AI SEO Experiment: How to Verify and Manage Your Business in ChatGPT Business Hub

OpenAI has launched Business Hub, giving companies a way to claim their business profiles, provide information about their products and services, and see how people discover them through ChatGPT.

We tested the full process on our own website and then on an ecommerce client’s domain. In both cases, we used a DNS TXT record to prove ownership of the website.

The verification itself took only a few minutes. However, we quickly found that claiming a profile is just the beginning.

There are several things businesses need to get right before their profile is ready to use. These include identity verification, business descriptions, delivery and returns information, product data, website accessibility and the information ChatGPT can read across the wider web.

One issue stood out during our experiment. The draft profile showed default statements saying “Delivery unavailable” and “Returns not accepted”. For an ecommerce business, publishing those details without checking them could put customers off buying.

We also confirmed that proving ownership of a website doesn’t automatically publish the profile. A named person must complete identity verification before changes can be published and the other Business Hub features become available.

This guide explains what OpenAI has introduced, what we found when claiming a profile and how businesses should approach the setup.

The Experiment at a Glance

• What we tested: Claiming a business profile in ChatGPT Business Hub and proving ownership of the website.
• Where we tested it: Our own domain and an ecommerce client’s domain.
• Verification method: DNS TXT record.
• What worked: We successfully proved control of both domains using DNS verification.
• What we found: A successful domain claim saves the profile as a draft. A named individual still needs to pass identity verification before the profile can be published.
• The main risk: The draft profile contained default delivery and returns information that could mislead customers if published without being corrected.
• The next steps: Complete identity verification, check all business information, connect the product catalogue, make sure ChatGPT can access the website and monitor the new insights.

1. What Has OpenAI Launched?

On 10 November 2026, OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta.

The main control panel is called Business Hub. It gives eligible businesses a way to claim their profile, manage information about their company and see how people discover and engage with their website through ChatGPT.

Business Hub has four main sections.

Business Profile

A claimed business profile can display:

• A blue verification tick.
• Business category.
• Business description.
• Website address.
• Delivery information.
• Returns information.

The idea is to give ChatGPT accurate information about the business when people ask questions about products, services or companies.

Product Catalogue

Ecommerce businesses can provide product information so ChatGPT has access to details such as prices and availability.

There are two main options:

• Connect an eligible Shopify store.
• Upload a product feed that follows OpenAI’s product feed requirements.

This gives businesses a way to keep product information available to ChatGPT without relying solely on information it finds by crawling individual product pages.

Insights

Business Hub includes reporting on how people discover and engage with a business through ChatGPT.

The dashboard includes:

• Mentions.
• Website clicks.
• Discovery topics.

The information is available over rolling seven-day and 28-day periods.

It is particularly interesting because it gives businesses data directly from ChatGPT, rather than relying entirely on third-party prompt tracking or website referral analytics.

Business Agents

Business Agents allow eligible businesses to create a branded assistant that answers customer questions using the company’s own information.

However, there is an important limitation at launch: Business Agents are only available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States.

UK companies can still claim an eligible business profile, provided they have a website and operate in a country where ChatGPT is available. The US restriction applies to Business Agents, not the general profile claim.

What We Tested

We went through the full claiming process using a UK account.

The main question was straightforward: how can an ecommerce business prove ownership of its website without relying on a shared email inbox, a phone number or access to its Shopify account?

Here is what we did:

1. Opened Business Hub and searched for the business by name.
2. When no matching listing appeared, selected the option to add the business.
3. Chose how customers interact with the business. The available options were At a physical location or Through a website. We selected the website option.
4. Entered the business’s website address.
5. Selected website domain verification.
6. Copied the TXT record provided by Business Hub and added it to the domain’s DNS settings.
7. Returned to Business Hub and completed the domain verification.
8. Selected the business category and entered the optional business description.

Business Hub then confirmed that the business had been created and saved as a draft.

The next screen asked for identity verification using a government-issued ID.

The Problem We Found

Proving ownership of the domain was successful, but the profile was not ready to publish.

It remained in Draft, and the Mentions and Website clicks panels were blank.

The profile preview also showed two default policy statements:

• Delivery unavailable.
• Returns not accepted.

These defaults need to be checked before anything is published.

