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As UK customers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Gemini and other answer engines for recommendations, your business needs to be visible in more places than traditional Google search.
A potential customer might ask:
“Which accountants in Warwickshire specialise in small businesses?”
“Who can help improve my website’s SEO in Birmingham?”
“What are the best-rated independent cafés near me?”
If an AI assistant cannot confidently identify your business, understand what you offer or verify your credibility, it is less likely to recommend you.
That is where an AI visibility audit becomes essential. It examines whether your business information is clear, consistent, authoritative and accessible across the web. It does not provide a shortcut to guaranteed AI recommendations (there is no secret switch for that) but it helps you strengthen the signals that answer engines use when forming their responses.
Use the following 12-point audit to assess your own visibility.
1. Check your NAP and business data consistency
Start by checking your name, address and phone number (NAP) across the web.
Compare the details on your website with your Google Business Profile, Bing Places listing, industry directories, social media profiles, review platforms and local chamber listings. Correct differences in:
- Business name and trading name
- Address formatting
- Telephone numbers
- Website URLs
- Opening hours
- Service areas
- Business categories
AI systems build an understanding of your business from multiple sources. Conflicting details make it harder to establish which information is accurate.
Update your core business data first. Consistency strengthens both local search performance and your wider digital marketing assessment.
2. Add accurate LocalBusiness and FAQPage schema
Help search engines and other systems interpret your business by adding relevant structured data, also known as schema markup.
Use LocalBusiness schema to describe information such as your business name, address, telephone number, opening hours and service area. Use FAQPage schema where a page genuinely contains a list of visible questions and answers.
Follow Google’s guidance on structured data, and ensure that your markup matches the content customers can actually see. Do not add information simply because you want an AI assistant to find it.
Structured data does not guarantee a ranking or recommendation. It does, however, reduce ambiguity and make important facts easier for machines to process.
3. Make your entity signals unmistakably clear
An entity is a distinct, recognisable person, organisation, place or thing. Your website should make it obvious:
- Who your business is
- What services you provide
- Who you serve
- Where you operate
- What makes you credible
- Which businesses or organisations you are associated with
Create clear About, Services, Contact and location pages. Use the same brand description throughout your website and key profiles.
Avoid vague statements such as “we deliver innovative solutions”. Explain precisely what you do, for whom and in which locations. For example:
“We provide bookkeeping and tax services for independent retailers and trades businesses across Coventry and Warwickshire.”
Clear language gives ChatGPT and Gemini stronger context when matching your business to a customer’s question.
4. Write answers in BLUF format
BLUF means Bottom Line Up Front. Put the direct answer near the beginning of your page, then provide the explanation and supporting detail underneath.
For example, instead of opening a service page with three paragraphs about your company history, begin with:
“We provide affordable website design for small businesses across Warwickshire, including planning, copywriting, development and ongoing support.”
Then explain your process, pricing approach, outcomes and frequently asked questions.
Use descriptive headings, short paragraphs, lists and clear definitions. This structure helps readers scan your content and makes useful passages easier for answer engines to identify.
5. Write service pages in your customers’ language
Audit every important service page and ask whether it reflects the words your customers actually use.
A customer may search for:
- “Help getting more customers from Google”
- “Affordable bookkeeping for a small business”
- “Emergency electrician near me”
- “Improve my website speed”
- “Social media help for a local business”
Your internal terminology may be different. Replace jargon with plain-English explanations, while retaining relevant technical terms where they genuinely help.
Answer the questions customers ask before contacting you: What does the service include? Who is it for? How much does it cost? How long does it take? What results can they expect?
Your website content and SEO strategy should support both search visibility and confident buying decisions.
6. Review the recency and specificity of your reviews
Do not focus only on the total number of reviews. Audit their recency, detail and relevance.
Specific reviews give prospective customers, and AI systems, more useful evidence than generic comments such as “Great service”. Encourage customers to describe:
- The service they used
- The problem you helped solve
- Their location, where appropriate
- The outcome they experienced
- What they particularly valued
Respond to reviews professionally and keep collecting feedback throughout the year. A profile with hundreds of reviews but no recent activity may appear less relevant than a smaller, active profile.
Use this alongside our guide to getting more Google reviews and handling negative ones.
7. Complete and maintain your Google Business Profile
Treat your Google Business Profile as a core business asset, not a one-time listing.
