AI Search Visibility
A growing share of people looking for a local business now ask an assistant instead of typing into Google. They ask ChatGPT for a plumber, or Gemini for someone to build a fence, and they get a short list of names rather than a page of results.
Being absent from that short list is a new way to be invisible. It does not show up in your analytics and nobody calls to tell you about it, which is exactly what makes it easy to ignore for a year.
There is no stable rank to sell you.
These systems are not search engines and they do not have stable rankings. Two people asking the same assistant the same question at the same moment can get different answers, and the same question asked twice can differ.
That means a position on one of these platforms is a snapshot, not a tracked rank. We report it as a snapshot. We do not promise a position, because anyone promising you will rank first on ChatGPT is selling something that does not exist as a stable thing.
What can be influenced is whether the business is findable and well described in the sources these systems read. That is what the work targets, and that is what we report progress on.
Fix the sources, then watch the answers.
One half is upstream work on what these systems read. The other half is keeping a record of what they say over time.
Path one: make the sources say the right thing
These systems do not know your business. They assemble an answer from what they can read: your site, your profile, directories, reviews, and whatever content exists about the work you do.
So the work is upstream. Get the structured data right, get the profile complete, get the listings consistent, and write the content that answers the questions people ask before they buy. That is what changes the odds of being named.
Path two: check and record what they say
We run visibility checks across the major assistants on a schedule and keep the results, so there is a record over time rather than one person's screenshot from a Tuesday.
The point of the record is direction, not precision. Whether the business gets named at all, how it gets described, and whether that improves as the underlying sources improve.
What the work actually covers.
What actually feeds these systems
Structured data on the website, directory and citation presence, Google Business Profile completeness, review volume and recency, and content that answers real pre purchase questions. None of it is exotic. All of it is checkable.
Schema markup written to be parsed
Markup that states plainly what the business is, what it offers, and where it works, in the form these systems read most reliably rather than the form that happens to be default in a page builder.
FAQ content in question and answer form
Short, direct answers to the questions customers actually ask, marked up so an assistant can lift the answer cleanly. Long marketing paragraphs are hard to quote and rarely get quoted.
Visibility checks across the major assistants
Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Llama, and Claude, run periodically with the results kept so there is a history instead of an impression.
Overlap with ordinary local SEO
This does not replace local search work. The same foundation feeds both, which is why we do not run it as a separate campaign with its own budget line and its own story.
Reviews as source material
Recent reviews describing specific jobs give these systems something concrete to draw on. Review work you are already doing carries over here without any extra step.
This is not a separate campaign.
Citations and listings feed this directly, since directory data is one of the sources assistants lean on when they name local businesses.
So does lead response. An assistant that hands someone your name at nine at night has done its part, and what happens next depends on whether anything answers.
Common questions about AI search.
- Can you guarantee I show up in ChatGPT?
- No. Nobody can, and a guarantee here should end the conversation with whoever offered it. The answers are generated fresh and vary between users and between attempts. We work the sources these systems read and report what we see.
- How is this measured if rankings are not stable?
- As snapshots on a schedule. We ask the same questions across the assistants, record whether the business is named and how it is described, and track the direction over months. It is a trend line, not a position you can defend to a decimal.
- Does this replace regular local SEO?
- No. Most people still use Google, and the map pack still produces the majority of local calls for the trades we work with. The same foundation serves both, so this is an extension of the search work rather than an alternative to it.
- Is it worth doing yet, or is it too early?
- It is worth doing because almost all of it is work you should be doing anyway. Schema, a complete profile, consistent listings, and content that answers questions help ordinary search too. What would be too early is paying for it as a standalone program with its own promises attached.
Tell us what is not working.
Send us your business and your website. We will check how the assistants currently describe you, if they name you at all, and tell you which part of the foundation is weakest.
If ordinary search is the bigger gap, we will say so and start there instead.