How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and AI Search

"Hey ChatGPT, who's a good electrician near me?" A few years ago that sentence would have sounded like science fiction. Now plenty of your customers are asking AI tools exactly that kind of question, and the answer they get is a short list of businesses rather than ten blue links.

So how do you end up on that list? The good news is that most of it is solid, old-fashioned SEO with a few new habits on top. The industry calls it AEO, answer engine optimisation, because everything needs a three-letter acronym.

What is AI search?

AI search covers any tool that answers a question directly instead of handing you a page of links:

• Google's AI Overviews, the summaries at the top of many search results
• Chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity
• Voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant

These tools read the web, decide which sources they trust and write an answer. Sometimes they name and link to the businesses they used. Your goal is to be one of those sources.

Why it matters for small businesses

When an AI tool recommends three local plumbers, being the fourth is the new page two of Google: technically present, practically invisible.

The upside is that AI answers favour clear, specific, trustworthy information, and that is something a small business can often do better than a big one. You know your customers' questions because you hear them every day.

How AI tools decide who to mention

Nobody outside these companies knows the exact recipe, and they change it often. But the signals they rely on are fairly consistent with what Google has said for years about helpful content:

• Clear answers. Pages that answer a question directly, near the top, are easy to quote.
• Trust. Reviews, accurate business details and mentions on other reputable sites.
• Structure. Headings, lists and structured data that make information easy for a machine to read.
• Consistency. The same name, address, phone number and services everywhere you appear online.
• Freshness. Up-to-date prices, opening hours and information.

Seven ways to get found in AI answers

1. Answer real questions, plainly

Write down the ten questions customers ask you most, then answer each one on your site in two or three clear sentences. "How much does a boiler service cost?" deserves an actual number, or at least a range, not "contact us for a quote". A short FAQ on each service page works well.

2. Lead with the answer

Put the short answer first, then the detail. AI tools, like busy people, often only read the first few lines. Think news reporter, not mystery novelist.

3. Add structured data

Structured data, also called schema markup, is code that tells search engines exactly what your page is about: your business, services, prices, opening hours, reviews and FAQs. Visitors never see it, but machines love it. Google explains the basics in its introduction to structured data (opens in a new tab).

4. Complete your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (opens in a new tab) feeds Google's own AI features. Fill in every section: services, areas covered, opening hours, photos and a proper description. Then keep it updated, because "closed for refurbishment since 2022" is not a great look.

5. Collect and reply to reviews

Reviews are one of the strongest trust signals you have. Ask happy customers to leave one, and reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly.

6. Be consistent everywhere

Check that your business name, address, phone number and website are identical on your site, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and directories. If one listing says "Ltd", another says "& Co" and a third has your old phone number, machines get confused, and confused machines recommend someone else.

7. Keep the technical basics strong

AI tools still need to reach and read your pages. A fast, secure site with clean code, a sitemap and no accidental blocks on search engines is the foundation everything else stands on. Our list of SEO mistakes that are killing your rankings covers the most common problems.

What not to do

• Don't write for robots. Pages stuffed with keywords or obviously machine-written filler are easy to spot and rarely get quoted.
• Don't invent things. Made-up reviews, statistics or awards will eventually catch up with you, and they damage the trust these tools look for.
• Don't chase every new trick. If someone promises a secret hack to get into ChatGPT, keep your wallet in your pocket.

SEO vs AEO: do I need both?

Yes, but they mostly overlap. Good SEO gets your pages found and ranked. AEO makes the information on those pages easy for AI tools to understand, trust and quote. Doing the first well gets you most of the way to the second.

How we can help

Every website we build comes with the SEO basics and structured data in place from day one. If you want to go further, our monthly SEO & AEO add-on covers AI-ready content, featured snippets, voice search and structured data, alongside ongoing SEO.

Curious whether AI tools mention your business today? Get in touch and we will check for you.