How to get your law firm recommended by ChatGPT

A potential client types “Who’s the best DUI lawyer in Columbus?” into ChatGPT. It answers with three firm names. If yours isn’t one of them, that client may never see your website at all.

Nobody outside OpenAI can see exactly how ChatGPT picks those names, and anyone who claims otherwise is selling something. What we can do is follow what OpenAI, Google, Perplexity and Anthropic actually document, then fill in the gaps with plain good marketing. That’s what this guide does.

On this page

• What the AI companies actually say
• Step 1: Let the search crawlers in
• Step 2: Publish a page for every question a client asks
• Step 3: Be the same firm everywhere
• Step 4: Earn reviews and real mentions
• Step 5: Describe the firm in structured data
• Step 6: Check the answers every month
• What doesn’t work

What the AI companies actually say

OpenAI says any public website can appear in ChatGPT search, that results are ranked on “multiple factors” meant to surface relevant, reliable information, and that “placement is not guaranteed”, in its help article on searching the web with ChatGPT.

The same article explains that ChatGPT usually rewrites a question into one or more search queries before it looks anything up. Its own example turns a restaurant question into “top restaurants San Francisco”. For a law firm, that means a client’s long, worried question probably becomes something short, like “DUI lawyer Columbus”. Your site needs to answer that short search well.

Google is even more direct. Its guidance on AI features says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. In other words, the foundation is ordinary SEO done well.

Step 1: Let the search crawlers in

Each AI company runs separate crawlers for search and for training, and you can allow one while blocking the other.

Crawler	Company	What it’s for	Allow it if you want to be recommended?
OAI-SearchBot	OpenAI	ChatGPT search results	Yes. OpenAI says sites that block it won’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers
GPTBot	OpenAI	Training OpenAI’s models	Your choice. It doesn’t decide search answers
PerplexityBot	Perplexity	Perplexity search results	Yes. Perplexity recommends allowing it
Claude-SearchBot	Anthropic	Search results in Claude	Yes. Anthropic says blocking it may reduce your visibility
ClaudeBot	Anthropic	Training Anthropic’s models	Your choice
Googlebot	Google	Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode	Yes, always
Google-Extended	Google	Gemini training and grounding outside Search	Your choice. Google says it doesn’t affect inclusion in Google Search

Sources: OpenAI’s crawler documentation, Perplexity’s crawler documentation, Anthropic’s crawler article and Google’s list of common crawlers, all checked on 30 September 2026.

Open yourfirm.com/robots.txt and look for any of those names next to “Disallow: /”. Firewalls and bot-protection settings can block crawlers too, so ask whoever runs your hosting. OpenAI says a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to reach its systems. Our free law firm website audit checks your robots.txt for all of these in one go.

Step 2: Publish a page for every question a client asks

If ChatGPT turns a client’s question into “estate planning attorney Columbus”, it needs to find a page that answers exactly that. A homepage that says “full-service law firm” doesn’t.

Give each main case type its own page, and make each one specific:

• Say who it’s for and where. “We help families in Franklin County set up wills and living trusts” is easier to match than “comprehensive estate solutions”.
• Answer the questions clients ask. What does it cost? How long does it take? What happens at the first meeting? Put the answer in the first sentence under each heading.
• Name the attorneys and their credentials. Bar admissions, years in practice and real photos help any reader, human or machine, trust the page.
• Keep it current. Update fees, laws and team changes when they happen.

This is the same work that helps you in Google, which is the point. You’re not writing for robots. You’re writing clearly enough that a robot can’t misread you.

Step 3: Be the same firm everywhere

AI assistants piece together what they know about your firm from many places: your site, your Google Business Profile, legal directories, your state bar listing and news mentions. If those disagree, you’re harder to trust.

Pick one exact firm name, address and phone number, down to “Suite” versus “Ste.”, then make these match it:

• your website’s footer and contact page
• your Google Business Profile, with the right primary category, hours, services and real photos
• your state bar listing
• legal directories, including the old ones still showing the address you left in 2019

It’s dull work, and it’s the kind of thing that quietly decides who gets named.

Step 4: Earn reviews and real mentions

When someone asks for “the best” lawyer, an assistant needs some reason to pick you, and other people’s words about your firm are a large part of what’s out there to find.

• Ask every satisfied client for a Google review when their matter closes, with a direct link that makes it easy.
• Reply to every review calmly, the bad ones too, and never mention client details.
• Link to real mentions. If a local paper quotes your attorneys or a bar association lists you as a speaker, link to it from your site.

Never write reviews yourself, buy them or offer anything in exchange for one. Beyond the platform rules, the ABA Model Rule 7.1 bars false or misleading communications about a lawyer’s services, and a fake review is exactly that.

Step 5: Describe the firm in structured data

Structured data is a small block of code that states your firm’s facts in a format machines read easily: your name, address, phone, practice areas and attorneys.

Be realistic about it. Google says there’s no special structured data you need to add to appear in its AI features. But marking your firm up as a LegalService or Organization, with facts that match what the page shows, removes guesswork for every system that reads it. Think of it as filling in the form neatly, not as a secret handshake.

Step 6: Check the answers every month

You can’t improve what you don’t check, and AI answers change from week to week.

Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions a client would ask, in a private window so your own history doesn’t sway the answer. Log whether your firm is named, and whether it’s named first. Our free AI visibility audit writes eight of those questions for your practice area and city and does the maths for you.

Then check your analytics. OpenAI says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends, in its publishers and developers FAQ, so visits from ChatGPT show up as their own source. If those visits become consults, you’ll see it.

Disclosure: I built CompeteScan, a tool that runs these checks automatically. You don’t need it. A spreadsheet and 20 minutes a month do the same job by hand.

What doesn’t work

A few things get sold as AI shortcuts. Skip them.

• Magic files. Google says you don’t need AI text files or new machine-readable files to appear in its AI features. An llms.txt file won’t hurt, but it won’t get you recommended either.
• Stuffing the page with “best lawyer” phrases. ChatGPT rewrites questions into searches and then reads the results. A page that says “best DUI lawyer” 40 times reads badly to both people and machines.
• Fake reviews or invented results. They break platform rules and your state’s advertising rules, and they’re easy to spot.
• Blocking everything “to be safe”. If you block OAI-SearchBot or Googlebot, you’ve opted out of the answers you want to be in.

If you’d like the whole job done, from the site to the monthly AI check, that’s part of our law firm marketing service. For the bigger picture of where AI fits next to your website, search and intake, read our guide to marketing for law firms.