Get your business recommended by AI answer engines

The short version

If someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini for a recommendation in your industry right now, your business probably won’t come up. That’s a problem, because millions of people are using AI assistants to decide who to hire and what to buy - and the number is growing fast.

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your online presence so AI models can find you, understand what you do, verify your credibility, and confidently recommend you. It builds on traditional SEO but focuses on being the direct answer to a question, not just one of ten search results. For most small businesses in Australia, the window to establish visibility in AI recommendations is wide open - almost no one is doing this yet.

A new kind of search

You’re probably familiar with how Google works. Someone types a query, gets a page of ten blue links, and clicks through a few to compare options. Your SEO strategy is built around getting onto that page.

AI search works differently. When someone asks ChatGPT “who’s the best electrician near me” or tells Perplexity “find me a good accountant for small business,” they don’t get ten links. They get one recommendation. Maybe two or three.

There’s no ad auction. No page of results to scroll through. The AI picks a winner and presents it as the answer.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are now handling an enormous volume of queries - and growing fast. These aren’t novelty tools anymore - they’re how a growing share of customers make decisions.

The logic is straightforward. When an AI tells someone “this is the best option,” they tend to trust it and act. There’s less comparison shopping, less bouncing between tabs, and more direct action. An AI recommendation carries a level of implied endorsement that a search result listing simply doesn’t.

Why small businesses should pay attention

The good news is that this space is almost completely uncontested. Virtually no small businesses are actively optimising for AI recommendations yet. People compare it to SEO in 2010, when early movers had the field to themselves.

Unlike Google Ads, there’s no budget to set. And unlike a head-on fight for the big generic search terms, you’re not trying to out-rank national sites that have spent a decade building links. Those sites do still hold an advantage, because AI assistants draw on the same search indexes everyone else competes in. What changes is where a smaller business can win. Clean, specific, verifiable information about one service in one place is something a national site cannot match, and it is exactly what an assistant needs before it will name you.

The uncomfortable truth is that a year from now, every business will be catching on. Your industry will be as competitive in AI as it is in Google. But right now, the business that shows up with clear information and external validation wins by default - because nobody else is trying.

What AI actually looks for

AI models don’t just scrape your homepage and make a decision. They’re trying to answer three questions:

Can I verify who this business is? The model looks for consistent, factual information about your business across multiple sources. Name, location, services, credentials, years in business. If this information is scattered, inconsistent, or hard to find, the AI moves on to someone easier to verify.

Is there evidence this business is credible? Third-party mentions matter. Reviews on Google, listings on industry directories, mentions in forums or articles, active social profiles. The AI cross-references what you say about yourself with what others say about you.

Can I summarise what they do in a way that answers the user’s question? This is the one most businesses miss. Your website might look great to a human, but if the key information is buried in vague marketing copy, the AI can’t extract a clean, confident recommendation from it.

Five practical steps for any small business

You don’t need to overhaul your entire online presence. These five actions cover the basics.

1. Audit your AI visibility

Before you change anything, find out where you stand. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and ask 20-30 questions that a real customer in your industry might ask. Think about what someone would type when they’re ready to hire or buy:

• “Best [your service] in [your area]”
• “[Your business name] reviews”
• “Who does [specific service] in [your region]”
• “[Your business] vs [competitor]”
• “How much does [your service] cost in [your city]”

Log every response. Note whether you appear, who does, and what sources the AI cites. This gives you a baseline and shows you exactly what you’re competing against.

2. Create a brand facts page

Most business websites don’t have a single page that states the basics in a clear, structured, neutral format. AI models need exactly this.

Create a dedicated page on your site that includes:

• A one-sentence description of what your business does
• Year founded, location, and service area
• Services offered with brief, factual descriptions
• Credentials, certifications, or relevant experience
• Links to your Google Business profile, social accounts, and external listings
• Contact information

Write it like a Wikipedia entry - neutral, factual, comprehensive. This is the page AI will reference when verifying who you are before recommending you.

3. Write content AI can quote

This is the highest-impact single action. Create a guide or resource page on your site that directly answers the questions potential customers are asking AI assistants.

The format that works: a 60-90 word summary at the top of the page, written in a neutral, recommendation style. Think about how you’d want ChatGPT to describe your business or your category. Then write that paragraph yourself and put it on your site.

Follow it with structured, practical content - comparison tables if relevant, an FAQ section, specific details like pricing ranges, process descriptions, and credentials. Include references to external sources where you can.

The key is making it genuinely useful, not promotional. AI models trust content that reads like an authoritative guide, even when it lives on your own domain. They’re far more likely to cite a helpful resource page than a product or service page that reads like a sales pitch.

4. Add structured data to your website

Structured data (schema markup) is code added to your website that helps search engines and AI models understand exactly what each page contains. Think of it as a machine-readable summary of your content.

At minimum, your site should have:

• Organization or LocalBusiness schema on your homepage - business name, location, contact details, services, founder
• Service schema on each service page - what you offer, pricing range, service area
• Article schema on blog posts and guides - author, publish date, topic
• FAQ schema on any page with frequently asked questions

Most modern website frameworks make this straightforward. If you’re on WordPress, plugins handle it. On a modern framework like Astro or Next.js, it is a few lines of code in each page template. The important part is that it’s there and it’s accurate.

5. Build external signals

AI models don’t just look at your website. They look at what the rest of the internet says about you.

Keep your Google Business profile current. Complete every field, respond to reviews, post regular updates. This is the single most referenced source for local business information across all AI platforms.

Get listed on relevant directories. Industry-specific platforms, local business directories, review sites in your niche. Each listing is another data point the AI can cross-reference.

Engage authentically in forums. AI models reference Reddit, Quora, and industry forums heavily. Answering questions in your area of expertise - without being salesy - builds the kind of citation trail that AI trusts.

Create a press or mentions page. Link to any external coverage, client features, podcast appearances, or industry mentions. This helps AI verify your credibility beyond your own claims.

The bonus move: LocalBusiness schema

For businesses that want to go a step further, there is a structured format search engines and AI assistants already read: LocalBusiness schema. It sits in the code of your pages and states your core business facts plainly, the business name, the services, the areas you cover, opening hours, phone number, price range and reviews, so anything reading your site is handed those facts rather than having to infer them from your wording. Google documents the format and uses it, and the assistants that draw on Google’s index inherit the benefit.