More people now start with a question rather than a search: “Who’s a good plumber in Hamilton?” “Do I need a permit for a basement bathroom?” The answer comes back as a few paragraphs, often with a handful of sources or businesses named. If yours isn’t one of them, you’re not in the conversation.
Nobody can promise you a place in those answers. But they aren’t random, and most of what helps is good practice anyway.
How AI answers find businesses
Tools like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT’s search look things up on the web as they answer. They favour pages that answer the question clearly, then summarise them. For local recommendations they also draw on business listings, reviews and mentions across the web.
That gives you three levers: what your own site says, what your listings say, and what other people say about you.
Make your own site easy to quote
- One question per page or section. Put the question in the heading and the answer in the first couple of sentences.
- Say it plainly. Short sentences and concrete numbers are easier to quote than marketing language.
- Add a short FAQ with the follow-up questions people ask.
- Include what only you know: prices you’re comfortable sharing, timelines, common problems in your area, and your opinion on the options.
- Name your area and services in normal sentences, not just in a list in the footer.
Keep your listings complete and consistent
Fill in your Google Business Profile completely: categories, services, hours, service area and photos. Make sure your business name, address and phone number match everywhere you’re listed, and answer the questions people post on your profile.
Get people talking about you
- Ask happy customers for reviews that mention the job they had done.
- Get listed by your trade association and local business groups.
- Offer a useful comment to local news or community sites when they cover your field.
- Ask the suppliers and partners you work with to list you.
Don’t block the tools you want to be found by
Some website security and hosting settings block automated visitors, including the crawlers AI tools use to read pages. If you want to appear in AI answers, check your robots.txt file and your security or CDN settings, or ask whoever looks after your website.
Check where you stand
Once a month, ask a few AI tools the questions your customers ask, for your area, and note who gets mentioned. Search the same questions on Google and see whether an AI Overview appears and which pages it cites. It’s rough, but it tells you whether you’re moving. (For the bigger picture, see how AI search is changing local SEO.)
Where Say It SEO helps
Say It SEO is built around this. Before your first call we look at what people search for and what Google’s AI Overviews already say about your topics, so each article answers what’s actually being asked. The articles come from your own words, which gives AI tools something worth quoting. And on the Regular and Chatterbox plans we check every week where each article ranks and whether Google’s AI Overview quotes it.