What Is AI SEO? A Local Business Guide to Google, ChatGPT & AI Overviews

AI SEO is the work of making sure your business is the one AI tools mention. When someone asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini or Copilot “who’s a good accountant in Worcester?”, those tools name a handful of businesses. AI SEO is about being one of them, alongside ranking in Google’s normal results.

This guide explains how AI search finds businesses, what it has in common with ordinary SEO, and what local businesses can do about it. If you’d rather have it done for you, see our AI SEO service for Worcester and Stockport businesses.

AI SEO isn’t a separate discipline that replaces local SEO. It builds on it. Google itself says optimising for its AI features is “still SEO”, and most of what helps you appear in an AI answer is the same work that helps you appear in Search and on Maps. The term also has a second meaning, using AI tools to do SEO, which we cover briefly below so you know which conversation you’re in.

What AI SEO means

People use “AI SEO” for two different things.

1. Getting your business mentioned in AI answers. For a local business this is the meaning that matters, and the one this guide focuses on. It covers:

• Google AI Overviews: the AI-written summary that appears above the normal results for some searches. They’ve been shown in the UK since August 2024.
• Google AI Mode: a conversational search mode inside Google, where you get an AI-written answer and can ask follow-up questions. It’s also available in the UK.
• AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, which can search the web and name businesses in their replies.

You’ll also see this called GEO (generative engine optimisation), AEO (answer engine optimisation), LLM SEO or AI search optimisation. They’re labels for the same idea. Google’s guide to optimising for its generative AI features addresses the acronyms directly: “From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”

2. Using AI tools to do SEO work. This is the other meaning: using ChatGPT or similar tools to research topics, plan pages, draft copy or sort through keyword lists. It can save time. It can also produce the kind of bland, interchangeable content that does nobody any good. There’s more on this in the FAQs, under “Can ChatGPT do SEO?”.

So a customer can now meet you in two places when they search: the familiar links, Maps pack and Business Profile, or an AI-written answer that names a few businesses. AI SEO is about being present in both, and for a local business the second mostly depends on getting the first right.

Why it matters for local businesses

Google is still where most people in the UK search. Ofcom’s research on how the UK goes online in 2025 found 82% of adults use Google Search. The same report cites third-party measurement showing AI Overviews on about 30% of searches, and 53% of adults say they see these summaries often.

People don’t just see them; they read them. In Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2026, 75% of online adults said they read AI search summaries at least some of the time, and 42% said they read them “often” or “always”.

That changes what a search is worth. When an AI summary answers the question on the page, fewer people click through. Pew Research Center tracked 900 US adults in March 2025 and found they clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits where an AI summary appeared, against 15% where none did. They clicked a link inside the summary itself on just 1% of visits. That’s a US snapshot, not a UK forecast, but it shows which way clicks move.

For a local business, the practical consequences are:

• Being named matters more than it used to. If the answer lists three plumbers and you’re not one of them, the customer may never see the links underneath.
• Visits are a weaker measure on their own. Someone can read your name in an AI answer and then ring you, or find you on Maps, without ever landing on your website. Calls and enquiries tell you more than traffic alone.
• What the AI says about you matters too. Google warns that AI Overviews “can and will make mistakes”, and OpenAI says ChatGPT’s search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect. If your opening hours or services are wrong across the web, an AI answer can repeat the error.

How AI tools find a business

Each tool works differently. This is the short version for Google and ChatGPT; each has a fuller guide linked below.

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google’s AI features aren’t a separate index with separate rules. Google says they’re “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems”: the AI draws on pages Google has already crawled, indexed and ranked, and grounds its answer in them. For some questions it also uses what Google calls query fan-out, running several related searches on sub-topics behind the scenes and pulling the results together.

That’s why Google’s AI features documentation says “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” To be eligible, a page has to be:

• indexed, meaning it’s in Google’s index, so Google knows it exists;
• eligible to show with a snippet, meaning it isn’t blocked from having a text preview in results.

There’s now one more setting to be aware of. Since 31 August 2026, every site in Google Search Console has a Search generative AI control. “Include” is the default. If someone switches it to “Exclude”, the site gets no traffic or impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode or Discover’s generative AI features. Google says the setting isn’t a ranking signal for the rest of Search. It’s worth a quick check that nobody has changed it.

Even then, nothing is guaranteed: Google shows AI Overviews only when it thinks they add something, and says they often don’t trigger. For the step-by-step version, read our guide on how to appear in Google AI Overviews.

ChatGPT search

ChatGPT answers some questions from what it already knows, but OpenAI says it may search the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information. It can use your location to find local results, and sometimes works with other search providers to fetch them.

