How to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI answers

How AI assistants find businesses

AI search tools generally combine what their models learned during training with live web searches. To be mentioned, your business needs to be findable on the open web, described clearly and consistently, and supported by other sources that mention you.

Google is explicit about its own AI features. Its documentation says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page needs to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in normal Search, and the usual SEO fundamentals apply. That is a useful reality check on the industry selling "GEO" as something entirely new.

1. Let the crawlers in

Check that your robots.txt and any firewall or CDN bot settings don't block search and AI crawlers you want. Some hosting and security services block AI crawlers by default, so check yours. On my own site, Cloudflare was blocking some AI crawlers until I changed the setting.

The detail that matters is that most AI companies now separate crawlers used for search answers from crawlers used for model training, and you can treat them differently.

So a business that doesn't want its content used for training can block GPTBot or ClaudeBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. OpenAI's documentation states that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links. Check each company's page for the current list before editing robots.txt, because names and behaviour change.

2. State the facts plainly

AI tools summarise. If your homepage says "We craft bespoke journeys of transformation", there is nothing concrete to summarise. Plain statements are easier to quote accurately.

• Who you are, what you do, where you are and who you serve, in plain sentences on your homepage and about page.
• Services listed clearly, each with its own page.
• Pricing approach, contact details and location stated explicitly.
• An FAQ that answers the questions people actually ask.
• Important information in text, not only inside images or videos.

3. Be consistent everywhere

Your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directory listings should describe you the same way. AI tools cross-reference sources, and contradictions reduce confidence. In the UAE this often goes wrong with business names: the trade licence name, the English brand name and an Arabic name used in different places. Pick the forms you use and apply them everywhere. My guide to local citations in the UAE covers the directories worth fixing.

4. Use structured data

Schema markup (Person, Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Article) gives machines an unambiguous description of your business and content. Google says no special schema is needed for its AI features, and that structured data must match what is visible on the page. So treat it as a way to describe your real content precisely, not as a trick. See LocalBusiness schema.

5. Earn mentions elsewhere

Being cited by other reputable sites, such as industry articles, interviews, podcasts and partner pages, helps both search engines and AI tools see you as a credible source. When an assistant recommends a business, it often leans on lists, reviews and articles written by others. Being genuinely present in those sources matters more than anything on your own site.

6. Consider llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed standard for a plain-text summary of your site for AI agents. It's not an official requirement, and Google says it doesn't need one for AI Overviews. But it's cheap to add. See what llms.txt is and whether you need one.

How to check whether it is working

Questions people ask