For an ecommerce business, incorrect delivery or returns information could affect a customer’s buying decision. ChatGPT might use those details when comparing products or recommending businesses.

The main lesson is that businesses should not stop after the DNS verification step.

A claimed profile is not necessarily a published profile, and the information shown in the draft is not necessarily correct.

2. Why Does Business Hub Matter?

Until now, businesses have had limited access to information about how ChatGPT discovers and recommends their websites.

SEO teams could track prompts through third-party tools, monitor referrals in Google Analytics 4 and manually test how ChatGPT responds to customer questions.

Business Hub adds something different: reporting and business information directly from OpenAI.

For the first time, companies have a dedicated place to manage some of the information ChatGPT can use about their business and see how people engage with it.

You Can Manage Information About Your Business Directly

A business profile gives companies another way to provide ChatGPT with accurate information.

This includes the business category, description, website, delivery information and returns policy.

For ecommerce brands, the product catalogue adds another source of information about product names, prices, availability and other details.

This is important because businesses should not rely on ChatGPT finding every detail by crawling their websites.

An Unclaimed Profile Could Create a Security Problem

If a business has an existing listing, it is worth checking whether anyone has already claimed it.

Search Engine Roundtable’s reporting on the launch also raised concerns about the possibility of an unauthorised person claiming a business profile.

Businesses should establish ownership through their own company-controlled account and domain rather than leaving the process to an individual employee or external agency.

A Draft Profile Is Not Enough

Our experiment showed that the profile can remain unpublished after domain verification.

Until identity verification is complete, businesses cannot publish changes or access some of the other features.

That means a company could believe it has completed the setup when it has only completed the domain ownership stage.

The business still needs an authorised person to verify their identity and finish the process.

Incorrect Delivery and Returns Information Could Cost Sales

The default policy information we saw is particularly important for ecommerce businesses.

Imagine a customer asking ChatGPT to recommend a product that can be delivered to their home and returned if it is unsuitable.

If a business profile says delivery is unavailable and returns are not accepted, ChatGPT has a reason to favour another retailer.

That is why businesses must review the policy fields before publishing.

The information should match the actual delivery and returns pages on the website.

Out-of-Date Product Information Can Damage Trust

Product information needs to be accurate.

If ChatGPT shows a price that no longer matches the product page, or says an item is available when it is out of stock, the customer may lose confidence before even reaching the website.

A product feed can help keep information up to date, but only if the business refreshes it when prices or stock levels change.

Claiming a Profile Does Not Improve Your Position in ChatGPT

This is an important distinction.

OpenAI does not promise that claiming a business profile will improve where a company appears in ChatGPT answers.

The profile gives businesses more control over the information available to ChatGPT. It does not guarantee more mentions, citations, recommendations or sales.

Visibility still depends on the information ChatGPT can access and use, including the business profile, product feed, website and other sources.

The real value is accuracy and measurement, not an automatic ranking improvement.

Understanding the New Business Hub Insights

The Insights section is one of the most interesting parts of the launch, but businesses need to understand what each metric actually measures.

The figures are narrower than they might first appear.

Metric	What OpenAI counts	What it doesn’t tell you
Mentions	For an online business, when ChatGPT references its website. For a local business, when ChatGPT shows a result for that location	Every time ChatGPT mentions the brand name without referencing its website
Website clicks	Clicks on links to the business’s website in ChatGPT	Confirmed website visits, enquiries or sales
Discovery topics	Common subjects in conversations where the website is cited	The exact questions or private conversations people had with ChatGPT

An important detail is that OpenAI has said that a brand name being mentioned on its own does not count as a mention. For an online business, the reference needs to include its website.

Similarly, a website click is not the same as a confirmed visit or conversion. The dashboard itself explains that clicks do not confirm website visits or sales.

Why Might the Insights Dashboard Be Empty?

The Insights data is aggregated and only appears once activity passes a privacy threshold.

A newly claimed business or a website with relatively little activity may therefore see blank panels at first.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the profile is broken.

The data also covers ChatGPT only. It doesn’t show how the business performs in Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity.

Businesses should continue using their wider AI visibility tracking alongside Business Hub.

3. Who Is Affected?

Any business with a website has a reason to check whether it can claim its profile.

