How to rank in ChatGPT: improve the odds it recommends your practice

There is no ranking — there's being findable and verifiable

A Google results page has positions. A ChatGPT answer doesn't. Ask the same question twice and you may get a different list, a different order or a different set of links. So "rank" here means two things you can work on:

• Findable: ChatGPT's search can reach your site and the pages that mention you, and they answer the question the patient asked.
• Verifiable: what your website says matches your listings, your reviews and other pages about you, so the model has consistent facts to repeat.

No one can promise that ChatGPT will recommend your practice. Answers vary by phrasing, location and day. What you can do is remove the reasons it wouldn't.

For a quick baseline, the free marketing audit checks whether Claude and Gemini name your practice and whether ChatGPT's crawler can read your site.

How ChatGPT answers 'best [specialty] near me'

Here's what OpenAI documents publicly, as of this page's verification date:

• ChatGPT searches the web for current questions. OpenAI says its crawler OAI-SearchBot (opens in a new tab) "is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features." Sites that block it are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.
• It can visit a page on the user's behalf. A separate agent, ChatGPT-User, fetches pages when a user's request calls for it. OpenAI says it isn't used for automatic crawling.
• Training is separate. GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI's models. Blocking it doesn't remove you from search.
• Location shapes local answers. OpenAI's developer documentation shows that its web search can take an approximate user location, such as city, region and country, to refine results, and that answers carry inline citations to the pages used (OpenAI (opens in a new tab)).

What OpenAI doesn't publish in the documentation we could access is which listing, map or review sources ChatGPT relies on for local businesses. That's why the steps below aim for consistency everywhere rather than optimizing for one source. For how all the assistants handle location, see our explainer on local AI search.

Step 1: make your website answer the question

ChatGPT can only repeat facts that are written down somewhere it can read. Start with your own site.

1. Create one page per service you want patients to find you for: "Mohs surgery", not just "Dermatology services".
2. Put the deciding facts in text near the top: who the service is for, which insurance plans you accept, whether you're taking new patients, typical wait for a first visit, and which clinicians provide it.
3. Say where you are in words: neighborhood, city and nearby landmarks or hospitals you're affiliated with.
4. Answer the common questions on the same page, each in a short paragraph. Our hub on AI visibility for practices explains how this ties into the wider picture.
5. Keep it current. Out-of-date hours or a departed provider are exactly the errors an assistant will repeat.

Step 2: consistent listings and a complete Google profile

Because OpenAI doesn't say which directories ChatGPT trusts, the safe assumption is that it may see any of them. Make them agree.

• Use one exact name, address, phone number and set of hours everywhere: your site, your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, insurer directories and health directories.
• Complete your Google Business Profile. Google says businesses "with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results" (Google Business Profile Help (opens in a new tab)), and Google says Business Profiles can help a business appear in its AI responses (Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)). Even if ChatGPT never reads your profile, Google's own AI features do. Our guide to Google Business Profile optimization walks through every field.
• Fix duplicates. An old listing at a former address can split your reputation in two.

Step 3: reviews and third-party mentions

Recommendation answers lean on what others say about you, not only on what you say about yourself.

• Ask for reviews steadily, not in bursts, and on more than one platform patients use.
• Reply without confirming anyone is a patient. Thank the reviewer, invite them to call, and never discuss their care in public.
• Earn real mentions: your hospital affiliation page, professional society directories, local news when you add a service, community health events.
• Skip fake mentions. Google notes that seeking inauthentic mentions across the web "isn't as helpful as it might seem."

Step 4: let AI crawlers read your site

If OAI-SearchBot can't reach your pages, steps 1 to 3 can't show up in ChatGPT search. Check this first if you suspect a problem.

1. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for rules that block OAI-SearchBot, or every bot.
2. Allow OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI recommends allowing it in robots.txt and allowing requests from its published IP ranges.
3. Decide on training separately. OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can appear in search while keeping GPTBot out.
4. Check your host or CDN. Some security settings block unfamiliar bots before robots.txt is even read.
5. Give it a day. OpenAI says search changes take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update.

A minimal robots.txt that appears in ChatGPT search but opts out of training:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

More detail on every assistant's bots is in our guide to AI crawlers like GPTBot.

How to test what ChatGPT says about you

A single check tells you little. A fixed routine, repeated weekly, tells you a lot.

1. Fix your prompts. Write six to ten questions patients ask, and never change the wording: "best pediatrician in Raleigh", "pediatrician in Raleigh that takes Medicaid", "is Lakeside Pediatrics accepting new patients".
2. Test logged out, in a private window, so your own history doesn't color the answer.
3. Note your location, city and whether you're on office Wi-Fi or mobile data. Location changes the answer.
4. Run each prompt once and record: practices named, their order, links cited, and any wrong facts about you.
5. Repeat weekly, same day, same device. Compare four weeks before drawing conclusions.
6. Expect variation. If you appear in three of four weeks, that's a pattern; one miss is noise.

The same routine works in other assistants; Perplexity for business is the easiest to audit because it always shows sources.

Common mistakes

• Testing once, logged in, and panicking. Your personal history and a single run prove nothing.
• Blocking all bots in a security setting, then wondering why you never appear.
• Buying "ChatGPT ranking" packages. There's no documented way to buy a place in the answer.
• Hiding text for AI that patients can't see. It misleads patients and adds nothing a visible answer wouldn't.
• Inconsistent names, such as "Smith Family Dental" on one listing and "Smith Dental Care" on another.

How Medfy helps

Medfy's AI visibility tracking runs weekly checks of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews using the questions patients ask (e.g. "best family doctor near me" in your city) and shows whether you're named, who is recommended instead and how that changes. Medfy's first-party analytics counts visits from AI assistants. For a quick look today, try the AI visibility checker, or run the free marketing audit: its AI visibility score asks Claude and Gemini (with live web search) whether they name your practice and checks that the crawlers behind ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini can read your site.

Frequently asked questions

Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

Not inside the answer, as far as OpenAI documents. OpenAI's crawler documentation describes a separate bot, OAI-AdsBot, that checks pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, so advertising exists, but an ad is not the same as being named in the answer. Be skeptical of services selling "ChatGPT rankings". The reliable path is accurate pages, consistent listings, genuine reviews and crawler access.

Where does ChatGPT get information about local businesses?

From what its model learned in training and, for current questions, from web search. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features, and answers cite the pages used. OpenAI's public crawler documentation doesn't name which listing or review sources it relies on, so keep your practice details identical on your website, Google Business Profile and every directory.

Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor?

Usually because the sources ChatGPT found make that practice easier to confirm: a page that answers the exact question, consistent listings, more reviews or mentions, or an address closer to where the question was asked. Phrasing and timing matter too. Run the same prompt for several weeks, note which pages are cited for the competitor, and close the gaps on your own pages and listings.

How often do ChatGPT's recommendations change?

They can change from one run to the next, because answers vary with phrasing, location and the pages retrieved. Bigger shifts follow model updates and recrawls. OpenAI says robots.txt changes for its search crawler take effect in about 24 hours. Check a fixed set of prompts weekly and judge trends over a month rather than reacting to a single answer.