How to show up in ChatGPT: a step-by-step guide (2026)
To show up in ChatGPT, work on two separate outcomes: AI naming your brand and AI linking to your site. Google's AI links to the own site of only 3 out of 10 brands it recommends.
In this post11
- How do I show up in ChatGPT?
- Why does AI name me but not link to my site?
- What makes AI recommend a brand?
- How is ChatGPT different from Google's AI?
- Five steps to get AI to recommend your brand
- How do I know it worked?
- Which questions to measure for your business
- Common mistakes when trying to show up in ChatGPT
- Method and limits
- FAQ
- Keep reading
To show up in ChatGPT, Nomadic, an SEO and GEO agency in Buenos Aires, works on two outcomes separately, AI naming your brand and AI linking to your site, because they do not go together: when Google's AI recommends a brand, only 3 out of 10 times does it link to that brand's own site. We measure both on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, and publish the data.
What we measured
- When Google's AI Overview recommends a brand, 3 out of 10 times it carries a link to the brand's own site; the rest of the links go to comparison sites, affiliates, media, YouTube or Reddit (58 shopping searches, Nov 3 and 4, 2026).
- When the AI Overview names a store, 7 out of 10 times it does not link to its page (511 searches in Argentina, November 2026).
- For the same search, two AI engines share at most 1 in 7 sources (81,927 searches in 4 countries, October 2026).
- If you repeat the same search on the same day, ChatGPT keeps only 26% of its sources (81,927 searches, October 2026).
How do I show up in ChatGPT?
To show up in ChatGPT, Nomadic works in five steps: measure what AI answers today to the questions in your category, publish pages that answer those questions at the very top, make your brand's identity clear with structured data, work on the third-party sources AI already cites and repeat the measurement every month on the same questions.
The five steps are explained below. First it helps to understand what you are trying to achieve, because “showing up” can mean two things.
Why does AI name me but not link to my site?
AI can name you and link to another site because recommending a brand and choosing the source next to it are two different outcomes. In the preprint “Recommending Is Not Citing” (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23968968), across 511 Google searches in Argentina, when the AI Overview names a store, 7 out of 10 times it does not link to that store's page.
In 58 real shopping searches on google.com.ar, across five categories, the AI Overview showed the same pattern on both days we measured:
| What we measured | Result |
|---|---|
| Brands recommended by the AI Overview with a link to their own site | 3 out of 10 |
| Links next to a recommendation that belong to another site | 3 out of 4 |
| Links that go to comparison and affiliate sites | 23% overall; 31% in finance and services |
Two examples from that measurement. For “best digital wallet”, the recommended wallets carried YouTube videos and Reddit threads as sources. For “best no-fee credit card”, the four recommended cards all carried the same financial comparison site as their source.
For your brand, this means being in the answer is half the work. The other half is making the link next to it yours.
What makes AI recommend a brand?
AI recommends the brands it finds well described in the sources it reads for that question: your site, and also comparison sites, media, forums and videos. That is why at Nomadic we measure which sources each AI engine uses in your category before proposing changes.
Those sources change from one AI engine to another. In Top of AI, the study we published with Nicolás Billia on 81,927 shopping searches in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23601816), for the same search two AI engines shared at most 1 in 7 sources. They also change from one run to the next: when the same search was repeated on the same day, ChatGPT kept only 26% of its sources.
How is ChatGPT different from Google's AI?
ChatGPT links to the brand it recommends far more often than Google's AI: in the B2B provider searches we collected on Nov 5, 2026, ChatGPT linked to the provider's site 3 out of 4 times; the AI Overview, 1 in 4, and AI Mode, 1 in 8.
| What we measured on Nov 5, 2026 | ChatGPT | AI Overview | AI Mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B providers linking to their site | 77% | 27.5% | 13% |
| SEO agencies linking to their site | 70% | 67% | 42% |
| Agencies kept when you repeat the question | 34% | 13% | 59% |
| What it shows when it does not link the brand | Almost always no link | YouTube and other companies' blogs | No link or other companies' blogs |
For ChatGPT, then, the work is mostly about your own site: when it does not link to the brand, in 28 of 40 cases it shows no link at all. On Google, the rankings, videos and other companies' blogs that AI already cites also matter. And since ChatGPT changes a good part of the list when you repeat the question (in Top of AI it kept 26% of its sources), measure each question more than once.
Five steps to get AI to recommend your brand
These are the five steps we work with at Nomadic.
1. Measure your starting point
Write down the questions your customer would ask before buying, without your brand name. Ask each one several times on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, and note separately how many answers include you and how many link to your site. To do it at scale and with your competitors alongside, see how to know whether ChatGPT recommends your brand.
