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Posted: Wed 4th Nov 2026
7 min read
Reviewed by Amanda Peters, content manager
AI has taken the world by storm. It's crazy to think that ChatGPT launched only three years ago, and the adoption rate has been off the charts. With it, the way people search for things is changing too.
Historically, it's been Google – or, if I show my age, Ask Jeeves and Lycos. But search has moved beyond the Google search box, towards more conversational search with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Predictions from digital marketing platform Semrush show traditional organic search on the decline, while answer engine and AI search are on the rise.
AI search is still coming from a low base, and most product and service discovery still happens on Google. But the trend is going up. That's the opportunity for you and your business: making sure you're fully optimised to be one of those recommendations.
It's no longer just a blue link on a list of blue links – it's a conversation people are having with search.
Traditional SEO was largely about keywords. Keyword stuffing, backlinks, domain authority and keyword density all helped Google rank a page higher, and Google's PageRank was, for the most part, the only algorithm that mattered.
Search intent was also based on a fixed query, such as "best plumber" or "best electrician". Now it's more dispersed, with AI models in the mix, and it's more of a semantic search rather than exact-match keywords.
Backlinks still matter, because traditional search is still a huge part of the market.
We used to write pillar posts, small blog posts and as much content as possible. Now it's more targeted.
It's about going for the long tail, answering frequently asked questions and being as helpful as possible, so AI understands what you do, what you sell and why you're brilliant.
Before you change anything, find out where you stand.
Open ChatGPT and ask about your business the way a customer would. If you're a financial planner, try "Recommend a financial planner in Clapham", swapping in wherever you're based, and see what comes up.
If you sell products online, ask something like "What's the best candle for people between 35 and 45?", tailored to your ideal customer.
Run the same question in Gemini and Google too. Then check whether you're named or not – that gives you a starting point and shows you where the gap is.
Customers used to search, scroll and click. Now more of them just ask and get one answer.
In my property business, I've seen how many customers come through Perplexity, and they're much easier to sell to.
Conversion rates are a lot higher because trust in what ChatGPT and other AI models say is high.
It's conversational and personalised, and rather than just handing you a link, it gives you a summary of why it recommends a business or what's great about a product or service. It's like asking a friend.
To show the difference, I searched "best plumber in Fulham for boiler repair".
On Google Maps, sponsored ads took the first two spots, and the top unpaid result was the business whose name most closely matched the keywords. ChatGPT, by contrast, recommended a different business as its first choice and explained why.
Google's AI Overview, which is now embedded in its search, gave yet another set of answers.
The results are very different from Google Maps, which is still key for local businesses. And if you get recommended in any of these AI models, there's a high chance a customer will call you – and an even higher chance they'll go with you, as long as the price is right.
Think of your website as a document. Your URL is essentially the file name, and the words on your web page are the contents, like a Word doc or a Google Doc.
But a good website alone isn't what gets you named in AI. Fixing your Google Business Profile and reviews usually comes before a new website.
Reviews, reviews, reviews are super important, especially for local businesses on Google Business Profile.
The number of reviews matters, what they say matters, and so does their velocity. If your last review was six months ago, it's stale, and it suggests you're not really a going concern.
A five-star review is great, but a one-word review isn't. When customers do leave a review, give them a little prompt and ask them to mention certain things – that goes miles. AI models read the words, not just the stars.
When AI looks for the best business of a certain type in an area, it reads reviews on Google Business Profile and on other sites, such as Trustpilot and review sites aligned to your category. It's also very important to reply to your reviews, as that adds to it.
A complete Google Business Profile is key. Log in, and you'll see a completion bar – having it green with a tick is fundamental. Your profile is almost like a social page, similar to Instagram or Pinterest, but much more powerful.
Make sure you have the right primary category, and add four or five secondary categories that are adjacent to or embedded within your business.
Under those categories, add your services, with a description of each. Keep your profile up to date with as much information as possible.
AI is looking more at what you do semantically. One school of thought in semantic SEO uses "semantic triples": subject, predicate, object. For example, "SEO Pages [subject] provides digital marketing services [predicate] for small and medium businesses [object]."
Be very clear about who you are, what you do and why you're great, and repeat it across many platforms.
You can have a short, medium and long description of your business, but keep it consistent across all your profiles. That helps build a confidence score around your business.
Get your business into directories, the local press and trade bodies. Getting your website mentioned wherever you can is super key, because that's where AI pulls its information from.
