How to Get Your Business Discovered in AI Search

When someone asks an AI platform to suggest a trustworthy business nearby, will your company appear as a relevant option with accurate information?

No business can control whether ChatGPT, Google, Gemini, Perplexity, or another AI platform recommends it. However, you can improve the accuracy and credibility of the information these systems find about your business by maintaining consistent listings, publishing helpful content, earning authentic reviews, and keeping your website accessible.

At Around29, we help businesses strengthen these foundations and improve how they appear across search engines, business directories, review platforms, and AI search tools. This guide explains what AI-assisted local search means, what current evidence shows, and seven practical improvements you can make today. Our goal is to help you build a clear, credible online presence that supports better customer discovery and meaningful business growth.

What is AI search for local businesses?

AI search allows people to ask questions in everyday language and receive conversational answers, often with links, recommendations, or follow-up options. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode bring generative features into Google Search, while ChatGPT Search, Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot are separate products that use their own systems to select and present information. Depending on the platform and the question, an AI search experience may draw from websites, business profiles, review platforms, maps, and directories. Results can also vary based on the user’s location, wording, search date, and the platform’s underlying technology.

GEO, or generative engine optimization, is an industry term for improving visibility in generative search experiences. It is not a universal ranking system controlled by a single company. For Google’s generative search features, the same foundational SEO practices remain important, including creating useful content, maintaining crawlable pages, using readable text, and keeping business information accurate.

The numbers that matter

Here are several recent surveys and vendor studies that provide directional evidence about AI-assisted local search. They should not be treated as universal ranking rules.

• In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adult consumers, 45% said they had used an AI tool for local business recommendations during the previous 12 months, compared with 6% in the prior survey. This is self-reported behavior, not proof that the recommendations were accurate.
• In SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index, which analyzed queries involving more than 350,000 locations across 2,751 multi-location brands, the percentage of sampled locations recommended varied by platform: 1.2% for ChatGPT, 11% for Gemini, and 7.4% for Perplexity. This sample covered multi-location brands, not independent local businesses, so it is not a benchmark for every local business.
• SparkToro’s analysis of Similarweb clickstream data reported that 68.01% of measured U.S. Google searches ended without an external click from January through April 2026, compared with 60.45% in 2024. This covers all measured search categories, not specifically local or AI-assisted searches.
• In SOCi’s multi-location dataset, recommended locations tended to have higher ratings and stronger review-response patterns. The study does not establish a universal rating threshold or prove that ratings alone caused recommendations. In Whitespark’s 2026 expert survey, review signals were assigned roughly 20% of the estimated local-ranking-factor group weight. That reflects expert opinion, not a confirmed Google algorithm percentage.

These figures describe survey and vendor-reported findings, not universal guarantees. BrightLocal’s survey used a representative panel of 1,002 U.S. adults and reflects self-reported behavior. SOCi’s sample covered multi-location brands and chains, not independent local businesses. Treat the figures as directional evidence about AI-assisted discovery, not proof of a specific outcome for an individual business.

What AI search tools look for (in plain English)

Each platform uses different systems. Current platform guidance and vendor studies identify several recurring practical considerations, including accurate business information, useful website content, reviews, structured data, and credible external mentions. Their importance varies by platform and query.

• Accurate business information: Your name, address or service area, phone number, hours, and category should agree across every source an AI system might check.
• Real reviews: Genuine, recent customer feedback that AI systems and the people reading their answers can use to judge trustworthiness.
• Clear website content: Service pages and FAQs that answer real customer questions in plain, direct language.
• Structured data: Code that helps machines interpret what a page is about, without guaranteeing you’ll be included anywhere.
• Web mentions: Genuine references to your business from other credible sources, not just your own website.

The table below separates the platform experiences and identifies which findings come from SOCi’s multi-location study rather than from platform documentation.

Platform or feature	Publicly documented or evaluated sources	SOCi 2026 sampled recommendation rate	SOCi 2026 sampled information accuracy
ChatGPT Search	Public web content and sources accessible to ChatGPT Search; OAI-SearchBot access can help discovery	1.2% of sampled locations	Approximately 68% in SOCi’s sample
Google Gemini	Information from Google’s Search index and Maps ecosystem, with the specific sources varying by product and user query	11% of sampled locations	Approximately 100% in SOCi’s sample
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	Google Search index and supporting Search systems	Not reported in the SOCi comparison	Not reported as a separate SOCi figure
Perplexity	Web sources and citations retrieved for the query	7.4% of sampled locations	Approximately 68% in SOCi’s sample

The recommendation-rate and accuracy figures come from SOCi’s 2026 study of multi-location brands. They are sample results, not universal platform guarantees. The platform descriptions are based on public documentation and should be kept separate from SOCi’s measurements.

Seven practical ways to improve your AI search visibility

1. Maintain your Google Business Profile

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile if you’re eligible, then fill out every field that genuinely applies to your business, including your category, services, description, hours, special hours, service area, website, phone number, photos, and location details.

Use your real-world business name. Google’s guidelines for representing your business prohibit adding unnecessary keywords, locations, or promotional text to your business name. Naming it incorrectly can create quality problems and may even get your profile suspended.

Add genuine photos and publish useful updates whenever you have something meaningful to share, and keep the whole profile truthful and current. A Google Business Profile is an important first-party source for what shows up in Search and Maps, but Google also pulls from other sources, so a complete profile doesn’t guarantee a particular ranking or AI recommendation on its own.

If you operate in multiple locations, keep accurate information for each eligible location. Only create a local landing page when it offers something useful and original about that location, not a thin page that just swaps one city name for another. Our guide to setting up your Google Business Profile can help you review the basics.

