How do appraisers show up in ChatGPT and AI search?
AI tools recommend businesses they can read, understand and confirm. To be named, your site has to let AI crawlers in, answer common questions in short, quotable paragraphs, state plain facts about who you are and where you work, and match what other trusted sites say about you. The appraiser who does this for their county is the one the answer names.
- 45% of US consumers use ChatGPT or similar tools for local business recommendations (BrightLocal, February 2026).
- AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot must be allowed in your robots.txt.
- Write question headings with the answer in the first sentence below.
- Mentions on other trusted sites help AI tools confirm what your site says.
How do AI tools choose which appraiser to recommend?
An AI search tool breaks the question into smaller searches, pulls pages from the web, scores individual passages, checks them against other sources and then writes an answer that names a few businesses. Your page has to survive each step: be crawlable, contain a passage that answers the question on its own, and agree with other sources.
What should an appraiser page look like to AI?
- A heading phrased as the question, like "How much is an estate appraisal in King County?"
- The direct answer in the first one or two sentences below it.
- Facts with a named source and a date.
- Plain statements of license level, approvals, counties covered and services.
- Structured data that repeats those same facts in a machine readable form.
Which crawlers need to be allowed?
OpenAI uses OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search. Anthropic, Perplexity, Apple, Google and Microsoft each run their own. If your robots.txt blocks them, or your content only appears after scripts run, they may skip you. Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, so submitting your site to Bing matters.
What happens off your website?
AI tools cross check. A complete Google Business Profile, consistent listings in appraiser directories, reviews, and mentions by local attorneys or agents all make it easier for an AI to trust your site. Your website makes you eligible to be named; the rest of the web makes you likely to be named.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There is no paid placement in ChatGPT answers today. You earn mentions by having clear, trusted, crawlable content.
What is llms.txt and do I need one?
It is a short text file that summarizes your site for AI tools. It is cheap to add and does no harm, but there is little proof it changes results on its own.
How do I check if AI tools mention my business?
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity the questions your clients ask, such as "who does divorce appraisals in my county", every few weeks and note who gets named.