How Local Businesses Can Improve Their Visibility in AI Search

The way people search for businesses, services, and products is changing. Alongside Google, AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews are increasingly being used.

At the same time, search queries are becoming more specific. Instead of just searching for "TYPO3 agency", users now ask questions such as:

Which TYPO3 agency in the Frankfurt area can update an existing website to TYPO3 14?

For businesses, this means: in the future, it will no longer be enough to be found well on Google. Ideally, a business should also be recommended by AI systems as a suitable solution.

From Search Ranking to Recommendation

Classic search engines display a list of search results. AI systems, on the other hand, try to give a direct answer and often name only a few businesses in doing so.

The decisive question is therefore increasingly:

What does an AI need to know about my business in order to recommend me for a relevant query?

To answer this, AI systems draw on many different sources of information. These include, among others, company websites, review platforms, business directories, industry portals, social media, forums, and other websites.

A business's overall digital presence is therefore becoming more important.

Your Own Website Remains the Most Important Foundation

The company website should clearly communicate:

It's important that business information is clear, up to date, and as consistent as possible everywhere.

This includes, for example, the company name, address, phone number, services, and opening hours.

Specific Pages Improve Your Chances in AI Search

A particularly important point is that AI systems increasingly look for very specific answers.

An agency should therefore not, for example, have only a general "TYPO3 agency" page.

Additional specialized pages could include:

The reason is simple: users' questions are becoming more specific too.

If someone asks:

Which TYPO3 agency offers long-term support and security updates?

then a website with its own detailed page on exactly this topic is in a better position than a website where "support" is merely mentioned briefly on a general services page.

This principle can be applied to almost any industry.

A tax advisor, for example, could create dedicated pages for business succession, startups, or international tax law. A trade business can combine its services with individual regions.

The more precisely a page answers a specific user question, the more easily AI systems can classify the business as a suitable recommendation.

Reviews and External Mentions Are Gaining Importance

Reviews have long played an important role in local search. For AI systems, they provide additional information about quality, currency, and customer experience.

Businesses should therefore regularly receive new reviews and respond professionally to existing ones.

Mentions on other websites are also becoming more important.

If a business is mentioned, for example, on industry portals, client websites, local news sites, or business directories in connection with certain services, this creates additional signals for AI systems.

This doesn't always have to be about classic backlinks. A clear mention of the company name together with a specific service can also be helpful.

Avoiding Outdated Information

AI systems can also draw on older information.

Businesses should therefore regularly check whether outdated information is still present online, for example:

Contradictory information makes it harder for AI systems to correctly classify a business.

Structured Data and Technical Foundations

Alongside good content, technical measures help too.

Structured data based on Schema.org can help provide machine-readable information about businesses, locations, services, events, or contact persons.

It should also be checked whether important content is technically easy to access.

This includes, among other things, a clean page structure, understandable internal linking, and correctly configured crawling settings.

Testing Your Own AI Visibility

Businesses can already test today how they are perceived by AI systems.

Typical questions from potential customers are useful for this, for example:

What's particularly interesting here:

Such tests can generate concrete ideas for new content and specialized service pages.

Conclusion

Classic search engine optimization remains important. However, it is now complemented by a new layer.

Going forward, businesses should optimize their website not just for Google, but also make sure that AI systems understand as precisely as possible what the business stands for.

Clear service pages, specific content, current reviews, consistent business data, and external mentions form an important foundation for this.

The goal in the future is no longer just:

Being found on Google.

But rather:

Being recommended by AI systems as the right solution.