What is AI search optimisation for small businesses?

Updated 31 October 2026 · 10 min read · By the SearchCrow team

AI search optimisation is the work of making your business easy for AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot) to find, understand, trust and mention when a customer asks for a recommendation. You will also see it called AEO, GEO or LLM SEO. For a small business, most of it is good SEO and good local marketing done properly: a website machines can read, accurate business details everywhere, genuine reviews, and a reputation on other trusted websites.

Key takeaways

AEO, GEO and LLM SEO are different names for roughly the same goal: being found and cited in AI-generated answers.
Google says optimising for its AI search features "is still SEO" and needs no special files or schema (Google Search Central, 2026).
AI assistants mostly get their answers by searching the web and business listings, so your website, Google Business Profile, reviews and directory listings are what they read.
The biggest differences from classic SEO are emphasis: clear, specific facts on your pages, and what other websites say about you.
You can start this week with free tools; nothing in this guide needs a developer or a budget.

What do AEO, GEO and LLM SEO actually mean?

They are overlapping labels for optimising content so AI systems use and cite it, and none of them is an official standard.

AEO (answer engine optimisation) comes from the idea of "answer engines": tools that give a direct answer instead of a list of links. Google's own guide defines AEO as "answer engine optimization" (Google Search Central, 2026).
GEO (generative engine optimisation) focuses on generative AI answers. Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Guidelines now name it, saying GEO "focuses on content eligibility for grounding and reference in AI responses" (Microsoft Bing, 2026). Grounding means the AI looks up live sources and bases its answer on them, rather than relying only on what it learned in training.
LLM SEO is an informal term. An LLM (large language model) is the technology behind ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, so "LLM SEO" just means SEO aimed at those tools.

You may also see "AI visibility", "generative search optimisation" or "AI SEO". If someone sells you one of these as a completely new discipline that makes SEO obsolete, be sceptical. Google explicitly advises checking third-party AEO or GEO advice against its guidance on evaluating SEO providers (Google Search Central, 2026).

Mostly by searching the web and business listings at the moment someone asks, then summarising what they find and citing some of the sources.

Each platform documents this a little differently (our guide on how AI assistants choose businesses covers each one), but the pattern is consistent:

The customer asks a question, such as "who's a reliable boiler engineer in Leeds?" (an illustrative example of the kind of question customers ask, not measured search data).
The assistant runs one or more searches. Google calls this query fan-out: "issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources" to build the answer (Google Search Central, 2025). ChatGPT's help centre says it "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" sent to search providers (OpenAI Help Center, 2026).
It reads the results: your web pages, business listings, reviews and articles that mention you.
It writes an answer and links to some sources.

That is why the work overlaps so much with SEO. If a search index cannot see your website, or your listings are thin or contradictory, the assistant has little to work with.

Some assistants also answer partly from what the model learned during training, which comes from a crawl of the web at some point in the past. You cannot edit that directly; the practical lever is the same: be accurately and widely described on the open web.

How is AI search optimisation different from SEO?

The foundations are the same; the differences are in emphasis and in how success looks.

	Classic SEO	AI search optimisation
Goal	Rank your pages in a list of links	Be named, described accurately and cited in a written answer
Where it happens	Google, Bing results pages	ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot
What the engine reads	Your pages, links, local listings	The same, often via the same search indexes, plus reviews and third-party mentions summarised into one answer
Technical basics	Crawlable, indexable, fast pages	The same; plus allowing each AI platform's search crawler
Content style	Pages targeting search phrases	Pages that state specific facts clearly (services, prices, areas, credentials) so they can be quoted
Off-site signals	Links, reviews, citations	The same; what other sites say about you is often what the AI repeats
Measuring it	Rankings, clicks in Search Console	Whether you are mentioned, how you're described and which sources are cited

Where they overlap is documented:

Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same SEO fundamentals, and that "there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary" (Google Search Central, 2025).
Google's newer guide goes further: optimising for generative AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO" (Google Search Central, 2026).
Bing's guidelines apply the same crawling, indexing and quality rules "across Bing search experiences, Copilot, and grounding API results" (Microsoft Bing, 2026).

Where they differ is mostly practical:

There are fewer slots. A results page shows many links; an AI answer often names a few businesses. Being the clearest, best-documented option matters more.
Each AI platform has its own crawler. Blocking, say, OpenAI's search crawler keeps you out of ChatGPT search answers even if Google can see you (OpenAI, 2026).
Other people's words carry weight. Google notes its AI features "can show what's being said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos, and forum discussions" (Google Search Central, 2026). Your reviews and local press coverage are part of your "content".

Why does AI search matter for a local or small business?

Because the assistants are now answering the "who should I use?" questions that used to send customers to a search results page, and they draw on local business information to do it.

What the platforms themselves say:

Google says its AI responses "can include product listings, product information, and information about local businesses", and that Google Business Profiles "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results" (Google Search Central, 2026).
OpenAI says ChatGPT "may share your location with trusted third-party providers that help provide more local information", such as business listings, and can use location to answer questions about nearby businesses (OpenAI Help Center, 2026).
Google-Extended, a robots.txt control, covers "grounding... in Gemini Apps" using content from the Google Search index, which tells you Gemini's live answers draw on Google's search index (Google Search Central, 2026).

What this means for a small business:

You can be left out without knowing it. If an assistant cannot find clear information about you, it simply recommends someone else. Nobody sends you a notification.
You can be described wrongly. Old opening hours, a previous address or a service you no longer offer can be repeated confidently if that is what the web says.
Small businesses are not at a structural disadvantage. Google's local results are based on "relevance, distance, and popularity" (Google Business Profile Help, 2026). A well-documented local firm can be a strong answer to a local question.

