ChatGPT recommends the insurance companies it can find described the same way, in many places, for one specific need. Functional Finance, a FinOps platform for insurance carriers, wholesalers and MGAs, became the company Google's AI Overview names for "Insurance FinOps" that way. Here are the six steps we use.
In this post:
- How AI assistants choose which insurance companies to name
- The prompts to run today to see where you stand
- How Functional Finance became the AI Overview answer for its category
- The pages, mentions and technical setup that get you cited
How does ChatGPT decide which insurance companies to recommend?
AI assistants answer from sources: pages that already rank, sites that mention you, directories, lists and reviews. When those sources describe your company the same way for the same need, the assistant names you. When they describe you five different ways, or not at all, it names someone else.
That is why a small MGA or insurance startup can beat a large carrier here. The assistant is looking for the clearest match to a specific question, not the biggest brand.
Step 1: Ask the assistants what they say about you now
Run the questions your buyers ask, in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode. Change the brackets to fit your line of business:
- "Who are the best MGAs for [line of business] in [state]?"
- "What software do insurance carriers use for [the job your product does]?"
- "Which insurance startups help with [the problem you solve]?"
- "Compare [your company] and [your competitor]."
- "What is [your company] and who is it for?"
For each answer, write down three things: were you named, who was named instead, and which sources the assistant linked. Those linked sources are your target list for step 4.
Step 2: Pick the one category you want to own
Functional Finance did not try to be cited for "insurance software." It named a category it could own, Insurance FinOps, and used that name with "consistent language across every channel, every piece of content, every campaign." That work led to Functional Finance holding the #1 Google AI Overview result for the term.
Pick a name a buyer would actually type, narrow enough that you can be the best answer. "Restaurant insurance for owner-operators in Texas" is winnable. "Small business insurance" is not.
Step 3: Write the page that answers the question
AI search engines don't rank pages, they cite sources. Give them a page that is easy to quote:
- Answer the question in the first sentence, then explain.
- Write headings as the questions buyers ask.
- State the facts an assistant needs to recommend you: who you serve, which lines and states, and what makes you different.
- Use your category name the same way every time, on every page.
Step 4: Get named on the sites the assistants read
Go back to the sources you wrote down in step 1. They are usually trade press, association directories, "best of" lists, review sites, LinkedIn and Reddit threads. Get your company on them, described in your category's words. An assistant trusts what many sources say about you more than what you say about yourself.
Step 5: Make your site easy for AI crawlers to read
- Check robots.txt allows the AI search crawlers, such as OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.
- Add structured data: your organization, your services and your address.
- Keep key facts in plain text on the page, not inside images or PDFs.
- Make sure the pages load fast and are in your sitemap.
Step 6: Check again every month
Run the same prompts from step 1 once a month and log the answers. Assistants change their sources often. A monthly check shows what is working and which competitor is gaining.
Common questions
How long does it take to get recommended by ChatGPT?
Technical fixes and the first pages can be done in the first six weeks. Most clients see measurable improvement in how often they are cited within 90 days. Lasting authority builds over four to six months.
Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not inside the answer. ChatGPT ads exist, but they appear below ChatGPT's response, apart from the answer itself. Being named in the answer has to be earned with the steps above. If you want both, we also run ChatGPT ads.
Does traditional SEO still matter?
Yes. The pages AI assistants cite are very often pages that already rank well in Google. Do both.
Want to know what ChatGPT says about your company today? We'll run the audit and show you what to fix first. See our AI SEO services or our work on insurtech marketing.
