AI search optimization services: get recommended by AI.

How do AI engines decide who to recommend?

AI assistants don’t rank the way Google does. They assemble an answer from sources they trust and can extract cleanly. When someone asks “who’s the best [service] in [city]?”, the model leans on businesses it has seen repeatedly across reviews, directories, and articles, with a clear, consistent identity it can quote with confidence. The flip side: if those sources disagree or are out of date, AI repeats the mistake, and you need to fix wrong AI information about your business at the source. That’s why AEO is as much about your entity (your name, consistency, mentions and reviews) as it is about your pages. Getting that entity right is most of what I do as an answer engine optimization consultant.

Is AI search optimization worth it for a small business?

For most small businesses, yes, if your customers already ask AI before they buy. An AI answer names only a handful of businesses, and it leans on facts that are clear, consistent and repeated across the web. A small business can get those right faster than a large one, because there are fewer pages, listings and people to align. If you would rather have one consultant for SEO and AI search, that page explains how I work with small businesses.

It is clearly worth it when AI is already getting you wrong. If ChatGPT or Google says you are closed, lists old hours or names a competitor for your own service, that costs you enquiries every day it goes unfixed. Start with what to do when AI says your business is closed.

It is less urgent if your work comes almost entirely from referrals, or if the basics are missing: no website search engines can crawl, no Google Business Profile, no reviews. In that case I start with SEO fundamentals, because AI engines draw on the same signals. Not sure which side you are on? Read why AI won’t recommend your business, then ask for a free audit of where you stand on Google and AI.

One thing I will not do is promise you a place in any AI answer. Nobody controls what a model says. What I can do is make your business the clearest, most consistent answer for the engines to give, and report honestly on what changes.