How to appear in ChatGPT: what AI assistants read about your practice

If you want to know how to appear in ChatGPT and other AI assistants as a dental practice, start with where they get their answers. When someone asks for a dentist nearby, these assistants search the web and map data, then summarise what they find. There is no hidden list of recommended practices to get onto. What you can control is whether their search tools can reach your website, whether your listings are accurate, and whether the facts patients ask about are written down clearly where they can be read.

Where AI assistants get information about your practice

Each assistant uses a different mix of sources, and each company publishes something about how it works. This is what they say.

The sources are on each maker's own pages. OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers, rewriting a request into one or more targeted queries, and may share a general location with third-party providers to find local results such as nearby business listings. Google's Gemini help says it uses public information from Google Maps to find places and give addresses, descriptions, websites, ratings and opening hours. Microsoft says Copilot may fetch information from the Bing search service when the web would improve an answer.

The pattern is clear. Your website, your Google Business Profile and your listings on other maps are what these assistants read.

How to show up on ChatGPT searches

OpenAI's guidance for site owners is short. It says OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features, and recommends allowing it in your robots.txt file and allowing requests from OpenAI's published IP ranges. It also says sites that block OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.

1. Check your robots.txt. Visit yoursite.co.uk/robots.txt and look for lines that block OAI-SearchBot, or block all bots. OpenAI says changes take about 24 hours to take effect in its systems.
2. Check your firewall or security plugin. Security settings at your host or content delivery network can block unfamiliar crawlers. Ask your web host or designer whether OpenAI's crawler can reach the site.
3. Make the facts readable. Put treatments, opening hours, address, NHS or private status and prices in normal page text, not only in images or PDFs.

Note the difference between OpenAI's crawlers. GPTBot collects content that may be used to train models. OAI-SearchBot is for search. You can block one and allow the other.

Do not block the other assistants by accident

The same check applies to the other search crawlers:

• Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in search results, and is not used to train AI models. It recommends allowing it in robots.txt.
• Anthropic says Claude-SearchBot improves search result quality for Claude users, and that blocking it may reduce your site's visibility in search results.
• Google and Bing should never be blocked on a practice website. Google AI features and Gemini depend on Google, and Copilot depends on Bing.

A blanket rule that blocks all AI bots will also block the search crawlers that decide whether you can be cited. If your website was set up that way, decide deliberately which crawlers to allow.

Your listings matter as much as your website

For a local question such as "a good dentist near me that takes NHS patients", map and business data come into play as well as websites.

• Google Business Profile. Gemini reads Google Maps information directly, including your ratings, description and hours. Keep the profile complete and accurate. Google's own Ask Maps feature, launched in March 2026, draws on information about places including reviews, though Google said at launch it was rolling out in the US and India.
• Bing Places. Copilot relies on Bing. Microsoft lets you claim or add your business listing on Bing Places for Business.
• Apple. Apple's new Apple Business platform, which replaces Business Connect, offers free place cards with photos, location details and hours that display across Apple Maps, Safari, Spotlight and more.
• The NHS website and directories. These are public pages that search tools can read. If your NHS listing says one thing and your website another, an assistant may repeat either.

SEO for ChatGPT: is it different from normal SEO?

Much less than the sales pitches suggest. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisation is necessary. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet, and Google says existing SEO fundamentals continue to be worthwhile.

OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information. None of these companies publishes a formula for which practice gets named. Be wary of anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers.

What helps is the same work that helps a patient: clear pages for each treatment, accurate practice details, reviews, and a website search tools can reach. Our guide to dental SEO covers the fundamentals.

What to write down so assistants can answer patients' questions

Assistants can only repeat what is published somewhere. The questions patients ask about a practice are predictable, so answer them in plain text on your website:

• Whether you are taking on new NHS patients, private patients, or both.
• Which treatments you offer and who provides them.
• Prices or price ranges for common private treatments.
• Opening hours, including evenings and weekends.
• How emergency appointments work, and what patients should do when you are closed.
• Parking, step-free access and public transport.
• Experience with nervous patients and children.
• Your team, with qualifications and GDC numbers, as the GDC's guidance on advertising expects.

Write each answer as a short, direct statement. "We are taking on new NHS patients for check-ups" is easier to repeat accurately than a paragraph of general welcome.

How to check what AI assistants say about your practice

Ask them. Do it from a private browser window, with location set to your town, and use the kind of questions patients ask:

• "Recommend a dentist in [town]."
• "Which dentists in [town] are taking NHS patients?"
• "Where can I get an emergency dentist in [town] on a Saturday?"
• "Tell me about [practice name]."

Answers vary with wording, location and time, so one test proves little. Repeat the same questions monthly and note whether you are named and whether the facts are right. Doing this by hand across several assistants gets tedious, which is why Practice Radar's Growth plan checks it for you and reports whether assistants name your practice.

When an assistant gets your practice wrong

Do not argue with the assistant. Find the source. ChatGPT search shows links to the sources behind an answer, and a wrong detail often traces back to an old page on your website, an out-of-date listing or a directory you forgot about.

1. Correct the detail at its source: your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple or the directory.
2. Check your Google profile for edits made by Google, which show in blue in the profile editor, as Google explains on its page about Google updates to your profile.
3. Remove or update old pages, such as a fees page from three years ago.
4. Wait for the crawlers to revisit, then test again.

A checklist for being found by AI assistants

1. Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot in robots.txt.
2. Check your firewall does not block them.
3. Complete and verify your Google Business Profile.
4. Claim Bing Places and your Apple place card.
5. Make your NHS listing, website and profiles agree on hours, address and phone number.
6. Publish clear answers to the questions patients ask.
7. Keep collecting reviews in a way that follows Google's rules.
8. Test the assistants monthly and fix errors at the source.

None of this is exotic. AI assistants reward the same thing patients do: a practice whose details are accurate, complete and easy to find. For the map side of that work, see our guide to local SEO for dentists.