For twenty years, "getting found online" meant one thing: ranking on Google. That is changing fast. A growing share of your customers now open ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity instead. They simply ask, "who is the best web designer in Brisbane?" or "recommend a plumber near me." If those tools do not know your business exists, you are invisible to that customer. The same is true if they cannot make sense of your website.
Optimising for these tools has a name: GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). This guide explains what actually works, in plain English.
What is AI search, really?
AI search is any tool that answers a question directly instead of returning a list of blue links. Ask Perplexity for "the best cafe in West End" and it does not show you ten websites. It gives you an answer, names a few businesses, and cites its sources. Being one of those named businesses is the whole game.
These tools build their answers from the open web, structured data, and trusted third-party sources like reviews and directories. Your job is to make your business easy to understand, easy to trust, and easy to quote.
How AI search differs from traditional SEO
Classic SEO aims for a ranking that a person clicks. AI search aims to be the answer itself: quoted, summarised, and recommended without a click at all. The good news is the two overlap heavily: strong traditional SEO is the foundation. But AI search leans harder on a few specific signals.
- ✓Structured data: schema markup that spells out exactly who you are, what you do, and where.
- ✓Clear, answer-shaped content: pages that directly answer the questions people ask.
- ✓Consistent presence: the same business details and story across your site, Google, and directories.
- ✓Third-party trust: reviews and citations the models treat as independent proof.
Five things that actually move the needle
1. Add structured data (schema) to every page
Schema is code that tells an AI model the facts, without it having to guess. It says "this is a professional service, here is its name, location, phone, and price range." It is one of the highest-leverage things you can do, and most small-business sites skip it entirely.
2. Write content that answers real questions
AI models love content structured as clear questions and direct answers. Think about the exact phrases a customer would type or say. Answer them in a sentence or two before expanding. A good FAQ section on each service page does double duty here.
3. Get your entity straight everywhere
Your business name, address, and phone number should be identical everywhere. That means your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory you appear in. Inconsistency makes models unsure you are one real business. Google reacts the same way.
4. Earn genuine reviews
Reviews are one of the strongest independent trust signals a model can lean on. Steady, recent, genuine reviews on Google feed both your local rankings and your AI visibility.
5. Do not ignore Bing
Bing quietly powers a lot of AI search, including Microsoft Copilot and parts of ChatGPT. Submitting your site to Bing Webmaster Tools is a five-minute job that too many businesses never do.
How to check your AI visibility
Open ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity and ask them the questions your customers would ask. Try "best [your service] in [your suburb]" or "who should I hire to [do the thing you do]". See whether you are mentioned, and what the tools say about you. If a competitor keeps coming up and you do not, that is your gap to close.
Where to start
If you only do one thing this month, make it this pair. Get proper structured data on your website, and a Google Business Profile that is complete and consistent. Those two moves alone put you ahead of most local competitors.
This is exactly what our AI search optimisation service handles end to end. It pairs naturally with local SEO for Brisbane businesses that want to be found the moment a customer asks.