How to get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI platforms: a 90-day plan for experts

You may lose clients to professionals who are less experienced than you. Not because they deliver better work, but because they are easier to find, understand and verify online.

Your prospective client may discover you on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, at an event or through a referral. Before buying, they can open ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity and ask:

• “Who can help me build a credible personal brand?”
• “Which consultant can help me turn my expertise into a premium offer?”
• “Who is the right specialist for this problem?”
• “What do you know about this expert?”
• “Is this person credible?”

The answer can change the buyer's shortlist. It is no longer enough for someone to hear about you. When they search for your name or the problem you solve, the internet needs to explain who you are, who you help and why you should be considered.

How much does AI influence purchase decisions?

Search behaviour is changing quickly, but the statistics need context.

BrightLocal reported that the proportion of surveyed consumers who had used AI for local business recommendations increased from 6% in 2025 to 45% in research published in 2026. Among respondents aged 30–44, 64% had asked an AI platform for a business recommendation in the previous year. This research concerns local business recommendations, not every type of purchase or the entire population. Read the BrightLocal research.

In B2B software, G2 reported that 69% of buyers in its research chose a different vendor from the one they had initially planned to buy because that alternative appeared in a chatbot recommendation. This is not a universal consumer statistic; it specifically concerns B2B software purchasing. The mechanism still matters: AI can influence a shortlist before a provider ever enters the conversation. Read the G2 research.

How does AI decide whom it can recommend?

No serious platform publishes a simple formula that guarantees inclusion. Results differ according to the query, language, location, context, available sources and the system being used.

As a practical working model, the information about you needs four qualities:

Think of the internet as a vast library and AI as the librarian. A client asks for a specialist who can solve a particular problem. The librarian can more easily find a book that is accessible, clearly titled, placed in the right category, relevant to the request and referenced by other sources.

Your expertise may be exceptional. If it is hidden inside short social posts, described differently on every platform and confirmed by nobody else, automated systems have little coherent information to connect.

How do you test whether AI understands who you are?

Open a new conversation in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity. Do not include your name in the first query.

Ask the question your ideal client would use:

Then examine:

• Which names appear?
• Which sources support the answer?
• How are the recommended people described?
• Which topics are associated with their names?
• Do articles, interviews, profiles or case studies appear?
• Do similar names appear when you rephrase the query?

After that, ask directly about yourself: “Who is [your full name], what do they do and who do they help?”

If the answer is weak, inaccurate or missing, it does not mean your work is not good enough. It means there is a gap between what you know and what the public internet can understand about you.

Step 1: make your website accessible

You can publish the strongest article in your field. If the page cannot be accessed, it cannot normally be used for discovery or citation.

Check robots.txt

The file is usually available at:

https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt

OpenAI states that any public website can appear in ChatGPT Search and advises publishers not to block OAI-SearchBot if they want their content to be discoverable, surfaced, clearly cited and linked. Read OpenAI's official guidance.

An allow rule can look like this:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

Also check that your site:

• does not accidentally use a noindex directive;
• is not hidden behind a login;
• does not block legitimate crawlers through a firewall or CDN;
• makes important information available as text;
• uses direct, stable URLs;
• is connected to Google Search Console;
• has an up-to-date XML sitemap and correct canonical URLs.

Google says pages must be indexed and eligible for Search to be considered for its AI features. No special AI file or markup guarantees inclusion. Read Google's guidance for AI features.

Step 2: clearly state who you are and what problem you solve

Read the first lines of your homepage and About page as if you had never met the person behind the site.

Can you quickly answer:

• Who are they?
• What do they do?
• Who do they help?
• Which problem do they solve?
• How do they work?
• What relevant experience do they have?
• What makes their approach different?

Statements such as “I help people reach the next level” sound positive but communicate very little. A buyer cannot tell exactly what is being offered, and a search system cannot reliably connect the statement with a professional category.

A clear About-page formula

[Full name] is a [professional role or category].

They help [specific type of client] achieve [specific outcome]
through [method, process or service].

Their experience includes [relevant areas], and their approach
combines [meaningful differentiators].

My own version is:

This is not robotic copy. It is simply easier for people to understand. Google recommends people-first content that clearly communicates authorship, first-hand experience and expertise. Read Google's people-first content guidance.

