More people now ask an AI assistant for a recommendation instead of typing a search into Google. "Find me a good physio near Leeds station." "Which accountant in Bristol does fixed fees?" "Best sauna in south London for a first visit?" ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI answers and others reply with a short list of businesses, often with a sentence about each.
If you run a local business, you want to be on that list, and you want the details to be right. There is no switch you can flip to make that happen, and anyone promising guaranteed AI rankings is overselling. But the evidence so far points to some plain, practical things that help, and most of them start with your own website.
What happens when someone asks an AI for a recommendation
When an AI assistant answers a local question, it usually draws on several sources: search results, business listings, review sites, maps data, directories, news and the websites of the businesses themselves. It then summarises what it finds into a short answer, often with links to its sources.
That means the AI is only as accurate as the information it can find about you. If your opening hours are different on your website and your Google listing, it may pick the wrong one. If your website does not say clearly what you offer, it may not mention you for that service at all.
Your website is one of the sources
Two pieces of research shared on X in recent weeks are worth knowing about, with the usual caution that they come from companies with an interest in the topic and are not independent studies.
- One analysis of more than 200,000 local AI searches, shared at the end of September, found that individual business websites made up the largest share of unique cited sources.
- A benchmark of 10,000 local businesses, shared in early October, found that over 93% were known to ChatGPT and Perplexity, but only about half had accurate details. The most common error was a wrong phone number.
The takeaway is not a precise number. It is that your own website is often one of the places AI tools look, and that inaccurate or inconsistent details are a common problem. Both are things you can fix.
Write down the plain facts
AI tools work best with clear, factual text. Many small business websites are vague: lots of photos, a slogan and a contact form. Make sure your site states, in plain text, the facts someone would need to recommend you:
- What you do, in the words customers use. "Sports massage and physiotherapy", not "holistic movement solutions".
- Where you are: full address, area or neighbourhood, and the places you serve.
- When you are open, including closed days and holiday hours.
- Prices or price ranges, where you can share them.
- Who it is for, such as beginners, families, small businesses or a specific type of client.
- How to book or contact you, with a phone number and email written as text.
- What makes you different, stated as a fact. "Open until 9pm on weekdays" is more useful than "exceptional service".
Text inside images cannot always be read reliably. Write important facts as text on the page.
One page per thing you sell
If someone asks for a specific service, the AI needs to find a page that clearly covers it. A single page listing ten services in a sentence each gives it little to work with. A page for each main service, room, product or area helps.
Some examples from getsites templates:
- Freehold, for estate agents, gives every property its own page with the price, beds, baths and floor area.
- Casa Tarde, for small hotels, gives each room type its own page with the size, sleeps and price.
- Fixture, for sports clubs and academies, gives every sport and every coach a page.
- Marlow & Co, for accountants, prices the work openly and includes a fee calculator.
Each page should answer the questions someone would ask about that one thing. That is useful for people and for AI tools alike.
Make your details match everywhere
Consistency matters. Check that your business name, address, phone number, opening hours and website link are the same on:
- Your website
- Your Google Business Profile
- Apple Maps and Bing Places
- Social media profiles
- Industry directories and review sites you are listed on
If you have moved, changed your phone number or changed your hours, old listings may still show the outdated details. Update or remove them. The benchmark mentioned above found wrong phone numbers to be the most common error, which suggests this simple step is often missed.
Reviews also matter. AI answers often mention what reviewers say. Ask happy customers to leave reviews on the platforms that matter in your industry, and reply to them.
What not to spend time on
There is a lot of advice about AI visibility, and some of it is premature.
- llms.txt files. These are proposed files meant to guide AI tools. Google has said that llms.txt does not affect visibility in its search, and their effect elsewhere is unclear. They are not a priority for a small business.
- Stuffing pages with keywords or writing pages aimed at AI rather than people.
- Paying for guaranteed AI rankings. Nobody can guarantee what an AI assistant will say.
Good, clear, accurate pages written for customers are the foundation. Ordinary search engine optimisation still matters too, because many AI tools rely on search results. Our guide on whether Framer is good for SEO covers the basic settings for Framer sites.
Test it yourself
Every few months, ask a few AI assistants the questions your customers might ask. For example:
- "Recommend a [your service] in [your area]."
- "What are the opening hours of [your business name]?"
- "How much does [your service] cost at [your business name]?"
Note whether you appear, and whether the details are right. If something is wrong, find where the wrong information is coming from. AI tools that show sources make this easier. Fix it at the source, then check again later.
There is no shortcut to being recommended by AI. But the steps that help are straightforward: say clearly what you do, give each service its own page, keep your details consistent everywhere, and check what the AI says about you from time to time.