There is no trick to this, and Google says so itself. If you want to know how to appear in AI search results, the answer is mostly the same work that gets a service business found on Google Maps: a finished profile, a page for each service, details that match everywhere, and reviews people can trust.
That disappoints owners who expected a new discipline. We think it’s good news. The work you do for regular search is the work that counts here too, and you can check most of it yourself.
How to appear in AI search results: what Google says
Picture a pool company in Richboro. A customer tells the owner she asked ChatGPT who opens pools in the spring. It gave her three names, and his wasn’t one. That isn’t necessarily a marketing failure, but it’s worth understanding.
People do use these tools for this. In BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 U.S. adults answered questions, and use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45%. That made them the third most popular source. It’s a survey of what people say they do, not a count of your customers, and a recommendation is rarely the last step. Most people still check the map, the reviews and the website before they call.
For Google’s own AI features, Google Search Central says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimizations are necessary. The page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. The normal basics still apply, and it names one of them directly: keep your Business Profile information up to date.
Nobody outside the companies that build these tools knows the formula, so we can’t tell you why one business got named and another didn’t. Our guess, from what we see, is that the named company has clearer public information. That part you can work on.
Finish your Google Business Profile first
Your Google Business Profile is the free listing with your hours, services, photos and reviews. For most service businesses it’s the most complete public record of what you do. That makes it the first place we’d look, and “mostly filled in” isn’t good enough.
Back to the pool company. It started doing liner replacements last year. Is that service on the profile? Do the photos show recent jobs, or the truck it sold three years ago? When did the last review arrive, and did anyone answer it?
Google’s own Business Profile guidance says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results. That guidance is about local results, not AI answers, but it’s the same profile Google’s AI documentation tells you to keep current.
Reviews need steady attention, not a one-time push. In the BrightLocal survey, 74% of people said they only care about reviews written in the last three months. So ask after a job goes well, and answer the reviews you get, including the unhappy ones. A reply to a bad review is mostly read by the next customer, not the one who wrote it. If you work in the trades, our Google Business Profile guide for contractors walks through the setup.
Give each service its own page
One Services page with everything in a single paragraph gives an AI tool very little to work from. It doesn’t help a person much either. If you do pool openings, liner replacement and leak repair, each one should have its own page.
This is the website change the research points to most clearly. In Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report, a dedicated page for each service ranked second for AI search visibility and first for regular local rankings. The report is built from the opinions of 47 local search specialists. That makes it informed judgment and not a measurement, but it’s a lot of people who work on this every day pointing the same way.
On each page, say what the service is, who it’s for, which towns you cover and how the job usually goes. Google asks that important content be available as plain text, and says you don’t need special markup. A short list of customer questions and answers is worth adding because readers use it. The same report ranked FAQs on service pages much lower for AI visibility, so treat them as useful and not as a shortcut.
Add proof that real people did the work: photos of finished jobs, a testimonial, a line about who shows up at the door. Then pick up your phone and open the site. Can you tap the number to call? A stranger should be able to tell in a few seconds what you do and where. Google lists a great page experience among the basics, and the person tapping through from an AI answer is probably holding a phone.
Make your listings match, and get mentioned elsewhere
Your name, address and phone number should read the same on Google, Yelp, Facebook, trade directories and the chamber of commerce site. How much that matters for AI answers is a fair question. In the Whitespark report, consistent listings ranked well down the list for AI visibility. We found no research showing that “St.” versus “Street” keeps a business out of an answer, so we won’t claim it does.
We’d still do it first, because it costs little and customers notice when it’s wrong. A disconnected number or an old address sends someone to the next company on the list.
The top-ranked factor for AI visibility in that report was something you can’t fix on your own site: being included on expert-curated “best of” lists and similar roundups. Most of the leading factors were mentions on other websites. So the work extends past your own pages, into things like supplier installer lists, local associations and the occasional local news story. Our local SEO services cover the profile, the pages and the listings together.
Keep it in proportion too. A summary doesn’t appear on every search, and the Whitespark report notes that local discovery is still mostly done through Google’s local results. When an AI summary does show up, some people read it and stop, so what it says about you carries weight. We go further in our piece on how to get cited in AI answers, and our page on AI search visibility explains how we handle it for clients.
What nobody controls, and what we’d need from you
Can anyone promise that an AI tool will name your business? No. The tools change often, their makers decide how they work, and two people asking the same question can get different answers. Google’s documentation says that meeting every requirement still doesn’t mean a page will be shown. Building a credible public record takes time, and how long depends on your starting point and on how many competitors have already done the work.
Your part is the information only you have. Which services do you want more of? What do customers ask on the phone? We’d also need photos from real jobs, and a quick note whenever a new customer says an AI tool sent them. That last one is nearly impossible for us to see any other way.
Check your listings, then talk to us
Here is the one thing to do this week. Search for your business name on your phone, open every listing that comes up, and write down each wrong hour, address, phone number or missing service. It takes about half an hour and costs nothing. Fix what you can, and send us what you can’t.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes, ask for a free SEO audit or call us at (215) 368-8900. Tell us which services you want more of and show us the website. We’ll say what we’d change first and why. Your first consultation is free.