As a restaurant owner in Japan, I assumed "being online" meant having a website and an Instagram. Then I realized customers were asking ChatGPT "where should I eat near here?" — and my business was nowhere in the answer. So I learned how AI actually reads a business, and built a free scanner to check it.
Quick answer: AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews) can only recommend your business if they can read it — clear structured facts, an FAQ, fresh reviews, and real content. You can check how visible you are in ~15 seconds, free: growl-ai.com/ai-visibility. Here's exactly what matters.
Why this is suddenly urgent
Roughly 4 in 10 Google searches now show an AI answer at the top, and more people skip search entirely to ask an assistant. If AI can't parse your site, you're invisible in that conversation — no matter how good your business is.
The signals AI actually reads
When I scanned my own site, I scored 53/100. Embarrassing — but it showed me exactly what AI couldn't read. These are the signals that move the needle:
1. Structured data (schema.org). A small block of code that labels your facts — hours, category, address — so machines read them perfectly. Missing this was my biggest gap.
2. An FAQ. Question-and-answer content is what AI assistants quote most directly. "Do you take reservations?" "Are you vegetarian-friendly?" Answer the real ones.
3. Readable content. AI quotes text it can read. A page that's mostly images or needs JavaScript to load gives the AI almost nothing.
4. Fresh reviews + a claimed Google Business Profile. This is how AI finds and ranks local businesses specifically.
5. The basics: a clear title, a meta description, mobile-readiness, Open Graph tags.
I added structured data and an FAQ to my own site and re-scanned: 96/100. The fixes were small. The difference in how AI reads the page was not.
How to check yours
You can inspect this by hand (view source, look for application/ld+json, check for an FAQ). Or paste your URL into the free scanner and it shows you, line by line, what AI can and can't read — with the 3 highest-impact fixes: growl-ai.com/ai-visibility. No signup.
FAQ
Is this different from normal SEO? It overlaps. Classic SEO targets the search results page; this (AEO/GEO) targets AI assistants and answer boxes. The structured, factual work helps both.
Do I need to be technical? No. If you can copy-paste, you can add an FAQ and structured data (most site builders have a plugin).
How long until it helps? Weeks, not days — it compounds. The businesses that fix this now are the ones AI recommends in a few months.
What if I don't have a website? Then your Google Business Profile is doing all the work. Claim it, keep it fresh, and get reviews — that's your foundation until you add a simple page.
I got tired of guessing, so I built the free scanner above — and a tool (Growl) that hands small businesses 3 ready-to-paste marketing actions every week. Both free to start, no signup: scan first at *growl-ai.com/ai-visibility*.
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