I ask every new client the same question: go to ChatGPT right now and ask it to recommend a business like yours in your area. Most have never done it. Most are not in the answer. This post is the practical guide to changing that step by step, no technical background needed.
If you have read our posts on AEO and the difference between SEO and AEO you already understand why AI citation visibility matters. This post skips the theory entirely and goes straight to the practical steps.
Here is exactly what to do in order to get your business cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other AI search engines.
Step 1: Check where you stand right now
Before doing anything else spend ten minutes asking AI models the questions your customers ask.
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google with AI Overviews enabled. Ask three to five questions that your ideal client would ask specific to your sector and location. Examples:
- "Which AI company should I use for my small business in the UK?"
- "What is the best way to qualify website leads automatically?"
- "How do I get my contracts reviewed by AI?"
Note which businesses are cited. Note whether your business appears. Note which competitors appear when you do not. This baseline tells you exactly how much work there is to do and where the gaps are.
Step 2: Fix your business entity
The single most impactful action most UK businesses can take and the quickest to complete is ensuring their business entity is clean, consistent and complete across the web.
AI models verify businesses by cross-referencing multiple sources. If your business name, address and phone number are inconsistent across platforms AI models trust you less and cite you less.
Check and fix these in order:
- Google Business Profile — claim it if you have not, complete every field, ensure your business name matches your legal name exactly, confirm your address is precise and current, add your services with descriptions.
- Bing Places — often neglected but Microsoft Copilot pulls heavily from Bing data.
- LinkedIn company page — ensure business name, description and location match your website exactly.
- Industry directories — Law Society, ICAEW, RICS, FCA register or whatever is relevant to your sector. These are high-trust sources that AI models reference specifically.
- Your website footer — your full legal business name, address, and phone number should appear on every page in consistent format.
This step costs nothing but time and typically takes a few hours to complete fully.
Step 3: Add schema markup to your website
Schema markup is the technical foundation of AEO. Without it AI models have to guess what your business does. With it they know with certainty.
The minimum schema markup every UK SME needs:
- LocalBusiness schema — your legal business name, full address, phone number, opening hours and geographic service area structured as machine-readable code.
- Service schema — each service your business offers, with its own name, description and area of provision.
- FAQPage schema — every FAQ question and answer on your website individually tagged so AI models can cite specific answers.
- Person schema — if you are a named founder or professional, your name, credentials, role and expertise structured for AI comprehension.
Adding schema markup requires either a developer or a tool that generates and deploys it for you.
Step 4: Create your llms.txt file
Add a plain text file at yourdomain.com/llms.txt that tells AI crawlers precisely what your business does, who it serves and what content to prioritise.
Keep it concise and factual. State your business name and one-line description at the top. List your key services or products. Describe your target customers in plain English. Link to your most important pages.
This file takes fifteen minutes to create and signals clearly to AI crawlers that your business is aware of and cooperating with AI indexing, which improves citation likelihood.
Step 5: Restructure your content for direct answers
Go through your existing website pages and ask one question about each: if someone asked an AI the question this page answers, would my page give a direct, precise, complete answer in the first two paragraphs?
If the answer is no — rewrite the opening of the page so it does.
AI models look for content that answers questions directly. Not content that builds to an answer over five paragraphs. Not content that requires the reader to infer the answer. Content that states the answer clearly, precisely, and immediately.
Add question-based headings throughout your pages. "What does X mean?" "How does Y work?" "How much does Z cost?" Each heading signals to AI models that the content beneath directly answers that question.
Step 6: Publish answer-optimised content consistently
One blog post will not make you an AI-cited authority. Consistent, sustained publishing of accurate, question-answering content over months will.
Identify ten to twenty specific questions your target clients ask. Not vague questions, precise ones specific to your sector, location, and service. Publish one substantive piece of content per week that answers one of those questions directly and completely.
I use the questions my prospects ask in my chat widget and when speaking to my AI receptionist, they are the best possible source for this content. They are real questions from real prospects, exactly the kind of content AI models are trained to surface.
Step 7: Monitor and iterate
Run the same AI search queries you ran in Step 1 every month. Track whether your citation rate is improving. Note which new competitors have appeared. Identify which questions you are being cited for and which you are not.
Use this information to prioritise your content efforts, focus on the gaps where you are not being cited but should be.
This monitoring takes thirty minutes per month and tells you exactly whether your AEO efforts are working.
How long does it take to see results?
Realistically four to eight weeks before you start seeing your business cited in AI answers for specific questions. Meaningful, consistent citation across a range of relevant queries typically takes three to six months of sustained effort.
This is significantly faster than traditional SEO, where competitive keyword ranking can take years. AEO is a newer discipline with less competition, which means early movers can establish authority faster.
Book a free AI visibility audit with me at calendly.com/darren-cootapen/30min, we will run live AI queries for your business category during the call and show you exactly what potential clients see when they ask AI about businesses like yours.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my business cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity?
Work through seven steps: check where you stand today, fix your business entity across the web, add schema markup to your website, create an llms.txt file, restructure your content so it answers questions directly, publish answer-optimised content consistently, then monitor and iterate monthly. Fixing your entity is the single most impactful action most UK businesses can take and the quickest to complete.
What is the first thing I should do to check my AI visibility?
Spend ten minutes asking ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google with AI Overviews three to five questions your ideal client would ask, specific to your sector and location. Note which businesses are cited, whether your business appears, and which competitors appear when you do not. That baseline tells you exactly how much work there is to do and where the gaps are.
What schema markup does a small business need?
At minimum, LocalBusiness schema with your legal business name, full address, phone number, opening hours and service area, Service schema for each service you offer, FAQPage schema tagging every question and answer individually so AI models can cite specific answers, and Person schema if you are a named founder or professional. Adding it requires either a developer or a tool that generates and deploys it for you.
How long does it take before my business shows up in AI answers?
Realistically four to eight weeks before you start seeing your business cited in AI answers for specific questions, and three to six months of sustained effort for meaningful, consistent citation across a range of relevant queries. That is significantly faster than traditional SEO, where competitive keyword ranking can take years.