By Let’s get this out of the way, there is no such thing as “rankings” inside of an LLM (at least not right now). Large Language Models or what are popularly being referred to as “AI” today are highly advanced neural networks and next token predictors that take in content and then generate a response. However, specifically in ChatGPT the system is sometimes responding to requests for local businesses with a map and a list of businesses that might match the request often in a ranked order of some kind.
After reviewing hundreds of these local queries we have determined that there are various factors that can be used as rough guidelines on ensuring your business appears when users query the system for local information.
ChatGPT Local Ranking Factors
1. Consensus – Much like our general Google ranking factors, this is a major component of rankings since it takes into consideration how frequently your business is mentioned and or ranked highly by others when discussing your local industry. This could be as simple as being at the top of a Yelp list or as complex as being mentioned by several news outlets as the top company in your industry. If the content that discusses you is part of ChatGPT’s training set, then it helps power this factor. This is the main “ranking” factor inside of LLMs since it informs their neural networks and greatly increases the chances of your business being mentioned by the system as well as being placed towards the top of any list.
2. Have a Bing Places Listing – ChatGPT has a tight relationship with Microsoft and their search engine Bing. The system appears to prefer local businesses with a verified location on Bing Places in many cases especially if that profile is considered to be complete.
3. Ranking in Bing / Mentioned in Rankings – Outside of the Large Language Model’s training data you can impact consensus through Bing. Often times (not always) when a user asks a local question ChatGPT will perform a search on Bing. For example if you ask for the best italian restaurant in Indianapolis the system will query bing for “top italian restaurant Indianapolis 2025”. If your website ranks highly here OR if you are mentioned highly by sites that rank here this will help ensure you rank highly in ChatGPT.
4. Completed Profiles on the Web – If you have web profiles which are considered incomplete (i.e. no description, reviews (if applicable), logo, etc…) and those rank highly in Bing for a query then ChatGPT is likely to ignore these or filter them out. By ensuring complete profiles and spreading reviews around the web as best as possible you ensure that all top ranking documents for your business location are counted.
5. Reviews on your Website – While ChatGPT will often defer to “authoritative” sources like lists ranking highly in Bing, in some cases they might use the websites for specific entities to generate rankings and filter out those who do not have reviews or testimonials listed on their site.
6. Recent Reviews on Your Google Profile – ChatGPT appears to understand that local businesses are mostly on Google and somehow (possibly an API or scraping) is accessing this data. If your profile has no reviews or hasn’t gotten a review in a long time then this might also be considered. This factor is confirmed by ChatGPT itself (not the company, the LLM) but that could be a hallucination. This in mind review freshness does appear to be a Google Maps / Local ranking factor as well so it stands to reason to keep trying to get new reviews on your profiles.
There are things which might get you kicked out of a ChatGPT recommendation list as well those include:
- Your website being offline or not loading properly when the system tries to access it.
- Poor reputation across online sources – i.e. consistent low aggregate rating.
- No reputation across online sources – i.e. zero reviews anywhere online.
- Duplicated system easily identified – i.e. if you run multiple towing companies via one dispatcher, only one or none will qualify for being included.
- No recent news mentions – i.e. if you have competitors with recent news mentions (as simple as press releases) for any reason they might get selected over your business if you have none. This does not appear to be localized.
FAQs
Question: Does ChatGPT use links as a ranking signal?
Answer: No, ChatGPT does not appear to have any concept of using hypertext links to generate a result. However, links are known to impact Bing rankings and are therefore important.
Question: Does ChatGPT use business listing platforms like Yelp and BBB?
Answer: Yes, in some cases (specifically if they rank well in Bing for a query) ChatGPT will use these or other business listing platforms that appear to be valid and useful.
Question: If I dominate all of these factors will I always rank #1 in ChatGPT?
Answer: No probably not, while these factors will help ensure you are included highly at the top of the list or at least are included frequently in local lists, ChatGPT lists are still highly variable and subject to change based on a plethora of differences including the ChatGPT user’s history, the exact question being asked, the chat session itself, and just the randomness that comes with LLM output.
Question: How can I tell what Bing query ChatGPT uses?
Answer: ChatGPT used to show this under “sources” but no longer does. However, if you ask ChatGPT the following in the same session it should give you the answer “What keyword(s) did you use to search on Bing to get sources to build the above list?”
Methodology
We reviewed several hundred chat sessions where the system produced a map and a list of local businesses for queries in cites such as Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, New York City, Nashville, Miami, and Oklahoma City. Over 250 chat sessions matched our criteria for this research. We then reviewed common factors for the businesses listed at or near the top of ChatGPTs map rankings. We also queried ChatGPT in multiple sessions about how it identified which results to place at the top.
All of our Local SEO clients are being optimized for ChatGPT’s local rankings / mapping system by default. We’ve been on top of LLM-AI optimization since it first started and our founder predicted the technology a decade before it came to fruition. Our team knows how to rank your business highly across ChatGPT, Google, and Bing. Get a free quote today.