2. Keep your core business information identical everywhere

Maintain accurate, consistent information wherever customers might find your business, including Google, Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing. The important details include:

• Real world business name
• Address or service area
• Telephone number
• Opening hours and special hours
• Primary category
• Main services
• Website address
• Service locations

Accuracy does not mean identical wording everywhere. It means the underlying facts agree. A service-area business, for example, might list an approved service area instead of a customer-facing address for a location where it does not actually operate. Inconsistent information can make it harder for search systems and users to determine which business facts are reliable, but no universal rule shows that every AI system will skip an inconsistent listing. Our guide to what small businesses need to know about local SEO covers this in more detail. 

Google’s local ranking guidance says complete, accurate profile information can make a business more likely to appear in relevant local results, and that results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and prominence. Those are Google-specific statements, though, so don’t assume they’re the ranking rules for every AI platform.

3. Build an honest review process

Ask real customers for honest feedback after a completed job, appointment, purchase, or stay. Make it simple by handing them a direct review link wherever the platform allows it.

Don’t write reviews for customers, buy reviews, use fake profiles, offer incentives in exchange for reviews, pressure customers toward a specific rating, or only ask your happiest customers for feedback. Google’s Maps user-generated content policies prohibit fake engagement and rating manipulation, and Google separately calls out incentives offered in exchange for reviews as incentivized or biased review activity.

Use the SOCi and Whitespark figures above only as directional context. No universal AI-platform star-rating or review-count cutoff is publicly documented.

Respond to reviews where it makes sense. Thank customers for positive feedback and handle negative feedback calmly, specifically, and without exposing anyone’s private information. Reviews help prospective customers evaluate a business, but no particular review count, star rating, length, or recency guarantees AI visibility.

4. Create specific service pages

Your website should give people what they need before they decide to call, book, or fill out an inquiry. Build a clear page for each important service whenever there’s enough useful information to justify a separate page. On each one, explain

• What the service includes
• Who the service is for
• Which locations or service areas you cover
• What the process involves
• What customers should prepare
• What happens next
• How customers can request a quote or appointment

Lead with a direct answer in the first sentence or two, then add context, examples, limitations, and next steps. For example:

Our emergency plumbing service helps homeowners in Tulsa respond to burst pipes, severe leaks, clogged drains, and other urgent plumbing problems.

That’s a lot more useful than a vague line like “We provide comprehensive solutions for residential plumbing needs.” Specific information helps customers understand whether the service is even relevant to them. It won’t create a guaranteed AI ranking advantage, but it does make you easier to understand.

Use FAQs only when they answer questions your customers actually ask. Do not add questions merely to repeat keywords. A documented content process can help you answer recurring customer questions consistently over time.

5. Use accurate structured data where it helps

Structured data is code that helps search engines interpret and classify what’s on a page. Depending on the page, relevant types might include LocalBusiness, Organization, Service, Article, BlogPosting, or BreadcrumbList.

Use schema markup only for information customers can clearly see and verify on the page itself. Don’t use it to exaggerate your services, locations, ratings, reviews, or results. Google’s AI features guidance states that structured data isn’t required for Google’s generative AI search features, and Google’s structured data policies note that correctly implemented structured data still doesn’t guarantee a rich result.

Ahrefs’ matched analysis of 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD, compared with 4,000 control pages, found no meaningful citation increase in Google AI Mode or ChatGPT. It observed a small 4.6% relative decline in AI Overview citations, but Ahrefs cautioned that the decline could not be definitively attributed to schema. The study examined pages that already had substantial AI Overview citations, so it does not establish how schema affects pages with no prior AI visibility.

For an ordinary commercial website, do not expect a Google FAQ rich result. Google no longer generally shows FAQ rich results, and its current documentation limits the feature to well-known, authoritative government and health websites. FAQPage markup may provide additional structured context when it accurately represents visible FAQ content, but Google says it is not required for generative AI features and does not guarantee a rich result or AI citation.

6. Earn relevant, genuine local mentions

Look for places where your business is genuinely involved or useful, such as

• Local chambers of commerce
• Trade associations
• Supplier or manufacturer directories
• Community event pages
• Local news websites
• Professional organizations
• Partner websites
• Legitimate sponsorship pages

Avoid mass directory submissions, fake profiles, unrelated websites, and paid or manipulative link schemes. The goal isn’t to collect random links. It’s to build a credible public record that accurately reflects what your business does and where it operates.

Two vendor studies reached different results because they used different query sets and definitions of first-party, brand-controlled, and third-party sources. Omniscient Digital’s branded-query analysis reported that many citations came from sources other than the brand’s own website. Yext’s analysis of 6.8 million citations classified websites, listings, and reviews as sources brands could control or influence. These results are not directly comparable or universal. Relevant mentions may help customers and search systems understand a business, but no single mention formally verifies a business with every AI system.

If your customers use platforms beyond Google, our article on exploring search beyond Google explains how to evaluate alternative discovery platforms and decide where your business should show up.

7. Check crawlability and customer access

Review the technical conditions that affect whether people and search systems can actually get to your important pages. Check your

• robots.txt
• noindex directives
• Firewall and bot protection rules
• Login requirements
• JavaScript dependent content
• Mobile usability
• Broken internal links
• Broken forms
• Hosting errors
• Page performance

Page performance primarily affects user experience and can contribute to search performance through page-experience signals. Robots rules, authentication, firewall challenges, and server errors are more direct access blockers.

OpenAI’s publisher FAQ explains that OAI-SearchBot access can help make your public content eligible for inclusion in ChatGPT search, though placement still isn’t guaranteed. OpenAI also provides separate crawler guidance on how crawler access and website security rules interact. OAI-SearchBot matters for ChatGPT search discovery, while GPTBot relates to access for potential model improvement use.

Google’s Guide to Opti