AI search optimisation: is your business ready?

The short answer. AI search optimisation (sometimes called AI SEO, GEO or AEO) means making sure tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity can find your business, understand what you do, and trust you enough to mention you. In practice that comes down to five things: letting AI crawlers in, writing pages that answer real questions, keeping your business details consistent everywhere, earning mentions from other sites, and checking regularly what the AI tools actually say about you.

How AI tools decide who to mention

When someone asks ChatGPT "who are the best commercial cleaners in Leeds?" or asks Google a question that triggers an AI Overview, the tool searches the web, reads the pages it finds, and writes an answer, often with links to its sources. It favours sources that:

• it can read: pages that are crawlable, load quickly and put the important text in the page itself, not hidden in images or pop-ups;
• answer the question directly: a clear sentence that could be quoted as the answer;
• agree with other sources: the same name, address, services and claims across your site, Google Business Profile, directories and reviews;
• other people vouch for: reviews, trade body listings, local press, supplier and partner pages.

None of that is new. It is good SEO with the weak spots exposed. A business with a strong, honest web presence is usually already halfway there.

The AI search readiness checklist

1. Let the AI crawlers in

Each AI company uses its own crawlers, and your website can block them without you knowing. Check your robots.txt file and your hosting or security settings. Some hosts and security services, including Cloudflare, let you block AI crawlers with a single switch, and some turn it on by default.

Most of these companies use separate crawlers for search and for training their models. You can allow search while blocking training:

• OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search; GPTBot for training.
• Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot for search; ClaudeBot for training.
• Perplexity: PerplexityBot.
• Google: AI Overviews use the normal Googlebot, so if you appear in Google you're eligible. Google-Extended controls whether your content is used to train Gemini.
• Microsoft: Copilot draws on Bing's index, and ChatGPT search uses Bing among its sources. Register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap. Many businesses only ever set up Google.

2. Write pages that answer real questions

AI answers are built from passages that answer a specific question clearly. For each service you offer, have a page that says, near the top and in plain English:

• what the service is and who it's for;
• where you work (towns, counties, UK-wide);
• roughly how long it takes and what the process is;
• what makes you different, with evidence (accreditations, years trading, real results).

Then add the questions customers actually ask you on the phone, with direct answers. A good FAQ section is one of the easiest wins in AI search, because each answer is a ready-made passage an AI tool can quote.

3. Keep your business details identical everywhere

Your name, address, phone number, opening hours and list of services should match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Companies House, trade directories and social profiles. Where AI tools find conflicting details, they either leave you out or get you wrong.

Add structured data (schema markup) to your site to state these facts in a form machines can read: LocalBusiness or Organization for the business, Service for what you offer, and FAQPage for your questions. Most website platforms have a plugin or setting for this.

4. Earn mentions from other sites

AI tools lean heavily on what other sites say about you. Ask happy customers for reviews on Google and on the platform your sector uses (Trustpilot, Checkatrade, Feefo and so on), and reply to them. Make sure you're listed on your trade body's member directory. Contribute to local press and industry publications. A handful of genuine, relevant mentions beats a pile of low-quality directory links.

5. Check what AI tools say about you

Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity the questions your customers would ask: "who does [your service] in [your area]?", "what is [your business] like?", "[your business] vs [competitor]". Note whether you appear, whether the details are right, and which sources each tool cites. Those sources show you where to improve. If a tool is using an out-of-date directory listing, fix the listing.

What about llms.txt?

llms.txt is a proposed standard: a plain-text file at the root of your site that summarises your key pages for AI tools. It's cheap to add and does no harm, but none of the major AI search tools has confirmed that it uses it to decide what to show. Do the five steps above first.

AI search and AI advertising work together

ChatGPT now carries ads in the UK, but they appear beside the answer, not in it. A business that's well represented in the answer and also runs ads gets two chances to be chosen. A business that only runs ads is paying to make up for being invisible. Our guide to ChatGPT ads for UK businesses covers the paid side.

If you'd like to know where AI fits in the rest of your business too, the free AI scorecard takes about four minutes.

Frequently asked

What is AI search optimisation?

It's the work of making your business easy for AI assistants and AI search features to find, understand and recommend. It overlaps heavily with traditional SEO, with extra focus on clear answers, consistent business details, structured data and making sure AI crawlers aren't blocked.

How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?

Make sure ChatGPT's search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) can reach your site, register with Bing Webmaster Tools, write service pages that answer customer questions directly, keep your business details consistent across the web, and build genuine reviews and mentions. You can't pay to be recommended in the answer itself.

Is AI SEO different from normal SEO?

Mostly not. The foundations are the same: crawlable pages, useful content and a trusted reputation. The differences are emphasis: AI tools reward direct, quotable answers, rely more on what other sites say about you, and use crawlers and indexes, like Bing, that many businesses have never checked.

Should I block AI crawlers from my website?

Block training crawlers if you don't want your content used to train AI models, but allow the search crawlers if you want to appear in AI answers. Most AI companies offer separate crawlers for each, so you can choose.

How long does AI search optimisation take to work?

Fixes like unblocking crawlers and correcting business listings can show up within weeks, once the tools next search or crawl your site. Building reviews and mentions from other sites takes months. Checking monthly lets you see what's changing.