How to get AI to recommend your business
More and more customers let AI help decide before they call, and AI only ever names a handful of businesses. This page shows why some make the cut and others do not, and what you can already change today about your Google Business Profile, your reviews and your own website to stand out.
Your customer checks AI before they call you
Two years ago, a customer would still type "hire a painter Tilburg" into Google and scroll through ten blue links. Now they open ChatGPT or Perplexity and get an answer straight away, naming a handful of recommended businesses. Either you are one of them, or you are not.
We will not put a percentage on how often this happens by now
The figures doing the rounds come from studies that contradict each other, and we have not measured it ourselves. What you can establish yourself is whether your business turns up in an answer like that, and that is the only number that matters to you.
AI search does not fully replace ordinary Google searches
Improving your SEO therefore remains the foundation of your visibility. But AI search is growing so fast that waiting to adapt is already costing you customers today.
Why some businesses get recommended and others do not
AI bases its recommendations on what it can find: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your own website and the mentions that exist about your business. If that information is not there, your business simply does not exist for AI. A competitor with a more complete profile then gets recommended, even if you do the better work.
An AI answer rarely names more than a handful of businesses, while many more in your area could qualify
We track how many names a model mentions per question in the AI Index: across 2,501 valid measurements, 25,010 business names came up, an average of ten per answer. If you are not among them, you simply do not exist at that moment. The businesses that are visible share three traits: a fully completed Google Business Profile, recent reviews with replies, and questions and answers that match what customers actually want to know.
Want to know where you stand
Type "good [your trade] in [your town]" into ChatGPT and see whether your business is mentioned.
Three places you can start today
You do not need to tackle everything at once. Use the Eisenhower matrix if it helps to decide what comes first: your Google Business Profile, your reviews or your own website.
Complete your Google Business Profile
This profile has become your visiting card for AI. Make sure your name, address and phone number are correct, that your opening hours are current including public holidays, and that your category is specific enough, so not just "contractor" but also, say, "roofer". Write your description in plain language: what you do, for whom and in which area. Add recent photos of your work and link a website that works on a basic level. A profile with gaps, outdated opening hours, a thin description or no photos of your work leads AI to draw negative conclusions.
Reviews that tell AI something
AI does not just look at the number of stars, but at what a review actually says. A review like "neat finish, done on time and no surprises afterwards" tells AI three things at once: you work with quality, you are reliable and you communicate transparently. So actively ask for reviews after a job, thank customers for a positive review and respond constructively to a negative one. Replying costs you nothing, and it shows a reader, and therefore also a model, that there is someone behind the business.
The question your customer is already asking, and where the answer now belongs
For years, these questions lived in the Questions and answers section of your Google Business Profile. That section no longer exists: Google shut down the Q&A link on 3 November 2025 and removed the public blocks from Search and Maps from 3 December 2025, replacing them with an Ask button built on Gemini. So you can no longer post anything there. The questions themselves have not disappeared, only the place where the answer belongs.
Put them on your own website, in plain sentences, each with its own heading: what an hourly rate costs, whether you are insured, whether you work in their area, how quickly you can come out, whether you have references and whether you take on small jobs. Also mention the neighbouring areas you cover. That is exactly the text Google and other models now draw on, because the Ask feature looks at your website, your profile, your reviews and other mentions. Reckon on an afternoon's work, not a subscription.
What we handle for you
Would you rather outsource this? Then we first map out how much risk you run of losing traffic to AI answers. After that, we redesign your key pages so they make sense to people and AI alike, with clear answers, strong arguments and a clear structure.
Finally, we bring in tools that let you keep steering yourself: the AI Traffic Loss Shield is a checklist in four categories that you work through by hand to see which pages are at risk, the WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap shows where visitors scroll and drop off, and the llms generator and the AI snippet previewer look at how your page is structured. That previewer gives a score on six features of your own text; it does not call a language model and so shows no AI answer.
This is not a service for big chains alone
It is precisely local trade specialists, from roofers to plumbers, who benefit from visibility in AI answers; we have not measured how many competitors are already working on this. If you are unsure whether your situation fits, feel free to compare what a best SEO agency of 2026 can do for you before you choose.
