Search is changing.
For years, businesses have focused on one primary question:
How do we get our business to rank higher on Google?
Now there’s another question increasingly being asked:
How do we get our business recommended by ChatGPT and AI search?
At Success Marketing, we’re starting to see clients and customers mention using ChatGPT and other AI tools when researching businesses, products and services.
It doesn’t mean Google search is disappearing.
It means the way people search and discover businesses is expanding.
People might now find your business through traditional Google search results, Google Maps, Google Ads, social media, an AI Overview, ChatGPT or another AI-powered search experience.
So how do you improve the chances of your business being found?
The answer isn’t a secret ChatGPT trick.
In fact, many of the things that help search engines understand and trust your business are also important foundations for being discovered through AI.
Can you actually rank in ChatGPT?
Not in quite the same way businesses traditionally think about ranking on Google.
There isn’t a simple position-one-to-ten ChatGPT ranking that businesses can optimise for.
AI-generated answers can also change depending on the question being asked, the context of the conversation, available sources and other factors.
No SEO or digital marketing agency can guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend your business.
What businesses can do is make it considerably easier for search engines and AI systems to understand:
- who you are
- what you do
- where you operate
- what you specialise in
- what experience you have
- what questions you can answer
- what customers say about you
- what other credible sources say about you.
“Getting found in AI isn’t about finding a trick for ChatGPT. It’s about making your business easier to understand and giving search engines and AI systems enough credible information to know who you are, what you’re good at and when you’re relevant.”
Annette, Success Marketing
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No.
You’ll increasingly hear terms such as GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation).
These describe the process of improving a business’s visibility within generative AI and answer-based search experiences.
But that doesn’t mean traditional SEO has suddenly become irrelevant.
Quite the opposite.
Strong SEO foundations still help search engines discover, crawl and understand your website.
That includes:
- website structure
- technical SEO
- useful page content
- keyword research
- internal linking
- page speed and user experience
- titles and headings
- location information
- backlinks
- authority
- structured data
- ongoing content development.
The opportunity now is to think beyond:
“How do we rank this page for this keyword?”
And also ask:
“Does the internet contain enough clear, useful and credible information for an AI system to understand when this business is relevant?”
Why might ChatGPT recommend your competitor but not you?
This is likely to become an increasingly common question.
Imagine you ask:
“Who are the best web designers on the Sunshine Coast?”
Or:
“Can you recommend a buyers agent in Noosa?”
Or:
“Where should I hire an e-bike in Noosa?”
And your competitors appear while your business doesn’t.
The first step shouldn’t be looking for a ChatGPT hack.
We’d investigate the business’s overall digital footprint.
1. Can search engines and AI systems access your website?
The fundamentals come first.
Your website needs to be technically accessible.
For Google, that means ensuring important pages can be crawled and indexed and aren’t accidentally blocked from search engines.
For ChatGPT search, website owners should also check that OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, isn’t being blocked if they want their public website content to be eligible to be discovered, surfaced and cited.
For ChatGPT search, website owners should also check that OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, isn’t being blocked if they want their public website content to be eligible to be discovered, surfaced and cited.
Not sure if your website is accessible to ChatGPT and AI search? Talk to us and we can check it for you.
A brilliant article isn’t much help if the systems you’re hoping will discover it can’t access it.
2. Does your website clearly explain what you actually do?
This sounds obvious.
It often isn’t.
Many websites are full of statements such as:
- quality service
- trusted solutions
- tailored approach
- experienced team
- exceptional results.
The problem is that these statements don’t tell a potential customer, or a search engine, very much.
Be specific.
What services do you provide?
Who are they for?
Where do you provide them?
What problems do you solve?
What industries do you work with?
What makes your experience relevant?
The clearer and more useful your website is, the easier it becomes to understand your business.
Content with intent matters
One of the biggest changes we’re making in our own content strategy at Success Marketing is moving away from generic blog topics.
Consider these two potential articles:
“The Importance of Digital Marketing in 2027”
versus:
“SEO vs Google Ads: Which Is Better for Your Business?”
The second article answers a real question someone might ask when making a decision.
The same principle applies across almost every industry.
Instead of creating content simply because someone told you that blogging is good for SEO, start with the real questions your customers ask.
They might be:
- How much does it cost?
- Which option is better?
- How long does it take?
- Do I actually need this?
- What’s the difference between these two options?
- What should I choose?
- What happens if something goes wrong?
- Is this suitable for my business?
- What should I know before I buy?
Those questions can become useful pages, articles, FAQs, guides and comparisons.
Write content with a purpose rather than content simply to fill a website.
Do FAQs help with AI search?
FAQs can be extremely useful, but not because adding an FAQ section magically makes a website rank in ChatGPT.
Their value is much more straightforward.
Good FAQs provide concise answers to the questions potential customers are actually asking.
They also encourage businesses to add useful information that may otherwise be missing from a website.
