How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Perplexity
Something is shifting in how people find businesses online, and most South African owners have not caught up to it yet.
Five years ago, if you wanted to find a web designer in Johannesburg, you typed "web design Johannesburg" into Google. You got a list of ten blue links, maybe a map pack, maybe a few ads. You clicked two or three, compared them, picked one.
Today, a growing number of people open ChatGPT instead. Or Perplexity. Or Google's AI Mode. They ask in plain language: "Who should I hire to build a new website for my law firm in Sandton?"
And the AI gives them one recommendation. Maybe two. With citations.
If your business is the cited answer, you get the enquiry. If you are not, you are invisible — because that user will never see a list of ten links to choose from.
This new discipline is called Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO. And here is the practical playbook for getting your business recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
First, understand how AI search actually works
When a user asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, the AI does not just hallucinate an answer from its training data. Modern AI search tools actively:
- Retrieve relevant, recent content from the open web (via web search)
- Extract specific facts, definitions, and recommendations from that content
- Synthesise a coherent answer citing the sources it trusted most
- Rank the sources by authority, clarity, and topical relevance
The "trust" signals that drive citation are very different from traditional SEO ranking signals. You are not optimising for clicks; you are optimising for extractability and authority.
That means your job is to make it effortless for an AI to:
- Find content that directly answers common customer questions
- Extract a clean, quotable answer from that content
- Verify that your business is a credible source of that answer
Let us get specific about what that actually looks like.
Step 1: Nail the NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency
AI search tools heavily weight entity authority — the degree to which your business exists as a consistent, verifiable entity across the web. The first thing to check is Name-Address-Phone (NAP) consistency.
Your business name, address, and phone number must be identical, character-for-character, across:
- Your own website (footer and contact page)
- Google Business Profile
- Directory listings (Clutch, GoodFirms, DesignRush, Sortlist, TechBehemoths)
- LinkedIn company page
- Facebook page, Instagram bio, any other social profiles
- Industry-specific directories (e.g. Joburg Chamber of Commerce, if relevant)
"Origami Digital, Bedfordview" and "Origami Digital Consulting, Kloof Estates" are two different entities to an AI. Pick the canonical version and enforce it everywhere.
Step 2: Add schema markup, aggressively
Schema markup is structured data that tells search engines and AI tools "this chunk of content means this". It is invisible to humans but absolutely critical for AI extraction.
For most South African business websites, you want to implement:
- Organisation schema on every page (defines your business as an entity)
- LocalBusiness schema on the homepage and contact page (flags you as a local service provider)
- Service schema on each service page (tells AI exactly what you offer)
- FAQPage schema on every page that has a FAQ section
- HowTo schema on any "how to" content
- BreadcrumbList schema on all pages (helps AI understand site structure)
- BlogPosting / Article schema on every blog post, with author and publish date
If this sounds technical, it is — but it is a one-time setup that pays compounding dividends. Google and Bing both publish structured data testing tools you can use to verify it is working.
Step 3: Write like you are answering a question
AI search engines extract direct answers from content. Content that rambles, buries the lede, or hides the answer three paragraphs down is much harder to cite than content that answers the question in the first sentence of a clearly-titled section.
Compare these two paragraph openings:
Bad:
Many businesses today are looking for digital solutions, and in our experience we have found that websites play a critical role. At Origami Digital, we have worked with many South African businesses over the years…
Good:
A typical business website in South Africa costs between R30,000 and R150,000 in 2026. The price depends on complexity, the number of pages, integrations, and the level of custom design work required.
The second version starts with the specific, quotable answer. An AI parsing this page can lift that sentence almost verbatim and cite it.
