# How ChatGPT recommends local businesses in Israel (2026): what we measured > What OpenAI officially says about how ChatGPT finds businesses, and what WIPE measured on 6 October 2026: which sites it cites for Israeli local questions. ChatGPT · 7 min read · updated 2026-10-06 · https://app.iw.pe/en/how-chatgpt-recommends-local-businesses-israel OpenAI's own pages describe no way for a local business to sign up for ChatGPT's recommendations. Asked for a cosmetician in Ra'anana or an electrician in Holon, it searches the web, often in its own words, and recommends what the pages it finds say. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed and that a site must let its search crawler in. In Israel, WIPE's own check found those pages were mostly directories of local businesses. Below: what OpenAI and Google officially say, what we measured, and what to do. ## What OpenAI says officially OpenAI's help article on searching the web says that when ChatGPT uses search partners, it typically rewrites the question into one or more targeted searches, and that it uses an approximate location from the user's IP address for local results. It may share that general location with trusted providers of local information, such as nearby business listings, and it points to Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies for how search providers handle queries. On ranking, it says ChatGPT weighs multiple factors to find relevant, reliable information, that placement is not guaranteed, and that to be eligible a site must allow OAI-SearchBot and accept traffic from OpenAI's published IP addresses. OpenAI's crawler page adds that sites blocking OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links, and that a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to apply. For local services, OpenAI documents a Get Quote button that partner platforms can attach to business cards through a feed of each business's name, address, location, phone, website and listing page. It is a beta with approved partners, run through a partner's plugin and feed, not a form a single business fills in. Shopping is live for users in the United States. And OpenAI says ads, where they run, do not influence ChatGPT's answers. ## What we measured, and how On 6 October 2026 WIPE asked 24 Hebrew questions about local businesses through OpenAI's API, using its gpt-5.5 model with the web search tool required and an approximate location in Israel, for example 'כמה עולה טיפול פנים בתל אביב' (what a facial costs in Tel Aviv) and 'חשמלאי מומלץ בחולון' (a recommended electrician in Holon). For each answer we counted the sites it cited. The API is close to, but not the same as, the ChatGPT app, whose answers also vary by account, moment and place. What the answers cited: - Directories of local businesses, in most answers: one directory alone was cited in 16 of the 24. - gov.il in 3, each time to check a license: an electrician, a physiotherapist and a dentist. - Businesses' own websites only now and then, each time for a fact they stated plainly: two plumbers in Petah Tikva whose sites say they answer around the clock, a physiotherapy clinic in Be'er Sheva with its address and WhatsApp number on the page, a cosmetician in Ashdod whose site says she works in Hebrew and Russian. - For price questions, directory pages that list prices, and once a price page on WIPE Around, our own directory. - No answer cited an Instagram profile, a Facebook page or a link-in-bio page. ## It searches in its own words, and in English for owners The searches ChatGPT runs are often not the asker's words. In WIPE's tracking, 'קוסמטיקאית מומלצת ברעננה' (a recommended cosmetician in Ra'anana) was searched as 'קוסמטיקאית רעננה המלצות' (cosmetician Ra'anana recommendations), and 'כמה עולה לעשות גבות בנס ציונה' (what brows cost in Ness Ziona) as 'מחיר עיצוב גבות נס ציונה' (brow design price Ness Ziona). Google describes a similar technique in its own AI features and calls it query fan-out. Owners' questions go further. WIPE also asks a smaller OpenAI model, with web search and an Israeli location, a daily set of owners' questions. On 6 October 2026, for the 16 asked in Hebrew, 22 of the 25 searches it ran were in English (28 of 31 across all owners' questions). 'בניית אתר לחשמלאי' (a website for an electrician) became 'electrician website homepage sections best practices 2026'. Those answers cited wix.com, support.wix.com, support.google.com and help.openai.com most often. ## Directories, and your page on WIPE Around Israeli answers lean on directories of local businesses, so the directory pages about you count, and every detail on them should be complete and match your site. WIPE Around is WIPE's directory of Israeli businesses, built to be read by search engines and AI assistants: each business has a page with its services, prices, hours and a link to its own site. If your business is there, claim and complete the page. ChatGPT also searched directories by name. Keep your business name, phone and address identical on your site, your Google profile and every directory page about you, so every source describes the same business. ## What Google says about its AI features Google's guidance for AI Overviews and AI Mode is short: no extra requirements and no special optimization. A page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet, and the usual basics apply: allow crawling, keep important content in text, make structured data match what the page shows, and keep your Business Profile up to date. Google adds that no new machine-readable files or special schema are needed to appear. ## What to do, in order Most of these steps cost nothing: - Complete your Google Business Profile and link it to your website. - Claim and complete your page on WIPE Around, and keep the same name, phone and address on every directory page about you. - Publish a website with text a search can match: each service, your town and the areas you cover, prices or how you price, hours, the languages you work in, and any license number. - Make sure your site lets OAI-SearchBot in: check robots.txt and any firewall or CDN rule that blocks bots. - Ask real customers for Google reviews; never buy or invent them. - Be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed place in ChatGPT's answers. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed and that ads do not change answers. ## Check it yourself Ask ChatGPT what customers would ask, several times and in different words, including your business name with the town. Or use WIPE's free check at app.iw.pe/check, in Hebrew: enter your business name, trade, town and, if you have one, your website or Instagram. It prepares three questions a customer might type, each one opening ChatGPT with the question already written, so you can see whether you are named and which sites are cited instead. ## Questions **How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?** It searches the web, often with reworded queries, reads the pages it finds and recommends what they say. OpenAI says it weighs multiple factors for relevance and reliability and that placement is not guaranteed. In WIPE's check of 24 Hebrew questions, the most cited sources were directories of local businesses, far ahead of businesses' own sites. **Is there official OpenAI guidance for businesses that want to appear in ChatGPT?** Yes, and it is short: allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and let OpenAI's published IP addresses reach your site. OpenAI's pages describe no listing for individual local businesses; its Get Quote program for local services is a beta for approved partner platforms. **Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business?** No. OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers and that advertisers cannot shape or rank its responses. Ads, where they are tested, appear separately and are labeled. **Why doesn't ChatGPT mention my business?** Usually because the pages it finds do not mention you, or not in the words it searched: no complete directory page, a website without your town, services or prices in text, or a site that blocks OAI-SearchBot. Answers also vary, so test several times. **How can I check whether ChatGPT recommends my business?** Ask it the way a customer would, several times. WIPE's free check at app.iw.pe/check prepares three such questions, each opening ChatGPT with it written. ## Sources - [Searching the web with ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-searching-the-web-with-chatgpt), OpenAI Help Center - [Overview of OpenAI Crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots), OpenAI - [Local services Get Quote conversion spec](https://developers.openai.com/plugins/guides/local-services-request-quote-conversion-spec), OpenAI Developers - [Power product discovery in ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/merchants/), OpenAI - [Ads in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt), OpenAI Help Center - [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), Google Search Central - [Add or claim your Business Profile](https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778?hl=en), Google Business Profile Help - [Does ChatGPT recommend you? Free check (Hebrew)](https://app.iw.pe/check), WIPE --- WIPE · https://app.iw.pe/