More customers now ask an AI assistant for a recommendation before they search. “Which accountant in Leeds is good for small businesses?” “What’s the best CRM for a five-person team?” If the answer names three competitors and not you, you lose that customer before they ever see your website.
Why assistants name some businesses and not others
An assistant builds its answer from two places: what it learned during training, and, when it searches the web, the pages it finds for that question. In both cases it favours businesses that are mentioned often, consistently and by sources it trusts. A great website that nobody else talks about is easy to miss.
That points to three things you can influence:
- Mentions elsewhere. Reviews, directories, comparison articles, local news, industry lists, forum threads.
- Clarity. Whether your own site says plainly what you do, for whom, where and at what price.
- Consistency. The same business name, category and location everywhere you appear.
Step 1: find out where you stand
Ask the questions your customers would ask, in the words they would use, and see who gets named. You can do this by hand in each assistant, or run our free check, which asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude three buyer questions and records who they name.
Step 2: study who gets named instead
Take the businesses that appear in the answers and search for them. Note where they are mentioned: which review sites, which “best of” lists, which directories, which publications. This list is your to-do list. The sources that mention your competitors are the sources assistants are drawing on for your market.
Step 3: get onto the same sources
- Claim and complete your profiles on the directories and review sites that showed up in Step 2.
- Ask happy customers for reviews on the platforms your competitors are reviewed on.
- Pitch the writers of “best of” lists in your niche. Give them a reason to include you: a clear speciality, a price point, a local angle.
- Answer real questions in communities your buyers use, as yourself and without spamming links.
Step 4: make your own site easy to quote
- State in one sentence near the top of your homepage what you do, for whom, and where.
- Publish your prices or price ranges. Assistants often answer “how much” questions, and they can only quote what exists.
- Write a page that answers each buyer question from your check, in plain language, with specifics.
- Keep your business name identical to how it appears on directories and review sites.
Step 5: check again, slowly
AI answers vary between runs and change as models are updated, so don’t judge progress from a single answer. Re-check every month. If AI recommendations clearly affect your sales, a paid tracker can re-ask your questions every day and show trends.
What doesn’t work
- Hidden text or “instructions to AI” on your site. It’s easy to detect and can backfire.
- Fake reviews. They’re illegal in the UK under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
- Mass-produced AI articles with nothing new in them. They rarely earn the outside mentions that matter.