A short explainer
How AI search works.
And why your site is probably invisible to it.
We're going to keep this short. No jargon. By the end you'll know more about AI search than 99% of the small businesses you compete with.
Part 1
The shift.
For 25 years, finding a local business meant typing into Google, scanning a list of blue links, and clicking around until you found something that looked legitimate.
That's changing, fast. ChatGPT alone has hundreds of millions of weekly users. Google's AI Overview now sits at the top of most search results. People ask Claude or Perplexity for recommendations the way they used to ask a friend.
And those AI assistants don't show a list of links. They give an answer. Often with one or two business names.
If your business isn't one of those names, you don't exist.
Part 2
How an AI picks who to recommend.
01
Relevance
Does this page actually answer the question I'm being asked? AI looks for direct matches between the user's intent and what the page says, in plain words, not marketing copy.
02
Structure
Can I parse who runs this business, what they do, where they do it, and who their reviews are from? AI reads structured data (Schema.org) far better than it reads pretty visuals.
03
Citability
Is the content written in a way I can quote? FAQs work. Direct factual statements work. Vague taglines like 'we go above and beyond' don't work.
04
Permission
Have you told AI assistants what your site is about and what they can use? llms.txt is the file that does that. Most sites don't have one.
Part 3
What AI sees when it visits a typical small business site vs. one of ours.
A typical Wix template
<div class="hero-banner-12"> <h1>Welcome to our website!</h1> <p>We go above and beyond for our customers.</p> </div> <div class="container-fluid section-3"> <p>Click here to learn more about us.</p> </div> # AI sees: A page that exists. # AI knows: Almost nothing it can quote.
A site we built
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@type": "Plumber",
"name": "Reliable Plumbing Co.",
"address": "Tampa, FL",
"openingHours": "Mo-Sa 07:00-19:00",
"priceRange": "$$"
}
</script>
<h1>Plumbers in Tampa, FL, same-day service</h1>
# AI sees: A plumber. In Tampa. Open Mon-Sat.
# AI knows: Enough to recommend you.Part 4
What we put on every site.
Schema.org structured data
LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Review markup. AI reads it like a label on a soup can.
llms.txt at your root
Tells AI models what the site is about and what they can reference.
Semantic HTML
Real <h1>, <article>, <nav>. Not div soup.
FAQ-first content
Direct question-and-answer blocks, the format AI assistants prefer to quote.
Plain-language copy
Specific. Factual. Citable. No 'innovative solutions.'
Local entity signals
Your name, address, phone, hours, service area, consistently and machine-readably.
FAQ
Common questions
about AI search.
What is AI search?
AI search is when people ask a chatbot or AI assistant, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overview, a question instead of typing keywords into a search engine. The AI reads websites in real time (or from its training data) and writes a synthesized answer that often recommends specific businesses by name.
How do AI assistants find businesses to recommend?
They crawl or query websites and score them on three things: relevance (does the page actually answer the question?), structure (can the AI parse who you are, what you do, and where?), and citability (is the content factual, specific, and presented in a format the AI can quote?). Sites built for human visual browsing, heavy images, vague headings, marketing fluff, score badly.
What is Schema.org markup and why does it matter?
Schema.org is a shared vocabulary that tells machines exactly what your website is about, that you're a LocalBusiness, that this page describes a Service, that this block is your address, that this is an FAQ. Without it, AI has to guess. With it, AI knows.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a file at the root of your website that tells AI models what your site is about and what they can reference. It's the AI-search equivalent of robots.txt. Most small business sites don't have one. Every site we build does.
Will my site show up on ChatGPT specifically?
We can't promise a specific result for a specific query, AI search is still evolving and no one controls it. What we can do: set your site up with the structure, schema, and content format AI assistants prefer to cite. Most of your competitors haven't done any of that, which means you're in a much smaller pool.
Want to be in the running?