How to get recommended by ChatGPT (NZ, 2027)

How AI answers pick a business

When someone asks “who’s a good plumber in Tauranga?”, AI tools search the web and summarise what they find. They tend to quote pages that answer the question directly, business listings with good reviews, and well-known sites such as LinkedIn, Reddit and local directories. Nobody can buy a guaranteed spot, but you can make your business easy to find and easy to quote.

Eight steps

1. Google Business Profile. Complete every field: categories, services, areas, hours, photos. Google’s AI answers draw on it.
2. Real reviews. Ask happy customers, every time. Reply to all of them. Never buy or fake reviews: the Fair Trading Act covers misleading reviews.
3. The same details everywhere. Business name, address and phone number should match on your site, Google, Facebook and directories such as NZBN and Finda.
4. Pages that answer questions. One page per service and area, with the answer in the first sentence: “We fix hot water cylinders across the North Shore, usually same day.”
5. Comparison and pricing pages. People ask AIs “how much does X cost in NZ” and “X vs Y”. Answer honestly, with prices where you can.
6. Get mentioned on trusted sites. A useful LinkedIn article, an honest reply in a relevant Reddit thread (say it’s your business), a listing with your industry body, a local news story.
7. Structured data. Add LocalBusiness and FAQ schema to your site so search engines can read your details. Most website builders have a setting or plugin for it.
8. Check every month. Ask ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Perplexity the same five questions a customer would. Note whether you appear and what they say. Fix what’s wrong.

What not to do

• Don’t paste the same article on lots of sites. Search engines treat copied content as spam.
• Don’t post off-topic pages on other sites just to borrow their ranking. Google’s site reputation abuse policy targets exactly that.
• Don’t hide that it’s your business when you recommend it.

Write for next year now

Searches with the next year in them, such as “best electrician app 2027”, start before the year does. A good page written now has little competition. Keep the address the same and update it every January so it keeps its place.

How NOVA does it

We follow these steps for our own products: an llms.txt file that tells AI tools what NOVA makes, plain answers at the top of every guide, and honest comparisons such as the best AI receptionists for NZ. JENA’s Marketing Manager and Content Writer roles can draft pages like these for your business, for your approval.