2. Publish pages that answer the question
AI cites pages that answer what the user asks. If the question is a comparison, your site needs a page that compares, with the direct answer at the top and the data people look for: price, terms, differences with other options.
3. Make your identity clear
Use structured data (Organization, Product, Service, FAQPage) and the same name, description and contact details everywhere. The easier your brand is to identify, the less it gets confused with another one.
4. Work on the sources AI already uses
If AI cites a comparison site, a media outlet or a forum when it recommends your category, whatever that source says about you is what AI repeats. Check that it describes you accurately and that your information is up to date.
5. Measure again every month
With the same questions and in the same way. That shows you whether AI names you more, links to you more and on which surface things changed.
How do I know it worked?
You know it worked when the share of answers that name you and the share that link to your site go up, on the same questions you measured at the start. At Nomadic we measure our own site this way every day: on Nov 6, 2026, Google's AI named and linked to Nomadic for "mejores agencias geo para b2b" (best GEO agencies for B2B), and ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode named and linked to it for "estudio GEO Latam 2026".
Which questions to measure for your business
The questions worth measuring are the ones your customer asks right before choosing, without your brand name. These are real searches from Nomadic's November 2026 measurement on google.com.ar (in Spanish), one per category:
| Category | Example question | What the person asking decides |
|---|---|---|
| Education | “best online AI courses” | Which course to take and where |
| E-commerce | “best air fryer” | Which product to buy and from which store |
| Finance | “best digital wallet” | Which account to open |
| Services | “best health insurance plan” | Whom to sign up with |
| Travel | “best travel insurance” | Which insurance to buy |
Measure each question with and without your city or country name, and on each AI engine separately: the list of brands changes depending on how the question is asked and on the engine.
Common mistakes when trying to show up in ChatGPT
- Looking at a single screenshot. The answer changes from one run to the next: in Top of AI, when the same search was repeated on the same day, ChatGPT kept only 26% of its sources.
- Counting only mentions. AI naming you does not mean it links to you. In our measurement, 3 out of 10 recommended brands got a link to their own site.
- Asking with your brand name. “What do you think of [your brand]?” tells you how AI describes you, not whether it recommends you. For that you have to ask the way your customer asks.
- Working only on your site. If AI cites a comparison site or a video when it recommends your category, what that source says weighs as much as your page.
- Measuring a single AI engine. For the same search, two AI engines shared at most 1 in 7 sources in Top of AI: what works on one does not carry over to the other on its own.
Method and limits
- Top of AI: Estudio GEO Latam 2026, by Nicolás Billia and Nicolás Bargioni (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23601816): ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode answers to 81,927 unbranded shopping searches in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile, with open data.
- Preprint "Recommending Is Not Citing", version 2, by Nicolás Bargioni (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23968968): 511 Google searches in Argentina.
- Real-search measurement: 58 shopping searches on google.com.ar, in education, e-commerce, finance, services and travel, repeated on Nov 3 and 4, 2026. We counted which brands the AI Overview recommended and which site the link next to each one belonged to (30% with an own-site link on Nov 3 and 32% on Nov 4).
- ChatGPT vs Google comparison: 15 B2B purchase searches (550 recommendations) and 10 SEO agency searches (511 recommendations), located in Argentina, with 2 repetitions, on Nov 5, 2026; for B2B we only count links that could be attributed to a domain. The nomadic.agency tracking is automated, without a logged-in session and on searches that do not include the brand. Each measurement is a snapshot of those days.
FAQ
Can I pay to show up in ChatGPT?
There is no way to pay for ChatGPT to recommend your brand in its answers. What you can work on is what AI reads: your site and the third-party sources it cites for your category.
How long does it take for my brand to show up in ChatGPT?
It depends on the category and on how long each AI engine takes to read your pages again. That is why it pays to measure the same questions every month, on each AI engine separately.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. AI takes its sources from pages that are already well indexed and structured, so GEO builds on SEO. At Nomadic we work on both with a single strategy. For the full picture, read what GEO is and how we work on it.
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
We explain the difference in AEO agency: what AEO is. In this guide we use GEO for all the work of getting AI to name you and link to you.
Which AI engine should I work on first?
The one your customer uses to decide. If you sell in Argentina and your customer searches on Google, the AI Overview and AI Mode are often the first place they see you; if your customer asks a chat directly, ChatGPT and Gemini. Since each AI engine picks different sources, it pays to measure all of them and start with the one that matters most to you.
Does it help if people talk about my brand on YouTube or Reddit?
It helps if those are sources AI already cites in your category. In our measurement, for “best digital wallet” the recommended wallets carried YouTube videos and Reddit threads as sources. What pays off is checking which sources AI uses for your questions and working on those, instead of posting everywhere.