However, the benefits, risks and setup priorities vary by industry.

Which Businesses Should Prioritise Business Hub?

Business type	Why it matters	First priority
Ecommerce and retail	Product feeds make prices and availability available to ChatGPT. Delivery and returns information also appears on the business profile	Prove domain ownership, correct delivery and returns information, and connect the product catalogue
SaaS and online services	Buyers use ChatGPT to compare providers and create shortlists. Eligible US businesses may also use Business Agents	Claim the profile, write a clear description and monitor discovery topics
Local and multi-location businesses	ChatGPT can count a mention when it shows a business result for a specific location	Check every location and make sure the listed phone numbers and business details are correct
Finance, healthcare and other regulated industries	Business descriptions and agent responses may need to follow strict industry rules	Claim the profile, then have compliance teams review all published information
Enterprise and multi-brand groups	Different brands may have different domains, DNS owners and people trying to claim profiles	Agree on one owner and a consistent process for each brand
Agencies and consultancies	Clients may ask agencies to set up and manage their profiles, but identity verification belongs to the client	Prepare the DNS record and profile information, then have an authorised client representative complete identity verification

Which Teams Need to Be Involved?

Three teams will usually share the work.

Development or IT

Responsible for DNS verification, product feed connections, website access and technical checks.

Marketing

Owns the ChatGPT account, coordinates identity verification, manages the business profile and monitors the insights.

Content

Writes the category description, business information, delivery and returns wording, and the website content that supports those details.

For larger businesses, ecommerce operations, legal and compliance may also need to approve the information before it goes live.

4. What Should Businesses Do?

I would treat the setup as a four-stage project:

1. Prove ownership and complete identity verification.
2. Check and manage the business profile.
3. Improve the information ChatGPT can find and use.
4. Make sure the changes are applied across the website and managed properly.

Stage 1: Verify Your Business Correctly

Business Hub may offer up to four ways to verify a business, depending on the information available:

• A code sent to the business phone number.
• A code sent to a business email address.
• A Shopify connection.
• A DNS TXT record added to the website’s domain.

For ecommerce businesses, I recommend DNS verification.

It proves that the business controls the domain itself. It doesn’t depend on someone answering a phone, access to a shared inbox or a particular Shopify login.

It’s also a familiar process for development teams because DNS verification is already used by services such as Google Search Console.

How to Verify Your Website Using a DNS TXT Record

Follow these steps:

1. Sign in to ChatGPT using the account that will manage the business. Use a company-controlled account rather than an employee’s personal login.
2. Open Business Hub and search for the business.
3. Select the correct listing, or add the business if no matching listing exists.
4. Choose Through a website and enter the main domain customers use.
5. Select website domain verification.
6. Business Hub will provide a TXT record containing a record type, host name and verification value.
7. Open the DNS settings for the domain. Make sure you’re using the provider managing the domain’s nameservers. This might be Cloudflare or another DNS provider rather than the company where you originally bought the domain.
8. Add a new TXT record using the exact information provided by Business Hub.
9. Save the record and allow time for DNS changes to become available.
10. Return to Business Hub and select Verify domain.

Once the domain is verified, complete the business category and description fields.

The profile will then be saved as a draft until identity verification is completed.

Understanding the DNS Record Fields

Field	What to enter	Important details
Type	TXT	Don’t overwrite existing TXT records. A domain can have multiple TXT records
Name / Host	The host shown in Business Hub	Enter the host label as required by your DNS provider. Many providers add the root domain automatically
Value	The verification string supplied by Business Hub	Copy it exactly. Don’t add quotation marks, spaces or line breaks
TTL	Your provider’s default	A shorter TTL can make it quicker to correct a record if you make a mistake

Before returning to Business Hub, check that the DNS record is publicly visible.

A developer can use a command such as:

nslookup -type=TXT host.yourdomain.co.uk

Replace host with the label supplied by Business Hub.

The lookup should return the verification value. If it doesn’t, Business Hub is unlikely to find it either.

Common Reasons DNS Verification Fails

There are several mistakes worth checking.

1. The record was added to the wrong provider

You might have added the TXT record where you bought the domain, but the domain’s nameservers point to Cloudflare or another provider.

You need to add the record where the DNS is actually managed.