Whether ChatGPT search can show your site at all depends on a crawler setting. A crawler is the automated program a company uses to read websites. OpenAI runs two that matter here, and they do different jobs, according to its overview of OpenAI crawlers:

• OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT’s search features. OpenAI says sites that opt out of it “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers”.
• GPTBot collects content for training OpenAI’s models. It has nothing to do with search results, and the two settings are independent.

So a business can block GPTBot if it doesn’t want its content used for training, and still appear in ChatGPT search, as long as OAI-SearchBot is allowed in the site’s robots.txt file. Perplexity works on a similar split: its PerplexityBot is for surfacing and linking sites in Perplexity’s results and, it says, isn’t used to collect content for AI foundation models.

If ChatGPT keeps naming someone else, our guide on why ChatGPT recommends your competitor walks through the usual reasons.

What stays the same, and what’s new

If you’ve already done the basics of local SEO, you’re not starting again. Most of the work carries over.

	Ordinary local SEO	What AI SEO adds
The goal	More calls, enquiries and bookings	The same
Where you appear	Search results, the Maps pack, your Business Profile	Also inside AI-written answers in Google, ChatGPT and other assistants
Getting found	Google must be able to crawl and index your pages	The same for Google; other tools’ search crawlers (such as OAI-SearchBot) must not be blocked
Your content	Clear, useful pages written for customers	The same. Google says there’s no need to rewrite pages for AI
Your business details	Accurate, consistent details and a complete Business Profile	The same, and it matters more when an AI summarises you in one line
Measuring it	Rankings, Maps visibility, calls, enquiries	Also AI impressions in Search Console and regular checks of what AI tools say about you

The genuinely new parts are small: letting non-Google crawlers in, watching how AI tools describe you, and measuring a channel that often sends fewer clicks.

What actually helps

This checklist is based on what Google and OpenAI say in their own documentation. None of it is a trick, and none of it guarantees a mention.

1. Let the right crawlers in. Google’s documentation lists letting Google crawl your pages among the basics. For ChatGPT, don’t block OAI-SearchBot. If you’re not sure what your robots.txt file says, a website health check will usually show up crawl and indexing problems.
2. Make sure your pages are indexed and can show a snippet. A page Google hasn’t indexed can’t appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. While you’re in Search Console, confirm the generative AI control is still on “Include”.
3. Write clear pages that answer real customer questions. Say what you do, where and what to expect, in plain words, with headings that make the page easy to scan. Google’s advice is to create “valuable, non-commodity content”: something that isn’t just a rehash of what everyone else has written, or of what an AI tool could produce in seconds. Your own knowledge of your trade and your area is the part nobody else can copy.
4. Keep your business details consistent and your Business Profile complete. Google’s guide says using Business Profiles “can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results.” Our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile covers the details, and the same profile drives your place in the Google 3-pack.
5. Earn genuine reviews and mentions. Reviews sit on your Business Profile, and they’re what a customer reads once an AI answer sends them your way. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews covers the honest ways to ask. Mentions have to be real: Google specifically lists seeking inauthentic mentions as something to ignore.
6. Use structured data only to describe what’s on the page. Structured data (code that labels things like your business name and address for search engines) still matters for Google’s rich results, and Google says it should match the visible text. There’s no special markup for AI.

What to ignore

A lot of AI SEO advice is folklore. Google’s AI optimisation guide includes a list of “things you can ignore”, and it’s worth knowing the main ones:

• llms.txt files and other “special” AI markup. Google Search ignores them. They neither harm nor help.
• “Chunking” your content into small bites for AI. Google says there’s no ideal page length.
• Rewriting your pages just for AI, including chasing long-tail keywords for the sake of it.
• Seeking inauthentic “mentions” of your business around the web.
• Overfocusing on structured data. It isn’t required for AI features.

Two more that often appear in older AI SEO advice, including earlier versions of this guide:

• FAQ schema as an AI signal. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search from 7 May 2026, according to its Search Central documentation updates. Write FAQs because customers ask the questions, not for the markup.
• Review markup for your own business. Google’s review snippet rules don’t allow a business to mark up reviews of itself on its own site for rich results (“self-serving reviews”).

Google adds one more warning worth repeating: be wary of third-party tools that promise ranking success or claim to use Google’s “internal” metrics. In its words, “No third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems.”

How to check your own AI visibility

You don’t need special software to get a useful picture. Three checks cover most of it.

1. Look at Search Console’s generative AI report. Since 31 August 2026, Google Search Console has a Generative AI performance report showing impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode over time, broken down by page, country, device and date. Google says not every property has access yet, and small sites may have too few impressions to show. Traffic from AI features also still counts in the ordinary Performance report under the “Web” search type.

