Tapio Kauranen

AI optimization guide: how to get AI to recommend your business

More and more customers ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI or Copilot for a recommendation. This guide shows how AI chooses the businesses it recommends and what you can do to make it choose you.

Every section has a demo that lets you try it out yourself. The demos feature an imaginary hair salon in Tampere, Finland, that AI learns to recommend. The salon, its address and its competitors are made up.

New to search engine optimization? Start with the beginner’s guide to SEO.

What is AI optimization?

AI optimization is the work that gets AI to find your business, understand it correctly and recommend it.

When a customer asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI, Copilot, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity for advice, they get a ready-made answer. AI optimization influences whether that answer mentions you.

The same work also goes by the names GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and LLM optimization. In practice they all mean the same thing.

You can show up in an AI answer in three ways:

  • Mention – your business’s name is in the answer.
  • Recommendation – the AI puts you first among the options and says why.
  • Citation – the answer links to your page, and the customer gets there with one click.

The work falls into four parts, and this guide goes through them one chapter at a time: the technical groundwork, content, your reputation online and tracking.

Start the demo below: the same question before and after AI optimization.

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

My top recommendations:

  1. Kampaamo Kulma You Haircuts, coloring and shaves on the corner of Keskustori, Tampere’s central square. Prices from €29, online booking.
  2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Specializes in coloring, good reviews on Google.
  3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircuts without an appointment on weekdays.

Source: kampaamokulma.fi

Your business is recommended first

After AI optimization

Is AI optimization different from SEO?

No. AI optimization is an extension of search engine optimization (SEO). Google’s own guide says the same: optimizing for AI search is still SEO.

When an AI answers a current or local question, it looks up information on the web with a search engine. Google’s AI Overviews rely on Google’s search index, and Copilot on Bing’s. If your page can’t be found on a search engine, AI can’t find it either.

There are three differences:

  • The goal: SEO aims for a ranking in the search results, AI optimization for a mention and a recommendation in the answer.
  • The unit: a search engine ranks pages, while AI picks single passages out of them.
  • Reputation: AI gives more weight than usual to what other websites, reviews and discussions say about your business.

Try the demo next to this text: see what affects Google’s search results, what affects the AI’s answer and what affects both.

The same work shows in two places
  1. 1. Kampaamo Kulma kampaamokulma.fi You Hair Salon in Central Tampere | Kampaamo Kulma Haircuts, coloring and shaves on the corner of Keskustori, Tampere’s central square. Men’s haircut €29, open Mon–Fri 9–18, Sat 10–16.
  2. 2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Coloring and Haircuts in Tampere | Hiusstudio Kaisla A hair studio in central Tampere that specializes in coloring.
  3. 3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s Haircuts Without an Appointment | Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircuts without an appointment on weekdays.
  4. 4. Kampaamo Sointu Hair and Beauty Salon in Tampere | Kampaamo Sointu A hair salon and a beauty salon in one place.

AI assistant Web search on

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

Here are three good options in central Tampere:

  1. Kampaamo Kulma You On the corner of Keskustori, Tampere’s central square: its prices and opening hours are right on its website, customers praise the service and the local paper has mentioned it.
  2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Specializes in coloring, good reviews on Google.
  3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircuts without an appointment on weekdays.
  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi
  • review site
  • local paper

Result Google: position 1 · AI: 1st recommendation

The same foundation serves both. AI also looks at what others say about you.

Why does AI optimization matter right now?

Searching is turning into asking. When a customer asks AI, they get a ready-made answer, often a list of three businesses, and don’t need to open a single search result.

AI is already used on a huge scale. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT has more than 900 million users a week, and according to Google, more than 2.5 billion people a month use Google’s AI Overviews. In Finland too, Google shows an AI Overview above many searches, and AI Mode works in Finnish.

AI Overviews take clicks. In a study by the Pew Research Center, people clicked a search result in 8% of visits when the page had an AI summary, and in 15% when it didn’t.

That is why a business needs to show up in the answer itself. If the AI lists three options, whoever is left off the list doesn’t even make it into the comparison.

The third reason is accurate information. AI can give an old price or the wrong opening hours if it finds them somewhere. Without tracking, you don’t know what is being said about your business.