Build a consistent identity

You may present yourself as an anxiety therapist on your website, a performance coach on LinkedIn, a relationship adviser on Instagram and a burnout specialist in a podcast. All of those descriptions may be true, yet the overall identity becomes fragmented.

Complete this sentence:

Use the same strategic foundation across your website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, podcast descriptions and event introductions. Consistency does not mean mechanically repeating the same sentence. It means every channel points toward the same professional identity.

Step 3: answer your client's real questions

Do not publish articles merely to have a blog. The internet already contains more generic “five secrets to success” content than anyone needs.

Collect questions from sales calls, direct messages, comments, emails, workshops, client meetings and qualification forms. Turn each high-value question into a substantial piece of content.

A useful answer should include:

• a direct answer in the opening paragraph;
• context and decision criteria;
• first-hand observations;
• examples and exceptions;
• limits and realistic expectations;
• clear next steps.

For an expert building a personal brand, useful questions might include:

• How do I choose a niche without losing opportunities?
• Do I need a website if I already have Instagram?
• Is YouTube worth starting with a small audience?
• How do I turn my experience into a signature method?
• How do I use AI without making my writing sound artificial?
• How can I build authority without posting every day?

Add what generic content cannot: your mistakes, project observations, boundaries, methods, examples and case studies. That is the human signal.

Step 4: build depth on YouTube

Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are useful for attention and distribution. A 30-second clip, however, cannot always explain your method, reasoning, exceptions or a complex client journey.

In a study communicated by OtterlyAI, based on more than 100 million AI citations monitored over 30 days, 94.3% of citations to YouTube went to long-form videos and approximately 5.7% to Shorts. This does not mean 94.3% of every AI citation is a long video; it describes the distribution within YouTube citations in that dataset. See OtterlyAI's study announcement.

Do not abandon short-form content. Give each channel a clear role:

• YouTube and your website provide depth.
• LinkedIn develops the professional argument.
• Email continues the relationship.
• Instagram, Facebook and TikTok distribute excerpts.
• Your website connects the system.
• A diagnostic or lead magnet turns attention into a direct relationship.

How should you structure a long-form video?

YouTube says Search considers how well a video's title, description and content match a query. Its quality systems also look for signals that demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Read how YouTube Search works.

1. Use a title that clearly names the problem.
2. Write a unique, useful description.
3. Correct the captions and transcript.
4. Add descriptive chapters.
5. Connect the video to the relevant article.
6. Link the research you mention.
7. Offer one relevant next step.

One strong video can become an article, newsletter, LinkedIn posts, short clips, a carousel, a case study and an email sequence. AI can help with transcription and restructuring. You must preserve your judgement, experience, examples and voice.

Step 5: build external confirmation

Your website explains who you say you are. Authority becomes stronger when other credible sources place you in the same context.

External confirmation can include:

• podcast interviews;
• articles in relevant publications;
• professional association profiles;
• detailed testimonials and case studies;
• conference pages and collaborations;
• citations of your ideas or research.

Do not accept every podcast merely to collect a link. Check whether the episode has an indexable page, a descriptive title, written context, your correctly spelled name and a relevant link.

“Episode 47 with Daniel” provides little context. A stronger title would be:

Google recommends crawlable links and descriptive anchor text that help both people and search engines understand the destination. Read Google's link best practices.

The 90-day implementation plan

How do you measure progress?

Keep a monthly table containing the query, platform, date, recommended names, cited sources, description used for your name, inaccuracies and changes from the previous month.

Also review branded queries and impressions in Google Search Console, traffic to your About page, YouTube Search views and referrals from ChatGPT. OpenAI explains that ChatGPT referral traffic can be identified through utm_source=chatgpt.com. See OpenAI's publisher FAQ.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

The best expert does not automatically win. The expert whose value can be found, understood, contextualised and verified is more likely to enter the buyer's shortlist.

After 90 days, nobody can promise that you will appear first in every answer. You can, however, have an accessible website, consistent positioning, useful articles, videos that demonstrate how you think and proof that was not written only by you.

Daniel Bărnuți

Online Business Architect · Creator of The Profitable Expert Ecosystem™

Daniel helps established experts turn experience into clear positioning, authority and an online system supported by video, automation and AI.