How ChatGPT decides what to say about your business
Ofcom now counts ChatGPT as the UK’s second-largest search service. When it answers a buyer, it draws on what it learned in training and, increasingly, on live web search — so what it says about you depends on what it can find, and whom it trusts.
What it reads. Most of it, you can change.
- 01Training dataA snapshot of the web, months or years old — why its answers can be out of date.
- 02Live web searchUsed when a question needs current information, with the sources linked.
- 03Its own crawlerOAI-SearchBot. Block it, and your pages can’t appear in ChatGPT’s search answers.
The numbers. Each with its source.
- 252mUK visits to ChatGPT in August 2025, up 156% on a year earlier.Ofcom, Online Nation 2025 · Similarweb
- 1.8bnUK visits in the first eight months of 2025, against 368m a year earlier.Ofcom, Online Nation 2025 · Similarweb
- −26%Google clicks, six months after someone first uses ChatGPT.Ofcom, Online Nation 2025 · Similarweb, US data
Six checks in ChatGPT. Asked as a stranger would ask.
- Whether you’re named on your category’s buyer questions
- What it says about your prices, services and places
- Which sources it links when it searches
- Whether OAI-SearchBot can reach your pages
- How it compares you with rivals when asked to choose
- Whether it confuses you with another business
The other engines. Each decides differently.
Before you ask. Each answered in its first sentence.
Does ChatGPT use Google’s results?
Not directly. ChatGPT runs its own search, with its own crawler, so a strong Google ranking doesn’t guarantee a mention.
Why is what ChatGPT says about us out of date?
Much of what it knows comes from training data with a cut-off. Unless it searches the web for the question, it answers from that older snapshot.
Can we block ChatGPT from our site?
You can, in robots.txt — but blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps your pages out of ChatGPT’s search answers, which is rarely what a business wants. The audit checks what your site currently allows.
Why do signed-out answers matter?
Your buyers use ChatGPT without your history. The audit asks as a stranger would.
Does ChatGPT show where its answer came from?
When it searches, it links its sources. Those links are what the Source Map records.
Your next buyeris askingtoday.
Find out what they’re being told now — and make sure the next one hears your name, and hears it right.
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