The important word is useful.
Don’t create 50 meaningless questions purely because you think an AI system wants them.
Answer the questions your customers really need answered.
Location content matters too
If location is important to your business, make it clear.
Don’t assume search engines or AI systems will automatically understand every geographic relationship associated with your company.
A business servicing Noosa and the Sunshine Coast should naturally establish that context through relevant pages and content.
This might include:
- service areas
- location pages
- project examples
- case studies
- local guides
- locally relevant blog content
- contact information
- customer reviews
- business profiles and directory listings.
Again, this shouldn’t involve inserting “Noosa” or “Sunshine Coast” unnaturally into every paragraph.
The aim is to provide genuine geographic context.
Reviews are part of your wider digital footprint
What your own website says about your business is important.
But your website is still you talking about you.
That’s why reviews, testimonials, case studies and independent mentions are valuable parts of a business’s broader online presence.
Real customer reviews can help demonstrate that people have actually used the business and had an experience worth talking about.
Depending on the industry, credibility can also come from:
- case studies
- client websites
- professional associations
- industry directories
- media coverage
- awards
- partnerships
- interviews
- articles
- local organisations
- relevant third-party websites.
“It’s not enough to tell Google and AI what you do. You need to prove it through useful content, real experience, reviews, locations, case studies and what other credible sources say about your business.”
Annette, Success Marketing
The objective isn’t to manufacture hundreds of artificial mentions.
It’s to build a genuine digital footprint around the business.
What other websites say about your business matters
This isn’t really a new SEO concept.
Backlinks and external authority have been part of SEO for years.
But as search evolves, businesses should think more broadly about how they’re represented across the web.
Does your business appear on reputable industry websites?
Are you listed correctly in relevant directories?
Do client or partner websites mention you where appropriate?
Has your expertise been referenced elsewhere?
Are your business name, services and location represented consistently?
Do other credible sources associate your business with the topics you claim expertise in?
Your website shouldn’t exist as an isolated island.
Can I just use AI to write 50 blogs?
You can.
That doesn’t mean you should.
Generative AI makes it incredibly easy to produce enormous amounts of content.
You could ask an AI tool to generate 50 articles about your industry this afternoon.
But quantity alone isn’t a content strategy.
If those articles simply repeat information that already exists across hundreds of other websites, what have they added?
Very little.
Search engines are increasingly focused on useful, original content rather than pages created at scale simply to target search rankings.
AI can be an excellent research, brainstorming and content-development tool.
We use it ourselves.
But there is an enormous difference between:
“Write 50 SEO blogs for my website.”
and:
“Help me turn my team’s genuine experience, knowledge, customer questions, examples and opinions into useful content.”
“AI should help get your expertise out of your head and onto your website. It shouldn’t replace the expertise.”
Annette, Success Marketing
That’s the approach we’re increasingly taking with content.
What makes content worth finding and citing?
This is where businesses have a significant opportunity.
Think about the knowledge that exists inside your company but isn’t currently on your website.
It could include:
- questions customers ask every week
- common mistakes you see
- pricing considerations
- industry misconceptions
- comparisons between different options
- processes you’ve refined over years
- original research or data
- project results
- case studies
- lessons from unsuccessful approaches
- customer decision-making advice
- practical examples
- your professional opinion.
This information is difficult for another business to replicate because it comes from your actual experience.
For example, when creating content about SEO and Google Ads, we can explain that Google Ads can reach people with extremely high search intent.
But we can also explain it using a scenario we regularly use with clients.
Imagine your car breaks down on the side of the road.
Are you going to scroll through Instagram hoping an advertisement for roadside assistance appears?
Probably not.
You’re going to Google and search for roadside assistance.
That simple example explains search intent in a way that comes from how we actually discuss marketing strategy with clients.
That’s much more valuable than producing another generic article that simply says:
“SEO is a long-term strategy and Google Ads provides faster results.”
First-hand experience is becoming more valuable, not less
The explosion of AI-generated content creates an interesting opportunity.
It has never been easier to create average content.
Which means genuine experience becomes a stronger differentiator.
A tourism operator has first-hand knowledge about its destination.
A buyers agent knows the questions property buyers actually ask.
A property manager understands what owners worry about.
A doctor has professional expertise.
A builder knows the mistakes homeowners make.
A digital marketing agency sees what happens across websites, SEO campaigns, advertising accounts and client businesses.
That knowledge should be visible online.
The objective isn’t to manufacture “expert content”.
It’s to document the expertise that already exists inside the business.
Do you need special AI schema?
There isn’t a magic piece of “ChatGPT schema” that suddenly makes a website appear in AI recommendations.
Structured data and schema remain useful parts of traditional SEO because they can help search engines understand particular types of content and make pages eligible for certain search features.
Continue using appropriate schema where it makes sense.
But don’t treat schema as a substitute for having useful content, strong technical foundations and genuine authority.
The same applies to many emerging GEO tactics.
