BUSINESS DISCOVERY · 12 min read
How to Get Your Business Found on Google, ChatGPT and Other AI Tools
To help customers find your business on Google, ChatGPT and other AI tools, make it easy to understand what you do, where you work, why you are a good fit and how to contact you. Put those answers on accessible pages, keep your business profiles accurate, connect the facts with appropriate schema and back your claims with real evidence. Then check what each platform actually shows. You can improve these foundations yourself; no one can promise you a place in an AI answer.
Mark Abplanalp · Kodecite
Published · Updated
Start with one service, not a new acronym
I’m Mark Abplanalp, founder of Kodecite and owner of Luxe Window Works. My approach starts with the questions a customer asks before choosing a business. We turn those answers into useful pages, connect the business information, show the evidence and check the next step. That is Kodecite’s implementation approach, not a ranking formula published by Google or OpenAI.
SEO, AEO and GEO are overlapping labels for work on search visibility and generated answers. You do not need three different versions of your business story. Pick one important service and work through the steps below. The sample window-treatment business is hypothetical unless I explicitly refer to a documented Kodecite or Luxe page.
Google says its existing SEO practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no special AI schema required. Eligibility requires an indexed page that can appear with a search snippet; eligibility is not a promise of inclusion. Read our Google AI Overviews guide for that platform’s specific boundary.
1. Put your business facts in one reliable record
Before writing more pages, settle the facts that every page should agree on.
Our North Idaho and Bend service-area pages show how we connect regional coverage with relevant work and a clear next step. Kodecite is based in Post Falls and serves Bend remotely; a service-area page does not mean an office in every region.
What to change
Write down your public business name, main website, phone, operating hours, real service area, owner, services and contact process. Separate where you are based from where you accept work. Use this record when updating your website and profiles; it is a working document, not something you must submit to every AI tool.
Practical example
A window-treatment company based in Post Falls might serve named nearby towns by appointment. Say that plainly. Do not describe a service area as a staffed office or publish a showroom address where customers cannot visit. Kodecite’s own North Idaho page distinguishes its home region from remote project delivery.
How to check it
Compare the record with your contact page, footer, Google Business Profile and important directory listings. Resolve conflicting phone numbers, hours and offers. Ask someone unfamiliar with the business to explain where you work and how a customer gets started using only your website.
2. Make your Google Business Profile match the services you sell
Google describes local ranking in terms of relevance, distance and prominence. Complete information and genuine reviews can help Google understand a local business, but an edit cannot remove the distance between you and a searcher. This guidance concerns Google local results; it does not establish that your profile directly feeds every AI model.
What to change
If your business is eligible for a profile, review the category, hours, contact details and service area. Where the services editor is available, list the services you actually offer, with accurate descriptions. Match their meaning to the website’s service pages. Use a real price only when it accurately represents the offer; explain variable pricing on the website.
Practical example
If you sell and install motorized shades but do not repair every manufacturer’s old motors, make that distinction. A profile listing “motorized shade installation” should lead to a website that explains installation, compatible options and consultation steps—not a generic paragraph that promises every kind of repair.
How to check it
Open the public profile and your relevant service page side by side after edits are processed. Check each listed service against the work your team will accept today. Test the website and contact links on a phone. Keep a dated list of corrections so the next update starts from accurate information.
3. Answer the customer’s question at the top of the page
A customer should not have to decode a slogan to find out whether you can help. Clear headings and useful questions make the page easier to use; they do not guarantee a featured answer or an AI citation.
What to change
Use a clear page title and H1, then give a short answer describing the service, location or customer fit and next step. Organize the detail with H2 sections and H3 subquestions. Cover what is included, limits, relevant choices, cost factors and the process. Keep important answers in readable text, not only inside a graphic or video.
Practical example
For a hypothetical service page: “We supply and install motorized window shades for homes in Post Falls and Hayden. We help you compare power and control options, measure your windows and arrange installation. Request a consultation to check the fit and receive a project-specific quote.” Follow with questions such as “Can existing shades be motorized?” and give the actual constraints.
