AI visibility answers for local businesses
Short, sourced answers about AEO, AI search and local SEO for owner-led businesses.
Answer engine optimization
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What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making a business easy for AI assistants and AI search features to find, understand and cite when someone asks a question. It builds on SEO: the same crawlable pages, accurate listings and clear answers. GEO, generative engine optimization, is a closely related term for the same goal.
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AEO vs SEO: what is the difference, and do you need both?
SEO helps your pages rank in search results and earn clicks. AEO helps AI assistants find, describe and cite your business in their answers. AEO rests on SEO: Google and Microsoft both say their AI features use the same crawling and indexing as search. A local business needs both, starting with the SEO foundation.
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How do AI assistants like ChatGPT choose which local businesses to recommend?
The AI companies' public documentation does not say how assistants rank one local business above another. It does say assistants search the web or a search index, ChatGPT may use the person's approximate location, and OpenAI, Google and Perplexity link to pages their crawlers can reach. Blocking those crawlers gives the assistants less to work with.
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Is your business visible in AI answers? A checklist
This checklist tests whether assistants can reach your website, read your key facts in plain text, and find the same name, address and description across your listings. It has fourteen yes-or-no checks, plus a monthly test: ask the assistants your customers' questions and record who they name.
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Which AI crawlers should a local business allow in robots.txt?
Allow the crawlers that search and fetch pages for AI answers: OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User, PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User, plus Googlebot, Bingbot and Applebot. OpenAI and Anthropic say blocking their search crawlers can keep a site out of their search answers or reduce its visibility there. Training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot have separate controls, so allowing them is a business choice.
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Local and technical SEO
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How does a local business show up in Google AI Overviews?
Google says there are no extra requirements for AI Overviews. A page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet, and no special markup or AI text files are needed. For a local business, that means a crawlable site, pages that answer customer questions in text, and a complete, accurate Business Profile.
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Google Business Profile checklist for service businesses
A service business must meet customers in person during its stated hours to qualify for a Google Business Profile. Google excludes online-only and lead-generation businesses, P.O. box addresses, and age-restricted businesses without a storefront. Use your real-world name, hide your address if customers do not come to you, choose the most specific category, and keep the profile current.
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