Try the calculator next to this text: see how many clicks an AI answer takes from your service’s search term.

How many clicks does an AI answer take?

1,000 searches a month

Clicks a month

  • Without an AI answer 150 clicks
  • With an AI answer 80 clicks (−70)
  • On links inside the AI answer 10 clicks

Change 47% fewer clicks

When the answer is already there, few people click. That is why your business needs to be in the answer itself.

Source: Pew Research Center 2025 (opens in a new tab)

The calculator uses the study’s averages.

Does AI already recommend you? Test it yourself

Start by asking AI what your customers ask. Write the question the way a customer would write it: the service, the town and what matters to them.

Ask several AI assistants the same question. They get their information from different places, so their answers differ too.

Look for three things in the answer:

  • Is your business mentioned, and in what position?
  • Is the information right: prices, opening hours and services?
  • Which sources does the answer cite: your page or a competitor’s?

Try the test next to this text: the buttons open your question straight in the AI assistants.

Ask AI like your customers do

The buttons open the question in an AI assistant in a new tab. The question isn’t saved anywhere.

ChatGPT (opens in a new tab) Google (AI Mode) (opens in a new tab) Perplexity (opens in a new tab) Claude (opens in a new tab, copies the question to the clipboard) Copilot (opens in a new tab, copies the question to the clipboard)

Claude and Copilot don’t take the question in a link, so paste it in yourself.

Where does AI get its information?

AI answers from two sources.

1. Memory. A language model has learned from a vast amount of text that it read before it was released. This knowledge is months or years old, and the model doesn’t know what has happened since.

2. Web search. When a question is about something current or local, AI looks for information on the web: it runs a search, reads the most relevant pages and writes its answer based on them. The sources then appear with the answer.

Questions about a local business are usually answered with a web search. That is why AI optimization first works on what the web search finds. Influencing the memory is slower, because it is only updated in the model’s next version.

Try the demo next to this text: the same question without a web search and with one.

Memory or web search?

Switch between the two: the same question without a web search and with one.

From memory

AI assistant No web search

How much is a haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

As far as I remember, Kampaamo Kulma is a hair salon in central Tampere. A haircut there cost about €25, but prices may have changed.

I can’t check up-to-date information.

Answer Old and uncertain

Memory is what the model knew when it was trained. The new price list isn’t in it.

With web search

AI assistant Web search on

How much is a haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

According to Kampaamo Kulma’s price list, a men’s haircut costs €29 and a women’s €39–49. A children’s haircut (under 12) is also €29.

  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi
  • Google Business Profile

Answer Current and sourced

The web search read the price list on your page. That is why AI optimization starts with what your pages say.

How does AI choose whom to recommend?

AI doesn’t run one search but several. It breaks the question into parts, such as price, location, reviews and opening hours, and looks up an answer to each part. Google calls this query fan-out.

Then the AI compares what the different sources say. The business that rises to a recommendation is one that

  • shows up in the results of several different searches
  • answers the details of the question, such as price and opening hours
  • gets a similar description in different sources: on its own page, in reviews and on other websites.

So one good page isn’t enough. AI looks for confirmation in many places.

Try the demo next to this text: see which searches the AI runs and why Kulma becomes the recommendation only after optimization.

One question, many searches

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

  1. hair salon central tampere Kulma found
    • Google Business Profiles
    • kampaamokulma.fi
  2. hair salon tampere reviews Kulma found
    • review site
    • local paper
  3. haircut price tampere Kulma found
    • kampaamokulma.fi
    • competitor’s site
  4. hair salon keskustori opening hours Kulma found
    • kampaamokulma.fi
    • Google Business Profiles
  5. best hair salons tampere Kulma not found
    • discussion forum
    • competitor’s site

AI assistant 5 searches

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

Here are three good options in central Tampere:

  1. Kampaamo Kulma You Its website, reviews and the local paper say the same: clear prices (men’s haircut €29) and friendly service.
  2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Specializes in coloring, good reviews on Google.
  3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircuts without an appointment on weekdays.
  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi
  • review site
  • local paper

Illustration Kulma found in 4/5 searches – recommended first

AI recommends the business that turns up in the results of many searches and that different sources describe the same way.

