VontuHow AI tools choose
It doesn't rank websites. It shortlists businesses.
When someone asks an AI tool "who's the best plumber near me?", it runs its own web searches, reads the pages it finds and writes a short list. It favours businesses it can confirm from several sources: their own site, directories, review sites, local "best of" articles and forum threads.
That's why a business can rank well on Google and still be missing from AI answers, and the other way round. The two overlap, but they're won in different ways.
| Access | They can reach and read your site. For example, blocking OpenAI's search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) keeps a site out of ChatGPT's search answers. |
|---|---|
| Clarity | Your site states what you do, where, and for whom, in plain words near the top of the page. |
| Answers | Your pages answer the questions buyers ask: price, process, timing, area served. |
| Agreement | Other sites say the same things about you: directories, reviews, articles, forums. |
The 7 steps
What to do, in the order that pays off fastest.
Make sure it can find you
Check your robots.txt doesn't block AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, and that Google, Bing and Brave Search have your key pages indexed. AI assistants search the web before they answer, so a page no search engine has found is a page they can't cite.
Say it in one sentence
Near the top of your home page: what you do, where, and for whom. "Licensed plumber for homes and strata across Melbourne's eastern suburbs" beats "Quality you can trust".
One page per service
Each service gets its own page that answers what a buyer asks before they call: what's included, a price guide, how long it takes, the area you cover, and common questions.
Get listed where AI looks
Your Google Business Profile, the main directories for your industry, and the local "best of" lists that already rank. Ask AI tools your customers' questions and note which sites they cite: those are your targets.
Collect reviews
Ask happy customers for reviews on Google and the review sites your industry uses. Recent, detailed reviews give AI tools something specific to repeat.
Add structured data
Code on your site that labels your business name, address, services and profiles in a format machines read reliably. It helps search engines and AI tools match all your listings to one business.
Check every month
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Google's AI, Gemini and Perplexity the same 10 customer questions each month, signed out or in a temporary chat so your history doesn't change the answer. Note who they name. That's your score, and the only way to know if it's working.
From our own audit
Even a brand new, well-built site can be invisible.
When we audited vontu.ai, Google had found most of our pages but Bing had found only two, and had never crawled our home page. Nothing was broken on the site. The search engines simply hadn't come back since we launched. Step 1 is the fix, and it took a minute: we submitted our pages to Bing directly.
That's typical. Most of the fixes are small. The hard part is knowing which ones matter for your business.
Want to know what AI says about your business?
We ask ChatGPT, Google's AI and Gemini the questions your customers ask, check where you rank on Google, and send you the fixes that matter. Free, within three business days.
Get my free auditCommon questions
Getting recommended by AI.
Can I pay AI tools to recommend my business?
Not in their answers. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity build their recommendations from what they find on the web. The way in is to be clearly described on your own site and mentioned on the sites it trusts.
How long does it take?
Listings and on-site fixes can show up within weeks. Being recommended consistently usually takes a few months, because AI tools and search engines take time to pick up changes and other sites take time to mention you.
Does SEO still matter?
Yes. Google is still where most people search, and Google's own AI answers draw on the same signals. Being found on Google and being recommended by AI overlap, but you have to work on both.
Is it different for ChatGPT, Claude, Google's AI, Gemini and Perplexity?
The basics are the same: be easy to read, answer real questions and be mentioned elsewhere. Each tool leans on slightly different sources, so check each one with the same questions.
Can I do this myself?
Steps 1, 2 and 7 most owners can do in an afternoon. Steps 3 to 6 take steady work over months. If you'd rather have it done and measured for you, that's what we do.