How does a small business get found on Google and in AI answers?

What are SEO and GEO?

SEO, search engine optimization, is making your business easy to find in Google and Bing searches and on Maps. GEO, generative engine optimization, is making sure AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity can find your business, read it and describe it correctly. GEO builds on SEO: the clear facts and matching listings that help you on Google are the same things AI assistants read.

What decides who shows up in local searches?

Google says its local results come down to three things: relevance (how well your listing matches what someone searched), distance (how far you are from them) and prominence (how well known you are, from reviews, links and mentions around the web). You can’t move your shop closer to every customer, but you can do a lot about the other two. The steps below are in the order that usually matters most.

Step 1: Is your Google Business Profile complete?

For a local business, the Google listing often matters more than the website. Claim it, pick the most accurate main category, and fill in every section: hours, services, service area, photos, and your booking or order link. Our step-by-step Google Business Profile guide walks through it.

Step 2: Does each page say what you do and where?

Search engines and assistants match pages to what people type, so use the words your customers use, not industry jargon.

• A page for each main service. “Water heater repair” and “drain cleaning” each get their own page, not one line on a services list.
• A clear page title. The title is the blue link people see in Google. Say the service and the place, then your name: “Water heater repair in Overland Park | Sunrise Plumbing”.
• A plain main heading that matches, and a short description that says why someone should click.
• The towns you serve, by name, in plain text on the page. If you work across several towns, a page for each main town helps, as long as each one says something true and local, not the same text with the name swapped.
• Your phone number and a way to book or order near the top of every page.

Step 3: Can search engines and AI assistants read your site?

• Let the crawlers in. Your site’s robots.txt file says which crawlers may read it. Make sure it doesn’t block Google, Bing or the AI assistants’ crawlers by accident.
• Put your words in the page itself, not only inside images, PDFs or a widget that loads later. Text in a picture of your menu can’t be read or quoted.
• Make it quick on a phone. Most people looking up a local business are on one. Shrink big photos before you upload them.
• Tell Google and Bing about your site. Add it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, both free, and send them your sitemap (the list of your pages). Several AI assistants draw on Bing, so it is worth the ten minutes.

Step 4: Have you added business details markup?

Structured data, or schema.org markup, is a short block of code that states your business name, address, phone, hours, service area and services as plain facts, so search engines and assistants don’t have to guess them from your text. Most website builders have a setting or an app for it. Only mark up what is true and shown on the page.

Step 5: Do your listings match everywhere?

Make your name, address, phone, hours and website identical on Google, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, Facebook and any directories for your trade. Hunt down old listings with an old number or address and fix them. When the details disagree, search engines trust all of them less, and assistants may repeat the wrong one.

Step 6: Are you earning real reviews and local mentions?

Reviews are a big part of prominence. Ask every customer after the job, make it one tap with a direct link, and reply to every review, good and bad. Mentions from other local websites help too: your chamber of commerce, the suppliers and businesses you work with, events you sponsor, a write-up in local news. Never buy reviews or links, or offer anything in return for a review. It breaks Google’s rules and can get your listing suspended.

Step 7: Do you answer the questions customers ask?

People search in questions, and they ask AI assistants in questions: “How much does a cake for 30 people cost?”, “Do you do same-day repairs?” Answer the common ones plainly on your site, with prices or price ranges where you can. A short questions section on each service page is often enough. That is the text assistants are most likely to quote. More on the AI side in our guide to showing up in ChatGPT and AI answers.

What should you avoid?

• Stuffing the same words over and over, or listing dozens of towns you don’t really serve.
• Hidden text, including text written to instruct AI assistants. It is manipulation, it gets caught, and it can hurt your whole site.
• Fake reviews, bought links, or a keyword stuffed into your business name on Google.
• Anyone who guarantees the number one spot or a place in AI answers. Nobody can promise that.

How do you check whether it’s working?

• Google Search Console shows the searches you appear for, how often people click, and any pages Google can’t read. Look once a month.
• Your Google Business Profile shows how many people found your listing, called, or asked for directions.
• Ask the assistants. Every few months, ask ChatGPT and others the questions a customer would, like “Who does water heater repair in Overland Park?”, and write down what comes back. Answers vary from one try to the next, so watch the direction over months.
• Ask new customers how they found you, and write it down.

Changes usually take weeks to a few months to show, after search engines have read your updated site and listings. Not sure where to start? Say hello and we’ll tell you the one or two things that would help most.