More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google's AI summary for a recommendation instead of scrolling ten blue links. The answer names two or three businesses and moves on. If yours is not one of them, the customer may never see a list to scroll at all.

I build websites, and clients are starting to ask a new version of an old question: not where they rank on Google, but whether the AI mentions them at all. This is early and moving fast. Even so, some of what helps is already clear, and most of it is work you would want to do anyway.

What actually changed

Classic search returns a page of links and lets the visitor choose. AI search does something different: it reads the sources and then writes a single answer that names only a few of them. The visitor often acts on that answer without clicking anyone.

That shifts the goal. Ranking a page so someone clicks it is no longer the whole job; the aim now is to be one of the sources the AI trusts enough to name. You cannot buy that place, and you cannot fake it. What you can do is make your business easy for these systems to read, understand, and quote.

Write the way people ask

AI systems are built to answer questions, so pages structured as clear questions and direct answers are easy for them to lift. A heading that asks how much a physiotherapy session costs in Lisbon in 2026, followed by a short factual answer, is far more quotable than a generic services page with the same information buried in a paragraph.

This is the same instinct behind a good FAQ, applied across the site. Name the question a customer would type or speak, answer it plainly in the first sentence or two, and add the detail after. You are not writing for a reader who enjoys a slow reveal. You are writing something a machine can extract and a person can trust at a glance.

Make the facts unambiguous

An AI will only confidently name a business whose details it can pin down. That means the basics have to be clear and consistent everywhere they appear: what you do, where you are, and how to reach you, stated the same way on every page and matching your other listings.

Part of this is the organised business information a developer adds to the site: the structured details a search engine or AI reads to confirm your name, location, and services without guessing. It is not visible to visitors, and it is quick to add, yet it is one of the clearest ways to help a system quote you correctly rather than skip you out of doubt. The rule of thumb is simple: the less a machine has to guess about your business, the more likely it is to include you.

Your Google profile still feeds the machine

The AI answers about local businesses lean heavily on the same Google Business Profile that drives ordinary local search. It is treated as a canonical source, so a complete, active profile with the right category, consistent contact details, and recent reviews is also groundwork for being mentioned in AI answers. I covered how to set that up in getting your business found on Google, and the effort does double duty here.

The signal that matters most is consistency between your site and your profile. When both agree, an AI has a clear, corroborated picture to draw from. When they disagree, whether through a different phone number or an old address, it has a reason to leave you out and cite a competitor whose story is coherent.

What I would not promise yet

Honesty matters here more than confidence. Nobody can guarantee a mention in an AI answer, the systems change their behaviour often, and there is no dashboard that reliably reports why one business was cited and another was not. Anyone selling guaranteed AI ranking as a fixed, purchasable outcome is overstating what is currently knowable.

What is safe to say: the businesses being cited tend to have clear, question-shaped content, unambiguous facts, and a consistent presence across their site and Google profile. That clarity is no trick invented for AI. It is the same clarity that has always helped real customers, now rewarded by a new kind of reader. If your website is slow or confusing, fixing that helps both audiences at once.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get my business mentioned by ChatGPT or Gemini?

There is no paid placement. In practice, the businesses these tools cite tend to have clear question-and-answer content, consistent and unambiguous contact details, and an active Google Business Profile that agrees with their website. Make your business easy to read and confirm, and you improve your odds.

Is AI search optimisation different from normal SEO?

It overlaps heavily. Clear structure, accurate facts, and a consistent online presence help both. The main shift is emphasis: AI rewards content shaped as direct answers to real questions, and it depends more on your details matching across your site and other listings.

Do I need special technical work for AI search?

The most useful technical step is the organised business information a developer adds so systems can read your name, location, and services without guessing. Beyond that, most of the work is clear writing and a well-maintained Google profile rather than anything exotic.

Can anyone guarantee my site appears in AI answers?

No. The systems change often and offer no reliable report of why they cite one source over another. Treat any offer that guarantees AI ranking with caution, and focus instead on the clarity and consistency these tools demonstrably favour.

When to get a second opinion

If customers are searching with AI tools and your business is not coming up, the cause is often unclear or inconsistent information a visitor never notices but a machine does. Send me your website and how customers describe what you do, and I can check whether your facts, structure, and Google profile give these systems enough to quote you.