Guides / Getting found in AI search

Guide · Web

Getting Found When Customers Ask AI

01What's changed

For twenty years, being found online meant ranking on Google's first page. That still matters — but now, more and more often, the customer never sees the page. They ask "who's a good electrician near Dumfries?" and get a written answer naming two or three businesses. Google does the same with its AI Overviews, summarising an answer above the usual results.

If your business isn't in that answer, the customer may never know you exist. The good news: what gets you into it is mostly what good websites should have been doing all along.

02How AI tools decide who to mention

When an AI assistant answers a question about local businesses, it usually searches the web in the background and reads what it finds: business websites, Google and other map listings, review sites, directories, local news, trade bodies. It then writes an answer based on the businesses that come across as clearly relevant, consistently described and well regarded.

That means it can only recommend you for things it can read about you. If your website says "quality solutions for all your needs", the AI has nothing to go on. If it says "boiler servicing and repairs for homes in Dumfries and Galloway, Gas Safe registered, same-week appointments", it does.

03Step one: see what AI says about you now

Spend ten minutes asking the main tools the questions your customers would ask — "best [your service] in [your town]", "who does [your speciality] near [your area]?", and simply "what is [your business name]?" Note whether you're mentioned, what's said about you, and who's mentioned instead.

Do it again every couple of months. It's the closest thing to a ranking report this new world has.

04The practical checklist

1. Say plainly what you do, where, and for whom. Every service you want to be found for deserves its own clear page or section, written as text — not hidden inside images or PDFs.
2. Answer the questions customers really ask. Prices or price ranges, areas covered, how long things take, what's included. A good FAQ page is gold for AI tools, because it's already in question-and-answer form.
3. Complete your Google Business Profile. Categories, services, hours, photos, service area — Google's AI leans heavily on it. Add the equivalent listings on Bing and Apple Maps.
4. Keep your details identical everywhere. Same business name, address and phone number on your website, profiles and directories. Inconsistency makes you look like two uncertain businesses rather than one solid one.
5. Earn and answer reviews. Ask happy customers, reply to every review, good or bad. Reviews are one of the strongest signals of who's worth recommending.
6. Get mentioned elsewhere. Local press, trade association listings, supplier case studies, community sponsorships. Every credible mention elsewhere backs up what your own site says.
7. Add structured data. A small piece of behind-the-scenes code (called schema markup) that labels your business name, address, services and hours in a form machines read perfectly. Your web developer can add it in under an hour.
8. Don't accidentally block the AI tools. Some websites' settings (a file called robots.txt) stop AI search tools reading them. Ask whoever runs your site to check.

05A word on the snake oil

A new industry is selling "AI search optimisation" (sometimes called GEO or AEO) with promises of guaranteed recommendations. Be wary. Nobody controls what these tools say, and the methods that genuinely work are the ones above — honest, clear information about a business people are happy with. If someone offers a secret shortcut, ask them exactly what they'll change and how they'll measure it.

06How to tell if it's working

Two simple checks. First, repeat your step-one questions every few months and note any change. Second, ask your web developer to show you visits coming from AI tools in your website analytics — referrals from chatgpt.com, copilot.microsoft.com and similar now show up separately. And keep asking new customers the oldest marketing question there is: "how did you find us?" — you may be surprised how often the answer is "I asked ChatGPT".