AI search
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI
A plain guide to Answer Engine Optimisation: the practical steps that make an AI name your business when a customer asks who to use.
Bright10 · 6 min read
Ask ChatGPT or Google's AI "who should I use for [what you do] in [your town]" and you'll get a short, confident answer naming a few businesses. Your customers are asking exactly these questions right now. This is how you become one of the names.
1. State your facts plainly — where a machine can read them
Answer engines quote clear statements, not marketing waffle. Somewhere obvious on your site, say exactly what you do, who you do it for, and where you operate — in a full sentence a model could lift word for word. "We are a [service] business in [area] serving [customers]." If a person has to infer it, so does the AI, and it won't take the risk.
2. Add structured data (schema)
Schema is a hidden, machine-readable summary of your business: name, services, prices, location, opening hours, FAQs. It's invisible to visitors but read directly by Google and increasingly by AI engines. A site with proper schema is far easier for a model to trust and cite than one it has to guess about.
3. Answer real questions on the page
Answer engines love pages that already contain the question and a clean answer. A genuine FAQ section — the actual things customers ask, answered in one or two clear sentences — is some of the most quotable content you can publish. It doubles as FAQ schema, which is one of the strongest AEO signals available.
4. Be consistent everywhere
If your name, address, services and phone differ across your website, Google Business Profile and listings, an AI can't be confident which version is right — so it stays vague, and vague answers don't name you. Keep the core facts identical everywhere the model might look.
5. Be fast and clean
A slow, cluttered site is hard to parse. Modern, lightweight sites are read more reliably. Speed isn't just a ranking factor any more — it's whether the engine finishes reading you at all.
None of this is a trick. Answer engines reward the same things a good human would: a clear, credible, well-organised business that plainly says what it does. Build that, and being recommended follows.
Common questions
Can I pay to appear in ChatGPT or AI answers?
No. Unlike ads, AI recommendations aren't for sale. Engines surface businesses they can read, trust and verify — which is why clear content, structured data and consistency matter far more than budget.
How long does it take to show up in AI search?
There's no fixed timeline — engines re-crawl and re-index continually. The fastest path is getting the foundations right (clear facts, schema, consistency) so that the next time an engine reads you, you're easy to cite.
Does AEO replace SEO?
No — it extends it. Most of what helps AI search also helps Google. The businesses that win do both: rank in traditional search and get named in AI answers.
See your own site, built to this standard.
We build it first and show you at a private link — free. You only pay if you keep it.