Frequently asked questions about AI search and local businesses
Should I stop doing regular SEO now?
No, and that would also backfire. AI bases its recommendations on what it can find: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your own website and the mentions that exist about your business. That is largely the same foundation that classic visibility rests on. So you are not building something separate, you are making that same foundation more complete.
Why does one business get recommended and another not?
Because a model can only name what it can find. If there is little more about your business than an address and a phone number, there is nothing to recommend. A competitor with a completed profile, current reviews and a website that answers customer questions does give a model material to work with. That is not an algorithm you need to beat but an information gap you can fill.
What if I have negative reviews?
Those weigh less heavily than an empty profile, especially if you respond to them. A business with no reviews at all is not neutral to a model but unknown, and unknown does not get recommended. A business with mixed reviews and visible replies shows that someone is behind it. Keep collecting rather than trying to get the old ones removed.
Is this relevant in a small town too?
Especially there, because in a small market the list a model names is shorter. In a big city you are up against dozens of businesses that all have some kind of profile; in a village, a handful of mentions decide the whole answer. Whoever has their profile, their reviews and the customer questions on their website in order often stands alone on the list.
Do you want AI to recommend you?
We check your Google Business Profile, reviews and Q&A and tell you exactly what to fix to become visible for AI search.
No, regular SEO remains relevant. Google still processes billions of searches per day through traditional results. But AI search is growing so fast that you need to pay attention to it alongside your regular SEO. Fortunately, the actions overlap for the most part: a good Google Business Profile and good reviews help with both traditional search and AI search.
How quickly will I see results if I improve my profile?
That depends on how up to date the AI tools pull their data. Google AI Overviews responds relatively quickly, sometimes within a few days. ChatGPT and Perplexity work with training cycles and can update more slowly. After a thorough profile optimisation, expect a noticeable difference in how you are found within two to six weeks.
Negative reviews are not the end of the world. AI tools also look at how you respond. A professional, friendly reply to a negative review shows AI that you take your customers seriously. What AI does judge negatively: lots of recent negative reviews with no reply, or reviews that show a pattern of structural failure. One or two negative reviews among many positive ones are therefore not a problem.
Is AI search already relevant in small towns too?
Yes, in small towns too. AI tools do not only work for big cities. If someone in a village of 8,000 people searches for "handyman nearby", AI uses the same signals: profile, reviews, Q&A. The difference is that there is less competition in small towns, so you need to do less to stand out. That is actually an advantage.
What you can already do today if your search volume and traffic are falling
The reflex is often to write more content or push harder on link building. But if traffic is shifting to AI answers, you first want a clear picture of where you are losing traffic and why you are not being mentioned.
Do not just look at search volume in tools, but put the figures side by side: rankings, sessions, scroll behaviour and click behaviour on key pages.
With a tool like WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap you see directly in WordPress where visitors drop off, which sections get ignored and whether people actually reach your call to action.
Ask AI overviews and search assistants the same questions your audience asks. Who gets named, which arguments are used and how often does your brand come up.
This gives you an honest picture of your position in the new search experience, separate from rankings in the classic list of results.
Your pages should not just rank, they also need to make sense to AI systems: clear answers, strong arguments, a clear structure and consistent information about who you are and who you are the best choice for.
This often means your pages get built more compactly, more clearly and more decision-focused than old SEO landing pages.
With llms routing, schema data and a solid internal structure, you help AI systems connect your content to the right questions.
For this, TheSEO has developed, among other things, an llms generator and an AI snippet preview, so you can see what story AI could tell about your brand.
How TheSEO protects your SEO traffic against loss to AI
TheSEO combines classically strong SEO with a strategy for visibility in AI overviews and search assistants. No isolated tricks, but an approach that starts with insight and ends with concrete improvements at page and brand level.
Why does my search volume seem to be disappearing while my rankings stay the same
In many cases, the actual search volume stays the same or even rises slightly. What changes is the way answers are given. AI overviews and search assistants give an instant summary with a limited number of sources. If your brand is not among them, attention shifts to others and it feels as though demand has shrunk.
