How to show up when customers ask AI

A growing share of people now ask an AI assistant, such as ChatGPT or the AI answers at the top of Google, questions like “who are the best plumbers near me” or “which agency is good at Google Ads for trades”. The answer usually names a handful of businesses. If yours is not one of them, you are not in the conversation.

This is new territory and nobody can promise a placement. But the assistants draw on the public web, and there are sensible steps that make a business easier to find, understand and recommend.

What the assistants draw on

Broadly, AI assistants form their answers from:

• Your own website. What you say you do, where, and for whom.
• Third party mentions. Directories, review sites, industry lists, news and articles that mention you.
• Reviews. Google reviews and reviews on other platforms, including what people say about you, not just the star rating.
• Structured information. Business details marked up in a way machines can read reliably.

Practical steps

Say plainly what you do. Pages that clearly state the service, the area and the type of customer are easier to match to a question. Clever headlines that do not say what you do help no one, human or machine.

Give each service its own page. A single page listing everything gives an assistant little to go on. A page per service, with real detail, gives it something specific to cite.

Answer the questions people actually ask. Pricing ranges, timeframes, what is included, what to look for when choosing a provider. Honest, specific answers are the kind of content assistants quote.

Keep your business details consistent. Name, address, phone and website should match everywhere they appear: your site, your Google Business Profile and directories.

Earn mentions in the places that get cited. Industry lists, local publications and reputable directories carry weight. A mention on a site that is often quoted is worth more than many links on sites nobody reads.

Mark up your details. Structured data (schema markup) tells machines your business name, address, services and reviews in a consistent format.

How to check where you stand

The simplest test is to ask. Write down the ten questions a customer would most likely ask about your service and your area, ask them in the main assistants, and record who gets named. Repeat monthly. It is a crude measure, but it shows direction, and it shows which competitors are being recommended and why.

If you would like help running that check and working through the gaps, get in touch.