What should a small business actually do?

Get the basics right in the places AI assistants read, in roughly this order.

Check your website can be crawled. Make sure your robots.txt does not block the search crawlers that AI platforms use, such as OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot. Our AI visibility checklist has a copy-paste example.
Put the key facts in plain text on your site. Who you are, what you do, where you work, what it costs (even a "from" price), your opening hours and how to book. Google lists "keeping important content in text form" as a best practice for AI features (Google Search Central, 2025).
Complete and verify your Google Business Profile. Google's guidance for AI features includes keeping "Merchant Center and Business Profile information" up to date (Google Search Central, 2025). See our Google Business Profile and reviews guide.
Make your name, address and phone number identical everywhere: website, Google, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and the directories in your industry.
Ask every customer for a review, honestly. No incentives and no asking only the happy ones. In the UK that is a legal issue as well as a platform rule (Competition and Markets Authority, 2025).
Earn mentions on other trusted sites: trade bodies, local news, supplier pages, "best of" lists by real publications. Google warns that "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem", so aim for real coverage (Google Search Central, 2026).
Write about what you know. Google says content offering "unique expert or experienced takes that go beyond common knowledge" will likely matter more over time (Google Search Central, 2026). A plumber explaining what a typical boiler service in your area involves, with real prices, beats a generic article.

What doesn't work (or isn't proven)?

Several popular tactics have no documented support from the major platforms.

llms.txt files. This is a proposed standard for giving AI tools a summary of your site (llmstxt.org). Google says Google Search "ignores them" and that creating one "will neither harm nor help" your visibility in Google Search (Google Search Central, 2026). We found no public commitment from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity or Microsoft to use them for their search features. Harmless, but not a priority.
Special "AI schema". Google says "there's no special schema.org markup you need to add" for generative AI search (Google Search Central, 2026). Standard structured data is still useful; there is just no secret AI version.
Chopping content into tiny chunks. Google says "there's no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces for AI to better understand it" (Google Search Central, 2026).
Mass-producing pages. Creating lots of pages to manipulate rankings or AI responses can breach Google's scaled content abuse spam policy (Google Search Central, 2026).
Hiding instructions for AI in your pages. Bing's guidelines now have a section on "prompt injection and AI manipulation" and treat it as abuse (Microsoft Bing, 2026).
Paying for placement in the answer. Google says "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google" (Google Business Profile Help, 2026), and OpenAI says ChatGPT search "placement is not guaranteed" (OpenAI Help Center, 2026).

How do I know if it's working?

Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask, regularly, and note whether you appear and what they say.

A simple manual method:

Write 10 questions a real customer might ask, mixing urgent ("emergency electrician near Didsbury"), comparison ("best-rated dog groomer in Bath"), price ("how much does a bathroom refit cost in Bristol") and trust ("is [your business name] any good?"). These are illustrative examples; use your own services and towns.
Ask each one in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google (look for an AI Overview or use AI Mode).
Record whether you are mentioned, whether the details are right, and which websites are cited.
Repeat monthly. Answers vary between runs, so look for patterns, not single results.

For Google specifically, clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in Search Console's Performance report under the "Web" search type (Google Search Central, 2025). They are not reported separately, so Search Console will not tell you which visits came from AI answers.

How SearchCrow helps

Doing the manual check across six assistants every month gets tedious. SearchCrow runs your customers' questions across the major AI assistants for you, shows where you are mentioned (and where competitors are instead), lists the sources the assistants cite, and turns the gaps into a short to-do list. Everything in this guide works without it.

FAQ

What is AI search optimisation? AI search optimisation is the work of making your business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews to find, understand and cite. It goes by several names, including AEO (answer engine optimisation), GEO (generative engine optimisation) and LLM SEO. In practice it overlaps heavily with ordinary SEO and local marketing: crawlable pages, clear facts and a trustworthy presence across the web.

Is AEO or GEO different from SEO? Mostly not. Google says that optimising for its generative AI search features is still SEO, and that no special files, markup or schema are needed. Bing's guidelines describe GEO as focusing on whether content is eligible to be used and referenced in AI answers. The differences are about emphasis: AI answers cite a handful of sources, so clear, specific, quotable facts and a strong reputation on other websites matter a great deal.

Do small businesses really need to think about AI search? Yes, but it should not cost you much extra. Google states that AI Overviews and AI Mode can include information about local businesses, and that a Google Business Profile can help you appear in AI responses. ChatGPT's help centre says it uses third-party providers for local information such as business listings. The same basics that win you local search customers also feed these assistants.

Do I need an llms.txt file or special AI schema? No major AI platform has said it needs one. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or Markdown to appear in Google Search, including its AI features, and that Google Search ignores llms.txt files. Creating one does no harm, but spend your time first on your website content, Google Business Profile, reviews and listings.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT or Google's AI? There is no documented way to pay for a place inside an organic AI answer. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed. Some platforms are introducing separately labelled ads, but being recommended in the answer itself depends on your information and reputation.

Sources

Google Search Central, AI features and your website (last updated 10 December 2025)
Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search (last updated 10 July 2026)
Google Search Central, Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended)
Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
Microsoft Bing, Bing Webmaster Guidelines
OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT search
OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers
llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file
Competition and Markets Authority, Fake reviews (CMA208)