How do I know if my traffic is leaking away to AI overviews
Check your key search terms in an incognito window and see whether AI overviews appear. Then check which names get mentioned. You can map this systematically with a scan like AI Traffic Loss Shield, so you can see per page and keyword where the risk is greatest.
Can I make my brand more deliberately visible to AI search assistants
Yes. By writing clear content about who you are, what you do and who you are the best choice for, and combining this with llms routing, schema data and a logical internal structure, you give systems more confidence in your brand. That increases the chance of being named as an example or recommendation.
Is this traffic loss temporary or permanent
All the signals from our research point to a lasting shift. Users quickly get used to answers, comparisons and lists they get straight from a search assistant. Whoever learns now how to become visible in those answers builds a lead that will be hard to catch up on later.
What can TheSEO concretely do for me if my search volume is falling
TheSEO maps out your current situation, measures the risk of AI traffic loss, helps redesign key pages and guides the technical side with llms files, schema data and internal structure. We also bring in tools such as WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap and AI Traffic Loss Shield so you can keep steering yourself.
What you can do now
Start yourself: complete your Google Business Profile today, ask a customer for a review, and put the two questions customers always ask, with the answers, on your own website. Want to know how much traffic you are already losing to AI answers and how to turn that around, we are happy to take a look together.
Book a call and you get a clear picture of your risk of AI traffic loss, plus a concrete plan to become visible again to the customer who is already searching.
Your customer no longer searches like they did last year
Two years ago, a customer would type "hire a painter Tilburg" into Google and scroll through ten blue links. They would click on three, compare websites, call someone. That is over. That same customer now opens ChatGPT, Perplexity or just Google, types their question, and gets an answer straight away: "For a painter in Tilburg, your best bet is Firm X, they are known for their neat finish and are quick to reach."
That AI answer is new behaviour. And it is growing at breakneck speed. Where around 6% of local searches went through an AI tool back in 2024, that figure is already 45% in 2026. Almost half of all local searches now pass through an AI filter before the customer decides who to call. Not eventually, not in the future. Already, today.
The problem is that AI does not spit out names at random. AI bases its recommendations on information it comes across: reviews, answers to frequently asked questions, business descriptions, mentions on other websites. If you have little of that, you do not come up. Then it is your competitor, who does have their affairs in order, who gets recommended, even if you do the better work.
Who makes the list and who does not
Of all the local businesses that could potentially qualify for an AI recommendation, only 1.2% is actually recommended. That is a small minority. The rest simply do not exist in the world AI sees. They are not doing anything wrong, they are just invisible.
That may sound abstract, but it is very concrete. AI tools, whether it is Google AI Overview, ChatGPT or Perplexity, systematically scan the sources available. They look at your Google Business Profile, at the reviews customers write, at the questions and answers on your profile. If all of that is empty or thin, you do not get seen. Full stop.
The businesses that do get recommended have a few things in common. They have a fully completed Google Business Profile. They have recent reviews and they respond to them. They have questions and answers that match what customers actually ask. That is not a big investment. It is work that needs doing, and that most tradespeople have not done yet.
Your Google Business Profile is now your calling card for AI
Your Google Business Profile, also known as Google My Business, was already important for local searches. But with the rise of AI search, it has become even more crucial. AI tools use your profile as one of their primary sources of information. If the profile is incomplete, AI has too little to work with and picks a competitor who does have it in order.
What does "complete" mean in practice? Your name, address and phone number are correct. Your opening hours are current, including for public holidays. Your category is specific enough: not just "contractor" but also "roofer" or "tiler" if that matches your work. Your description says in plain language what you do, for whom and in which area. You have photos of your work, preferably recent ones. And you have linked a website that works at least on a basic level.
That sounds like a checklist, and it is one. But most tradespeople have a gap somewhere on that list. Opening hours that have not been updated in two years. A four-word description. Not a single photo of their work. AI sees all those gaps and draws its conclusions: this business is less reliable or less relevant than the competitor who does have everything in order. It really is that simple.
Want to know more about exactly how AI reads your profile and which sections weigh most heavily? Read our article on the Google Business Profile as your AI calling card. There we go deeper into what AI picks up and why some fields have more impact than you might expect.
