AI tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews now answer questions instead of showing links. A practical guide to getting your business mentioned in those answers.
Something has changed in the way people find local businesses. Instead of typing "plumber near me" into Google and scrolling through ten blue links, more people now ask a question and get one answer. Sometimes that answer comes from Google's AI Overview at the top of the results page. Sometimes it comes from ChatGPT or Perplexity.
If your business is named in that answer, brilliant. If it isn't, the customer may never see you at all, because many of them no longer click through to websites.
This guide explains what AI search is, why it matters for UK small businesses, and what you can actually do about it. No jargon, no scare tactics, and nothing you need a developer for (with one small exception we'll flag).
What is AI search?
AI search is when a tool like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot answers a question directly instead of showing a list of links. The AI reads content from across the web, picks the sources it trusts, and writes a summary. Being one of those sources is the new version of ranking on page one.
You may have heard this called AEO (answer engine optimisation) or GEO (generative engine optimisation). The names don't matter much. The idea is simple: traditional SEO gets you ranked, AI search optimisation gets you mentioned.
Why should a small business care?
A few numbers worth knowing.
Google's AI Overviews now appear on a large share of searches, with most industry estimates putting it at around 40 to 50% of queries. When an AI Overview appears, studies have measured clicks to websites dropping by as much as half, because people get their answer without leaving Google.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of weekly users, and a growing number of them use it the way they used to use Google. "Best Turkish restaurant in Crawley." "How much does a website cost for a small business." "Do I need a bookkeeper or an accountant." These are commercial questions, and AI tools answer them by naming specific businesses and citing specific pages.
Here's the part that should get your attention: this is still early. Most of your local competitors have done nothing about it. In traditional SEO you might be fighting businesses with ten years of head start. In AI search, almost everyone is starting from roughly the same place.
How does AI decide who to mention?
Nobody outside these companies knows the exact recipe, but research and testing have made the broad pattern fairly clear.
Google's AI Overviews lean heavily on pages that already rank well in normal search, so your existing SEO still matters. Google has said publicly that no special markup or AI trickery is needed, just helpful content written for people.
Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity behave a bit differently. They favour content that is easy to lift an answer from: a clear definition near the top of the page, a question answered directly under a heading, a table instead of three paragraphs of waffle. They also lean on third-party sources. Reviews, directories, local press and forum discussions often get cited more than a business's own website.
A study from Princeton researchers tested what actually moves the needle. Adding statistics with sources boosted a page's visibility in AI answers by around 30 to 40%. Citing credible sources helped by a similar amount. Keyword stuffing made things worse. The old tricks don't just fail here, they actively hurt.
Seven things you can do this month
1. Test it yourself first
Before changing anything, spend twenty minutes finding out where you stand. Open ChatGPT and Google and ask the questions your customers would ask. "Best [your trade] in [your town]." "How much does [your service] cost in the UK." Note who gets mentioned and who gets cited. If a competitor keeps coming up, look at their page. Usually you'll find it answers the question more directly than yours does.
2. Answer questions like a human would
AI tools extract passages, not whole pages. If someone asks "how much does a small business website cost in the UK" and your pricing page says "every project is unique, contact us for a quote," there is nothing for the AI to quote. A page that says "a professionally built small business website in the UK typically costs between £1,500 and £5,000, depending on pages and features" gives the AI something concrete to work with.
Put the direct answer in the first paragraph under each heading. Elaborate afterwards. Don't bury the answer at the bottom to keep people scrolling. That trick stopped working on humans years ago and it never worked on machines.
3. Use real numbers and name your sources
Vague claims get ignored. "We build fast websites" is invisible. "Sites we build load in under two seconds, and Google's research shows 53% of mobile visitors leave pages that take longer than three" is quotable. When you use a statistic, say where it came from. AI tools weight sourced claims more heavily, and so do the humans reading your page.
4. Keep your Google Business Profile in order
When AI tools answer local questions, a lot of the raw data comes from Google Business Profile: your hours, services, photos and reviews. An incomplete or outdated profile means AI tools are describing your business based on stale information, or skipping you entirely. We covered the basics in our local SEO guide for small businesses, and everything in it applies double here.
5. Make sure AI can actually read your site
This is the one technical bit. AI companies use crawlers with names like GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot to read websites. Some sites block them in a file called robots.txt, sometimes deliberately, sometimes because a plugin or developer did it without asking. If those bots are blocked, those AI tools cannot mention you, full stop. Ask whoever manages your site to check. It takes five minutes.
The same goes for sites that only show content after heavy JavaScript loads. If the page looks blank to a crawler, it looks blank to AI. This is one of several quiet problems we see with cheap DIY website builds.
6. Add an FAQ section to your key pages
Frequently asked questions, written the way real customers phrase them, are the easiest content for AI to extract. "Do you charge a call-out fee?" "How long does a website take to build?" "Do you deliver to Horsham?" Answer each one in two to four sentences. Add FAQ schema markup if you can (your web person will know what this means), which helps both Google and AI tools understand the structure.
7. Get mentioned in places that aren't your website
AI tools trust what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself. Encourage genuine reviews on Google. Get listed in reputable local directories. If a local paper or industry blog covers your business, that mention can do more for AI visibility than a whole month of posting on your own site. There are no shortcuts here, and the fake versions (paid mentions, spammy directory blasts) tend to backfire.
What not to do
Don't write separate "AI content" that no human would want to read. Google has explicitly warned that this can trip their spam policies. Don't stuff keywords; the Princeton study measured it reducing AI visibility by around 10%. And don't panic-buy an "AI SEO package" from a cold email. Most of what works here is just honest, well-structured content, which you can do yourself or with any decent web partner.
The honest summary
AI search rewards businesses that answer questions clearly, back up claims with real numbers, and have a genuine reputation beyond their own website. That has always been good marketing. The difference now is that the gap between businesses that do it and businesses that don't is becoming visible in a single AI-generated answer.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on how your business currently shows up in AI search, we offer a free check as part of our website reviews. No obligation, and we'll tell you honestly if you're already in decent shape.
FAQ
Is AI search replacing Google?
Not replacing, but changing it. Google itself now shows AI-generated answers above traditional results for many searches. The habits are shifting rather than the platform.
Do I need to rewrite my whole website?
No. Start with your most important two or three pages: your homepage, your main service page and your pricing or FAQ page. Clear answers and real numbers on those pages cover most of the ground.
Does traditional SEO still matter?
Yes, arguably more than before. Google's AI Overviews draw mainly from pages that already rank well. AI search optimisation sits on top of normal SEO, it doesn't replace it.
How long until I see results?
AI tools refresh their sources at different speeds. Changes to your Google Business Profile can show up within days. Content changes typically take a few weeks to a few months to be reflected, similar to normal SEO.
Can I check whether AI crawlers are blocked on my site?
Yes. Visit yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt in a browser and look for lines mentioning GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended next to the word "Disallow". If you're unsure what you're looking at, send it to your web developer, or to us.