Can a small business get recommended by ChatGPT? Neil Patel says yes, and I mostly agree

Reading time: 6 minutes

Neil Patel's team says small brands can beat big ones in AI search by answering narrow questions better than anyone else. I've watched it happen. Since May, ChatGPT has sent one of our clients as many visitors as Pinterest, and those visitors are far more likely to get in touch. Here's what Neil gets right, and the one part I'd skip.

Neil Patel and his colleagues Chris Hill and Liz Little at NP Digital recently ran a webinar called 'The Authority Paradox: How Smaller Brands Can Win The Game of GEO'. GEO stands for generative engine optimisation, which means getting your business named in answers from ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and tools like them. Everything below that comes from the webinar is credited to Neil and his team, and you can watch the full webinar here .

Can a small business really compete with big brands in AI search?

Quick Answer: Yes, if you stop trying to match them on volume. Neil's team says small brands win on specific questions that big brands answer badly or not at all.

Neil calls it the authority paradox. AI tools tend to recommend brands they already know, but you can't become known without being recommended. Big brands start that race well ahead.

His way out is to get specific. Anyone can write about 'how does AI search work?'. Far fewer can answer a question that names a type of customer, their constraint and the decision they're facing.

The more specific the question, the fewer competitors can answer it well.

That's the heart of Endless Customers™ , the framework I coach: answer the questions your buyers actually ask, honestly and in detail. It's good to see a big-name agency reach the same place from the AI side.

Where to find the questions worth owning

Liz Little's advice was to ask your sales team what they're tired of explaining. The questions are already sitting in your enquiry emails, your sales calls and the objections you hear every week. You don't need a research budget.

For a curtains and blinds business, the questions might run from broad to specific like this:

• How much do curtains cost?
• How much do made-to-measure curtains cost in London?
• Are interlined curtains worth the extra cost for a draughty Victorian bay window?

The last one is worth owning. A national retailer can't answer it from experience. A specialist who fits them every week can.

What happened when ChatGPT started recommending Katherine Brown?

Quick Answer: ChatGPT went from a small source of visitors to level with Pinterest, and the people it sent were far more likely to go to her contact page.

Katherine Brown designs and makes bespoke curtains and blinds in London. It's a very visual business, so Pinterest and Instagram were always her best sources of visitors outside Google.

Around June 2026, we noticed ChatGPT catching up. Here's what her Google Analytics shows:

• January to April 2026: ChatGPT sent about 23 visits a month, Pinterest 60 and Instagram 15.
• May to October 2026: ChatGPT sent 36 a month, Pinterest 38 and Instagram 28.
• Went on to view the contact page (May to October): about 1 in 5 ChatGPT visitors, 1 in 75 from Pinterest and 1 in 9 from Instagram.

In June and September, ChatGPT was her biggest source of visitors outside Google. These are small numbers. But Katherine sells a high-value bespoke service, so a handful of the right people matters more than a crowd.

We can't follow these visitors through to a sale. Katherine's feeling is that they arrive warmer and more trusting, and the contact page numbers back her up. Neil's team made the same point: they said AI-referred visitors are worth seven times more per visitor, because the AI has already done the comparing for them.

Nick's Notes: Google Analytics doesn't catch every ChatGPT visit. Some arrive looking like someone typed the address in directly, so if anything these figures undercount it. Neil's team said only 2% of smaller brands can connect AI visibility to revenue. We're not there yet either. But one in five ChatGPT visitors heading for the contact page tells me plenty.

Why ChatGPT picks up a specialist like Katherine

People ask ChatGPT much longer questions than they type into Google. Rather than 'I need some new curtains', they'll write something like: 'I live in a Victorian house with bay windows in south-west London, and I need curtains that look great and block out the sun.'

That's my instinct, not data. But a recommendation built on a question that detailed has to come from a site with answers that detailed.

We've drilled down on Katherine's site to make sure that granular detail is there. Which is exactly Neil's point: you've got to have the right content on your site.

Why wasn't ChatGPT citing one of our best pages?

Quick Answer: Google hadn't indexed it. Once we fixed that, ChatGPT started citing it more. I can't tell you why the two are linked, but they were.

One of Katherine's Learning Centre articles never seemed to get mentioned in AI answers, while her other pages did. When we looked back, we found Google wasn't indexing it either.

We fixed the indexing. Some time later, ChatGPT began citing it.

I won't pretend to understand the link between Google's index and ChatGPT. Neil's team say you should own what your evidence can't prove, so I'm owning it.

What I can point to is Google's own guidance. Google says its AI features have no extra requirements beyond normal search: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet. There's no special AI trick.

Thin pages hurt you twice

Neil warned about businesses churning out near-identical pages, like location pages with only the town name swapped. He said some of them see their ChatGPT visibility rise while their Google rankings fall. We avoid thin pages for the same reason.

One strong page for each real decision your buyer makes beats ten pages that say nothing.

Do online reviews help you get recommended by AI?

Quick Answer: Neil's team believes they do, and that a steady flow of new reviews counts for more than a big old pile. I agree, and it's one of the first things we set up for every client.

Neil's example was a small phone company getting 50 new reviews a month against a giant getting two or three. He said AI tools read that as momentum, even when the giant has far more reviews in total. He was clear it was a hypothetical.

Here's my view. Unless you only serve about five customers a month, you have to automate your review requests . Be thoughtful about how and when you ask. Start with email, then follow up by WhatsApp or text, depending on how your customers like to hear from you.

Do you need PR and backlinks to get recommended by ChatGPT?

Quick Answer: They help, but for a small or medium service business they're a nice-to-have. Our clients do well in AI recommendations without chasing them.

This is where I part company with Neil, a little.

His team said AI recommendations really take off once a brand is mentioned on around 21 or more websites a month. They also said modest, relevant websites count, and that in their test, sites in the middle of the authority range did best.

I don't doubt their data. But most of our clients aren't big enough to hire a PR agency, and chasing 21 mentions a month isn't realistic for a curtain maker or a roofer.

We've never focused on it. Yet Better Way Roofing in Indiana and luxury bed specialists Marshall & Stewart both do really well in AI recommendations. Would backlinks help them? Probably. For a small business, I think it's a worry too far.

A 30-day AI search plan a small business can actually follow

Quick Summary: Neil's team set out a four-week plan. The first three weeks are spot on. I'd swap the fourth.

• Week 1: pick one question. One type of customer, one question the big brands answer badly.
• Week 2: gather the proof. Talk to the people who do the work. Pull real examples, with permission, and note the limits and trade-offs.
• Week 3: publish. Give the answer first, then the reasoning and the evidence. Link the page from related pages.
• Week 4, Neil's version: pitch it to outside publications, partners and communities.
• Week 4, my version: check Google has indexed the page, note where you show up in ChatGPT today, and write down the next question your customers ask. Then start again.

If you have the time and contacts for outreach, go for it. If you don't, spend the week on your next great answer instead.

FAQ

What is GEO?

Generative engine optimisation: getting your business named and cited in answers from AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. Neil Patel says roughly 80% of it is the same as SEO.

What's the difference between a mention and a citation?

Neil's answer was that a mention is your brand being named somewhere, while a citation is being used as the source, usually with a link. You can get one without the other.

How do I know if ChatGPT is sending me visitors?

In Google Analytics, look for chatgpt.com in your traffic sources. Expect it to undercount, because some AI visits show up as direct traffic.

How quickly can a small business start showing up in AI answers?

Neil's team said documented proof can start moving the needle within a month, while brand recognition takes years. That's why they start with one specific question rather than trying to cover everything.