How to show up when customers ask ChatGPT for a recommendation
Search is changing fast. More people now ask ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, or Perplexity "who's a good [X] near me" instead of scrolling a page of links. If you're not set up for that, you're simply invisible in the answer. Here's how to become one of the businesses the AI actually names.
Why this matters right now
When someone asks an AI for a recommendation, they usually act on the answer without ever clicking a search result. Being named in that answer is the new page one. And because almost no local business has set this up yet, the window is wide open, early movers get named while everyone else stays invisible.
1. Make your site easy for AI to read
AI tools favour clean, well-structured pages with real content that answers questions directly. Vague marketing fluff doesn't get quoted; a clear page that plainly states what you do, where, and for whom does. Structure your site so a machine can follow it: proper headings, plain language, no walls of jargon.
2. Describe your business as data with schema
Schema markup spells out your business as structured data, name, location, services, hours, so an AI can understand and trust it. LocalBusiness and Organization schema are what let a model say your name with confidence instead of skipping you for a competitor it understands better.
3. Add an llms.txt file
An llms.txt file is a simple text file that points AI tools to your most important pages and key facts, a bit like a sitemap written for language models. It's newer, and most sites don't have one yet, which is exactly why adding one now puts you ahead.
4. Be consistent and referenced across the web
AI models trust entities they see mentioned consistently in lots of places. Same business name and details everywhere, plus genuine mentions on directories, reviews, and profiles, all reinforce that you're real and established. Consistency is quietly one of the biggest factors here.
5. Answer real questions on your site
A page that directly answers a real question, "how much does this cost," "how long does it take", is exactly the kind of clear, useful content an AI likes to pull from. This is the heart of AEO and GEO, and it's why this whole site has an Answers section built that way.
The honest bit
No one can guarantee an AI names you, and anyone promising that is selling something. What you can do is be the clearest, most trustworthy, best-structured source in your area, and right now that's a low bar almost nobody's clearing. Want to go deeper on the difference between search, answer, and AI optimization? Read SEO vs AEO vs GEO. Or I can just set it all up for you.