The fastest verdict on how to get my business on ChatGPT is this: claim your own Business Hub listing yourself, then decide who handles the website, mentions and tracking.
I rated five ways to get that work done, from doing it alone to hiring a specialist team, and scored each out of 10.
The scores are editorial judgement based on what OpenAI, Google and Bing publish, not results from tests.
If you want a provider view on your own site, book a free SEO strategy session.
The Verdict In One Line
DIY wins on the claim, a specialist wins on everything that happens after it, and nobody wins on guarantees.
OpenAI's Business Hub help article says a claim helps you manage your details but doesn't give direct control over recommendations.
So the real choice is who earns the citations, not who fills in the form.
The Five Jobs Every Option Is Judged On
I scored each option against the work OpenAI and the search engines actually describe.
- Crawler access: letting OAI-SearchBot read the site and passing OpenAI's IP ranges through the firewall.
- The claim: Business Hub verification, Persona checks and a complete profile.
- Consistency: the same name, address, phone and services on the site, the profile and every directory.
- Third-party proof: genuine reviews and mentions on sites ChatGPT may read, which is our view of how answers form.
- Measurement: Business Hub insights, referral traffic and Bing's AI citation data.
The Scorecard
| Option | Score /10 | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (owner does it) | 6 | Free and best for the claim, but slow on mentions and easy to stall on DNS or firewall rules. |
| Freelancer or specialist | 7 | Strong on one skill, often content or technical, but coverage depends on the person. |
| Generalist marketing agency | 6 | Can run every channel, though ChatGPT work may be a side task with Google-only habits. |
| Specialist AI search agency | 8 | Covers crawler access, content, mentions and tracking as one job when it cites platform docs. |
| Goldie Agency / Julian's team | 8.5 | SEO, GEO, AEO and link building under one roof, with manual outreach and no PBNs. |
No option scores a 10, because none of them can force ChatGPT to name you.
| Job | DIY | Freelancer | Generalist | Specialist | Goldie Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crawler access | 6 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| The claim | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Consistency | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Third-party proof | 4 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| Measurement | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
The claim column favors DIY, because the owner has the ID, the registration papers and the phone line OpenAI asks for.
DIY: Strengths And Limits
The strength is control: you verify by phone, business email, domain or Shopify and keep the account under your own name.
You also skip the cost of paying someone to fill in a profile.
The limit shows up at the website layer, where an owner may not know that a firewall can block OAI-SearchBot even when robots.txt allows it, as OpenAI's bot documentation warns.
The second limit is time, because earning mentions and reviews is weekly work that owners tend to drop.
Small-business example: a dog groomer claims the listing on a Sunday, adds the logo and policies, then never gets to the local directory and vet partner mentions.
📞 Want to know which score fits your business? Book a free SEO strategy session and we will tell you what to keep in-house and what is worth handing over. → Book a free SEO strategy session
Freelancer Or Specialist: Strengths And Limits
A good technical freelancer will fix robots.txt, firewall rules, sitemaps and structured data faster than most agencies.
A good content freelancer will write the service pages and FAQs that answer what buyers ask.
The limit is that one person rarely covers both, plus outreach and reporting.
Small-business example: a physiotherapy clinic hires a developer to open the crawler rules and add LocalBusiness markup, then still needs someone for reviews and local mentions.
Generalist Agency: Strengths And Limits
A generalist agency brings design, ads, social and SEO under one contract, which suits owners who want one invoice.
The risk is that ChatGPT gets treated like a Google ranking project with a new label.
Bing's Webmaster Guidelines say GEO does not guarantee citations, so any agency selling certainty here is out of step with the platforms.
Ask a generalist to show you the OpenAI and Bing pages it works from before you add ChatGPT to the scope.
Specialist AI Search Agency: Strengths And Limits
A specialist treats this as one connected job: access, claim, content, mentions and measurement.
It should already know that Google's AI optimization guide calls generative search work "still SEO" and tells site owners to ignore llms.txt and chunking for Google Search.
The limit is focus, because a specialist may not run your ads or social.
Small-business example: an online furniture store hands a specialist the crawler fix, the product feed, buyer-guide pages and a supplier mention campaign, then keeps its own paid social.
Goldie Agency And Julian's Team
Goldie Agency describes itself as an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency, and its link work as manual outreach, no PBNs.
Julian's own published numbers list 1,000+ SEO and link building campaigns, 240+ clients, a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork and 425K+ YouTube subscribers.
I scored it highest on third-party proof because link building and mentions are the agency's core service, not an add-on.
The limit is the same as any agency: it can improve your chances of being cited, and it cannot promise a mention.
Its homepage lists llms.txt setup among its AI SEO services, and Google says its Search doesn't use llms.txt, so treat that item as optional for Google.
