Search is becoming a conversation. Is your business in the answer?
More people now ask AI assistants instead of scanning search results. Here's what that changes for a small business, and what to do about it.
For twenty years, getting found online meant one thing: rank on Google. Someone typed a few keywords, scanned a page of links, clicked three or four, and compared.
That’s changing. More and more, people ask instead. Google answers many searches with an AI Overview at the top of the page. Others put the same question to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot — or say it out loud to Alexa or Siri.
The answer they get is different in one important way: it usually names just two or three businesses. There’s no page two. Often there’s no click at all.
What the assistants look for
Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how each assistant chooses who to name, and anyone who promises you a guaranteed spot is guessing. But the patterns are consistent, and they reward the same things good marketing always has:
- Clear, specific facts. What you do, where, when, and roughly what it costs — written in plain sentences an AI can quote.
- Consistency. The same name, address, services and hours on your website, your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and the directories that matter in your trade.
- Evidence from other people. Reviews and mentions carry a lot of weight. What customers say about you is now part of your visibility.
- A site machines can read. Fast, properly structured pages, schema markup, and no content hidden behind scripts that crawlers can’t run.
What to do this month
- Ask the assistants yourself. Put the questions your customers ask — “best electrician near me”, “who fits kitchens in Leeds” — to ChatGPT, Gemini and Google. Note who’s named, and what’s said about you.
- Fix your listings. Make every listing match your website exactly.
- Answer questions on your site. Turn the questions you’re asked on the phone into short, specific answers on your pages.
- Ask for reviews. Steadily, from real customers, on the platforms that matter.
Google still matters, and paid search still works. But the front door has moved. The businesses that are easy for an AI to understand, verify and quote are the ones it will name.
If you’d like to know how your business shows up today, tell me about it — I’ll ask the assistants and send you what they say.