How to get recommended by ChatGPT and AI search

October 27, 202611 min read

ai-search / aeo / ai-tools

Gold signal rings radiating from a point on a dark field, cover image for "How to get recommended by ChatGPT and AI search"

To get named when someone asks ChatGPT or another AI tool who to hire, you need three things. Search engines have to be able to index your pages. Your pages have to be written so an AI can lift a clear answer from them. And your business has to be mentioned on the outside sites that AI tools cite. I track this with a fixed list of real buyer questions. Every week I check who gets named, fix the gaps and recheck the same prompts. I run that loop with five Grok Bots. Each bot has one job, and nothing goes public until I approve it.

Chapters in the video

Why the AI answer decides who gets the job

The AI answer often decides who gets hired before a buyer visits any website. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews for the best agency or contractor for a job, they get back a short list of names and maybe a few links. The businesses on that list get the click and the trust. A business that is left off never comes up for that buyer at all.

For founders and operators, this changes what "visible" means. Ranking somewhere on a results page used to be enough to get a look. Now you need to be one of the few names the AI tool actually says.

AEO, GEO and SEO aim at the same result

AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) are two labels for the same goal: get your business named and cited in AI answers. The part most people skip is that AI tools pull a lot of what they say from search indexes. If Google and Bing cannot find your page, ChatGPT and the other AI tools will have a hard time finding it too.

Classic SEO still matters because it sets the minimum. Indexing, clean titles, working links and accurate schema come before any AI-specific work. AEO and GEO build on that base. They do not replace it.

How the Grok Bot team is set up

I built the Jake Bauman Grok Bot visibility team as five Grok Bots. Each bot has a name and a written job description, and the five work from one shared task list. These Grok Bot features make that setup practical:

Named roles. Each Grok Bot gets a name and one job, written down.
Messaging. Grok Bots can message each other, a bit like teammates on Slack. When one finishes, it tells the next one it is their turn.
A shared computer. All five Grok Bots work on the same machine. When the AI Search Desk saves a fix list, the Content Writer opens that same file. Nothing gets copied and pasted between tools.
Routines. Each Grok Bot can run on a schedule, such as a check on Monday, an action on Wednesday and a review on Friday. I do not have to remember to start them.
Skills. A skill is a saved set of steps a Grok Bot can reuse. I wrote my page checklist once, saved it as a skill, and the bots apply the same checklist every time.
Connectors. Grok Bots can connect to the apps I already use, like email and docs.
Approvals. With the right guardrails, each Grok Bot asks me before anything goes out.

The rule that holds the team together

The rule is "One bot, one job, and approval from me." No Grok Bot posts, publishes or sends anything outside the team unless I have reviewed it and said yes.

Giving each bot a single job is a debugging decision. When one bot does ten things and something goes wrong, you cannot tell which part broke. "When one bot has one job, it makes it really easy to fix things." The approval step protects your brand. An AI writing pages or outreach pitches will sometimes get facts wrong, and I want to catch that before a buyer sees it.

Bot 1: Team Lead keeps one task list

The Team Lead Grok Bot keeps a single task list for the whole team. It sends each task to the right bot and gives me a weekly brief. It runs as a routine every Monday morning. It reads what the other bots saved the week before, then writes a short brief covering what was checked, what was fixed, what is ready, what is stuck and what needs a yes from me.

The task list lives on the shared computer, so every Grok Bot sees the same list. Bots only start tasks I have marked ready, so nothing runs without my sign-off. What the Team Lead hands back is that brief and a clean task list.

Bot 2: AI Search Desk checks who gets named

The AI Search Desk Grok Bot is the center of the team. It finds out whether AI tools name your business for the questions your buyers ask. Its job has three parts:

Keep the buyer prompt list. These are full questions written the way a buyer would type them into ChatGPT. Examples are "best marketing agency for home service companies" or "who sets up AI workflows for small agencies."
Run the visibility check. For each prompt, it records who gets named, who gets cited, and whether that is my business or someone else.
Write the fix list. Each row covers one page: what is wrong, what to change and which Grok Bot should do it.

The AI Search Desk runs as a weekly routine, with the same prompts on the same day every week. When it finishes, it saves the results to the shared computer and messages the Team Lead. It hands back prompt-by-prompt check results and the fix list.

Bot 3: SEO Desk makes sure AI can find your pages

The SEO Desk Grok Bot handles classic SEO: indexing, technical basics, schema and business details. AI search depends on the search index, so this bot works on every page before anything else happens. "If a page isn't indexing, nothing else matters."

