Get your business recommended by ChatGPT

Ask what your customers ask

Open ChatGPT and type the question a buyer would type before choosing someone like you. The simplest shape:

Some examples:

• best accounting software for freelancers
• best wedding photographer in Manchester
• best project management tool for small agencies
• who should I hire to fix my website's SEO?

Ask three to five versions. Buyers phrase things differently, and so does the answer.

Write down every business it names. Those are the businesses you are up against in ChatGPT. They are often not the ones you think of as your competitors.

Free tool: AI Visibility Checker to see how often ChatGPT and Google's AI mention your brand, and who they name instead.

Find the pages to get on

There are two ways to find them. Use both.

Way 1: Click the links in ChatGPT's answer

When ChatGPT searches the web to answer, it shows where it got the answer: small source links inside the answer, or a Sources button at the end. Click them.

These are the websites it trusts for your question. Look for three kinds of page:

Skip news articles and single-product reviews. Nobody edits old news, and a review is about one product by design.

Free tool: AI Overviews & AI Mode Checker to see every source Google's AI Overview and AI Mode cite for a question, and whether you're one.

Way 2: Find the "best X" lists that link to your competitors, but not to you

Take two of the businesses from Step 1 and search Google for pages that mention both:

A page that names two or more of your competitors is almost always a list or a comparison: a page whose whole job is to list businesses like yours. If you are missing from it, that is a gap you can fix.

Start with the pages that name the most of your competitors. Skip press releases (they are paid placements you can't earn), and skip sites that look spammy or are full of ads.

Free tool: Backlink Checker to see every page that links to a competitor's website.

Ask to be added

Find who wrote the page

1. The author's name at the top or bottom of the article.
2. Their author page on that site, which often has an email or a contact link.
3. The site's "team", "contact" or "write for us" page.
4. Their LinkedIn or X profile.

Never guess an email address. If you can't find a real one, move on.

Send them an outreach email

Short and specific beats long and polite. Every email answers three things: what you do, who it's for, and why you belong on their list.

Subject: A suggestion for your "[article title]"

Hi [name],

I read your "[article title]", really useful list.

I run [your business], a [what you do] for [who it's for]. I noticed you include [competitor A] and [competitor B]. We're [one clear difference: built for small teams / simpler to set up / cheaper].

Would you consider adding us? Happy to send anything that helps.

Thanks,
[your name]

Subject: Another option for "[article title]"

Hi [name],

Your "[article title]" came up when I was looking at how people compare [category] options.

We make [your business], and readers comparing [competitor A] often look at us too, because [one clear difference].

If you ever update the piece, we'd love to be considered. I can send details, screenshots or a free account to try it.

Thanks,
[your name]

Follow up once

If there's no reply after a week, send one short follow-up. Then let it go.

Keep a simple sheet

Page, author, email, date sent, follow-up date, result. Without it, you will email the same person twice and forget the ones who said yes.

Answer the questions you're missing

For every question in Step 1 where ChatGPT names someone else and not you, write a blog article on your site that answers it properly. ChatGPT can only recommend what it can find. If no page on your site answers the question, there is nothing for it to pick up.

Free tool: Content Brief Generator to turn a missing question into a ready-to-write brief with target keywords and structure.

Replaces step 1

It writes your customer questions for you

You don't have to come up with the questions. During onboarding, it reads your website and writes the questions your buyers ask. Then it asks them across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode, rechecked throughout the week.

app.seoladders.com/dashboard/ai-optimization/prompts

1. 1These are the questions your buyers ask, written by your agent from your own website during onboarding.
2. 2Open any question to read the real answer from every engine, and whether it mentioned you or not.
3. 3For every question, you see which businesses the answer named instead of you.

Checked on all six

• ChatGPT
• Perplexity
• Gemini
• Claude
• AI Overview
• AI Mode

Replaces step 2

It finds every page worth getting on, three ways

All three go into one outreach list, best first.

app.seoladders.com/dashboard/ai-optimization/sources

1. 1Every page AI cited when it answered your questions is collected here, in one list.
2. 2You can filter the list to your own pages, social sites or other websites, to see where to get listed.

Replaces step 3

It finds the authors and writes the outreach emails

For every page on that list, it shows why the page was picked and what kind of page it is (list, comparison, alternatives), so the easy yeses go first. It finds the author from the byline on that exact page, and writes the outreach email saying why you should be listed.

app.seoladders.com/dashboard/link-building

1. 1Each page shows why it was picked: AI cited it, it lists your competitors, or it ranks on Google.
2. 2It tells you what kind of page it is, such as a listicle, a comparison or an alternatives page.
3. 3It shows the author it found from the byline on that exact page.
4. 4Your outreach email is already written, saying why you belong on that page.
5. 5Copy the email, send it yourself, then press "I sent it" to keep track.

Replaces the bonus

It turns your missing questions into blog articles

Every question where AI recommends someone else and not you becomes a content gap. The blog gaps are written as articles and added to your calendar, and they publish to your site when a CMS is connected. When a question needs a page on your site rather than a blog post, you get a brief for it.

app.seoladders.com/dashboard/content-gap

1. 1Each row is a question where AI recommends someone else and not you.
2. 2Under each one, you see the competitors AI names there instead.
3. 3Blog gaps go straight into the autoblog queue, so the article gets written without you asking.

Everything on your dashboard, inside Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

SEOLadders comes with a skill and an MCP, so you can use all of it from the AI tool you already work in.

You don't run the checks. Your agent already did. You just ask, and it answers from your own data:

• Who does ChatGPT name instead of me?
• Which pages does AI cite for my questions?
• Which lists are my competitors on that I'm not?
• Show me the outreach emails waiting for me.
• Which questions am I missing from?

claude.ai

1. 1You type your question in plain English, in the AI tool you already use.
2. 2The answer comes from your own SEOLadders data, the checks your agent already ran.

Set it up

1. 1
   Create your SEOLadders account and finish onboarding. That's when your agent starts working. 7-day free trial.
2. 2
   Connect the AI tool you use.

   • Claude app: add the skill and the SEOLadders connector, then sign in with your SEOLadders account. No API key needed.
   • ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or another tool: create an API key on the MCP & Skill page in your dashboard and add the MCP with it.
3. 3
   Ask your first question. For example: “Which pages does AI cite for my buyers' questions that don't list me yet?”

Step-by-step setup for every app, with fixes for common problems: MCP and Skill setup guide

Straight answers

Also on the same plan

Getting recommended by AI is one job your agent does. Here is everything else it does on the same plan. Try it free for 7 days, then your first month is $48, half price. If it's working for you, it's $97 a month after that.

Prefer to do it by hand? See all free tools