Something big has changed in how people search for businesses. Instead of typing "best plumber near me" into Google and scrolling through results, more and more people are asking ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, or Perplexity the same question — and getting a straight answer. If your business isn't the one being mentioned in that answer, you're missing out on a growing chunk of customers who'll never even see your website.
You've probably heard of ChatGPT by now. But it's not the only AI that answers questions about local businesses. There are a few you need to know about:
Here's the thing that matters: when someone asks an AI "who's the best [your service] near me," the AI doesn't show 10 blue links. It names one or two businesses. Maybe three. That's it. If you're not one of them, you don't exist in that conversation.
This isn't replacing Google yet — but it's growing fast. Getting ahead of it now means you won't be scrambling to catch up later.
AI doesn't randomly pick businesses to recommend. It pulls information from websites, directories, reviews, and articles that it considers trustworthy and well-organised. The problem is, most small business websites aren't built in a way that AI can easily read and understand.
If your website is a five-page brochure with a home page, an about page, a services page, a gallery, and a contact form — that's not enough for AI to work with. There's nothing for it to quote. No clear answers to pull. No structured data to parse.
Think of it this way: When someone asks a question, AI needs to find a clear, quotable answer somewhere on the internet. If your website doesn't have clear answers to the questions people ask about your industry, the AI will quote someone else's website instead — probably a competitor's, or a generic article from a big publisher that mentions their business and not yours.
The good news is, this is fixable. And because most local businesses haven't caught on yet, there's a real advantage in doing it now.
AI loves FAQ pages. When you write a clear question followed by a clear answer, you're handing the AI exactly what it needs to recommend you. This is probably the single easiest thing you can do to start appearing in AI search results.
Write an FAQ page with 15-20 questions that your customers actually ask. Not the questions you wish they'd ask — the real ones. "How much does it cost to re-stump a house in Melbourne?" "Do I need a permit for a bathroom renovation in Victoria?" "How long does it take to install ducted heating?"
Answer each one in 2-3 sentences. Be specific. Include numbers where you can. Mention your location. An AI is far more likely to quote "Re-stumping a typical 3-bedroom home in Melbourne costs between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on access and soil conditions" than a vague paragraph about your services.
Beyond FAQs, AI also pulls from articles that explain how things work. If you're an electrician, write a blog post about "5 signs your switchboard needs replacing." If you're a landscaper, write about "how to choose the right retaining wall for Melbourne soil." These articles position you as the expert, and AI picks up on that.
The key is structure. Use clear headings, short paragraphs, and direct language. AI can't easily pull useful information from a wall of text — but it can absolutely grab a well-written paragraph under a clear heading.
AI doesn't just look at what you say — it looks at whether it should trust what you say. This is called E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), and it's been a Google ranking factor for years. Now AI uses it too.
Here's what to make sure is clearly visible on your website:
When an AI is choosing between two plumbing businesses to recommend, it'll pick the one that clearly demonstrates experience and credibility over the one with a thin website and no verifiable details.
Schema markup is a bit of code on your website that tells search engines (and AI) exactly what your business is, where it is, and what it does. It doesn't change how your site looks to visitors — it just makes your information machine-readable.
There are three types that matter most for AI visibility:
If this sounds technical, it is — but your web developer can add it in under an hour. Use Google's Rich Results Test to check if your site already has schema, and what's missing.
AI prefers recent information. If the last time you updated your website was 2022, the AI is going to treat your content as less reliable than a competitor who updated theirs last month.
You don't need to rewrite your entire site every month. But here's what helps:
Think of your website like a shopfront. If the window display hasn't changed in three years, people assume you're closed. AI makes the same assumption.
This one's newer, and most businesses haven't heard of it. An llms.txt file is like a robots.txt file (which tells Google's crawlers how to read your site), but it's specifically for AI. It sits in the root of your website and tells AI crawlers who you are, what you do, and what content matters most.
It's a simple plain-text file. Here's roughly what it looks like for a local business:
# Business Name > Short description of what you do and where ## About One paragraph about your business, experience, and service area. ## Services - Service one - Service two - Service three ## Contact - Phone: 0400 000 000 - Email: hello@yourbusiness.com.au - Address: 123 Beach Rd, Bayside VIC 3186
Save it as llms.txt in the same place as your homepage (your website's root directory). Your web developer can do this in five minutes.
It's still early days for this standard, but the businesses that set it up now will have a head start when AI crawlers start using it widely. It's free, it's easy, and there's no downside.
AI doesn't just look at your website. It cross-references information from multiple sources. If your business is mentioned on your own site, on Google reviews, in a local news article, and in a few industry directories — that's a strong signal that you're real, reputable, and worth recommending.
Here's how to build those mentions:
The more places your business name, address, and services appear consistently across the web, the more confident AI becomes in recommending you. It's the same principle as traditional SEO — but it matters even more now because AI is making a judgement call about which one or two businesses to name.
We'll check how you appear in AI search and show you what to fix. Book a free strategy call and let's get you showing up where it counts.
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