How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business in Puerto Rico

If you have a business in Puerto Rico, more and more customers ask an artificial intelligence assistant like ChatGPT before deciding whom to buy from. AEO is the work of getting those assistants to mention and recommend you. The short, honest answer: you do not get there with a technical trick; you get there by being a business with a good reputation and good information, on and off your website. In this guide I explain, in plain words and with real studies, what actually works, what is false, and what to do if your business is here.

First, what is this and why should you care?

When someone searches for "best nutritionist in Caguas" or "who can fix my AC in Bayamón," more and more often they do it by asking an artificial intelligence assistant instead of Google. That assistant gives a short answer and often recommends one or two businesses. AEO is everything you do to be the business the AI mentions in that answer. (The acronym stands for Answer Engine Optimization.)

You will hear several similar acronyms: AEO, GEO, "AI SEO." In practice they mean the same thing. Do not get tangled up in acronyms. What matters is the result: getting AI to talk about you (in Spanish).

And something that will save you money from the start. Most of this work is the same work that has always been done to rank well on Google, done carefully. Jeremy Moser, head of the agency uSERP, put a number on it in an interview with Digiday: in his view, about 80% of success comes from there. It is the opinion of an industry voice, not a measurement, but it matches what we see in our work. If someone tells you artificial intelligence changed everything and you have to start from scratch, be careful: they are promising you something that is not true.

The truth almost nobody tells you

Before selling you anything, the honest part: AI assistants send very few visits to your website.

Data from Cloudflare, one of the companies that measures internet traffic, shows that AI assistants send a very small fraction of visits compared with traditional search engines. And there is more: those assistants read your page many, many times, but almost never send a visitor back in return. They read a lot and refer little.

What does that mean for your business? That the goal here is not to fill your website with visits. The goal is that, when a customer asks AI about your type of service, the AI names you. If someone promises you "thousands of visits from ChatGPT," be wary. What is valuable is being the recommended business at the moment the customer is deciding whom to call.

There is a signal pointing in the same direction. In 2026, ChatGPT tested letting people buy directly inside the chat and pulled back a few months later. OpenAI explained that the format lacked flexibility and that it preferred to focus on helping people discover products. Our reading, and we say it as our interpretation and not as OpenAI data: AI is your storefront and your recommender, but the sale closes on your site. Your job is to get recommended and to have your page ready to close.

What DOES work (according to serious studies)

Two things make a real difference.

1. Good information on your own page. A large 2026 study, with 252,000 tests across six different assistants, found that what weighs most is that your page genuinely covers the topic the customer asks about, and its position in the list of results. Showing the price and keeping the page updated with a recent date also help consistently. An important detail: fixes that only change the format or the design, without improving the information, barely help. This is in line with an earlier study from Princeton University, which had already shown that citing sources, including quotations and adding statistics raises visibility by up to 40% when done together.

What to do with this: on every page, answer the customer's question at once, at the top, in a few lines. Use your own numbers. Show prices if you can. Put a date on it and keep it current.

2. Your reputation outside your page, which weighs as much as your own website. The largest analysis there is, with more than a million AI mentions in 2026, found that a little over half of the time the AI cites something (52.5%) the source is community or third-party content, and the rest (47.5%) are brands' own pages. In other words: what others say about you weighs about the same as what you say about yourself, and that is already far more than most businesses devote to it.

That same analysis found something very useful: reference-type content, well organized and easy to consult, receives 3 to 5 times more mentions. And a figure that favors whoever acts: 73% of sites block AI assistants, often without knowing it. If your page lets them in and your competitor's does not, you already started ahead.

Put simply: customer reviews, appearing in directories and being mentioned in your community's groups and forums are part of the work, not an extra. Work on them together with your website, not instead of it.

What they will sell you that does NOT work

This is where much of what you will be offered falls apart. These are the four most common stories.

"Your website needs special code to show up in AI." That code (it is called schema) helps Google understand your page better. In the most rigorous tests it does not move the needle: Ahrefs compared 1,885 pages that added it against 4,000 pages that did not, and there was no increase in AI mentions on any platform. In Google's AI summaries, the group with schema even came out slightly lower. It helps with other things, but it is not what gets you into ChatGPT.

