How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers?
Customers are asking AI assistants for recommendations instead of scrolling results. Here is what those systems actually read, why most small business sites are invisible to them, and the fixes that work.
Ask ChatGPT for a good catering company in Mississauga, or search Google and read the AI overview at the top instead of the links. Somebody's business is in that answer. The rest are not. This is a new kind of being found, it is growing fast, and it works differently enough from old-fashioned search that a lot of sites that rank fine are invisible to it.
What the AI is actually reading
AI assistants do not browse your website the way a person does. They pull text — from your pages, from your Google Business Profile, from reviews and directories — and look for clear, specific statements they can quote. 'We cater corporate events from 20 to 500 people across Peel Region, with 48 hours' notice' is a sentence an AI can use. 'Delicious food for every occasion!' is not. It is not a fact; it is a mood.
The industry has started calling this AIO or GEO — AI optimisation, generative engine optimisation. Strip the acronyms and it is one idea: write down, plainly, the things a customer would ask about, on a site an AI can read.
Why most small business sites are invisible
- The menu is a PDF or an image. AI cannot read it, so as far as it knows you sell nothing.
- The important facts are missing. No service area, no hours in text, no prices or price ranges, no 'who this is for'.
- The copy is all adjectives. Nothing to cite, so nothing gets cited.
- Everything is on one page. Assistants cite pages, and a single page about everything is a page about nothing.
- The Google Business Profile is half-filled or wrong, and it is the first thing most AI systems check for a local business.
The fixes, in order of payoff
- Put your menu, products or services on the page as real text, with prices. Not a PDF. This one change does more than everything else combined for a food business.
- Write the answers to the questions you get asked. Do you deliver, where, how far ahead, minimum order, dietary options. One clear sentence each. A short FAQ on the relevant page is ideal.
- Fill in Google Business Profile completely — category, service area, hours, photos, products — and keep it consistent with the site.
- Give each thing you sell its own page with a plain title. 'Wholesale coconut macaroons' is a page an AI can recommend. 'Products' is not.
- Add structured data. This is a technical layer that labels your content for machines — business type, address, menu items, prices. Any competent developer can add it; most template sites do not have it.
- Get reviews that say specific things. 'Great!' helps your rating. 'They handled a 200-person wedding and were early' helps an AI recommend you for weddings.
Be specific enough to be quoted. That is the whole strategy.
How to check if it is working
Ask. Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode and ask the questions your customers would ask — 'best halal sweets shop near Mississauga', 'who does private label cookies in Ontario'. Note whether you appear and what they say about you. Do it monthly. If the answer describes you wrongly, the fix is usually a sentence on your site that says the right thing plainly.
None of this replaces the old basics — a fast site, sensible titles, a Google profile. It sits on top of them. But the businesses winning the AI answers right now are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones whose websites say clearly what they do, for whom, and where. That is available to anyone.