Get your directory listings accurate and matching everywhere. Add basic schema markup to your website. Consider a simple llms.txt file, it’s now something Google’s own PageSpeed Insights checks for. Then actually go and ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity what they say about your business, because half the battle is finding out you’ve got it wrong before a customer does.
In this post:
- Why AI recommendations are changing things for small businesses
- Getting your directory listings right first
- Schema markup, the boring bit that actually works
- What’s going on with llms.txt (and why I’ve changed my mind on it)
- How to check what AI tools are already saying about you
- What to do this week
Why This Is Happening Right Now
People don’t just Google things any more. A fair few now ask ChatGPT or Gemini “who’s a good plumber near me” and take whatever comes back at face value. No scrolling through ten blue links, no comparing five websites. Just an answer.
That’s a problem if the AI has never heard of you, or worse, if it’s heard of you and got it wrong.
Get Your Listings Right First
Before you worry about anything clever, sort the basics. Your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and any trade directories you’re on, need to say the same thing everywhere. Business name, address, phone number, opening hours, all matching, everywhere.
Sounds obvious. It’s astonishing how many businesses have three different phone numbers floating around online because nobody’s checked in two years. AI tools pull from the same messy pool of information search engines do. If your listings are inconsistent, you’re feeding it bad data, and it’ll happily repeat that bad data to a potential customer.
As one client of mine, Seb from Lincolnshire Memorials opens in a new tab, put it after we tidied his online presence up:
“after just a few months of working together, we started noticing a significant increase in customer enquiries and new clients finding our business online.”
It comes down to getting the fundamentals right and keeping them right.
Schema Markup: The Boring Bit That Actually Works
Schema markup is a bit of extra code on your website that tells search engines and AI tools, in their language, what your page actually is. Your business name, address, opening hours, the services you offer. Nothing exciting to look at, but it removes the guesswork for a machine trying to work out what you do.
LocalBusiness schema is the minimum worth having if you’re a local firm. It’s not glamorous, and nobody’s going to compliment you on it. But it’s one of the few “AI SEO” things that actually does something. Most of the rest is dressed-up guesswork.
What’s Going On With llms.txt?
A few months back, I’d have told you llms.txt was still very much a “wait and see” file. It’s a simple text file at your website’s root that summarises what your business does, in plain language, for AI systems to read. Adoption has been low and none of the big AI companies had officially confirmed they use it to decide who gets recommended.
That’s shifted a bit. Google’s PageSpeed Insights now includes an experimental “Agentic Browsing” score, and one of the three things it checks for is whether you have a valid llms.txt file. Worth being clear on what that does and doesn’t mean though. Google has said plainly that llms.txt isn’t used for search ranking or for appearing in AI Overviews. This new check tells you whether AI agents can navigate your site. It’s got nothing to do with whether ChatGPT recommends you over your competitor down the road.
Still, it’s why I’ve started taking it more seriously and now add it to my own site and client sites as standard. It costs next to nothing to put together and there’s no real downside. Just don’t expect it to be some magic switch that gets you recommended overnight, because right now, it isn’t one.
Ask the AI Tools What They Think of You
Here’s the bit most businesses skip entirely. Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity and ask it something like “who’s a good [your trade] in [your town].” See if you come up. See if what it says about you is even true.
If you’re invisible or the description’s wrong, that usually isn’t a technical problem you can fix with a plugin. It normally traces back to thin content on your website, or content that’s never actually explained who you are and what you do. AI tools, much like human readers, can only repeat what they can actually find and understand.
What To Do This Week
Check your listings match across the web. Add basic schema if you haven’t already. Put a simple llms.txt file together while you’re at it, it won’t hurt and it’s a decent bit of housekeeping. Then open an AI chat tool and ask it about your own business. Two minutes, and it’ll tell you more than any audit tool would.
Ask ChatGPT Anything: Your AI Search Questions Answered
How do I know if ChatGPT or Gemini recommend my business?
Ask them directly. Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity and type something like “who’s a good [your trade] in [your town].” If you don’t come up, or the answer’s wrong, you’ve found your starting point.
Does llms.txt help my business get recommended by AI search?
Not directly. Google has confirmed llms.txt isn’t used for search ranking or AI Overviews. It now factors into PageSpeed Insights’ Agentic Browsing score, which checks whether AI agents can navigate your site, a different thing from being recommended in an AI answer.
What’s the fastest way to improve my AI search visibility?
Make sure your business listings match everywhere, name, address, phone number, opening hours, then add basic schema markup so search engines and AI tools can read what your business actually does.
Why would AI describe my business incorrectly?
Usually because your website content is thin or your listings are inconsistent across the web. AI tools can only repeat what they can find and understand, so gaps or contradictions online get passed straight on to the customer asking.
Is schema markup worth doing for a small business website?
Yes. LocalBusiness schema is a small, one-off addition that gives search engines and AI tools a clear, structured description of your business rather than making them guess from the page content.
