Should businesses claim their profile on ChatGPT?

Claim it, but don’t expect it to do the selling. Leave your profile unclaimed and ChatGPT describes your business from whatever it can scrape together, with no way to correct it. Claiming is free, gets you the blue tick and shows how often you are mentioned. But OpenAI says it does not guarantee higher placement, so your website still has to prove you are the best answer. For customers, remember the blue tick confirms who a business is, not how good it is. In financial services, always check the FCA register and speak to a qualified adviser.

All business owners should claim their businesses on ChatGPT, but you may be placed on a waiting list, as the rollout is phased. With AI search becoming more prominent, if you want your business to stand out and set up your profile correctly, it could drive business to you at a time when every little bit helps.

I’d claim ours. We put considerable effort into making Bridging Loan Directory’s reporting and lender guides useful and easy to find, so being able to maintain our business information in ChatGPT is a sensible next step.

The reporting interests me just as much as the profile. Knowing which topics bring people to us, and whether mentions turn into website visits, would help us understand what readers actually need.

Businesses should explain clearly what they do, who they serve and keep their information current. Claiming a profile shouldn’t be confused with earning a recommendation. The quality of the business, its website and the information it publishes still matters.

I wouldn’t call it as important as Google yet, but I’d rather start measuring its value than ignore it.

AI search is fast becoming the front door for customer enquiries: reportedly 13% to 19% of digital queries, with up to 37% of users starting their research in an AI tool rather than Google or Bing. If you qualify, claim your ChatGPT business profile now. It gives you control of your brand identity, access to referral analytics, and accurate data in front of potential buyers. Leave it unclaimed and ChatGPT falls back on web scrapes, say hello to hallucinated pricing, out-of-date specs and wrong contact details. Worse, you risk brand hijacking and lose trust to rivals flaunting verified badges and live product feeds. So, upload verified core identity details, live product feeds with real-time pricing and availability, standard service policies and agent response guidelines, and keep your Google Business Profile up to date too.

If customers are increasingly using ChatGPT to research companies and decide who to contact, businesses should want the information being shown about them to be as accurate and current as possible. We will certainly be looking to claim and fully complete the Yellow Brick Mortgages profile.

I would treat it in a similar way to managing other important online business profiles, while recognising that claiming it does not guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you. The interesting part for businesses is also the data: being able to see mentions, website clicks and the topics people were asking about when your company appeared should give a much clearer picture of how customers are discovering you through AI. For me, leaving a profile unclaimed when you have the option to verify and improve it makes very little sense.