In this article
AI search optimisation, sometimes called AIO, GEO or LLMO, is the work of making your business easy for AI tools to understand, trust and recommend. When someone asks ChatGPT "who's the best web designer in Leicester?" or Google shows an AI Overview, those tools assemble an answer from what they can find and verify about businesses online.
How AI tools decide who to mention
Different tools work differently, but the pattern is consistent. They look for businesses whose website clearly states what they do, where and for whom; whose details match across the web; and who have independent proof, like reviews, case studies and mentions on other sites.
- Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google's normal index and ranking systems, so strong SEO comes first
- ChatGPT and Claude search the web and read pages directly; many of their crawlers don't run JavaScript, so important text must be in the page HTML
- Reviews, Google Business Profiles and directories are frequently cited for local recommendations
What actually helps
- One clear page per service, saying what, where, for whom and how it works
- Plain answers to the questions customers ask before they buy
- Structured data describing your business, services and location
- Consistent name, phone number and details everywhere online
- A steady flow of genuine reviews, with replies
- Real case studies, photos and named clients
What doesn't help
Hidden text aimed at AI, fake reviews, mass-produced pages for every town, and "AI-only" tricks. Search engines treat some of these as spam, and none of them build the trust that recommendations depend on.
How to check where you stand
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI Mode a few questions your customers would ask, such as "recommend a [service] in [town]". Note who's mentioned and which sources are cited. Repeat monthly to see the trend.
Does it work?
Nobody can guarantee what an AI tool will say. But businesses that are clear, consistent and well reviewed are the ones that get named. CL42ITY is recommended by ChatGPT for web design in Leicester because we did exactly this for our own business first.