2. Ask the tools what your customers would ask. Type the questions a real customer would use, such as “best electrician in Worcester”, “who can fix a leaking roof in Stockport” or “accountant for sole traders near me”, into ChatGPT, Google (look for an AI Overview or try AI Mode), Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. Note whether you’re named, who is, and whether the details about you are right. Answers vary from one try to the next, and your own searches are personalised to you and your location, so one screenshot proves very little. Repeat the same questions every few weeks and watch the trend.

3. Tag ChatGPT visits in your analytics. OpenAI says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links it sends people through, so those visits can be picked out in Google Analytics, according to its FAQ for publishers. It won’t capture people who read your name and phone you directly, which is why calls and enquiries still belong in the picture.

How long it takes

Nobody can give you an honest date for when an AI tool will start mentioning you. What we can say:

• How quickly things move depends on your starting point, how competitive your area and trade are, and how much needs fixing first.
• Quick wins, like fixing your Google Business Profile, inconsistent listings or technical problems, can show up sooner than content and reputation work, which builds over months.
• Each tool updates on its own schedule. OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for ChatGPT’s search results to adjust; Google says a change to the Search Console AI control takes a few days. Neither means you’ll be mentioned the day after.
• Nobody can guarantee rankings or that an AI tool will recommend you, so judge progress on the numbers you can measure: calls, enquiries, Maps and search visibility.

Red flag: be wary of anyone promising “page 1 in two weeks” or a guaranteed ChatGPT recommendation. That’s not how search engines or AI systems work. There’s more on realistic timings in our guide to how long SEO takes.

AI SEO FAQs

What is AI SEO called now?

You’ll hear GEO, AEO and other labels for the same work. We explain each one, and where it came from, in AI SEO, GEO and AEO explained.

Can ChatGPT do SEO?

It can help, but it can’t do the job on its own. Google’s guidance on generative AI content says AI tools can be “particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content.” That’s a fair description of where they earn their keep: brainstorming the questions customers ask, outlining a page, tidying a draft.

What ChatGPT can’t supply is the thing that makes a local business worth recommending: your knowledge of your trade, your area, your prices and your customers. It only knows what you tell it. And there’s a real risk in using it at scale: Google says using generative AI to produce many pages without adding value for users may breach its spam policy on scaled content abuse.

Is SEO still worth it with AI?

Yes. Google’s AI features are built on its core Search ranking and quality systems, so the work that gets you into normal results is the same work that makes you eligible for AI Overviews and AI Mode. What has changed is how you measure it: with fewer clicks from some searches, calls and enquiries matter more than raw traffic.

Which AI tool is best for SEO?

There isn’t a single answer, and without a fair side-by-side test, naming a winner wouldn’t be honest. It depends on the job: drafting, research, site checks and tracking AI mentions each need something different. A more useful filter is Google’s warning above: be sceptical of any tool that promises rankings or claims access to Google’s internal data.

Can AI SEO work for small local businesses, or is it only for big brands?

It works for businesses of any size. People ask AI tools location-based questions like “best emergency electrician near me”, and much of what helps is ordinary local SEO work. A complete Business Profile, a clear website and genuine reviews are within reach of a one-person business.

Do I need to rebuild my website to benefit from AI SEO?

In most cases, no. Many improvements come from technical fixes, clearer pages, better internal linking and accurate business details. A rebuild only makes sense if a site is badly outdated or broken. If your current site is doing its job, we’ll say so rather than sell you a new one.

How is success measured?

By the things that pay the bills: calls, enquiries and bookings, alongside Maps and search visibility. The three checks above then show whether AI tools are mentioning you, and describing you accurately, over time.

Is AI SEO safe, or will it get my site penalised?

Getting mentioned in AI answers relies on the same methods as ordinary SEO, so there’s nothing inherently risky about it. The risk comes from shortcuts: mass-produced AI pages, separate pages created only to game AI searches, or fake reviews and mentions. Google says creating separate pages for fan-out variations, mainly to manipulate its AI answers, breaches its scaled content abuse policy. It has also made clear that its spam policies apply to all of Google Search, including its generative AI responses.

Getting help with AI SEO

Most of this you can do yourself. If it’s more than you have time for, or your checks aren’t showing progress, that’s when outside help earns its place.

Get Found is a local SEO, AI SEO and web design agency with 22 years’ experience, based at 39 Foregate Street in Worcester with a second office in Stockport, working with businesses across the UK. There are no long contracts.

Our AI SEO service starts with a free visibility audit: we check where you appear on Google, on Maps and in the main AI tools, compare you with your local competitors and list the fixes we’d make first. It’s yours to keep. The service then re-runs real customer-style questions across the main AI tools on a regular schedule and judges progress on the trend across many checks, never a single screenshot. Our local SEO clients get a monthly plain-English report.

If you’d rather talk it through first, get in touch.