How to get your business mentioned by AI search
Customers are asking ChatGPT and Perplexity to find local businesses now. Here is what actually decides which businesses get named, and what you can do about it.
More of your customers are asking ChatGPT or Perplexity to find a local business instead of typing into Google. When someone asks for a reliable blinds fitter nearby, the AI names a few businesses and says why. The question owners ask us now is how to become one of the names it gives.
The honest answer comes first: nobody can guarantee it, and anyone selling you a guaranteed spot is guessing. There is no ads panel to buy into. But how these tools pick businesses is not a mystery either.
AI assistants build their answers from what they can read on the web. They favour businesses with complete, consistent information: a finished Google Business Profile, the same name, address and phone number everywhere it appears, a website that clearly states what you do and where, and recent reviews from real customers.
They also favour direct answers. If your website answers common questions in plain sentences, those sentences are what gets quoted. A page that says you fit plantation shutters across Greater Manchester and most jobs take half a day is usable. A page full of vague claims about excellence is not.
So the work is mostly things worth doing anyway. Keep your business listings accurate everywhere, collect reviews steadily, and write your website the way your customers actually talk. Do that and you give every AI tool something solid to quote when someone asks.
This is changing how local businesses get found, and we are watching it closely. The businesses that win will be the ones with the clearest and most trustworthy information online, not the ones with the cleverest tricks.
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