2. The domain was entered twice

Some DNS providers automatically add the root domain to the host name.

If you enter the full domain when only the host label is required, you could end up with something like:

host.yourdomain.co.uk.yourdomain.co.uk

Check the provider’s instructions before saving.

3. The verification value was changed

Copy the value directly from Business Hub.

Don’t add quotation marks, spaces or extra line breaks.

4. DNS has not updated yet

DNS changes can take time to become visible.

Run a public DNS lookup before trying to verify again.

5. The verification token has expired

The verification string may be time-limited. Generate it when you’re ready to add the DNS record rather than leaving it unused for an extended period.

6. An existing TXT record was overwritten

Don’t replace an SPF record or an existing website verification record.

Add a new TXT record instead.

Keep the TXT Record After Verification

Don’t delete the verification record once Business Hub has approved the domain.

Keep it in place and document its purpose in your DNS records.

This is important because someone carrying out a future DNS clean-up might otherwise remove it without realising what it does.

Complete Identity Verification

Proving ownership of the domain shows that the business controls its website.

OpenAI also requires a named individual to prove their identity before they can publish profile changes, connect a product feed, view insights or create a Business Agent.

The identity check is carried out through OpenAI’s identity verification partner, Persona.

The process starts by asking which country issued the person’s identification document and requires a government-issued ID.

OpenAI’s setup information also indicates that businesses may be asked for registration details and proof that the person is authorised to represent the company.

For UK businesses, make sure the company name, address and registration information match official records, including Companies House where applicable.

The person completing verification should be an owner or authorised employee of the business.

An agency can prepare the profile, DNS record and other information, but the client’s own representative should complete the identity check.

This avoids a situation where a brand’s profile depends on an external agency contact or an employee who may leave the business.

Stage 2: Review and Complete Your Business Profile

Once the profile can be edited and published, check every field carefully.

ChatGPT may use this information when answering questions about your business, so accuracy matters more than marketing language.

Profile field	What to include	Responsible team
Business name	The trading name customers recognise, matching the website and official company details where possible	Marketing
Website	The correct main domain, using HTTPS and the preferred www or non-www version	Development
Category	The most specific available category for the business	Marketing
More about your business	What you sell, who you serve, delivery areas, price range, guarantees and accreditations	Content
Delivery policy	Areas served, delivery times and costs, matching the website’s delivery information	Content and operations
Returns policy	Returns period, conditions and who pays, matching the website’s returns policy	Content and operations
Products	A complete and up-to-date product feed	Development and ecommerce

Write a Description That Explains What the Business Does

The profile description is not the place for a list of slogans or exaggerated claims.

OpenAI explains that this information can be shared by ChatGPT in conversations when relevant.

Start with the products or services you offer and the type of customer you serve.

Then include the practical details a buyer might ask about, such as:

• Where you deliver.
• Typical delivery times.
• Product ranges.
• Price position.
• Warranties.
• Trade accounts.
• Guarantees.
• Relevant accreditations.
• Sustainability information, where it can be supported.

Keep the description factual and straightforward.

If a claim cannot be supported by information on your website or another reliable source, leave it out.

Correct the Delivery and Returns Defaults

This should be one of the first things an ecommerce business checks.

Our draft profile showed:

• Delivery unavailable.
• Returns not accepted.

These are default statements, not necessarily the company’s actual policies.

Make sure both are correct before publishing anything.

Check the wording against the delivery and returns pages on your website. The same information should be used everywhere.

Connect Your Product Catalogue

For ecommerce businesses, product information is one of the most important parts of Business Hub.

ChatGPT needs accurate information about what you sell, how much products cost and whether they are available.

There are two main ways to provide this information.

Shopify Stores

Eligible Shopify stores can connect directly.

OpenAI says eligible Shopify products already reach ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog.

Businesses using Shopify should check that their products, prices and availability are correct in their store and that the relevant connection is working.

Other Ecommerce Platforms

Businesses using other platforms can upload a CSV product feed that follows OpenAI’s product feed requirements.

The required information includes:

• A stable product ID.
• Product title.
• Product description.
• Brand.
• Main image URL.
• Product page URL.
• Price.
• Availability.

Product and image URLs must be publicly accessible.

Don’t use links to staging websites, pages that require a login or URLs blocked by geographical restrictions.

