A few years back, “getting found online” meant one thing: ranking on Google. These days, a growing number of your potential clients are skipping the search results page altogether and asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews to just tell them who to call. If that sounds like a whole new game you need to learn, here’s the thing — it isn’t. Most of what makes you visible to AI search is exactly what makes you visible everywhere else. You just need to know what it’s actually looking for.
What AI search actually means for a service business
When someone types “best business coach in Brisbane” or “website designer for small business near me” into ChatGPT or Perplexity, they’re not getting ten blue links to click through and compare. They’re getting a short, confident answer — often two or three names, sometimes just one — pulled together from whatever information that AI tool can find about businesses like yours.
Google’s AI Overviews work in a similar way, sitting at the top of a normal search and summarising an answer before anyone scrolls down to the regular results. For your potential client, it feels less like searching and more like asking a well-informed friend for a recommendation. For your business, it means there’s a new gatekeeper deciding whether you even get a mention.
Why this matters, even if you’ve never opened ChatGPT yourself
You don’t need to use these tools personally for this to affect you — your clients are using them, and that number keeps growing. Someone who used to type “business coach Brisbane” into Google and scroll through ten websites might now just ask an AI tool to shortlist a few for them and save themselves the legwork.
Here’s the catch: AI tools can only recommend what they can find and clearly understand. If your website is vague about what you do, who you help, and where you’re based, an AI tool has nothing solid to point to — so it quietly points to someone else instead. This isn’t really a brand-new problem. It’s the same “why isn’t anyone finding me online” feeling a lot of business owners already have, just showing up in a new place.
What makes AI tools more likely to recommend you
AI search tools build their answers from information scattered across the web: your website, your Google Business Profile, your social pages, reviews, directories, and more. The businesses that get mentioned tend to have three things in common.
Clarity — their website says plainly, in the first few lines, what they do, who they help, and where they’re based. No guessing required, and no clever taglines standing in for an actual explanation.
Consistency — their business name, location, and description match up across their website, Google Business Profile, and social platforms. AI tools, like people, trust information that lines up everywhere they look.
Trust signals — genuine reviews, an up-to-date Google Business Profile, and real examples of their work. These tell an AI tool (and a real person) that this is an active, trustworthy business worth recommending.
None of this is a separate “AI strategy” you need to bolt on top of everything else. It’s the same foundation that’s always mattered for good SEO — just with a new audience now reading it too.
Simple ways to show up in AI search results
You don’t need to overhaul your whole online presence to start improving how AI tools see you. A few small, practical checks go a long way:
- Make sure your homepage says clearly, in plain language, what you do, who you help, and where you’re based — not just “Welcome to our website”
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete, accurate, and up to date, including your services and location
- Encourage happy clients to leave reviews, and take the time to reply to the ones you get
- Use the same business name, location, and short description everywhere — website, socials, directories
- Add a simple FAQ section to your website that answers the questions clients actually ask you before they enquire
Each of these is something you could check in the next ten minutes, and each one makes you a little easier for both AI tools and real people to find — and trust.
The takeaway: get the basics right, and AI search looks after itself
You don’t need to chase every new platform or learn a brand-new skill to show up in AI search results. Get the fundamentals solid — clear language, consistent information, real trust signals — and you’re putting yourself in the running wherever your clients are searching, whether that’s Google, ChatGPT, or whatever comes next.
If this has you wondering what your own website or Google Business Profile actually says about your business, save this post for when you’ve got ten minutes. You might be surprised what’s missing — and how small the fix usually is.
