Why this is suddenly urgent
In twelve months the share of people who ask an AI assistant to find a local business went from 6% to 45%. That is seven times more, in one year, and it happened while most owners were still debating whether AI was worth the trouble.
The change is not that a new website appeared. It is that the shape of the answer changed. Search used to hand your customer ten links and let them choose. An assistant hands them two or three names and a sentence each. The choosing already happened, in a room you were not in.
You were not rejected. You were not in the answer.
The uncomfortable part
You can rank perfectly well on a search results page and still never be quoted by an assistant. They are two different jobs, and almost nobody is doing the second one yet. That is the opening.
Twenty minutes today puts you ahead of nearly every competitor in your town.
Step 1 — Ask, and write down who gets named
Before you change anything, find out where you stand. Open each assistant and ask it the way a customer would — a full question, not a keyword.
| Ask this | Then note |
|---|---|
| Best [your trade] in [your town] | Which businesses get named, in order |
| Who does [your specific service] near [neighbourhood] | Whether the specific service is understood |
| I need [your trade] this weekend, who is open | Whether your hours are known at all |
| Is [your business name] any good | What it says about you — and where that came from |
Do all four in each assistant. The last one is the revealing one: it shows you the picture the machine already holds of your business.
If a competitor gets named every time and you never do, resist the urge to conclude that the machine is wrong. It is repeating what it can find. The fix is to make more of you findable, not to argue.
Step 2 — Answer the real questions, in plain words
An assistant quotes text it can understand and trust. Marketing language gives it nothing to hold on to. Plain answers give it everything.
- Write down the ten questions customers actually ask you, in their words
- Give each one its own heading on your site, phrased as the question
- Answer directly underneath in two or three sentences, no preamble
- Include the specifics: prices or ranges, areas covered, hours, what you do not do
That last item matters more than it looks. Saying what you do not do helps an assistant put you in the right answers and keep you out of the wrong ones — which is how you stop wasting time on enquiries that were never going to close.
Write for the customer who is asking, not for the machine. The machine is reading over their shoulder.
Step 3 — Make your details agree with each other
Assistants get nervous when facts conflict. Two different phone numbers across two directories and you become the risky recommendation.
| Check | What must match, exactly |
|---|---|
| Your own website | Name, address, phone, hours, services |
| Google Business Profile | The same, character for character |
| Facebook and Instagram | The same, including opening hours |
| Any directory you are listed in | The same — including the old ones you forgot about |
The one everybody misses
The listing from a business you ran five years ago, with the old address. It is still out there, still being read, and still contradicting you.
Boring work. It is also the single highest-return hour in this guide.
Step 4 — Give it something worth quoting
Between two businesses that look the same, an assistant names the one it can say something specific about.
Get specific in public
Not «quality service». Rather: «same-day repairs in the north of the city, 12-month guarantee».
Ask for detailed reviews
A review that names the job and the neighbourhood is worth ten that say «great work».
Publish the proof
Before and after, timelines, real numbers. Facts travel; adjectives do not.
Re-run the check monthly
Same four questions from Step 1. Watch your name appear.
20 min
is all Step 1 takes — and it tells you whether the rest of this guide is urgent for you or not.
Start with the question
Do not start by rewriting your website. Start by asking an assistant who it recommends for your trade in your town, and screenshot the answer. Everything you need to do next is in that screenshot.