Here is what the SEO Desk checks:

Indexing. Any page Google skipped goes on the list. After a new page or a big rewrite, it flags the page so I can ask Google to index it.
Technical basics. Titles, meta descriptions, speed and broken links.
Schema. Schema is code that tells machines who you are, what you do, where you work and what you charge. The SEO Desk also looks at FAQ and review markup, and it runs schema through a validator before it ships.
NAP and business details. NAP means name, address and phone number. Hours and services get checked too. These should match on your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and your schema. If your site says one thing and your profile says another, AI tools may not trust either one.

The SEO Desk hands back an indexing list, a technical fix list, and a schema and NAP check. It adds its rows to the same fix list the AI Search Desk uses.

Bot 4: Content Writer turns fixes into pages AI can cite

The Content Writer Grok Bot takes the fix list and drafts pages that an AI tool can quote directly. It runs my page checklist, which is saved as a skill so it works the same way every time. The checklist:

An answer capsule. A short answer of about 40 to 60 words right under the main headline. The test is whether an AI could copy that one paragraph and use it as the full answer.
Subheads written as questions, with the first sentence under each one answering it right away.
Sections that stand alone. AI tools often grab one chunk of a page, so each chunk has to make sense by itself.
A table or list where it helps the reader.
A short summary near the top.
Stats linked to their source in the same sentence.
A last updated date.

Local pages get one more test. Take your location page and swap in a different city name. If the page still reads fine, it is too generic. A real local page includes things only that place has: named staff, real streets, local jobs you have done, real prices and dated reviews from local customers.

The Content Writer also checks every draft against my list of claims to avoid. That means no promised results and no made-up numbers. It hands back a draft page, notes on what should change and why, and a list of facts only I can fill in. Then it asks for my approval. I read it, I say yes or send it back, and only after a yes does it go live.

Bot 5: Mention Scout finds where competitors get cited

The Mention Scout Grok Bot works off your site. It finds the outside sources AI tools are citing so you can get listed there too. AI tools trust names they see in many places, so part of the work is earning mentions in roundup posts, directories and expert answers on sites that ask for them.

When the AI Search Desk finds a prompt where another business gets named, the Mention Scout looks at the sources behind that answer. The places where competitors are listed become your target list. It hands back a short list of places to get mentioned and a draft pitch for each one. It never sends a pitch on its own. I read the draft and decide whether to go ahead or try a different approach.

The Jake Bauman weekly visibility loop

The Jake Bauman weekly visibility loop is a six-step cycle that repeats every week. Its value comes from comparing the same prompts over time:

Prompt list. The AI Search Desk keeps the buyer questions in one file.
Check. The weekly routine runs and records who got named and who got cited.
Fix. The AI Search Desk and the SEO Desk add rows to the fix list. The Mention Scout adds places to get listed. The Team Lead turns each row into a task.
Approve. The Content Writer drafts, and the bots message me when something needs my yes.
Publish. I approve, the page goes live, and the SEO Desk flags it so I can ask Google to index it.
Recheck. Same prompts, same day.

The recheck matters most. "If you change the prompts every week, you can't tell if anything got better." Keep the prompts fixed, and write down every change you make so you can see what actually moved. On Monday the Team Lead sends the brief, which covers the whole week on one page.

An llms.txt file is a simple file that tells AI tools what is on your site. I treat it as a nice extra. The pages and the fixes do the real work.

How to set up your first bots this week

You do not need all five Grok Bots on day one. Build in this order:

Write your buyer prompt list. Start with 20 to 25 real questions your buyers would ask. Mix category questions, problem questions, comparisons and questions that include your brand name. Use the words your buyers use.
Run a baseline check. Put those prompts into ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and write down who gets named. Save this starting point so you have something to compare against later.
Set up the AI Search Desk. Give the Grok Bot a name and one job. Tell it what to check and what to hand back, then schedule the visibility check as a weekly routine.
Add the SEO Desk. Have it check indexing first, and fix anything that is not indexed before you write anything new.
Save your page checklist as a skill. Then add the Content Writer and point it at your most important service page.
Add the Team Lead last. Have it keep one task list and send you one weekly brief.

The whole setup guide, the buyer prompt list and the page checklist are in my free Cosmic AI community.

What a 30-day check can and cannot tell you

A 30-day run gives you a direction to follow. It does not guarantee citations or higher rankings, and you should not expect to be cited inside the first month. What it does give you is a record. Put your weekly checks side by side and you can see which prompts name you now, which sources got cited, and what you fixed and when. At minimum, you stop guessing.

I am running this same loop on my own business. I will report what moved and what did not, including the parts that do not work. If you would rather have someone run it for you, I do this work at NorthSignal, where I work on search visibility and AI citations for owner-led businesses.

Your next step is to open ChatGPT, type one question a buyer would ask before hiring someone like you, and write down whether it names your business, a competitor or neither.