Keep Product Information Consistent

Where possible, build the feed using the same product information as your Google Merchant Center feed.

The important details should agree across both systems, including:

• Product names.
• GTINs.
• Prices.
• Stock availability.
• Product URLs.
• Main images.

If a price or stock level changes, update the feed.

For most ecommerce websites, a daily refresh is a sensible minimum. Businesses with frequently changing prices or availability may need to update it more often.

OpenAI is clear that connecting a product feed does not guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend your products.

It helps make sure that when ChatGPT does use your product information, the details are accurate.

Prepare for Business Agents

Business Agents are limited to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States at launch.

UK businesses can still prepare for a possible wider rollout.

I recommend reviewing the agent guidelines and business information in the Agent builder section of Business Hub.

Start by listing the ten questions customers ask most often.

Prepare clear, approved answers covering:

• Products and services.
• Pricing.
• Delivery.
• Returns.
• Orders.
• Payments.
• Warranties.
• Common problems.
• Customer support.
• Contact information.

For businesses in regulated industries, make sure the answers have been approved by the relevant compliance team before they are used.

Set Up Ownership and Regular Reviews

Business Hub should have a clear owner inside the company.

Document:

• Which company account manages the profile.
• Which individual completed identity verification.
• Who can edit and publish changes.
• Who manages the product feed.
• Who is responsible for reviewing delivery and returns information.

Add Business Hub to your employee joiners and leavers process.

If someone leaves the company, make sure access is reviewed.

Also review the profile whenever prices, products, delivery areas or company policies change. As a minimum, carry out a full check every quarter.

Stage 3: Improve Your Visibility in ChatGPT

Claiming a business profile gives you control over some of the information ChatGPT can use.

It does not automatically improve your visibility.

For an online business, OpenAI counts a mention when ChatGPT references the website. This means your wider visibility still depends on whether ChatGPT can access, understand and use your pages.

Here is how I would approach it.

1. Record Your Starting Position Before Making Changes

Before editing the profile, ask ChatGPT around 20 questions that your customers might ask.

Include different types of searches:

• Brand questions: Searches that mention your business.
• Category questions: Searches about the products or services you sell.
• Comparison questions: Searches comparing your business with competitors.
• Problem questions: Searches from people looking for a solution your products or services provide.

Save the date and full answer for every question.

Record:

• Whether ChatGPT mentions your business.
• Whether it cites your website.
• Which competitors appear.
• Which other websites are used as sources.
• What products or services are recommended.

This baseline is important.

Once you change the profile, connect a product feed or improve the website, the information available to ChatGPT changes. You cannot recreate the original position accurately by going back later.

2. Make Sure ChatGPT Can Access Your Website

OpenAI uses different crawlers for different purposes.

Crawler	Purpose
OAI-SearchBot	Finds and accesses pages for ChatGPT search results
ChatGPT-User	Fetches pages when a user’s request requires information from a website
GPTBot	Collects information that may be used to train OpenAI models

These crawlers have different purposes, so businesses should make separate decisions about them.

If you block OAI-SearchBot or ChatGPT-User, ChatGPT may not be able to access your website when it needs to use your pages in answers.

Start by checking your robots.txt file.

For example, the following rules allow ChatGPT’s search crawler and user-triggered fetcher:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

Also check the following:

• robots.txt: Look for blanket blocks affecting AI crawlers.
• CDN and firewall: Bot protection rules may block crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.
• GPTBot: Decide separately whether you want to allow your website to be used for AI training. This is a different decision from allowing ChatGPT search.
• Website content: Make sure prices, specifications, stock information and policies are available in the server-rendered HTML rather than loaded only through JavaScript.

The main point is to make sure that the crawlers responsible for finding and accessing your pages aren’t accidentally blocked.

3. Make Sure Your Business Information Matches Everywhere

ChatGPT may now have several versions of your business information:

1. Your Business Hub profile.
2. Your product feed.
3. The visible information on your website.
4. Your website’s structured data.

If these sources disagree, it becomes harder to understand which information is correct.

Use one central source of information and check that each system matches it.

