- AI assistants recommend businesses they can find, understand and trust across many sources.
- Being indexed by Bing as well as Google matters, because several AI tools use search indexes to answer.
- Clear, factual pages that answer real questions get quoted far more than vague marketing copy.
- Reviews, directory listings and mentions on other sites act as votes of confidence.
More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity questions like “best dental clinic in Bandra” or “top digital marketing agency in Mumbai” instead of scrolling through ten blue links. The answer is a short list of names. Being on that list is the new page one.
This is called answer engine optimisation (AEO), sometimes generative engine optimisation (GEO). Nobody can guarantee a spot, because each AI decides for itself. But the businesses that show up tend to share the same traits, and you can work on every one of them.
How AI assistants decide who to recommend
When you ask a question about local businesses, tools like ChatGPT search and Perplexity usually look things up on the web, read the most relevant pages and summarise them. Google’s AI Overviews draw on Google’s own index. So the AI is only as good as what it can find. It leans on:
- Search indexes such as Google and Bing
- Your own website, if it clearly says what you do, where and for whom
- Third-party lists and directories, like “top agencies” articles, Clutch, GoodFirms or Justdial
- Reviews on Google and other platforms
- Consistent facts: the same name, address and phone number everywhere
Step 1: Make sure you can be found
- Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submit your sitemap to both.
- Use IndexNow so Bing and other engines hear about new pages quickly.
- Do not block AI and search crawlers such as Googlebot, Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt.
- Keep pages fast and readable without heavy scripts, so crawlers see your text.
Step 2: Say clearly who you are and what you do
AI tools quote sentences that answer a question directly. A page that says “We are a digital marketing agency in Goregaon East, Mumbai, offering Meta ads, Google ads, SEO and websites for real estate, education and D2C brands” is easy to cite. A page that says “We craft digital magic” is not.
- Put a one-sentence summary of your business near the top of your home page.
- Create one page per service and per city you genuinely serve.
- Add FAQs that use the exact questions customers ask.
- Use structured data (Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage) so machines understand the facts.
Step 3: Build proof on other websites
An AI is more confident recommending you when other sources agree. This is the slowest part and the most important:
- Complete your Google Business Profile with categories, services, hours and photos, and keep it active.
- Ask every happy customer for a Google review that mentions the service and area.
- List your business on relevant directories for your industry, with identical name, address and phone.
- Get featured in “best of” lists, local news, partner websites and industry associations.
- Publish genuinely useful guides that others want to link to.
Step 4: Write content that deserves to be quoted
Answer one question per section, starting with the direct answer in the first sentence, then the detail. Use plain language, real examples from your city and industry, and keep facts up to date. Avoid inflated claims; AI systems increasingly cross-check them.
What not to do
- Do not buy fake reviews or post reviews of your own business. Platforms remove them and it damages trust.
- Do not stuff pages with keywords or city names you do not serve.
- Do not publish lists that rank yourself first and call it independent.