How to check it
Read the opening aloud. Could a prospective customer explain your offer after those few sentences? Scan only the headings: do they outline a useful conversation? Ask your team which questions still cause back-and-forth, and add answers where they belong rather than creating a long unrelated FAQ list.
4. Connect the business, its services and their evidence
Schema is a machine-readable description of information on a page. Google uses structured data to understand content, and supported types may enable rich results. The markup needs to reflect visible information. A valid schema block is not proof that a claim is true or that a search feature will appear.
What to change
Describe the actual business with an appropriate Organization or LocalBusiness type, identify the website and author where relevant, and connect services to their provider. Reuse stable @id identifiers for the same entity instead of creating a different business on every page. This connected description is what we mean by an entity graph. It is our way of keeping relationships coherent, not a special AI ranking requirement.
Practical example
On a shade-installation page, the Service provider can reference the same business identifier used on the About and Contact pages. The visible service area and phone should agree with the markup. Do not add invented awards, locations, review counts or offers just to fill fields. Our schema guide explains the implementation in more detail.
How to check it
Compare the rendered page with its JSON-LD. Use Google’s Rich Results Test for supported Google features and a schema validator for broader vocabulary checks. A Service node may be meaningful without producing a dedicated rich result. Check that references resolve to the intended business and that a plugin has not emitted a contradictory second business record.
5. Show why a customer should believe you
The strongest material is often already in your business: completed work, a specialist’s experience, customer feedback and an explanation of how you solved a real problem.
What to change
Publish useful project examples with permission: the customer’s problem, your scope, relevant photographs and what was delivered. Name the responsible person. Link credentials to the issuer’s public record where available. Give awards an issuer and date. Keep review quotations faithful and attributable without exposing private customer details.
Practical example
A project page could explain how you selected a power option for hard-to-reach windows and show the finished installation. That is more useful than “best installer in town.” Kodecite’s documented work and Luxe consultation build show how evidence can be linked to a specific claim. Luxe is my own business, so that relationship is disclosed.
How to check it
Open every evidence link and ask what it actually proves. A dated screenshot supports what appeared in that test, not permanent ranking. A certification supports its defined scope, not every service. Request honest feedback consistently and review permissions before publishing customer material. Our guide to reviews and AI discovery explains why reviews belong alongside service detail and project evidence.
6. Make the pages accessible, and link them together
OpenAI’s search FAQ says search placement is not guaranteed and recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot and its published network ranges. Its crawler documentation separates search access from GPTBot’s training-related crawling: those controls can be set independently.
What to change
Have your developer check public-page responses, robots.txt, noindex directives, canonical URLs and firewall rules. Link each important service from relevant navigation or content. Add contextual links from projects and guides to the service they explain, and from service pages to a working contact route. If you want ChatGPT search eligibility, check the documented OAI-SearchBot rules rather than allowing every bot indiscriminately.
Practical example
A guide about battery-powered shades can link to the motorized-shades service; that service can link to a genuine installation example and consultation page. Kodecite links this guide to technical SEO checks for owners who need a developer’s checklist. A page that works in your logged-in browser may still be blocked for a crawler.
How to check it
Use Search Console’s URL Inspection for important Google pages. Ask your host or developer to inspect actual crawler access and firewall logs; changing a user-agent string alone does not prove a request came from the real crawler. Click every internal link, check the mobile page and confirm images load. For other tools you target, review their current publisher documentation separately instead of assuming OpenAI’s settings apply to them.
7. Give interested customers a working next step
Discovery helps someone find you. An action changes something: sending an inquiry, booking a slot or taking a payment. Those outcomes need separate working systems and permission.
What to change
Make the ordinary contact path useful first. State what information you need, what the request means and what happens next. If you support an assistant submitting a customer-authorized request, define the supported action, required inputs, consent, errors and returned result. Do not suggest that schema alone gives every assistant the ability to transact with you.