Information	Business Hub profile	Product feed	Website content	Structured data
Business name and website	Business name and website address	Seller name	Footer and About page	Organization
Price and stock	Not normally held in the profile	Price and availability	Product page	Product and Offer
Delivery	Delivery policy	Shipping fields	Delivery and product pages	OfferShippingDetails
Returns	Returns policy	Returns fields, where supported	Returns and product pages	MerchantReturnPolicy
Products and services	Category and description	Product title, description and brand	Category and product pages	Product, brand and GTIN

Check the information regularly, particularly when prices, stock, delivery arrangements or company details change.

4. Create Pages That Answer Buyers’ Questions

A business profile and product feed are useful, but your website still needs to provide detailed information that ChatGPT can find and use.

For ecommerce websites, I recommend:

• Product pages: Add a factual summary near the top explaining what the product is, who it suits, its main specifications and its price.
• Category pages: Provide useful buying advice and explain the differences between products.
• Comparison pages: Help buyers choose between models, sizes, brands and alternatives.
• Frequently asked questions: Answer genuine questions from customers, with a direct answer in the first sentence.
• Delivery and returns pages: Keep these pages current, indexable and easy to find from product pages.
• Warranty information: Explain what is covered, how long the warranty lasts and what customers need to do.
• Business information: Make company details, accreditations, review sources and relevant experts easy to find.

The objective is to give ChatGPT clear information about your products and services, rather than relying on a short business description to answer every question.

5. Use Discovery Topics to Plan More Content

Once the Insights section starts showing data, look at the discovery topics.

These show common themes in conversations where ChatGPT references your website.

I would divide the topics into three groups.

Topics where you already appear

Improve the pages that support these topics and make sure the information remains accurate.

Commercial topics where you are missing

Look at the products, services and questions that are relevant to your business but aren’t covered well enough on your website.

Create or improve content that answers those questions.

Topics that don’t fit your business

Investigate why ChatGPT is associating your website with those subjects.

They may reveal that your business is being understood in a different way from how you intend to position it.

Discovery topics are a useful starting point for content planning, but they do not show the actual questions users asked.

6. Measure the Results Properly

Don’t rely on one dashboard or one metric.

Use Business Hub alongside Google Analytics 4 and your wider AI visibility tracking.

I recommend:

• Recording mentions, website clicks and discovery topics on the same day every week.
• Comparing Business Hub clicks with ChatGPT referral sessions in GA4, using the chatgpt.com source.
• Tracking enquiries, purchases and revenue from those sessions.
• Continuing to monitor brand mentions and citations in other AI assistants.

Expect differences between Business Hub clicks and GA4 sessions. A click recorded by OpenAI does not necessarily result in a confirmed website visit.

Also remember that Business Hub reports on ChatGPT only. It doesn’t provide a complete picture of visibility across Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity.

Stage 4: Apply the Changes Across Your Website

Claiming one business profile is relatively straightforward.

Keeping the profile, product feed and website information consistent is a bigger task, particularly for ecommerce websites with large product catalogues.

This needs to be managed across the website’s main templates and systems.

Area	What needs to change	Responsible team	Where it applies
DNS	Add and document the TXT verification record. Make sure it is not removed during future DNS changes	Development or IT	Every brand domain
robots.txt and firewall	Allow OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User, then test that they can access the website	Development	Sitewide
Global website template	Add Organization structured data with the business name, website, logo and contact details matching the profile	Development	Header, footer or global template
Product template	Add Product and Offer structured data, visible price and stock information, and links to delivery and returns policies	Development and ecommerce	All product pages
Policy pages	Maintain one approved version of delivery and returns information and use it in Business Hub	Content and operations	Delivery, returns and warranty pages
Category templates	Add a factual introduction, buying advice and useful questions and answers	Content	Priority product categories
Product feed	Generate the feed from the product database and validate it before upload	Development and ecommerce	Full product catalogue
Analytics	Create a ChatGPT referral segment and a weekly Business Hub reporting process	Marketing	GA4 and reporting
Governance	Record the profile owner, verified individual and quarterly review process	Marketing lead	Every brand and market

Business Hub Rollout Checklist

Verification

• Record the baseline ChatGPT prompts and answers, including the dates.
• Create or identify a company-controlled ChatGPT account.
• Add the DNS TXT record.
• Confirm the record using a public DNS lookup.
• Document the DNS record and its owner.
• Complete domain verification in Business Hub.
• Arrange identity verification with an authorised representative of the business.