I use a five-point check, the FOUND score, to give businesses an idea of where they are and what they can improve.
F – Findability. Can people find you for what you do and where you do it? Make sure the main category on your Google Business Profile says exactly what you do. I recently spoke to an accountant whose profile said "accounting firm", while all their competitors said "accountant" – that's one quick fix.
Their description was also just one very short sentence, while their competitors had paragraphs. You need to give AI more meat on the bone to understand the context.
O – Online reputation. Wherever your reviews are, give yourself a target of at least 4.5 stars. Your last review shouldn't be more than 90 days old; you should reply to all your reviews, and you should have at least 20.
Look at your competitors too, because it's relative. The number of reviews you have helps determine your position in the Google Maps map pack, which is still super important for both AI search and traditional search.
U – User experience. Put what you do and the area you serve in the H1 header at the top of your home page. Make your phone number easy to find, and put your contact button, Google reviews, star rating and credentials at the top of the page too.
As soon as a customer lands on your website, show why you're brilliant – for example, 4.9 stars from 100 customers and fully accredited. That builds the trust for them to take the next step.
N – Next step. Can a visitor go from browser to customer? Make it very easy for them to contact you, with a WhatsApp click-to-message or a sticky "Call now" button.
I recently built a website for a mobile tyre fitter, and a sticky bar at the bottom with "Call now" and "WhatsApp" buttons has been the most clicked contact option.
D – Digital authority. Where else online is your business mentioned, and what is it saying? When ChatGPT gives you an answer, you can see the sources at the bottom.
Those sources show you where your competitors are, how to close the gap, and which trusted sources AI is looking at – so aim to get into them.
You don't need to rebuild your website to improve your chances of being recommended. Start with these:
Get your Google Business Profile right. Make sure your Google category and the areas you cover are correct. Optimise the rest of your profile while you're there, and create your service and product pages.
Ask five recent happy customers for a review. Send them a text message – you can grab the review link very easily from your Google Business Profile.
Write down what you do, where, and why you're brilliant. Rewrite your business description if needed and put it on your about page. Then use it consistently across all your profiles.
In a month, ask ChatGPT the same question you asked in the two-minute test.
Keep checking which sources it cites, because that will show you whether your AI visibility is improving.
VIDEO: Will AI recommend your business? Getting found in ChatGPT and Google
In this session, Richard Thomas-Pryce runs live searches across Google, ChatGPT and Gemini to show which businesses get recommended and why.
During my Enterprise Nation session, I ran live searches for businesses in the audience. The first was Beata Cosgrove Photography, a photographer in Bath specialising in proposal photos. ChatGPT named the business in its top three proposal photographers in Bath.
Its online reputation is doing a lot of the work. The business has 153 reviews, all five-star, compared with 136 and 118 for the competitors listed alongside it. That's exactly where you want to be.
The second was Design Fix, a show home design and property staging business across the North West. ChatGPT ranked it second of three recommendations and labelled it the best all-round service. Gemini named Design Fix too – AI results are generally quite consistent across platforms.
Design Fix has a small review gap to close: one competitor has 21 reviews to its 14. But it has several service pages and a case study page, which is gold. If you don't have a case study page, create one – it's the proof in the pudding, and AI looks at it too.
Often, customers won't search for the service you offer – they'll describe the problem they're facing. That's why people call this answer engine optimisation. Create an FAQ hub page on your website, then an answer page for each question.
Answering the questions people are asking AI shows topical authority. By doing that, AI will see you as a trusted source of good information and may reference you in its sources, which can drive traffic to your website.
If you've just launched a business and website, create as many profiles across different websites as possible. This is called entity stacking. Set up accounts such as Pinterest and Instagram, even if you don't use them proactively.
On your Google Business Profile, you can add up to seven social profiles, such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook – treat that as a minimum. Then ask ChatGPT for directories in your industry and aim to be listed on them. Most are free, though some charge.
Your local chamber of commerce is also a good membership to have, as are local forums. I pay about £120 a year to be listed on one near me, which gives me a backlink and another trusted source.
Blog posts still have value, but not as much as 10 years ago, when we used to write hundreds of them. Now it's about topical authority, so answer the questions your ideal customers are asking.
Don't just use AI to write your answers – add your unique perspective, which is more important than ever. Add an FAQ section to each relevant service or product page, or create a dedicated FAQ page, and publish helpful guides.
You can still publish a blog post once a week or once a month, and that's fine. But informative blog posts won't necessarily help with ranking or AI search on their own.