"You need an llms.txt file to show up in ChatGPT." A study of about 300,000 websites did not find that this file increases AI mentions, at least for now. And Google does not list it among the signals its systems use. It is a useful file for a very different technical matter, not for a customer to find you.

"Customers who come from AI buy 5 to 9 times more." Exaggerated. Serious studies show something better, but not a magic number, and sometimes there is not even a clear difference.

"I can measure your position in AI like on Google." It cannot be done. AI assistants do not always give the same answer, so there is no fixed "number one position." What can be measured is how much AI mentions you compared with your competitors.

Our way of working is simple: if something has no evidence, we tell you. We would rather earn your trust than sell you an illusion.

Each AI assistant is different

They do not all recommend the same way, so working "for AI" in general does not help. Broadly speaking:

An analysis of 680 million mentions measured where each one draws its top sources from:

ChatGPT relies heavily on Wikipedia: almost half of its top sources (47.9%) come from there. It is the most encyclopedic.
Perplexity leans strongly toward community: Reddit is 46.7% of its top sources and YouTube 13.9%.
Google's AI summaries are more spread out: Reddit 21%, YouTube 18.8% and Wikipedia only 5.7%.
Claude tends to cite established press and primary sources.

Each one trusts different sites, so ranking well in one does not mean ranking well in the others. They are separate fields and it pays to work them separately.

If your business is in Puerto Rico

Here is the best part: in Puerto Rico almost nobody is working on this seriously yet. Some people mention it, but nobody has set out to educate and do it with a method. And the demand is already there: according to Microsoft, in 2023 Puerto Rico was already devoting 26% of its technology spending to artificial intelligence, tied with Argentina. Arriving early is a huge advantage.

An honest warning: there is no public study of how many people in Puerto Rico use ChatGPT to look for businesses. If someone gives you an exact local figure, they are making it up. But what we do know applies here just the same.

Your plan, in order of importance:

Your Google Business Profile, complete and with real reviews. It is your number one asset: it puts you on the map and in local AI answers, and reviews are among the strongest signals there are.
Showing up consistently in several places. The same name and the same information in directories, on Bing, on your social profiles and in your community's groups. Consistency is what lets AI put the pieces together and understand they refer to the same business.
Content that answers directly and with your own data, in Spanish and in English if you serve both audiences. Content that genuinely covers the topic, with prices if you can and a recent date.
Getting others to talk about you. Reviews, mentions in local press and in directories weigh as much as your own website, and almost nobody works on them.
Let AI assistants in. It is a one-time technical check and it is free. Most sites block them without realizing it.
Technical work as the foundation, not the flagship. A fast, well-organized website is a requirement, not the secret.

How to know if it is working

Do not measure "rankings" like on Google. Measure how much AI mentions you. Microsoft has a free tool (Bing Webmaster Tools) that already shows you when its AI cites you, and there are paid tools (Profound, Peec, Otterly) starting at 29 dollars a month according to their published pricing. A reassuring figure: according to Semrush, 45% of marketing leaders still cannot accurately measure their visibility in AI answers. If those are the people who do this full time, you are earlier than you think.

A word of honesty about measuring: since AI does not always give the same answer, a single check proves nothing. You check several times and talk in ranges, not in a perfect number. In fact, a 2026 study showed that many of the "improvements" some tools report fall within the margin of error. If someone sells you an exact, guaranteed figure, be wary.

Where this is heading (signals to watch)

This topic moves fast, so here is where it is pointing, based on what the platforms themselves announced in 2026. Treat these as signals to keep an eye on, not as things you have to do today.

AI discovers you; you close the sale on your site. This is our reading of the 2026 pattern, not platform data: ChatGPT tested selling inside the chat and backed off, saying it preferred to focus on helping people discover products. We take it as a sign that your website has to be ready to close when the customer arrives.
Ads are going to appear inside AI answers. Google already launched ads inside its AI mode and ChatGPT is testing them. For now the minimum spend makes them a big-company affair, but it is a new advertising channel worth keeping on the radar.
It is not just ChatGPT. Usage is spreading across several assistants (Claude, Gemini, Perplexity). Working and measuring with several in mind, not just one, is the sensible approach.
This is serious now, not a fad. In April 2026, Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush, one of the largest search ranking companies, with the focus squarely on AI visibility. When a company that size buys a player like that for that reason, the category is here to stay. Being early in Puerto Rico is your advantage.

