Every week a local business owner asks us some version of the same question: "should I be worrying about ChatGPT?" The honest answer is yes — but probably not for the reason you think. People aren't replacing Google with ChatGPT. They're using both. Your customer now asks ChatGPT "who's a good web designer in Eastbourne?", then cross-checks what it says with a Google search. If you're missing from either, you're missing from half the conversation.

This is the straight-talking version of what we tell clients. No buzzwords. No "GEO is the new SEO" nonsense. Just what's actually changing, and the six things you can do this month to get your business cited by AI models and surfaced in AI Overviews.

What's actually changing in search

Two things are happening at once, and they're different problems with different fixes.

Google AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries at the top of a Google search. They pull from pages Google already indexes, then stitch a short answer together with citations. The citations are where the click goes. You want to be one of those citations.

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and the rest are answering questions directly inside the chat. When a user asks "best plumber in Hastings", the model will either cite a few sources (Perplexity, ChatGPT with browsing) or just name businesses from memory (base ChatGPT). You want to be both cited and named.

The mechanics are different. The outcome for you is the same: be the business the AI recommends.

What AI models actually look for

Forget "AI-optimised content". AI models aren't reading your site differently to Google — they're just summarising it more aggressively. The stuff that gets you cited is the same stuff that gets you ranked, with a few extra wrinkles.

Here's what matters, in order:

1. Are you actually on the internet properly. A real website on a real domain, not just a Facebook page.
2. Are your facts explicit and linkable. Your address, phone number, prices, services, hours — all written as text, not trapped inside images.
3. Do other trusted sites say you exist. Citations from local directories, news sites, industry bodies, review platforms.
4. Is your content genuinely useful. AI models are trained to avoid thin, keyword-stuffed filler. If your "About" page is three sentences and your service pages are 200 words each, you're invisible.
5. Do you have reviews. Google reviews, Trustpilot, sector-specific platforms. Volume and recency both matter.

That's the boring truth. The businesses getting pulled into AI answers aren't gaming anything — they've just put the work in.

"The models don't read your site differently to Google. They just summarise more aggressively — which means vague, thin, templated content is punished harder than it used to be."

The six-point checklist to get cited

Do these in order. Most businesses can knock them out in a week or two.

1. Write a proper "About us" page

Not three sentences. A proper page that answers: who you are, where you are, what you do, who you do it for, when you started, and why someone should pick you over the next result.

Aim for 400–600 words. Use your town name. Name the owner. Mention years of trading. Mention the team. This is the page AI models use to "know" your business exists.

2. Give every service its own page

One page per service. Each page needs the service name in the H1, a plain-English explanation of what it includes, who it's for, what it costs (or a range), and what the process looks like.

The reason this matters for AI: when someone asks ChatGPT "how much does a Shopify website cost in the UK?", the models pull from pages that answer that question directly. A services dropdown with six items and no dedicated pages gives the model nothing to cite.

3. Add an FAQ block to your key pages

AI Overviews love FAQ schema. So does ChatGPT when it's browsing. Pick the ten questions your customers actually ask on the phone and answer them in plain text on the page.

If you're a plumber, that's "do you charge for callouts?", "are you Gas Safe registered?", "how quickly can you come out?". If you're a web designer, it's "how long does a website take?", "do you offer hosting?", "what happens after launch?".

One question, one answer, 2–4 sentences. Easy to write, hard for an AI to ignore.

4. Get your NAP consistent everywhere

NAP means Name, Address, Phone. Pick one format and use it everywhere: your website, your Google Business Profile, Yell, Bing Places, Trustpilot, Facebook, Checkatrade, sector directories — all the places your business is listed.

Not "Flat 2, 14 High St" on one and "14 High Street" on another. Identical, every time.

AI models cross-reference your business across sources. Inconsistent NAP makes you look like two different businesses, and it splits your authority in half.

5. Get the right kind of reviews

Fifteen Google reviews at 4.9 stars beats fifty at 4.3. And they need to mention what you do. A review that says "Amazing service!" is worth less than one that says "Cinnamon redesigned our Shopify site and our sales doubled in three months."

Ask customers for a specific review. Give them a prompt — "could you mention what we built for you and the result?". Models read review text. Specific reviews get cited.

6. Get mentioned on sites that aren't yours

This is the one most small businesses skip. Press releases on local news sites. Guest articles on industry blogs. Case studies on partners' sites. Citations in "best of" round-ups.

A link from Eastbourne Herald or Sussex Business Times or an industry body is worth more than 50 spammy directory submissions. Models treat external mentions as signals of legitimacy. One good one is worth a lot.

A few things not to waste time on

Let's save you some money.

• "AI SEO" tools that promise to rank you in ChatGPT. They can't. Nobody knows exactly how the models weight sources, and anyone selling a shortcut is guessing.
• Stuffing "as mentioned by ChatGPT" copy onto your pages. The models aren't fooled and Google will treat it as low-quality.
• Generating 40 blog posts with AI to "feed the beast". AI-generated filler is the exact thing the models are trained to ignore. One genuinely useful 1,500-word article beats a month of generated slop.
• Paying for "AI visibility monitoring" dashboards. Useful if you're a Fortune 500. Not useful if you're a six-person agency in East Sussex. Ask ChatGPT the question yourself once a month and see what it says.

How to check if it's working

Two free tests.

Test one. Open ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Ask each one "who are the best [your service] in [your town]?". Write down what they say. Repeat monthly.

Test two. Google your top three services plus your town. Look at the AI Overview at the top of the results. Are you cited? If not, whose page is? Read it and work out what they've done that you haven't.

Doing those two tests once a month tells you more than any £300 SaaS subscription.

How this fits with local SEO

AI search isn't a replacement for local SEO — it's powered by the same signals. If you're running a multi-location business, the multi-location playbook and a properly maintained Google Business Profile are the two biggest levers. Models feed on both.

The bottom line

AI search isn't a new channel you need to learn. It's a new lens on the work you should already be doing — real content, real pages, real reviews, real mentions.

The businesses that panic and buy "AI SEO" packages will waste a lot of money. The businesses that fix the boring fundamentals will quietly start showing up in ChatGPT, AI Overviews and everywhere else.