The AI services’ own guidelines: ChatGPT, Google, Copilot, Claude and others

Each AI service finds pages by its own route. Some get their information from Google’s index, some from Bing’s, and some have a search bot of their own that reads pages directly.

That is why being visible on Google alone isn’t enough. Your pages also need to be found on Bing, and the AI search bots need to be able to read them.

The good news is that the services’ guidelines are very similar. Google says plainly in its guide that its AI answers need no special optimization, new files or special structured data: the same SEO basics are enough.

The list next to this text brings together the eight most popular services: where each one gets its information, which bots it uses and what the service itself advises.

Try it: choose which search engines your page is in, and see which AI services find it.

Where do AI services find you?

Result 7/8 AI services can find you

Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing’s index is searched by more than Bing.

  • ChatGPT OpenAI Finds you via its own bot

    Gets its information from: Bing’s index and its own bot. Its search uses OpenAI’s own index and search partners, one of which is Microsoft.

    Bots:
    • OAI-SearchBot search
    • ChatGPT-User user requests
    • GPTBot training
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Let OAI-SearchBot onto your pages. If you block it, your pages won’t show up in ChatGPT’s search answers.
    • Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools.

    OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI Crawlers (opens in a new tab)

  • Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode Google Finds you via Google

    Gets its information from: Google’s index.

    Bots:
    • Googlebot search
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Ordinary SEO is enough: the page must be indexed and allowed to show in search results with a text snippet.
    • Check in Search Console’s settings that your site hasn’t been excluded from Google’s AI features (the setting arrived in 2026).
    • Keep your Google Business Profile up to date.

    Google: generative AI features and your website (opens in a new tab)

  • Gemini Google Finds you via Google

    Gets its information from: Google’s index.

    Bots:
    • Googlebot search
    • Google-Extended Gemini’s answers and training
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Don’t block the Google-Extended token if you want Gemini to use your content in its answers. It doesn’t affect Google Search or AI Overviews.

    Google: Google’s common crawlers (opens in a new tab)

  • Microsoft Copilot Microsoft Doesn’t find you Not in Bing

    Gets its information from: Bing’s index.

    Bots:
    • Bingbot search
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap.
    • Turn on IndexNow, so Bing hears about changes right away.
    • Follow in Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI Performance report how often Copilot cites your pages.
    • Update your business details in Bing Places.

    Microsoft: Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers (opens in a new tab)

  • Claude Anthropic Finds you via its own bot

    Gets its information from: Its own bot. According to Anthropic’s list of subprocessors, its web search uses Brave Search.

    Bots:
    • Claude-SearchBot search
    • Claude-User user requests
    • ClaudeBot training
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Let Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User onto your pages. You can block the training bot ClaudeBot separately.

    Anthropic: its bots and how to block them (opens in a new tab)

  • Perplexity Perplexity AI Finds you via its own bot

    Gets its information from: Its own bot. Perplexity has a search index of its own.

    Bots:
    • PerplexityBot search
    • Perplexity-User user requests
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Let PerplexityBot onto your pages. It isn’t used to train models.

    Perplexity Crawlers (opens in a new tab)

  • Meta AI (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook) Meta Finds you via its own bot

    Gets its information from: Its own bot. Meta doesn’t say in more detail where Meta AI’s search gets its information.

    Bots:
    • Meta-WebIndexer search
    • Meta-ExternalFetcher user requests
    • Meta-ExternalAgent training
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Let Meta-WebIndexer onto your pages if you want to show up in Meta AI’s search results.

    Meta: Web crawlers (opens in a new tab)

  • Apple: Siri and Spotlight Apple Finds you via its own bot

    Gets its information from: Its own bot. Local business information comes from Apple Maps. The new AI Siri isn’t available on iPhones in the EU yet (September 2026).

    Bots:
    • Applebot search
    • Applebot-Extended training
    How to make sure you are visible:
    • Don’t block Applebot: it collects the information for Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
    • Update your business details in Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Connect).

    Apple: About Applebot (opens in a new tab)

Chapter 1 / 4

Technical AI optimization: let AI onto your pages

Before AI can recommend you, it has to find your pages and be able to read them. This chapter follows a page’s journey into an AI answer and shows where that journey can break down.

The technical side is often quick to put right, but without it nothing else in this guide helps.

