In short: to be recommended by an AI, (1) its crawlers must be able to read your site, (2) your business must be described clearly and consistently across the web, and (3) your pages must directly answer your customers' questions. This is called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the extension of SEO.
"Which communication agency should I choose in Marrakech?", "Where can I find a good dentist in Gueliz?": these questions are increasingly asked to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity instead of Google. The AI doesn't return ten links: it names a few businesses. The goal is to be one of them.
1. Let AI crawlers read your site
Each assistant has its own crawlers: GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot… Check that your robots.txt file doesn't block them. Some hosts or firewalls block them by default without you knowing.
2. Be on Bing, not just Google
ChatGPT Search and Microsoft Copilot rely in part on Bing's index. Register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and enable IndexNow to report every new page instantly.
3. Describe your business unambiguously
AIs cross-check sources. Your name, address, phone, hours and services must be identical on your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and directories. Add structured data to your site (schema.org LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage): a machine-readable ID card.
4. Write to answer, not to fill space
AIs extract short, precise passages. For each important page:
- a question as the heading ("How much does… cost?");
- the direct answer in the first sentence;
- concrete figures: prices, timelines, areas served;
- tables and lists rather than long paragraphs.
5. Get talked about elsewhere
Assistants rely on what the web says about you: Google reviews, local press, business directories, partners who mention you. A detailed customer review ("site delivered in 3 weeks, bookings up") carries more weight than a simple "great".
6. Add an llms.txt file
llms.txt is a recent proposal: a Markdown summary of your site at its root, designed for language models. It isn't an official standard yet and not every assistant reads it, but it's simple to set up and carries no risk.
How to measure results
- Regularly ask several AIs the questions your customers ask, and note whether you're mentioned.
- In Google Analytics, isolate traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or gemini.google.com.
- Ask every new customer how they found you.
We include these optimisations in our SEO and web design services. Let's talk about your visibility.