Quick Summary: How to Rank In AI Overviews And Get Mentioned in AI Search
- Consistency across every platform is non-negotiable. Conflicting details between your website, Google Business Profile, reviews, and directories cause AI to get you wrong or skip you entirely.
- Reviews influence more than reputation. Volume nd recency affect how AI recommends your business.
- Your website needs to answer questions directly. Vague taglines and evocative language give AI almost nothing to extract or cite.
- Third-party mentions build credibility with AI. References from reputable directories, industry publications, and associations help AI verify your business is legitimate.
- Google Business Profile is your strongest local signal. A complete and active profile gives AI far more to work with than one left untouched.
A growing share of customers now open ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overviews, or Perplexity and ask a direct question instead of typing into Google and scrolling through links.
Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of making sure your business is the one that gets named by AI tools.
GEO works alongside SEO rather than replacing it. Where SEO helps your website rank on Google, GEO helps your business get recommended when someone asks an AI tool a question in plain language. The two overlap, but solving one does not solve the other.
In Australia, most small businesses have not addressed GEO yet. Five factors consistently drive whether AI recommends a business or skips it entirely.
How AI Decides What to Recommend
AI tools do not return a list of links and let the user decide. They read from multiple sources and deliver a direct answer.
The businesses that appear in those answers are the ones AI can build a confident picture of. There are so many things that feed into that picture. AI tools will not recommend a business that it cannot verify with confidence.
1. Consistency
AI seearch pull information from your website, directory listings, review platforms, and anywhere else your business appears online. If those sources contradict each other, AI either gets you wrong or skips you.
The most common version of this problem is simple. For example, a business can update its address on its website but forgets to update Google Business Profile, and that small discrepancy comes with a real consequence.
Consistency across every platform (your website, Google Business Profile, directory listings) all compound. AI builds a picture of your business from all of those sources combined. The clearer and more consistent that picture is, the more readily AI reaches for your name when the right question comes up.
Remember: Consistency is the foundation that every other factor builds on.
2. Reviews and What Other People Say About You
AI tools do not take your word for what your business is like. They look at what customers say across Google, Facebook, Reddit, and industry-specific platforms, and weigh that when forming a recommendation. Notably, AI cites Reddit most at 40.1% as of June 2025.
Volume matters, and so does recency. A business with 40 detailed reviews from the past year gives AI far more to work with than one with 8 reviews that were sitting untouched since 2021.
The content of reviews matters too. Mentions of your suburb, your specific service, or the type of work you did give AI better signals about exactly what your business offers and where.
Furthermore, responding to reviews also signals credibility. Regular and genuine responses tell AI the business is active, and active businesses get recommended over dormant ones.
3. Content AI Can Read
Your website is one of the primary sources AI draws from. The question is whether it gives AI enough to work with.
Most small business websites are built to impress human visitors. Short taglines, evocative language, minimal specifics. AI needs the opposite, which is direct answers to the questions your customers are asking.
What do you do? Where do you operate? Who do you work with?
A page that states “we provide dental fitouts for practices across Sydney’s Hills District” is far more useful to an AI tool than one that says “we create beautiful spaces for healthcare professionals.” One gives AI something to extract and reference. The other gives it almost nothing.
Audit your key service pages with one question in mind: If an AI tool read this page, could it accurately describe what you do, where you do it, and who you serve?
Beyond the words on your page sits another layer most business owners never see. A schema is a set of labels written in code that you add to your website to help AI tools and search engines understand exactly what your business is.
Instead of AI having to read your page and interpret what it finds, schema tells it directly. Your business name, address, phone number, service area, opening hours, and what you do are all spelled out in a format AI can read instantly.
Most business owners never see it because it sits in the background of your website, invisible to visitors but readable by AI. Adding it does not change how your website looks or works. It just gives AI a better picture of who you are. It is a small job that takes less time than most people expect and makes a meaningful difference to how AI tools read and recommend your business.
4. Third-Party Mentions
AI tools do not only read your own website. They look at what the broader web says about your business, including industry publications, local directories, news mentions, association memberships, and any other credible site that references you by name.
A mention in a reputable trade publication carries more weight than ten mentions on low-quality directories. Quality matters far more than volume here.
For a small business, this does not require a PR budget. Getting listed on Australian industry association websites, contributing a guest article to a relevant publication, or being featured in a local business directory all count. The goal is to build a web of references that AI can cross-check against what your own website says.
The more credible sources that confirm your business exists, operates where you say it does, and does what you say it does, the more confident AI becomes in recommending you.
5. Your Google Business Profile
For local service businesses, Google Business Profile is one of the most direct signals AI tools draw from when someone asks for a recommendation in a specific location. A complete, active profile does a lot of work.
It tells AI search your service area, your opening hours, your category, and what customers think of you. An incomplete or neglected profile tells AI very little, and AI will favour the business that gives it more to work with. Completeness matters.
- Fill in every field
- Add real photos
- Keep your hours accurate
- Post updates regularly
- Reply to reviews
AI Search FAQs
What is AI search?
AI search is when a tool like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other AI tools answer a question directly instead of returning a list of links. The user asks, the AI recommends, and a business gets named or gets skipped.
What is local search in AI?
Local AI search is when someone asks an AI tool for a business in a specific area. AI pulls from Google Business Profile, local directories, and review platforms to form its answer.
How do I get cited in AI search?
If you want to know how to rank in AI overview and other answers, remember that AI cites answers it can verify.
A complete Google Business Profile, detailed service pages, genuine customer reviews, and mentions from reputable websites all contribute. The more sources that confirm the same information, the more likely AI is to include you in its answer.
How do I rank locally in AI search in Australia?
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and active, and make sure your website states what you do and where you operate. It’s also recommended to prioritise getting reviews that mention your suburb and service,
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO gets your website onto Google’s results page, while GEO gets your business recommended when someone asks an AI tool a direct question. The two overlap, but they are not the same. A business can rank well on Google and still be invisible in AI-generated answers.
Want to Get Cited by AI Search?
Getting into AI search answers takes the right information in the right places, presented in a way AI can read and trust. Most small businesses are closer than they think.
Olivetree Marketing works with Australian small businesses to get their AI search presence sorted through our GEO Starter Packages.
Book a free strategy call with us or call 1300 168 311 to find out which package suits your business.
