A lot of people don't type "plumber near me" into a search box anymore. They ask a question in plain English. "Who's a good web designer for a small business?" "What's the best homeschool curriculum for a 4th grader?" And they get an answer, with a few businesses named and a few links to click.

If your business isn't one of those names, you're invisible in that moment.

Big companies are thinking about this too. GoDaddy's CEO, Aman Bhutani, was booked to give the opening keynote at NamesCon Global in November 2026, and the announcement for that talk said he would explain why businesses of every size, "from global companies to local shops," need to consider whether AI tools can find, understand, trust and do business with them.

That's the right question. And here's the good news I want every small business owner to hear: the answer is mostly the basics. The same things I've been telling people about websites and domains for years. Google and Bing both say so in their own documentation, which I'll link below.

So here's the practical version. What AI search is, what helps, what doesn't, and how to check where you stand.

What AI search actually means for a business owner

When I say "AI search," I mean the tools that answer a question with a written response instead of (or on top of) a list of blue links. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. ChatGPT search. Microsoft Copilot. Others will keep showing up.

For a business owner, the important part is where those answers come from. These tools still lean on web pages. They read sites, pull out facts, and link to the pages that support the answer.

Google's guide to AI features and your website is very direct about it. It says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in them. To show up as a supporting link, a page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet.

Bing says much the same thing in its Webmaster Guidelines: Bing and Copilot rely on the same core crawling, indexing and ranking foundation as traditional search.

Translation: if your website is hard to read, hard to find or vague about what you do, AI tools have the same problem with it that people and search engines do. Fix that and you're most of the way there.

Step 1. Make sure these tools are allowed to read your site

This one is boring, and it's the one that quietly breaks everything.

Your site has a file called robots.txt that tells crawlers what they can and can't visit. Some security settings, plugins and hosting setups block crawlers without the owner ever knowing. Google's checklist specifically mentions making sure crawling is allowed in robots.txt and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure.

A few specifics worth knowing:

  • Google. AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same Googlebot as regular Search. If Googlebot can't crawl a page, that page isn't in the running.
  • ChatGPT. OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and it recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want to appear. It's a separate setting from GPTBot, which is the one tied to model training. You can allow one and block the other.
  • Bing and Copilot. Bing's guidelines list blocking Bingbot in robots.txt as something to avoid.

If you don't know what's in your robots.txt, type your domain followed by /robots.txt into a browser and look. If you see a line that blocks everything, or blocks one of the bots above, ask whoever manages your site why.

Step 2. Say plainly what you do, who it's for and where

When I look at small business websites, the most common problem isn't technical. It's that the homepage never actually says what the business does.

"Solutions for a better tomorrow" tells a person nothing, and it tells an AI tool nothing either. Compare that to "We build websites for small businesses in Central Florida." A person gets it in two seconds. So does a machine.

Here's what I'd make sure is on your site in plain text:

  • What you do, in one sentence near the top of the homepage.
  • Who it's for. Homeowners, homeschool families, local golfers, startups.
  • Where you work. City, region, or "online, anywhere in the US."
  • One page per main service, each focused on that one thing.

Two notes from the official guidance. Google's checklist says to make sure important content is available in textual form, so don't bury your services inside an image or a slider graphic. And Bing's guidelines say to put essential information near the top of the page and avoid long introductions before getting to the point.

That second one is good advice for humans too.

Step 3. Keep your business details identical everywhere

Your business name, address, phone number, hours and website should match everywhere they appear. Your site. Your Google Business Profile. Facebook. Yelp. Industry directories. All of it.

When the details conflict, any system trying to figure out who you are has to guess. Bing's guidelines call this out directly: use clear and consistent naming for people, organizations, products and locations, and avoid ambiguous references.

Google's AI features guide also includes checking that your Business Profile information is up to date as one of its best practices. If you haven't claimed yours, I walked through the whole thing in How to Get Your Business on Google Maps. It's free and it's one of the highest-value things a local business can do.

This is also where your name and domain matter. A business name people can remember and spell, on a domain that matches it, makes it easier for everyone to connect the dots. If you're still choosing one, start with How to Pick a Domain Name for a New Business.

Step 4. Answer the questions your customers actually ask

AI search is built around questions. So your site should have answers.

Think about the questions you hear on the phone or in your inbox every week:

  • How much does it usually cost? (You don't have to list prices, but explain what affects the price.)
  • How long does it take?
  • Do you serve my area?
  • What's the difference between option A and option B?
  • What should I do before I call you?

Answer those clearly on your service pages, in an FAQ section, or in helpful blog posts. Google's guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content is the best summary I know of what "good" looks like here: content made to help people, written with real expertise, not just to rank.

If you're not sure what people are searching for, How to Do Keyword Research for a Blog shows how I find real questions with real demand.

One warning. Don't stuff pages with keywords or write in that weird robotic way trying to "trigger" an AI answer. Bing's guidelines specifically list keyword stuffing and artificially engineered language as things that can reduce visibility, and they warn against hidden content aimed at manipulating language models.