Practical example
“Request a consultation” can mean sending the team a project description for follow-up. It must not mean “appointment booked” unless a real scheduling system reserves and confirms a slot. The Luxe execution guide distinguishes its public contract from Mark’s reported historical delivery test and explains retry and confirmation limits.
How to check it
Run an authorized test with your team. Confirm the request is received, the customer sees an accurate result and someone owns the follow-up. For an integration, check invalid inputs, duplicate retries and failure messages. Record what was verified; do not count a recommendation or a form success animation as proof of inbox delivery.
8. Measure useful discovery, then improve the weak spots
A single favorable answer is encouraging, but it is not a durable ranking report. Treat testing as a way to find factual gaps and customer friction.
What to change
Keep a small set of real customer questions covering your service, region and a few important constraints. Record the tool, date, question, location context, whether web search was used, cited pages and accuracy. Track inquiries and qualified opportunities separately from mentions.
Practical example
Compare a broad question such as “Who installs motorized shades near Post Falls?” with a fit question such as “What should I ask an installer about battery-powered shades for high windows?” If answers repeatedly miss a service you genuinely provide, inspect the relevant page and profile before writing ten more articles.
How to check it
Review the same small question set after substantive changes, alongside Search Console, referral data and inquiry records. Save dated observations and note changing sources. If an assistant gets a detail wrong, correct the public source you control and allow for recrawling; do not assume the next answer must change immediately.
Do the first pass yourself—or ask me to build it with you
Start with one service page, its profile entry, one real project example and the contact path. Work through the checks before expanding. A shared document of business facts and a short list of corrections are enough to begin; you do not need a new vocabulary or a content factory.
If you want help, Kodecite’s services explain the website foundation and connected business information we build. Published scope and pricing distinguish that work from separately scoped agent capabilities. You own the website, code and operating accounts. Tell me about your business, or request a free Agent Readiness Review to identify a practical starting point.
This guide was originally published March 8, 2026 and substantially revised October 12, 2026. The linked platform guidance was checked for this revision. The illustration is reused conceptual artwork showing connected business information, not evidence of a ranking result.
Questions about this topic
Can I get my business into ChatGPT by adding schema?
Schema can describe your business and connect facts, but it does not guarantee inclusion. For ChatGPT search, check OpenAI’s current crawler guidance and publish useful, accurate information with evidence. Search access, relevance and selection are different questions.
Do I need a special AI Overview schema or llms.txt file?
Google says no special schema or new AI text file is required for its AI search features. Start with accessible, useful pages and accurate business information. Extra files are not a substitute for those foundations.
Will FAQ headings make my business appear in AI answers?
No. Questions and clear headings help readers find answers. They are not a selection guarantee. Any FAQ markup should describe the questions and answers actually visible on the page.
Does my Google Business Profile feed every AI tool?
Do not assume that. Keep it accurate for Google and customers, and make the same business facts clear on your website. Different tools use different sources and retrieval systems.
How long will it take to see results?
There is no reliable universal deadline. Crawling, indexing and answer selection are outside your control. Check implementation first, then track dated observations and qualified inquiries over time without treating one appearance as a permanent position.
Can I do this without hiring Kodecite?
Yes. You can reconcile business facts, improve service answers, update profiles and gather real evidence yourself. A developer can help with crawling, schema and integrations. Kodecite can review the gaps or build the website and connected information with you.
If an AI recommends us, can it book an appointment?
Not automatically. Booking requires a supported scheduling integration, customer authorization and confirmation of a reserved appointment. A consultation request for human follow-up is a different outcome.
Keep reading
- What Is an Entity Graph? A Connected Map of Your Business →
- Technical SEO and AI Readiness: A Practical Website Checklist →
- How to Help Your Business Show Up on Google and AI Overviews: 7 Simple Steps →
- From AI Recommendation to a Consultation Request: The Luxe Build →
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