SEO
AI Search Visibility: What UK Businesses Can Actually Do
More people ask AI tools instead of searching. Here is what is known about getting your business shown there, and what is just guesswork.
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More and more people now ask an AI tool for a recommendation instead of typing a search into Google. “Who is a good electrician near me?” can be answered by Google’s AI Overviews, by AI Mode, or by ChatGPT, without the person ever scrolling a list of links.
That raises a fair question for any business owner: how do you get your business mentioned? This guide to AI search visibility sticks to what the companies behind these tools have said publicly, and says plainly where nobody knows. We cover it as part of our AI SEO service.
What Google says about AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google’s own guidance for site owners is refreshingly short. It says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisations are necessary. You do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup.
To be shown as a supporting link, a page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. Google also says that meeting every requirement does not guarantee a page will be crawled, indexed or shown.
In other words, the foundation of AI search visibility on Google is ordinary SEO. If your pages are not in Google’s index, they cannot be used. Our guide on what Google Search Console is shows how to check.
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The best practices Google lists
Google says the SEO fundamentals are still worthwhile, and lists these:
- Allow crawling. Make sure your robots.txt file lets Google in, and that your host or CDN does not block it either.
- Make content easy to find with internal links from other pages on your site.
- Give visitors a good page experience.
- Put important content in text, not only in images or video.
- Use good images and videos where they help.
- Make sure structured data matches the text people can see on the page.
- Keep your Business Profile up to date if you are a local business. Our Google Business Profile setup checklist covers it.
That is the whole list. Nothing on it is a secret trick.
What about ChatGPT?
OpenAI publishes its own guidance. It uses different “bots” for different jobs:
- OAI-SearchBot is the one that finds websites to show in ChatGPT’s search features. OpenAI recommends allowing it if you want your site to appear in ChatGPT search results.
- GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. Blocking it is a separate choice from blocking search.
- ChatGPT-User is used when a person asks ChatGPT to do something with a page. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it.
OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can allow search and still decline training. It also says a change to robots.txt can take about 24 hours to take effect. If you have never looked at your robots.txt file, it is worth a quick check that nothing is blocking these bots by accident.
What nobody can promise
AI answers change from one person and one day to the next, and the tools decide for themselves what to include. Google says AI Overviews appear only when its systems decide they add value, so they often do not show at all. Anyone who promises you “number one in ChatGPT” is guessing.
What you can do is make your business easy to find, easy to read and easy to trust. That means:
- Pages that answer the questions customers really ask, in plain text near the top.
- A short FAQ on each service page, written from real customer questions.
- The same business name, address, phone number and description everywhere it appears online.
- Real reviews, which are covered in our guide to getting more Google reviews.
- A fast, mobile-friendly site that search engines can crawl.
How to keep track
Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the normal Search results and reported in Search Console under the Performance report, in the “Web” search type. So you cannot split it out, but you can see whether your overall visits and impressions are moving.
You can also ask a few questions your customers would ask in the AI tools you care about, and write down whether your business is mentioned, with the date. The answers vary, so treat it as a rough diary rather than a score.
Want your site ready for AI search?
We check that search engines and AI crawlers can reach your site, then tidy up the pages and profiles that they rely on. See our AI SEO service and our SEO service, or try our free website check and tell us about your business.
Google’s and OpenAI’s guidance checked against their own help pages on 22 October 2026. Both change over time, so check their pages if something looks different.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an llms.txt file to appear in AI search?
Google says you do not need any new machine-readable file, AI text file or markup to appear in its AI features.
Is AI search visibility different from SEO?
Mostly it builds on the same work. Google says the SEO fundamentals still apply, and OpenAI asks that its search bot is allowed in. The extra steps are checking that AI crawlers are not blocked and making your pages clear and easy to quote.
Can you guarantee my business will be mentioned in ChatGPT or Google AI?
No, and nobody honest can. AI answers vary and the companies choose what to show. What we can do is remove the obstacles and make your site and online profiles as clear and consistent as possible.
Will blocking GPTBot hide me from ChatGPT search?
OpenAI says its settings are independent. GPTBot relates to training, while OAI-SearchBot relates to search. You can allow one and block the other.
Where do I see AI traffic in Google?
Google says it is counted in the Web search type of the Performance report in Search Console, alongside your other Search traffic.