Reviews are the language AI understands
If you ask an AI tool "which painting company is good in Tilburg", the AI system does not just pull a name out of thin air. It also looks at evidence. Reviews are the most concrete evidence available. And that is not about the number of stars, but about the content of what customers write.
A review that says "neat finish, done on time and no surprises afterwards" gives AI a great deal of information. Neat finish stands for quality. On time for reliability. No surprises for transparency and good communication. AI distils that kind of signal and weighs it into its recommendation. The more information-rich reviews you have, the stronger the picture AI forms of you.
The reverse is also true. Few reviews, or reviews with vague text like "good company, done quickly", give AI little to distinguish you by. Then the system is more likely to pick a competitor with more specific, substantive reviews. Not because you are worse. Only because the information about you is weaker.
What you should concretely do: actively ask for reviews after a job. Not aggressively, not with a script that sounds like a call centre. Just say, once the job is done: "If you are happy, I would really appreciate it if you could jot that down on Google, it helps me enormously." Most customers will do it if you ask and if the job went well.
Responding to reviews is also a factor AI takes into account. A business that replies to positive reviews with a brief thank you, and to negative reviews with a constructive response, scores higher in AI's picture than a business that ignores everything. Also read our article on Google AI Overviews and local SEO for tradespeople if you want to understand how AI handles reviews in searches.
Q&A: the question your customer is already asking
The Q&A section of your Google Business Profile is the most underrated part of local visibility. Hardly anyone fills it in. That is a missed opportunity, because AI tools regularly quote Q&A answers directly in their own answers. Word for word, sometimes.
Say someone asks ChatGPT "does plumber Henk in Eindhoven offer an emergency service?" If your Q&A says "Yes, we are available for emergency jobs within the hour, weekends included. Call us on [number]", AI can use that in its answer. Without that Q&A, the system has nothing to base an answer on and picks a competitor who did give the answer.
Filling in the Q&A is an hour's work, two at most. Start with the questions you get most often from customers. Think of: how much does an hourly rate cost, are you insured, do you work in my area, how quickly can you come out, do you have references, do you take on small jobs. Write an honest, concrete answer to each question and post it yourself in the Q&A section of your profile. No subscription, no specialist, no big budget. Just take the time.
Want to know how other local tradespeople are handling the changes Google is rolling out? Then also read our article on the Google core update of May 2026 and what it means for local trades.
Google Business Profile as your AI calling card
How AI reads your profile and which sections weigh most heavily in the recommendation
Google AI Overviews and local SEO for tradespeople
What AI Overviews mean for plumbers, painters and other tradespeople
Google core update May 2026 for local trades
What changed and what impact it has on local visibility
Three pillars in our approach
In practice, this means we first map out your situation, then make choices together about content and technology, and then track the results with tools you run in your own WordPress environment.
That way you do not build a dependency on a one-off report, but a system that lets you keep watching as AI search experiences continue to develop.
The TheSEO tools that help you when your search volume seems to be disappearing
Alongside advice, TheSEO builds its own WordPress tools that grew directly out of this research and out of conversations with customers who asked the same question: why is my search volume disappearing while I am still being found.
An interactive scan that shows the pages and keywords where you run the greatest risk of traffic leaking away to AI overviews and search assistants.
You get a list of at-risk pages, priorities and concrete recommendations to protect your SEO traffic and grow it alongside the new way of searching.
More information: protecting your SEO traffic against AI
A lightweight heatmap and scrollmap plugin you use directly in WordPress. It shows you how far people scroll, where they click and where they drop off on crucial pages.
Ideal for seeing whether your redesigned pages really work better, or whether there are still hurdles in forms, buttons or navigation.
More information: WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap
With the llms generator, you create a file that better guides AI systems in how they read your site and which pages they may use as a source.
The AI snippet preview shows you what answer a system might give based on a page, even before a user actually asks that question.
More information: llms generator by TheSEO
Want to know how much traffic you are already losing to AI answers
If your search volume seems to be disappearing and you are seeing fewer enquiries, this is the moment to take a closer look. In a session with TheSEO, we put your key keywords, pages and AI visibility side by side.