Step 5. Add structured data that matches the page

Structured data (often called schema markup) is code on your page that labels information for machines. This is a business name. This is the address. These are the hours. This is a question and its answer.

Google has a guide to local business structured data that covers the details for local companies.

Two things to keep in mind:

  • It has to match what people see. Google's AI features guide says to make sure structured data matches the visible text on the page. Bing says markup must accurately reflect visible content, and misleading markup may be ignored.
  • It's helpful, not magic. Google says there's no special schema.org structured data you need to add for AI features, and Bing says structured data may support clearer grounding but doesn't guarantee visibility.

So do it, do it accurately, and don't expect it to rescue a site that's vague about what it does.

Step 6. Make the site fast and easy to use

Google's checklist includes providing a great page experience for users. Bing's guidelines warn against hiding critical content behind heavy client-side rendering or making pages require a pile of unnecessary requests to load.

In plain terms: if your site is slow, broken on phones, or only shows its text after a bunch of scripts finish loading, you're making it harder for everyone, including the tools reading it.

I put together a full checklist for this in How to Speed Up a Small Business Website. Start with images. That's where most small business sites lose the most time.

Step 7. Give people (and machines) reasons to trust you

That keynote announcement used the word "trust," and that's the part I'd think about longest.

Trust on a website comes from things that are easy to verify:

  • A real About page with real people and a real story.
  • Contact info that works. A phone number, an email address, a physical address if you have one.
  • Reviews on your Google Business Profile and other platforms, from real customers. Ask for them. Respond to them.
  • Accurate, current information. Bing's guidelines say to update content when facts change and remove or revise outdated information. Old hours, old prices and dead pages make you look closed.
  • Content that stands on its own. Bing says pages are more likely to be cited when facts are explicit and important information is visible on the page itself.

None of this is new. It's what makes a customer comfortable picking up the phone. It just matters more when a tool is deciding whether to put your name in an answer.

What you don't need to do

There's a lot of noise right now about "AI optimization," and some people are selling expensive fixes. Here's what Google says about its own AI features, in its own words: you don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in them.

That doesn't mean every new idea is worthless, and other tools may handle things differently. But for Google, the fundamentals are the plan. I'd spend money on a clearer homepage and better service pages long before I'd pay for a mystery "AI ranking" package.

And nobody can guarantee your business will show up in an AI answer. Google says indexing and serving aren't guaranteed even when a page meets every requirement. Bing says the same about citations. Anyone promising otherwise is guessing.

How to check where you stand

You can do a quick gut check in about 15 minutes:

  1. Ask the tools. Open ChatGPT, Google, and Copilot and ask the question a customer would ask. "Who does [your service] in [your city]?" Then ask about you directly. "What does [your business name] do?" See what comes back and whether it's accurate.
  2. Check your robots.txt for anything blocking the crawlers above.
  3. Read your homepage like a stranger. Can you tell what the business does, who it's for and where, in the first few seconds?
  4. Search your business name and compare details. Same name, phone, address and hours everywhere?
  5. Set up the free tools. Verify your site in Google Search Console. Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the Search Console Performance report under the "Web" search type. Bing Webmaster Tools gives you similar insight for Bing and Copilot.

Whatever is wrong in that check, fix the biggest thing first. Usually it's the homepage.

Final thoughts

I get why AI search feels like a whole new game. The way people find businesses is changing fast. But when you read what Google and Bing actually say, the playbook looks familiar. Let them read your site. Say clearly what you do. Keep your details consistent. Answer real questions. Be fast, accurate and trustworthy.

The businesses that did the basics well were already ahead. AI search just makes that gap more visible.

If you want someone to look at your site with fresh eyes, that's a big part of what I do with Built by Knup. And if you're building your first site, How to Choose a Web Designer for Your Small Business will help you ask the right questions.

FAQ

How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?

Start by making sure OpenAI's search crawler can reach your site. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and it recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. After that, the basics matter most: a clear site that says what you do and where, consistent business details, and helpful content. No one can guarantee you'll be included.

Do I need special code or an AI file to appear in Google's AI Overviews?

Not for Google. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that you don't need new machine readable files, AI text files or special structured data. A page needs to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet.

Is AI search optimization different from SEO?

Mostly no. Google says SEO best practices remain relevant for its AI features, and Bing says its AI experiences rely on the same crawling, indexing and ranking foundation as traditional search. The emphasis on clear, accurate, question-answering content is just stronger.

Does my Google Business Profile matter for AI search?

Google lists keeping your Business Profile information up to date among its best practices for AI features. For local businesses, it's one of the most important things to get right.

How can I tell if AI search is sending me traffic?

Google includes clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode in the Search Console Performance report under the "Web" search type. Bing notes that content can show up in Copilot as impressions or citations without a click, so watch impressions and indexing in Bing Webmaster Tools too.