Check that you have:
- Selected the most accurate primary and secondary categories
- Written a useful business description
- Added current opening hours and holiday hours
- Uploaded high-quality, recent photographs
- Listed the services or products you provide
- Added booking, enquiry or ordering links
- Published relevant updates
- Responded to customer questions and reviews
A complete profile gives Google and customers stronger information about your business. It also supports the wider entity signals that AI assistants may use when answering local questions.
8. Build credible third-party citations and directory listings
Identify the independent websites that matter in your sector and region. These might include:
- Trade associations
- Local business directories
- Chambers of commerce
- Professional registers
- Supplier or partner pages
- Local news websites
- Relevant community organisations
Prioritise quality over quantity. Do not create dozens of low-value directory profiles simply to collect links. Instead, seek accurate, genuine references from websites that customers and industry professionals trust.
Check that your business details match your website. Correct outdated listings and remove duplicate profiles where possible.
9. Reference authoritative external sources
Demonstrate that your content is connected to reliable information.
Link to authoritative sources when they genuinely support your explanation, such as:
- GOV.UK
- NHS
- Companies House
- Professional bodies
- Recognised industry organisations
- Official technical documentation
For example, a financial adviser might reference official tax guidance, while a web developer could link to Google Search Central or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Authoritative outbound links do not automatically make content trustworthy. Use them selectively, explain the relevance and add your own expertise.
10. Strengthen author and expertise signals
Show the people and experience behind your content.
Add author names, short biographies, qualifications, professional memberships and relevant experience. Where appropriate, include links to professional profiles and explain how content is reviewed.
Support claims with case studies, examples, original data and clearly described results. Avoid presenting generic advice as if it came from first-hand expertise.
These signals matter particularly for financial, legal, health, safety and other specialist subjects. Customers need to know why they should trust your advice, and AI systems need enough context to distinguish a genuine specialist from a vague content publisher.
11. Check crawlability for search and AI systems
Ensure that important pages can be discovered, loaded and understood.
Review your:
- Robots.txt file
- XML sitemap
- Internal links
- Page status codes
- Mobile rendering
- JavaScript-dependent content
- Canonical tags
- Noindex directives
- Website speed and accessibility
Use Google’s robots.txt guidance and Search Console to identify accidental blocks or indexing issues.
No business can guarantee access by every AI system, and different platforms use different data sources and crawling policies. Nevertheless, a website that is technically accessible, well organised and easy to navigate gives your content the best opportunity to be found and interpreted.
12. Create structured comparison content
Help customers understand their options by publishing useful comparison content.
Examples include:
- “SEO agency vs freelance SEO consultant”
- “Google Ads vs organic search”
- “Bookkeeping software vs outsourced bookkeeping”
- “Website redesign vs landing page optimisation”
- “Local gym vs online personal training”
Remain balanced and explain which option suits different needs, budgets and levels of expertise. Include clear criteria, advantages, limitations and practical examples.
Comparison pages often reflect the way people prompt AI assistants. They also demonstrate that you understand the wider decision, rather than simply promoting one service.
Why some businesses get recommended, and others do not
AI assistants are not selecting businesses based on one isolated ranking factor. They are attempting to assemble a useful answer from available information.
Businesses are more likely to be considered when their details are:
- Consistent across multiple sources
- Specific about services, locations and customers
- Supported by reviews and independent references
- Accessible to crawlers and users
- Structured in a clear, machine-readable format
- Relevant to the exact question being asked
That is why an AI visibility audit should form part of a broader digital marketing assessment. Improving one service page will not compensate for an incomplete Google Business Profile, inconsistent contact details or a technically inaccessible website.
Get a free six-part digital marketing assessment
The Digital Academy provides a free digital marketing assessment across six key areas:
- Google Search and Business optimisation
- Social media presence
- Website design
- Website performance
- Content and SEO
- PPC and advertising
You receive a real-time score and a personalised action plan, with no payment or obligation. Businesses commonly improve from scores of around 45–68% to 90–97% when they apply the recommended changes consistently.
The assessment works alongside your existing in-house team, freelancer or agency. It provides a fresh, practical perspective without stepping on anyone’s toes, and hands-on support is available if you need help implementing the recommendations.
Start your free digital marketing assessment and identify the improvements that could make your business easier for both customers and AI assistants to find, understand and recommend.