Frequently asked questions

Has artificial intelligence replaced Google and the usual work? No. A good part of success comes from the same usual work to rank well on Google, done carefully. Industry voices put it near 80%. AI adds to it; it does not replace it.

Will showing up in ChatGPT fill my website with visits? Do not count on it. According to Cloudflare, AI assistants send a very small fraction of visits compared with search engines. The value lies in being the business AI recommends when the customer is deciding, not in lots of visits.

Do I need that llms.txt file everyone mentions? Not for a customer to find you. The largest study available did not see it increase AI mentions, and Google does not list it among the signals it uses. It serves a different technical purpose.

Does schema code on my website make me show up in AI? No, according to Ahrefs' study with a control group. It helps Google understand your page, but it is not what makes you appear in ChatGPT.

How long until I see results? There are no guarantees or magic dates. AI does not always give the same answer. What does work over time is building reputation outside your website and publishing content with your own data. Be wary of anyone who promises you will "show up in 30 days."

Will there be ads inside AI answers? Yes, it has already started. Google launched ads inside its AI mode in 2026 and ChatGPT is testing them. For now the minimum spend makes them a big-company affair, but it is a new channel worth watching.

Why trust this guide and not others? Because everything we say here comes with its source, and we tell you just as clearly what works and what is myth. In a market full of promises, that honesty is the difference.

Start on your own, for free

Before hiring anyone, you can start on your own. Download the free AEO Kit for your business in Puerto Rico (in Spanish): it includes the 5-question test to find out whether AI already recommends you, and the exact checklist of what to do. In plain words and without jargon.

Download it here: pintado.ai/recursos/kit-aeo

The next step

If you want to know how artificial intelligence sees you today and where to start, book a free 15-minute diagnosis. We review your presence and tell you, with judgment and without exaggerating, where your biggest opportunity is. Book at cal.com/pintadoai or write to us at hola@pintado.ai.

About this guide. I wrote it hand in hand with my AI team. The judgment, the verified data and the signature are mine.

Luis A. Pintado Escudero · Founder & AI Strategist · Pintado.AI · Bayamón, Puerto Rico

Last updated: July 2026 (Spanish original). This topic changes fast, so we review and update this guide every few months.

Sources

Princeton University, GEO (ACM KDD 2024): https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735
What Gets Cited (SIGIR 2026, 252,000 tests): https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.25517
Don't Measure Once (visibility as a distribution): https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07585
Cloudflare Radar, AI referral traffic: https://blog.cloudflare.com/crawlers-click-ai-bots-training/
Ahrefs, schema and AI citations (1,885 pages + control): https://ahrefs.com/blog/schema-ai-citations/
SE Ranking on llms.txt (300,000 domains), via Search Engine Journal: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/llms-txt-shows-no-clear-effect-on-ai-citations-based-on-300k-domains/561542/
Otterly, AI Citations Report 2026 (1M+ citations): https://otterly.ai/blog/the-ai-citations-report-2026/
Profound, citation patterns by platform (680M citations): https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/ai-platform-citation-patterns
Semrush, AI Visibility Index 2026: https://www.semrush.com/news/463141-semrush-releases-expanded-2026-ai-visibility-index/
Microsoft, AI Performance Report in Bing Webmaster Tools: https://blogs.bing.com/search/June-2026/New-AI-Visibility-Insights-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Intents-Topics-Citation-Share-Compare
Digiday (Jeremy Moser, uSERP): https://digiday.com/media/geo-hype-busted-experts-call-it-more-seo-than-new-discipline/
Adobe completes its acquisition of Semrush: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/04/adobe-completes-semrush-acquisition

How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business in Puerto Rico (an honest 2026 guide)