How to Get Your Business Found in AI Search (ChatGPT and Google AI)

Quick answer: AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews recommend businesses they can clearly understand and trust. To be found, make your website state the facts plainly (what you do, where, for whom, prices or price ranges, hours, credentials), give each service and location its own page, answer common customer questions directly, keep your Google Business Profile complete, and build a steady stream of genuine reviews. Structured data helps machines read all of it.

Search is going through its biggest change in twenty years. Instead of ten blue links, people increasingly get an AI-written answer, and sometimes never click through at all. For business owners, that raises two questions: how much does this affect my website, and how do I make sure I am the business the AI recommends?

What is changing

• Fewer clicks on informational searches. A Pew Research Center study of real browsing found people clicked a traditional search result on 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, compared with 15% when there was none. Only about 1% clicked a link inside the summary itself.
• People ask AI for recommendations. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 45% of consumers have used ChatGPT or another AI tool to find local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before.
• Branded and high-intent searches still click. Someone searching for your business name, or “emergency electrician near me” with a problem to solve now, still needs to call someone. Several studies have found branded searches hold up far better than general questions.

The takeaway: traffic from “how do I” questions is shrinking, but being the business AI names when someone asks “who should I use?” is becoming more valuable.

How AI tools decide who to mention

AI answers are built from what the system can find and trust about you across the web: your website, your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories, news and social mentions. It favours businesses whose information is clear, consistent and backed up by other sources. Vague marketing copy gives it nothing to work with.

Nine practical steps

1. State the facts plainly. Your homepage should say in plain words what you do, who for and where. “Commercial cleaning for offices and medical centres across Western Sydney” is quotable. “Excellence in every detail” is not.
2. Give every service its own page. Each page should explain the service, who it suits, how it works, typical price ranges or what affects price, and how long it takes.
3. Create pages for the areas you serve. Genuinely useful location pages, with local projects or reviews, help both search and AI connect you to a place.
4. Answer real questions. Add a short FAQ to each service page using the questions customers actually ask on the phone. Short, direct answers are exactly what AI tools lift.
5. Publish prices or ranges. Many owners avoid it, but “from $X” or “most jobs cost between $X and $Y” makes you far more likely to be cited when someone asks about cost.
6. Keep your Google Business Profile complete. Categories, services, hours, photos, service area and regular updates. Google’s AI draws heavily on it.
7. Build reviews steadily. Recent, detailed reviews that mention the service and suburb are strong signals for both people and machines. See trust signals.
8. Be consistent everywhere. Same business name, address, phone and services on your site, Google, Facebook and directories.
9. Add structured data. Schema markup tells machines your business type, address, hours, services and reviews in a format they read directly. It is invisible to visitors and a standard part of a well-built site.

Do not chase tricks

There is a lot of noise about special “AI optimisation” hacks. The fundamentals have not changed: be genuinely good, say clearly what you do, prove it with reviews and real examples, and make the website fast and easy to read. Those are the same things that turn a visitor into a customer once they arrive.

Where your website fits

Even when someone discovers you through an AI answer, most will still check your website before they call. That visit is now more decisive than ever, because they arrive already shortlisting. A clear, fast, trustworthy site is what turns the recommendation into an enquiry. See what makes a great business website.

Planning a new website?

Next step: fill in the website brief. It takes about 10 minutes, and you get a fixed quote within one business day, then 2 or 3 design concepts to compare before anything is built. See website packages and care plans.