Key facts
- AI search tools write answers and name a few businesses.
- They learn from the web and search it live.
- Clear, consistent information about you helps most.
- You can start in an afternoon with free checks.
What AI search is
AI search means asking an assistant such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity a question and getting a written answer instead of a list of links. Google now does this too with AI Overviews and AI Mode. When the question is about products or services, the answer usually names a few businesses. Showing up means being one of those names.
Five steps to start
- 1Ask AI about your category: type the questions your customers ask and see who is named.
- 2Check AI can read your site: make sure robots.txt and your security settings allow AI search bots.
- 3Explain yourself clearly: one plain sentence on your homepage saying what you do, for whom and where.
- 4Answer customer questions: add pages or FAQs for the questions people ask before buying.
- 5Get mentioned elsewhere: reviews, directories, partner sites and industry articles.
Quick wins
- Fix old prices, addresses or product names anywhere online.
- Fill in every field on your main review and directory profiles.
- Add a short FAQ section to your key pages.
- Publish an llms.txt file listing your best pages.
How to know it is working
Ask the same questions every week or two and note whether you are named, in what position and how you are described. Because answers vary, look at the pattern across many questions rather than one answer.
Put this into practice with Variask AI visibility, Variask Site health and the free what AI sees. See Variask pricing or read the Variask FAQ.