Why Is ChatGPT Recommending the Wrong Website for My Business?

Where does the wrong website come from?

How do you find which source is responsible?

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features "What is [business]'s website?", "[business] official site" and "[business] [town]". Run each several times, and note the URL given and any cited sources. Then check the usual suspects in order: your Business Profile's website field, the top directories for your category, your social profiles' website links, your knowledge panel, and any Wikidata item for your business. The source that matches the wrong answer is usually obvious once you look.

Also check that your current site can be read. OpenAI's documentation says sites that block its search crawler will not appear in ChatGPT search answers. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript, so a site that renders its content by script can look empty to them.

Why does ChatGPT recommend an old Facebook page instead of my current business website?

Usually because, for years, the Facebook page was your website in practice. Directories, your Business Profile and customers' posts listed it, while the new site had few links pointing to it. Assistants then treat the Facebook page as your main online presence.

There is also a crawling quirk. Facebook's robots.txt does not name OpenAI's search crawler, which therefore falls under the file's default rule blocking all other crawlers. So ChatGPT's link to your Facebook page often comes from other sources that list it as your website, not from reading the page itself. That is good news, because those sources are the ones you can change.

To fix it:

• Change the website field on your Business Profile from the Facebook page to your site.
• Update directories that list Facebook as your website.
• Update the Facebook page's own website link and bio, and pin a post pointing to the site.
• Link from your site to your Facebook page, and list it in sameAs in your Organization markup. That makes the relationship clear: the site is official, and the page is a profile.

Why does an AI search result link to a former agency-owned website?

Because the old site, or the domain it lived on, is still out there and still connected to your name. Common situations:

• The agency registered the domain in its own name, and kept it when the contract ended.
• The old site lived on the agency's subdomain, such as yourbusiness.agencyname.com, and was never taken down.
• The domain lapsed and someone else bought it. Google's spam policies name expired domain abuse, reusing an old domain's reputation to host unrelated content, as a violation. But the page may still be found and cited for a time.
• The old site redirects to the agency's homepage or another client.

To fix it:

1. Check who holds the domain through a registration lookup. If the agency is the registrant, ask for the domain to be transferred to your company's own registrar account.
2. If a transfer is refused, ask the agency to redirect the old domain to your new site permanently, or to take the old site down. Keep the request in writing.
3. For an agency subdomain, ask for it to be removed or redirected.
4. If a lapsed domain is being used to impersonate you, take legal advice. Domain disputes over trademarks can go through formal dispute procedures, and you can report spam to Google.
5. Update every listing that still links to the old domain.

Going forward, register domains in your company's own account, with company contact details, and give agencies access rather than ownership.

Why does Google AI Overviews show a founder’s LinkedIn profile instead of the company website?

Because, for many small companies, the founder's profile is the strongest page about the business. It has years of activity, many connections and links, and it ranks well for the company name. LinkedIn is also heavily cited in Google's AI features: in Semrush's study of cited domains (July–October 2025), AI Mode cited LinkedIn in nearly 15% of responses. If the company has no LinkedIn page of its own and a thin website, the founder's profile becomes the answer.

To fix it:

• Create or complete the company's LinkedIn page, and link it to the website.
• Point the founder's profile to the company: link the experience entry to the company page, and put the website in the contact information.
• Give the website an about page that names the founder, with a link to their profile. Use Organization markup with the founder and sameAs links to the company's own profiles.
• Strengthen the site for the company name: a clear home page title, a description of what the company does, and consistent name use across profiles.
• Encourage coverage that names the company, not just the founder, in interviews and articles.

How do you stop it happening again?

• Keep one list of official URLs: the website, social profiles and marketplace pages. Check it against your listings every quarter.
• Redirect every old domain you own to the current site for as long as you hold it.
• Make the site say it is the official site: "This is the official website of [business]."
• Use Organization markup with url and sameAs links to the official profiles, which Google says helps it understand an organisation.
• Recheck assistant answers after any rebrand, domain change or agency change.

Related errors, such as mixing up businesses at one address, are covered in why ChatGPT recommends the wrong business when several share one address.

What might an illustrative case look like?

Consider an illustrative landscaping company that launched a new website after years of relying on its Facebook page. Six months later, ChatGPT still gave the Facebook page as its website, and Google's AI Overview sometimes linked to a site the company's first web agency still controlled. The Business Profile, four directories and the Facebook bio all listed the Facebook page or the old domain. The company updated those listings and asked the agency to redirect the old domain, which it did after a written request. It also added an about page stating that the new site is the official one, with links to its profiles. Within a month, most answers gave the new website.

What do people ask about AI and wrong business websites?

Should I delete my old Facebook page?

No. Keep it, and make it point clearly to your website. Deleting it removes a profile that customers still use.

Can I ask ChatGPT to use my new website?

Not directly. Change the sources it relies on, and it will follow.

How long does it take to change?

Search-based answers usually follow within weeks of the main listings being fixed. Answers from model memory can take longer.