Chapter 1: a page’s journey into an AI answer
  1. The bot fetches the page
  2. The bot reads the content
  3. The index stores and understands it
  4. The AI quotes it in an answer
llms.txt A proposal
  1. 1.1 AI bots robots.txt and your firewall decide whether an AI bot gets onto your pages.
  2. 1.2 JavaScript and images Many AI bots read only the text of the page: they miss information drawn with JavaScript or written into an image.
  3. 1.3 Structured data Structured data tells machines unambiguously who you are, where you are and what you do.
  4. 1.4 llms.txt llms.txt is a proposal that, as far as we know, the big AI search services don’t use.

1.1 Does your site block AI bots? robots.txt and AI crawlers

AI companies read pages with bots, much as Google does. A company often has several bots for different purposes:

  • The search bot collects pages for the AI’s search. If you block it, your pages won’t appear as a source in answers.
  • The user bot fetches a page when a user asks the AI to read it. Because it acts on the user’s behalf, it doesn’t always follow the robots.txt file.
  • The training bot collects text for training language models.

Search and training bots follow your site’s robots.txt file. So you can refuse the use of your content for training and still show up in AI search results.

Google has one exception: blocking the Google-Extended token removes your content from Gemini’s training but also from the Gemini app’s answers. It doesn’t affect Google Search or AI Overviews.

Many sites block AI bots without knowing it. The cause can be an old robots.txt rule, a plugin setting or a firewall. Cloudflare, for example, has asked every new site since July 2025 whether to allow AI bots, and by default they are blocked.

Try the tool next to this text: choose the bots, and it writes a robots.txt file and tells you where you will show up. You can also check your own file.

Build a robots.txt for AI bots

AI bots 5 blocked, 8 allowed

OpenAI

  • OAI-SearchBot Search
  • ChatGPT-User User request
  • GPTBot Training

Anthropic

  • Claude-SearchBot Search
  • Claude-User User request
  • ClaudeBot Training

Perplexity

  • PerplexityBot Search
  • Perplexity-User User request

Google

  • Google-Extended Training

Apple

  • Applebot-Extended Training

Meta

  • Meta-WebIndexer Search
  • Meta-ExternalFetcher User request
  • Meta-ExternalAgent Training

What your choice means Visible in 4/4 AI services

  • ChatGPT Shows your site in answers
  • Claude Shows your site in answers
  • Perplexity Shows your site in answers
  • Meta AI Shows your site in answers
  • Model training No training bot may use your content.

You appear in AI search, but your content isn’t used to train AI models.

Check your firewall too. Cloudflare’s default settings, for example, can block AI bots even when robots.txt allows them, and since September 2026 even search engine bots on pages with ads. Bots that fetch a page at a user’s request don’t always follow robots.txt.

kampaamokulma.fi/robots.txt

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://kampaamokulma.fi/sitemap.xml

1.2 Can AI see your content? JavaScript, images and PDFs

Google’s bot can run JavaScript and see a page the way a browser does. Many AI bots can’t: they read only the text in the page’s HTML code.

If your price list, opening hours or services are drawn on the page with JavaScript, AI doesn’t see them. The same goes for text written into an image: a price list as an image is just an image to AI.

Check at least these:

  • The most important information is on the page as text, not as an image.
  • The page shows its content without JavaScript. WordPress does this by default.
  • If information is in a PDF file, the same information is also on an ordinary page.
  • Images have descriptive alt texts.

Try the demo next to this text: the same price list made three ways, through the eyes of a browser and of an AI bot.

Can an AI bot see your price list?

In a browser: the same all three ways

Kampaamo Kulma

Price list

  • Men’s haircut €29
  • Women’s haircut €39–49
  • Children’s haircut (under 12) €29
  • Coloring from €69
  • Shave €29

AI bot – JavaScript

<h1>Price list</h1>

<div id="prices"></div>

<script src="/prices.js"></script>

The prices are missing: the bot doesn’t run JavaScript

AI bot – Image

<h1>Price list</h1>

<img src="/prices.jpg" alt="Price list">

The prices are inside the image — the bot sees only its alt text

AI bot – Text

<h1>Price list</h1>

<table>

<tr><td>Men’s haircut</td><td>€29</td></tr>

<tr><td>Women’s haircut</td><td>€39–49</td></tr>

<tr><td>Children’s haircut (under 12)</td><td>€29</td></tr>

<tr><td>Coloring</td><td>from €69</td></tr>

<tr><td>Shave</td><td>€29</td></tr>

</table>

The bot reads every price

Price list as text Prices found

The AI can get your prices right and quote your page.

