You can't make ChatGPT recommend you, but you can make yourself easy to find, read and trust. Assistants that search the web build answers from pages they can reach. So allow their crawlers, keep your name and service area identical everywhere, publish clear pages about where you work, and earn genuine reviews.
Last reviewed: November 2026
How do AI assistants choose which agents to name?
When an assistant answers "Who's a good realtor in my city?" using web search, it looks for pages about agents in that area, reads them, and summarizes what it found. The agents it can say something specific about are the ones it's likely to mention. If there's little about you online, or your details conflict from site to site, there's less for it to work with.
The companies behind these tools don't publish a complete recipe, and their systems change often. Answers can also vary from one ask to the next. So treat everything below as a method based on what the platforms do publish, not a formula.
Here's what is published:
- Google: Its AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on pages in Google's index. Google says "there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary," and that you "don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup" to appear (Google Search Central).
- ChatGPT: OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler "is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features," and that sites which opt out of it are excluded from ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI crawler overview).
The practical takeaway: an assistant can only recommend you from what it can find.
Step 1: Make sure assistants can reach your site
Check your site's robots.txt file and any security settings on your host. If they block Googlebot or OAI-SearchBot, your pages can't feed those search features.
OpenAI runs separate crawlers for separate purposes. Its documentation says a site can allow OAI-SearchBot (search) while blocking GPTBot (model training), because each is controlled independently. You can make that choice for yourself; blocking training doesn't have to mean disappearing from search answers.
Google lists a few related basics for AI features: allow crawling, make content easy to find through internal links, and keep important content in text form rather than only in images.
Step 2: Write one master set of facts and match it everywhere
Pick the exact version of these and never vary it:
- Your name, as you use it professionally
- Your brokerage name and any required disclosure
- Your office address, or your service area if clients don't visit an office
- Your contact details
- A one-paragraph description: what you do, the places you serve, the property types you know
Then put that same set on your Google Business Profile, your website, and the directories assistants and search engines read. When the same facts show up in many independent places, they're easier to confirm. When one site says one brokerage and another says a different one, that's a conflict an assistant has to resolve. See which directories matter.
Step 3: Keep your Google Business Profile complete
Google's AI features guidance specifically recommends keeping Business Profile information current. Your profile is also one of the most widely read sources of local business facts. Fill every field that applies, keep hours current, and use a real, unaltered photo. Our Google Business Profile service page covers what that means for an agent.
Step 4: Publish pages that answer the questions people ask
Assistants quote clear answers. Pages that open with a direct answer, then explain, are easy to read and easy to cite. For an agent, good pages answer things like:
- What should a seller in this neighborhood know before listing?
- What's different about buying a condo here versus a single-family home?
- What inspection issues come up with the older homes in this area?
- How does the HOA approval process work in this community?
Write from what you know about the places you work. Describe the area's property types, landmarks, parks and commute routes as places. Never describe the kinds of people who live there; that's a Fair Housing line, and it applies to web pages as much as to listing ads.
And don't clone a page across towns with the name swapped. Google's spam policies treat that as doorway abuse, and a page with nothing specific to say gives an assistant nothing to quote.
Google's helpful content guidance says content should be made "primarily for people, and not to manipulate search engine rankings." That's the right standard for AI answers too.
Step 5: Earn genuine reviews and mentions
Reviews are written by real clients in their own words about real transactions. That makes them useful material for anyone trying to describe you, person or machine. Ask every client after closing, share a direct review link, and reply to every review.
Never pay for reviews, write them yourself, or offer anything tied to a positive one. The FTC's final rule on fake reviews bans fake reviews and incentives tied to a review's sentiment, and Google removes them (source).
Beyond reviews, real mentions help: a local news story about a community event you organized, a quote in a market article, a talk at a local group. Each is another independent place your name appears with your area.
Step 6: Use structured data that matches the page
Structured data is code that labels facts on a page. Schema.org has a RealEstateAgent type, a kind of LocalBusiness. Google says to use the most specific LocalBusiness type that fits, and that it doesn't guarantee any feature will appear because of markup (source). Google also says no special markup is needed for its AI features. Use it as a tidy label for facts that are already visible on the page, never to add claims the page doesn't make.
Step 7: Check what assistants say, the same way every month
Write a fixed list of real questions buyers and sellers in your market ask. Ask them in the major assistants each month and save the answers. Note:
| What to record | Why |
|---|---|
| Were you named? | The basic yes or no |
| What was said about you? | Errors are worth fixing at the source |
| Which sources were shown? | A source that names others but not you is a gap |
| Which agents were named? | Shows what the assistant finds easy to say |
Use the same questions each time so the trend is honest. One answer on one day doesn't mean much; a pattern over months does.
What doesn't work?
- "AI text files" or hidden instructions. Google says you don't need special files to appear in its AI features.
- Stuffing your name into pages. Repetition isn't information.
- Fake reviews or invented credentials. They break platform rules and federal law, and they're the kind of claim that hurts when someone checks.
- Superlatives. Assistants and readers both respond to specifics, not big adjectives.
How long does this take?
AI mentions usually build over months. Pages need to be found, crawled and trusted before they feed answers. Your Google profile and map results tend to move sooner. Track monthly and judge the trend.
Want to know what assistants say about you now?
Our free audit asks AI assistants the questions people in your market actually ask, shows you who they name today, and tells you what we'd fix. You get it in writing within two business days, with no call required.