Business Profile

• Check the business name and website.
• Select the most suitable business category.
• Write a clear, factual business description.
• Correct delivery information.
• Correct returns information.
• Publish the profile after identity verification.

Products and Website

• Connect the Shopify catalogue or prepare a product feed.
• Make sure product URLs and images are publicly accessible.
• Check prices and stock against the website and Google Merchant Center.
• Allow OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User in robots.txt.
• Check the CDN and firewall.
• Review Organization, Product and Offer structured data.
• Check delivery and returns information across the relevant pages.

Reporting and Governance

• Create a weekly Business Hub reporting process.
• Set up a ChatGPT referral segment in GA4.
• Track enquiries, orders and revenue.
• Record who owns the profile and who can edit it.
• Add Business Hub to the employee joiners and leavers process.
• Schedule a quarterly profile review.

For businesses managing several brands or markets, complete the full process on one domain first.

Once you’ve tested it, document the steps and repeat them for the other domains. Keep the same responsibilities and approval process for each brand.

5. What We’re Watching Next

Business Hub is still in beta, so there are several developments worth monitoring.

Business Agents Outside the United States

Business Agents are currently limited to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US.

A wider UK and European rollout could turn business profiles into another way for customers to ask questions, get product information and interact with companies through ChatGPT.

We’ll be watching for changes to eligibility and availability.

When Business Hub Insights Start Showing Data

Our panels were blank immediately after claiming the profile.

We’re monitoring how long it takes for insights to appear after identity verification and how much activity is needed to pass OpenAI’s privacy threshold.

This will help businesses understand what to expect when setting up a new profile.

Will Profile and Product Feed Changes Improve Citations?

One of the most interesting questions is whether providing more accurate business and product information changes how often ChatGPT references a website.

We’ll repeat the baseline prompts after the profile and product feed have been updated.

The aim is to see whether the changes are followed by improvements in website references, clicks and discovery topics.

This won’t prove that the profile alone caused any change, but it will provide useful information about how the figures develop.

How Closely Do Business Hub Clicks Match Google Analytics?

Business Hub reports website clicks, while GA4 reports the sessions it can attribute to ChatGPT referrals.

We want to understand the difference between the two.

This matters because a click recorded by OpenAI is not necessarily a completed website visit, and neither figure tells you whether someone made a purchase.

How Will OpenAI Handle Disputed Business Claims?

The possibility of someone claiming a business profile without proper authorisation is an important concern.

We’ll be watching for more information from OpenAI about how businesses can challenge an unauthorised claim and recover control of their profiles.

Will OpenAI Provide More Reporting Options?

At launch, no standard export or API for Business Hub Insights had been documented.

An export or API would make it easier for marketing teams to include ChatGPT data in wider reporting dashboards.

It would also make it easier to compare activity across several brands and markets.

How Will Business Hub Connect With ChatGPT Advertising?

Business Hub also promotes advertising credit, and launch reporting has raised the possibility of agents being used as destinations for adverts.

As ChatGPT advertising develops, businesses may need to manage organic visibility, product information, Business Agents and paid advertising together.

We’ll be following those changes.

Will OpenAI Expand What Counts as a Mention?

At launch, the definition of a mention is relatively narrow.

For online businesses, ChatGPT needs to reference the website. Simply naming the brand does not count.

We’d like to see a broader view of brand mentions and additional reporting as Business Hub develops.

We’ll publish a follow-up once the client profile has built up four weeks of Insights data.

6. About Szymaniak Digital

Szymaniak Digital is a UK-based Enterprise AI SEO Consultancy led by Konrad Szymaniak.

We help marketing, content and development teams improve how their businesses appear in Google and AI search platforms, including ChatGPT.

Our work covers more than tracking whether a brand is mentioned. We investigate which pages AI assistants can access, what information they use and how businesses can improve the content and product data available to them.

SD SEO Suite helps teams monitor AI visibility, track citations and research the questions buyers ask across different AI assistants.

Business Hub gives companies another way to manage how ChatGPT understands their business. The important part is getting the details right: prove ownership, complete identity verification, correct the profile, keep product information up to date and make sure your website provides accurate information that ChatGPT can read.

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