How to Get Your Service Business Recommended by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity
A practical 2026 guide to AI search visibility for law firms, clinics, trades and other service businesses, without the hype or the snake oil.
By David Vinicius. Published . 12 min read.
“Who’s the best employment solicitor near me?” used to produce ten blue links. Increasingly it produces a written answer, with a few businesses named and a handful of sources linked. If you run a law firm, clinic, trade business or lettings agency, that answer is now part of your shop window. This guide explains how AI search tools choose what to show, and what you can sensibly do about it.
What AI search visibility actually means
AI search visibility is whether AI-powered search tools can find your business, understand what you offer and cite you when someone asks a relevant question. You will also see it called generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO), LLM optimisation or AI SEO. The labels are new. Most of the work is not.
The main tools a UK service business should care about today are Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Each works slightly differently, but they share a habit: when answering a question about the real world, they look for web pages they can retrieve, trust and summarise.
How AI search tools choose which businesses to mention
Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how sources are picked, and anyone claiming a precise formula is guessing. What is publicly documented is useful enough.
Google says the usual SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, that there are no additional technical requirements, and that a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear as a supporting link. It also says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema to appear. You can read this in Google’s guidance on AI features and your website. Google also describes a “query fan-out” approach, where the system runs several related searches to build a response, which means pages that answer specific sub-questions well can be drawn in.
ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Copilot also fetch live web pages when answering many questions, using their own crawlers and search partners. The practical lesson is the same across all of them: if your page cannot be crawled, cannot be understood, or says nothing specific, it gives these systems nothing to work with.
Ten steps to improve your AI search visibility
Check your site can be crawled and indexed
Start with the dull bit, because it catches more businesses than anything clever. Check robots.txt, noindex tags, canonical URLs, your XML sitemap and status codes. Make sure your hosting or CDN is not blocking legitimate crawlers. Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and look for pages that are not indexed.
Understand which crawlers do what
Search crawlers and training crawlers are often separate. OpenAI, for example, documents OAI-SearchBot for search and GPTBot for model training. Google-Extended controls use of content in some Google AI systems but, according to Google, does not affect inclusion in Google Search. Blocking a search crawler can reduce visibility. Whether to allow training crawlers is a separate decision about your content, so make it deliberately rather than as a side effect of chasing visibility.
Give every core service its own page
A single “Services” page listing eight things in one paragraph is hard for people and machines to match to a specific question. A dedicated page for each core service should explain who it is for, the problem it solves, what is included, what is not, how it works and what happens next. That is precisely the material an AI answer needs.
Write answers that stand on their own
Put a clear, direct answer near the top of each page, then expand. Write sentences that still make sense if lifted out of context: “We handle commercial lease renewals for tenants in Leeds” says far more than “We’re here for you every step of the way.” Use descriptive headings that mirror real questions.
Answer the questions buyers actually ask
Collect the questions from your inbox, phone calls and sales conversations: price ranges or how pricing is decided, timescales, eligibility, what to prepare, what happens if something goes wrong. Answer them honestly on the relevant page. A useful FAQ beats a clever slogan every time.
Make your business identity consistent everywhere
Use the same business name, address, phone number, service areas and descriptions on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, professional directories and social profiles. Inconsistent details make it harder for any system to be confident it has the right business. For local services, keeping your Google Business Profile accurate and complete is one of the most practical things you can do.
Show real expertise and real authors
Name the people behind your advice, explain their relevant experience, and date your content with meaningful update dates. Link to accreditation bodies or regulators where they genuinely apply. This is not a trick. It is how a sceptical reader, human or otherwise, decides whether to trust a page.
Publish proof you can stand behind
Case studies with a clear context, problem, approach and outcome give AI tools and buyers something concrete. Get permission, label who did the work and when, and never invent reviews, results or logos. A fabricated statistic is a liability the moment someone checks it, and AI answers can repeat it to far more people than your website ever reached.
Use accurate structured data, not magic markup
Organisation, LocalBusiness, Service, Article and Breadcrumb markup can help machines interpret your pages. The rule is simple: the markup must match what is visible on the page. Do not add ratings you do not display, locations you do not have or credentials you have not earned. Treat structured data as housekeeping rather than a visibility switch.
Keep important content in plain HTML
Text baked into images, information that only exists in a download, or content that loads late through heavy scripts can all be harder to retrieve. Make sure the key facts about your services are in the page’s text when it loads, and that your site is fast and usable on a phone.
What does not work, or is overrated
Mass-produced location pages that swap one town name for another are thin content, and they rarely help anyone. Stuffing pages with “best AI-recommended solicitor” phrasing reads badly and proves nothing. Buying reviews or links risks penalties and your reputation. And an llms.txt file, while cheap and harmless to maintain, is not a recognised signal for Google, which says AI text files are not needed. We keep one on this site as a tidy summary, not as a strategy.
Finally, be sceptical of anyone promising guaranteed mentions in ChatGPT or AI Overviews. Nobody controls those answers, including the people selling the promise.
How to measure AI search visibility
Google reports clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode within the Web search type in Search Console, so watch impressions and clicks for your service pages over time. In your analytics, look for referral visits from AI tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. Run the questions your buyers ask through the main AI tools every month or so and note which businesses and sources appear, remembering that answers vary between sessions, locations and people.
Most importantly, measure enquiries rather than attention. Add a “how did you hear about us?” question to your enquiry process, and count submitted enquiries separately from button clicks. Being mentioned is only useful if the website that follows makes it easy to get in touch. That is the point of a conversion-focused website.
If you want the longer list of common questions, our AI search visibility FAQ covers llms.txt, crawler access and schema in more detail. If you want someone to do the work, see search and AI visibility.
Frequently asked questions
01What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
Generative engine optimisation, sometimes called answer engine optimisation (AEO) or AI search optimisation, means making your website easy for AI-powered search tools to find, understand and cite. In practice it is built on the same foundations as good SEO: crawlable pages, clear content, accurate business information and real evidence.
02Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews?
Not through the organic answers. Ads exist in some search products, but no one can sell you a guaranteed organic mention in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or Perplexity. Be wary of anyone who claims otherwise.
03Do I need special schema markup or an llms.txt file for AI search?
No. Google states there are no additional requirements, special schema or AI text files needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Accurate structured data is still good practice, and llms.txt can be a harmless supplement, but neither replaces clear, crawlable pages.
04How do I know if AI search is sending me traffic?
Google includes AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic within the Web search type in Search Console. Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar tools often appear as referrals in your analytics. Also ask new enquiries how they found you, because not every AI-assisted visit is clearly labelled.
05Is AI search visibility worth it for a local service business?
Usually, if buyers research before they get in touch. The work that helps AI search, such as clear service pages, consistent business details and genuine proof, also helps ordinary search and makes your website more persuasive for the people who arrive.
Want to know what AI search can see on your site?
Tell us what’s working, what’s stuck and what you want to improve. We will reply personally with a straight view.