. The foundation is the same as SEO: a fast, crawlable site with useful pages. AEO adds answer-first writing, plain-text facts and mentions on the third-party pages these engines read.
Is getting cited by ChatGPT different from ranking on Google?
They overlap. When ChatGPT searches the web, it reads pages that already rank, so ranking still matters. The difference is that it then picks names out of those pages, so being mentioned on other people’s pages can matter as much as your own page ranking.
Can a company’s own “best of” list get it recommended?
Yes, but it can backfire. In our test Perplexity used a company’s own guides to rank it first, while Claude used the same kind of source and warned the reader it was self-published. Keep comparisons fair and include competitors.
want us to run it?
Mad Method (madmethod.io) runs this test for your category, shows you which pages the engines cite, and then gets you onto them.