How to show up in search and AI answers

How AI answers pick businesses

When someone asks an AI assistant for "a good bakery for a birthday cake" or "a creative agency for a product launch", it looks for businesses it can describe with confidence. It reads websites, business listings, reviews and articles, then recommends the ones that are clear, consistent and well spoken of. The same signals help you rank in normal search.

The three terms, simply

• SEO (search engine optimisation): helping your pages rank in search results.
• AEO (answer engine optimisation): making your content the direct answer to a question.
• GEO (generative engine optimisation): making sure AI assistants understand and mention your brand.

Six steps that work

• Get your listings right. Claim your business profile on search and maps, and use exactly the same name, address, phone and hours everywhere.
• Say what you do in one clear sentence. Put it near the top of your home page: who you are, what you do and who it's for.
• Answer real questions. Turn the questions customers ask on calls and chats into an FAQ page and short guides, each answered in the first two lines.
• Add structured data. This is hidden code that tells search engines your business name, services, location and FAQs in a format they read easily.
• Earn reviews and mentions. Ask happy customers for reviews, and get listed in trusted directories, local news and partner websites.
• Keep it fresh. Update your hours, offers and photos, and add a new guide or case study every month.

What to avoid

Stuffing pages with keywords, copying text from other sites and buying fake reviews. Search engines and AI assistants are built to spot these, and they can push you down instead of up.