How do I get my business found on ChatGPT and AI search tools?

Category: AI and Search
Reading time: approximately 6 minutes

Understanding AI search is one thing. Doing something about it is another. This guide moves past the explanation and into what actually changes whether your business shows up when someone asks an AI tool for a recommendation.

The good news is that the fundamentals are not complicated. The businesses getting recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI are not doing anything mysterious. They have sites and online presences that make it easy for AI tools to find them, read them, understand what they offer, and pass that information on to people asking the right questions.

Here is what that actually looks like in practice.

How do I make my business appear in AI searches?

AI tools learn about businesses from multiple sources, and getting recommended requires showing up consistently across most of them.

Your website. This is the foundation. AI tools crawl websites the same way search engines do, looking for clear signals about what a business does, who it serves, and where it operates. A site with vague, generic content is harder for AI to categorise and less likely to be cited. A site with specific, well-structured content that directly answers common questions is much easier to work with.

Third-party directories and platforms. Google Business Profile, Facebook, LinkedIn, industry directories, Yelp, and similar platforms are all places AI tools pull information from. A business with a complete, consistent presence across these platforms is more visible to AI than one that exists only on its own website.

Reviews. AI tools pay attention to reviews as a credibility signal. A business with a solid collection of genuine reviews on Google and other platforms is more likely to be recommended than one with none. This is not just about the star rating. The content of reviews, the specific language people use, and the recency all matter.

Online mentions. Places like Reddit, Quora, and local community forums are sources AI tools actively draw from. Being mentioned in relevant conversations, even just as a business someone has had a good experience with, contributes to AI visibility in a way that did not matter as much for traditional SEO.

Do I need to do anything different for AI search compared to regular SEO?

Mostly no, with a few specific additions.

The things that make a site rank well on Google, clear content, fast load times, technical structure, genuine credibility, also tend to make a site more visible to AI tools. Good SEO and good GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) share most of the same foundations.

The specific additions for AI search are:

Plain, conversational language. AI tools prefer content that reads naturally, the way a person would explain something rather than the way a brochure would describe it. Keyword-heavy writing that was optimised for old-style SEO can actually work against AI visibility if it reads awkwardly.

Question and answer structure. Content organised around real questions people ask, with direct answers, is more likely to be cited. This is why headings written as actual questions, the approach used throughout this guide, perform well for both traditional search and AI.

Clear information about who you are and where you operate. AI tools make location-specific recommendations. A site that clearly states the business serves Nelson, or New Zealand, or specific industries, is better positioned for relevant local recommendations than one that is vague about geography.

Schema markup. This is a layer of structured code added to a website that tells search engines and AI tools precisely what a business does, where it is located, what its hours are, and other specific details. It is invisible to visitors but very useful to machines. Most template-built sites either do not have it or have it set up incompletely.

How to optimise a website for AEO?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is about structuring your site and content so that AI tools can extract clear, direct answers to the questions your potential customers are asking.

The practical steps:

Write content that answers specific questions directly. Do not bury the answer in the third paragraph after a long preamble. Lead with the answer, then provide the context. AI tools are much more likely to cite content that answers a question clearly in the first sentence or two than content that takes a long time to get to the point.

Use headings that mirror real questions. The headings in this guide are examples of this in practice. Each one reflects something a real person might type or ask.

Cover your topic thoroughly without padding. A guide that answers five related questions well is more useful to AI than one that answers one question and repeats itself for 2,000 words. Thoroughness matters, but only if it is genuinely useful.

Keep your business information consistent. Your name, address, phone number, and service description should be the same across your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory you appear in. Inconsistency confuses AI tools and reduces the confidence they have in recommending you.

What is schema markup and do I need it?

Schema markup is structured data added to the code of your website. It uses a standardised format that search engines and AI tools recognise, allowing them to understand your business at a much more detailed level than reading your page content alone.

For a service business, schema markup can communicate things like:

• The specific services you offer
• Your location and the areas you serve
• Your opening hours and contact details
• Your star rating and number of reviews
• The type of business you are

Without schema, AI tools and search engines have to infer all of this from your content, which is less reliable and less precise. With it, you are telling them directly.

Do you need it? Yes, if you want to perform well in AI search and modern SEO. It is one of the technical foundations that most small business websites either lack entirely or have set up incorrectly, and it is one of the first things a proper technical SEO audit will flag.

One important caveat worth knowing upfront: if your website is built on a free or low-cost plan from platforms like Squarespace or Wix, you may not be able to add schema markup at all, or only in a very limited way. These platforms restrict access to the underlying code on their lower tiers. The same applies to some WordPress setups, where adding schema properly requires a paid plugin — and those plugins add weight to the site, which can affect the load speed we covered in the previous section.

This is one of the reasons platform choice matters more than most people realise. A site that looks fine on the surface can have a ceiling built into it from day one.

How do I know if my website is optimised for AEO?

Honestly, most sites are not, and there are a few ways to check.

Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and look at the SEO score.

A score below 90 suggests there are structural issues that need attention, some of which will affect how AI tools read your site.

Search for your own business on ChatGPT. Ask it something like “who are the best web designers in Nelson?” or whatever your equivalent would be. If you are not showing up in the kinds of searches your customers would do, that is a signal that your AI visibility needs work.

Check whether your Google Business Profile is fully completed and up to date. If it has gaps, old information, or no recent reviews, that will affect how AI tools perceive your business.

If you want a more thorough picture, a proper technical audit will tell you exactly what is there, what is missing, and what is worth prioritising.

How to track AEO performance?

This is genuinely harder than tracking traditional SEO, and it is worth being honest about that.

Traditional SEO has clear metrics: rankings, organic traffic, click-through rates. These are measurable in tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

AEO and GEO are harder to track because there is no equivalent of Google Search Console for ChatGPT. You cannot see exactly how many people asked an AI tool a question that led them to your business.

The practical approach is to track what you can:

Monitor your Google AI Overview appearances using Google Search Console, which does show some data on these. Watch for referral traffic from AI tools where it is recorded. Track whether your enquiry volume changes over time as you make improvements. Ask new enquiries how they found you.

The field is developing quickly and better tracking tools are emerging. For now, the best approach is to make the right changes, monitor your traditional SEO metrics, and keep an eye on overall enquiry volume as the clearest real-world indicator.

Can I optimise my existing site for AI search, or do I need a rebuild?

Both are possible, and which one makes sense depends on what your current site is built on and how well it is performing already.

For sites with reasonable technical foundations, adding schema markup, restructuring content to be more question-led, completing your Google Business Profile, and building out your third-party presence can all be done without a rebuild. These changes alone can make a meaningful difference to AI visibility.

For sites with deeper structural problems, slow load times, poor technical SEO, no schema foundation, and content that does not clearly communicate what the business offers, a rebuild is often the more cost-effective path. Retrofitting good foundations onto a poorly built site can take more time and effort than starting fresh.

A technical audit is the right starting point either way. It tells you what you are actually working with before you commit to an approach.

Ready to understand more about GEO and AEO in depth? Read our guide: What is GEO? Generative Engine Optimisation explained for NZ small businesses.

Websites are just one piece of what AI uses to recommend businesses. One of the most overlooked tools is completely free. Read our guide: What is a Google Business Profile — and does your business need one?

Or if you want to know where your site currently stands with AI tools: Ready to be found? Chat to Aaron →

Published by Pounamu Creative, Nelson NZ
Built to be found