AI search guide
How to make your website show up in AI search answers
Google says there is no special trick for AI Overviews: a page has to be indexed, eligible for a snippet, and genuinely useful. For a small business that means plain answers to the questions customers ask, consistent business details everywhere, and HTML that crawlers can read. Here is what to do, what is optional, and what is hype.
What Google actually says
Google's guide AI features and your website is unusually direct: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode". To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. The same guide says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup.
So the work is ordinary SEO done properly. The guide lists the fundamentals that still apply: let crawlers in, make content findable through internal links, give a good page experience, keep important content in text, support it with good images, make structured data match the visible page, and keep your Business Profile up to date. Everything below follows from that list.
Anyone selling a secret "AI SEO" package for a local business is selling the same fundamentals under a new name, or something Google says it does not use.
Seven things that make a small business site citable
Answer real questions in plain sentences
AI answers quote pages that state facts clearly. "We replace furnaces in Nanaimo, Lantzville and Ladysmith, usually within a week" is quotable. "Your comfort is our passion" is not. Put prices or price ranges, service areas, timelines and what is included on the page, in text.
Give each service and town its own page
One page per main service and per town you really serve, each answering the questions people ask about it. This is the same structure that helps in Maps, covered in why your business is not on Google Maps.
Add a short FAQ with real questions
Write the questions customers ask on the phone, and answer each one directly in the first sentence. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in May 2026, per its Search Central updates, so do this for readers and for answer engines, not for a search feature.
Describe the business with schema.org
Mark up the business as a LocalBusiness, or the most specific subtype, with name, address, phone, hours, area served and a link to your profile. Describe services with Service and FAQ sections with FAQPage. Google's LocalBusiness documentation shows the fields it reads. It is not required for AI features, but it removes guesswork about who you are.
Keep name, address and phone identical everywhere
Website, Google Business Profile, Facebook and directories should match character for character. When sources disagree, any system summarizing your business has to guess.
Earn reviews and mentions
Recommendations are built from what others say about you. Steady Google reviews, local directory listings and links from suppliers, associations and local news give answer engines something to cite besides your own site.
Serve real HTML that loads fast
Google can render JavaScript, but its own JavaScript SEO basics notes that server-side or pre-rendering is still a great idea because not all bots can run JavaScript. If your text only appears after scripts run, some crawlers see an empty page.
ChatGPT search and other AI tools
ChatGPT search finds pages with its own crawler. OpenAI's crawler documentation explains that OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot are controlled separately in robots.txt: you can allow OAI-SearchBot so your site can appear in ChatGPT search results while blocking GPTBot if you do not want your content used to train models. Check your robots.txt, and check that your host or CDN is not blocking these bots by default.
Beyond access, the same rules apply as for Google. Clear text, consistent business details and third-party mentions are what get a business named in an answer. There is no way to pay or submit your way in.
What about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposal published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024: a Markdown file at the root of a site that gives AI agents a short, clean summary and links to the most useful pages. It is an emerging convention, not a standard, and support varies by tool.
Be clear about Google. In June 2026 Google added a note to its documentation, logged in its Search Central updates, saying llms.txt files are not needed for Google Search and will not affect visibility or rankings either way, while it is fine to keep one for other services that use it.
Our view: if you want one, it takes minutes to write and some agents read it, so there is little reason not to. We will not sell it as a ranking factor, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
What matters, what is optional, what is hype
| Item | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Indexed pages with clear text answers | Essential | Google requires indexing and snippet eligibility for AI features |
| Crawlers allowed in robots.txt and by your host | Essential | Blocked bots cannot read or cite you |
| Up-to-date Google Business Profile | Essential for local | Listed by Google among the fundamentals for AI features |
| schema.org LocalBusiness and Service | Strongly recommended | Must match the visible page; reduces ambiguity |
| FAQ sections | Recommended | Useful for readers and answers, though no longer a Google rich result |
| llms.txt | Optional | Emerging convention; Google says it does not affect Search |
| "AI ranking guarantees" | Hype | No one controls which sources an AI answer cites |
How we build this in
Every site we build is hand-coded with Next.js, so pages arrive as finished HTML rather than being assembled by scripts in the browser. Structured data, a sitemap, Google Analytics and Search Console are set up at launch, and each service and town gets its own page. That is standard in our website design work, not an add-on.
Some clients go a step further and add an AI assistant to their own site, which answers customer questions around the clock from the same facts. That is part of our web apps and AI service.
To see whether AI features are already sending you visitors, open the Performance report in Search Console. Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is counted there under the "Web" search type. On our local SEO plan, it is part of the monthly report.
Quick audit for your own site
- Your services, prices or price ranges and service area appear as text on the site
- Each main service has its own page
- Each town you serve has a page that mentions real work there
- The site has an FAQ answering questions customers actually ask
- LocalBusiness structured data matches the name, address and phone on the page
- robots.txt does not block Googlebot or OAI-SearchBot
- Page text is visible with JavaScript turned off
- Google Business Profile details match the website exactly
- The site is verified in Search Console
Questions people ask
How do I get my business mentioned in Google AI Overviews?
Do I need an llms.txt file for my website?
Does schema markup help with AI search?
How does ChatGPT find websites?
Can I pay to appear in AI answers?
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