Practical patterns to use:
- Questions as H2/H3 headings — "How much does a website cost in South Africa?" — and answer in the very next paragraph
- Definition-first paragraphs — "X is Y. It differs from Z because…"
- Lists and comparisons — AI loves tables and bullet lists because they are easy to extract
- Specific numbers, dates, and locations — vague writing is hard to cite; specific writing is easy
Step 4: Build topical authority, not just traffic
Google-era SEO rewarded thin, keyword-targeted pages. AI-era search rewards depth — websites that clearly cover a topic from multiple angles with interlinked content.
Practically, this means clustering your content around your core services. For a web agency in Johannesburg, that might look like:
- Pillar page:
/services/website-design - Cluster posts:
- "How much does a website cost in South Africa?"
- "7 signs your business website needs a redesign"
- "React vs WordPress for business websites"
- "Case study: how we rebuilt [client]'s site"
- "What to look for when hiring a web design company in Johannesburg"
Every cluster post links back to the pillar page and to 2–3 other related posts. This internal linking pattern signals to AI that you are a genuine authority on the topic, not just a business with a single page of marketing copy.
Step 5: Get cited by other credible sources
Authority is downstream of citations. If other credible sites — directories, industry publications, legitimate business news — link to you and mention you in context, AI search engines treat you as a more trusted source.
For South African businesses, the highest-ROI citation sources are:
- Clutch, GoodFirms, DesignRush, Sortlist, TechBehemoths — industry directories specifically surfaced in "best X company in Y" AI queries
- Google Business Profile — AI search engines query GBP data directly
- LinkedIn company page — heavily weighted for B2B service citations
- Industry publications — getting quoted in a single relevant article (tech news, business publications) is worth more than ten low-quality directory links
- Podcast guest appearances — podcast transcripts get indexed and cited
Do not waste time on link-farm directories or low-quality "submit your business" sites. A handful of high-authority citations beats hundreds of junk links.
Step 6: Optimise for the long-tail questions real humans ask
Traditional SEO targets short keywords: "web design Johannesburg". AI search targets full questions: "Who is the best web design agency in Johannesburg for a small law firm?"
The questions are longer, more specific, and more commercial. A single well-structured blog post answering "what to look for when hiring a web design company in Johannesburg" can get you cited for dozens of related queries — because the AI extracts the underlying intent, not just the literal phrase.
Some question patterns worth targeting for South African service businesses:
- "What is the best [service] company in [city]?"
- "How much does [service] cost in South Africa?"
- "How do I choose a [service provider] for my [industry]?"
- "[Competitor A] vs [Competitor B] — which is better?"
- "What should I look for when hiring a [service provider]?"
- "Do I really need [service]?"
For each one, publish a comprehensive, directly-answered, well-structured post.
Step 7: Test, measure, repeat
Unlike Google Search Console for traditional SEO, AI search analytics are still primitive. You cannot pull a dashboard that shows "you appeared in 47 ChatGPT answers this week."
But you can run manual tests regularly:
- Once a month, prompt ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode with questions your customers would ask
- Document whether your business is cited, and which sources the AI pulls from
- Track trends — are you getting cited more over time? Are competitors being cited more?
- When you are NOT cited, click the sources that ARE cited and analyse what those pages have that you do not
This is the honest answer to "how do I know GEO is working?" — manual testing, consistently, over months. The ones who figure this out in 2026 will have an enormous visibility lead by 2027.
The compounding advantage
Here is the uncomfortable truth: most of your competitors in the South African market have not started on this yet. Almost no SA agencies are talking publicly about GEO. The ones that figure it out this year will have an 18–24 month head start on the ones who wait.
We build GEO into every website we deliver at Origami Digital — structured data, FAQ schemas, entity authority, content architecture designed for both Google AND AI search. If you want to see how your business currently appears in AI search, we run free GEO audits that show exactly where you stand and what to change first.
Or if you want to nerd out on the foundations, start with our longer piece: What is Generative Engine Optimisation, and why South African businesses need it.
Want to know if ChatGPT mentions your business? Request a free GEO audit — we will test your visibility in the major AI search tools and send you a prioritised action plan.