Be wary of anyone promising a simple technical trick that will suddenly make your business the preferred recommendation of AI systems.
Does traditional Google ranking still matter?
Yes.
SEO remains an important foundation as search evolves.
Google’s own generative AI search experiences continue to use its search systems and index when retrieving relevant information.
That means the work businesses have already been doing around technical SEO, website structure, useful content and authority hasn’t suddenly become obsolete.
The opportunity is to build on it.
Traditional SEO asks questions such as:
What are people searching for?
Which keywords does our website rank for?
Which pages should we improve?
What are competitors ranking for that we aren’t?
AI search introduces another layer:
What questions are people asking?
Does our website contain a truly useful answer?
Is our expertise obvious?
Is there independent evidence supporting what we say about ourselves?
Could an AI system confidently understand when our business is relevant?
How do you optimise your business for ChatGPT and AI search?
There isn’t one action.
Think of it as strengthening the overall information ecosystem around your business.
Start with:
- Strong technical SEO so your website can be discovered and understood.
- Clear service and product pages explaining exactly what you provide.
- Relevant location information where geography matters.
- Useful FAQs answering real customer questions.
- Intent-driven content based on what people actually want to know.
- First-hand expertise rather than generic information anyone could publish.
- Reviews and testimonials from real customers.
- Case studies and examples demonstrating your experience.
- Credible third-party mentions and links that build your wider digital footprint.
- Ongoing SEO and content development rather than publishing once and forgetting about the website.
- Accurate business information across your website and relevant external profiles.
- Measurement and refinement as search behaviour continues to evolve.
None of these guarantees that ChatGPT will recommend your business.
Together, however, they make your business considerably easier to discover, understand and evaluate across the wider search ecosystem.
SEO + GEO rather than SEO vs GEO
We don’t think businesses should suddenly abandon SEO and start chasing the latest AI optimisation trick.
The better approach is to expand the strategy.
SEO builds the foundation.
GEO encourages us to think more broadly about how a business’s expertise, authority and information can be understood and surfaced within generative search experiences.
The two belong together.
And perhaps the biggest shift isn’t technical at all.
It’s changing the way businesses think about their websites.
Instead of asking:
“How many blogs do we need?”
Ask:
“What do we know that would really help our customers?”
Instead of:
“How many times should we use this keyword?”
Ask:
“Have we answered the question properly?”
Instead of:
“How do we trick ChatGPT into recommending us?”
Ask:
“Have we given search engines, AI systems and potential customers enough evidence to understand why we’re relevant?”
That’s a much stronger long-term strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
There is no guaranteed method for getting a business recommended by ChatGPT. Businesses can improve their overall discoverability by maintaining a technically accessible website, clearly explaining their services and locations, publishing useful first-hand content, building genuine reviews and authority, and ensuring their broader online presence accurately represents the business.
Can ChatGPT find my website?
Public websites can appear in ChatGPT search. Website owners who want their content to be discoverable and cited should ensure they aren't blocking OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot from accessing relevant public content.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. The term generally describes strategies intended to improve visibility within generative AI and AI-powered search experiences. Many GEO fundamentals overlap strongly with established SEO practices such as technical accessibility, useful content, authority and clearly structured information.
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. SEO remains an important foundation for search visibility. As AI-powered search grows, businesses can extend their SEO strategy by considering how clearly their expertise, services, locations and authority can be understood across both traditional and generative search experiences.
Do FAQs help with ChatGPT and AI search?
FAQs can help make useful answers to customer questions clearly available on a website, but there is no evidence that simply adding an FAQ section guarantees AI visibility. FAQs should be written because they help customers understand the business, service or topic.
Does schema help you rank in ChatGPT?
There is no special ChatGPT or GEO schema that guarantees inclusion in AI recommendations. Appropriate structured data remains useful as part of an overall SEO strategy, but it should not be treated as an AI-ranking shortcut.
Does Google penalise AI-generated content?
Google doesn't automatically penalise content simply because AI was used to create it. However, generating large quantities of unoriginal content primarily to manipulate search rankings can violate Google's scaled content abuse policies. The emphasis should remain on useful, original, accurate content that provides genuine value.
Should businesses use AI to write website content?
AI can be extremely useful for research, brainstorming, structuring and developing content. The strongest results usually come from combining AI with genuine business expertise, original examples, customer questions, data and first-hand experience rather than publishing generic AI-generated material without meaningful human input.
Want your business to be easier to find in Google and AI search?
At Success Marketing, we’re evolving our SEO and content strategies alongside the way people search.
That means getting the fundamentals right, including website structure, technical SEO, keywords, content and search visibility, while also helping businesses build the useful, credible and experience-led content that is increasingly important as AI search develops.
We don’t believe in chasing GEO tricks.
We believe in making your business easier to find, easier to understand and easier to trust.
Talk to Success Marketing about SEO, GEO and your digital visibility →