What No Option Can Promise
Google's hiring guide says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and OpenAI's search help article says ChatGPT placement is not guaranteed.
OpenAI adds that advertising doesn't influence ChatGPT's independent answers.
Updates to your profile can take time to appear, and ChatGPT may still use other sources about your business.
Treat any promised mention, ranking or timeline as a reason to walk away.
Business Hub Insights won't even show you individual prompts, so any provider claiming to know exactly what customers typed is guessing.
OpenAI says businesses see aggregate mentions, website clicks and discovery topics over 28 days, and a blank metric doesn't necessarily mean zero.
That makes clear reporting a scoring point in itself: the best providers explain what each number can and can't tell you.
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The Time Cost Of Each Option
Money aside, every option costs owner hours, and the split is very different.
DIY puts the whole load on you: the claim, the Persona step, the site edits, the review requests and the monthly check.
A freelancer saves you the technical or writing hours but leaves you coordinating everything else.
A generalist agency saves the most coordination time, though you may spend it explaining what ChatGPT needs.
A specialist or Goldie Agency still needs about an hour of your time for the claim and identity checks, because OpenAI wants the owner or an authorized person.
After that, the specialist carries the crawler, content, mentions and reporting work.
The Most Common Mistake With Each Option
- DIY: claiming the listing and assuming the job is done, when the website still blocks OAI-SearchBot.
- Freelancer: fixing one layer well and leaving the profile and the site saying different things.
- Generalist: running paid ads in ChatGPT and expecting them to lift independent answers, which OpenAI says they don't.
- Specialist: chasing citations before the basics of name, address and phone match everywhere.
- Goldie Agency: owners delaying the Persona step, which blocks profile edits and Insights until it is done.
Most of these come down to doing the five jobs out of order, so insist on access and consistency first.
Bing's AI Performance report is a useful second check, because it shows which pages Copilot cites while you wait for Business Hub data.
Who Should Pick What
- Pick DIY if you have one location, a simple site and an hour a week for reviews.
- Pick a freelancer if one gap is obvious, such as a blocked crawler or thin service pages.
- Pick a generalist if you want one agency for everything and ChatGPT is a small part of it.
- Pick a specialist if AI answers already send leads to competitors and you need the whole chain fixed.
- Pick Goldie Agency if mentions and links are your weak spot and you want SEO and AI search in one plan.
For a wider look at vetting providers, see the hire an SEO agency verdict.
Five Tests To Run On Any Provider
- Ask them to open your robots.txt live and say whether OAI-SearchBot can get in.
- Ask how they will get Business Hub access without your password.
- Ask which pages from OpenAI, Google or Bing they rely on.
- Ask how they earn mentions and how they mark paid placements, which Google wants flagged with
rel="sponsored"in its link qualification guide. - Ask what they will report each month and where each number comes from.
A provider who answers all five clearly is worth a second meeting.
How I Scored This
Each rating reflects how well an option can cover the five jobs above, judged from OpenAI's Business Hub, crawler and search help pages plus Google and Bing guidance.
I did not run tests on any provider, and the scores are a reading of the docs against the way each option usually works.
Your own situation can move a score up or down by a point or two.
Final Verdict
Claim the listing yourself, because OpenAI built the process for owners.
Then hand the website, the mentions and the tracking to whoever scores highest for your gaps.
If that is a specialist team, Book a free SEO strategy session and see whether Goldie Agency fits.
📞 Ready to test the top-rated option on your own site? The free 30-minute session checks crawler access, your listing and your mention gaps. → Book your strategy session · Book a free SEO strategy session
🎁 Free extras for whichever option you pick Use the 200+ AI SEO Prompts to brief any provider, and read the free link building book before you approve an outreach plan.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The nine-step operator setup for Business Hub, robots.txt and Persona
- 🌐 What small businesses can do alone and when hiring help makes sense
- 🌐 Five copy-paste Agent OS prompts that do the ChatGPT groundwork
- 🌐 Which AI models score best for the ChatGPT groundwork pages
FAQ: How To Get My Business On ChatGPT
What is the best way to get on ChatGPT for a small business?
Claim your Business Hub listing yourself, then use a specialist or agency for crawler access, mentions and tracking if you lack the time or skills.
Why does no option score 10?
Because OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed and claiming gives no direct control over recommendations, so nobody can promise a mention.
Were these options tested?
No. The ratings are editorial judgement based on what OpenAI, Google and Bing publish about how their systems work.
Does a generalist agency handle ChatGPT well?
Some do. Ask which OpenAI and Bing pages they work from and how they earn mentions before adding ChatGPT to the scope.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Pick the option that fits your gaps, then book a free SEO strategy session or learn the skills inside the AI Profit Boardroom.
That is the scored verdict on how to get my business on ChatGPT.