In a study by Vercel and MERJ (December 2024), the bots of OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and Meta did not run JavaScript. Google’s and Apple’s bots did.

1.3 Structured data: tell machines who you are

Structured data is a summary added to a page’s code that tells machines unambiguously what the business is, where it is, when it is open and what it costs. The most common format is JSON-LD, which uses the schema.org vocabulary.

Without structured data, a machine infers these facts from the text. That often works, but not always: the opening hours may be in an image and the address scattered across the page.

Structured data isn’t a shortcut into AI answers. Google says its AI features need no special structured data, and reminds you that the data must match the text visible on the page. Microsoft, on the other hand, recommends it. Its benefit is that it removes the guesswork.

For a local business the most important facts are the type of business, its name, address, opening hours, price range and links to the business’s other profiles.

Try the demo next to this text: see what a machine understands of a page without structured data and with it. Then make the code for your own business.

What does a machine make of your page?

What the machine understands 6/6 certain

  • Type of business Certain: HairSalon A guess: Barber? Hair salon? Beauty salon?
  • Name Certain: Kampaamo Kulma Certain: Kampaamo Kulma (from the page title)
  • Address Certain: Esimerkkikatu 1, 33100 Tampere A guess: Keskustori? (a guess from the text)
  • Opening hours Certain: Mon–Fri 9–18, Sat 10–16 Missing: Not found — the opening hours are in an image
  • Prices Certain: €29–69 (priceRange) A guess: “from €29”?
  • Website Certain: https://kampaamokulma.fi Certain: kampaamokulma.fi

Add the code to the <head> of your page:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HairSalon",
  "name": "Kampaamo Kulma",
  "url": "https://kampaamokulma.fi",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Esimerkkikatu 1",
    "postalCode": "33100",
    "addressLocality": "Tampere",
    "addressCountry": "FI"
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
      "opens": "09:00",
      "closes": "18:00"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Saturday"],
      "opens": "10:00",
      "closes": "16:00"
    }
  ],
  "priceRange": "€€"
}
</script>

Test the code: Google’s Rich Results Test (opens in a new tab) Schema.org Validator (opens in a new tab)

1.4 Do you need an llms.txt file?

llms.txt is a file proposed in 2024 that sums up a site’s content for AI in Markdown. Its purpose is to help language models find a site’s most important information.

The idea is good, but not one major AI service has said it uses the file. Google’s guide says plainly that Google Search doesn’t use llms.txt files: the file neither helps nor hurts.

You can make the file in five minutes, but don’t expect results from it. Two other files matter more:

  • robots.txt decides whether bots get onto your pages (section 1.1).
  • sitemap.xml, the sitemap, helps search engines find all your pages.

Try the demo next to this text: switch off one file at a time and see what changes.

Three files, three different effects

All three files are in place.

What happens All good

  • AI can read your pages Yes
  • New pages are found Quickly
  • Effect on AI answers No observed effect

llms.txt does no harm, but no major AI service has said it uses the file, and Google Search doesn’t use it. robots.txt and the sitemap are what count.

Show an example llms.txt file 
# Kampaamo Kulma

> A hair salon and barbershop on the corner of Keskustori, Tampere’s central square, since 2015. Haircuts, coloring and shaves. Online booking.

## Services

- [Prices](https://kampaamokulma.fi/prices/): Prices for haircuts, coloring and shaves
- [Booking](https://kampaamokulma.fi/booking/): Available times and online booking
- [Contact](https://kampaamokulma.fi/contact/): Address, opening hours and directions

Chapter 2 / 4

Content that AI quotes

Once AI has found your page, it looks there for an answer to the question. It doesn’t read the page as a whole but picks out passages that answer the question directly.

This chapter tells you what kind of content ends up in AI answers: it answers real questions, gives the answer at once, proves its claims and stays up to date.

Chapter 2 on one page
Kampaamo Kulma ServicesPricesBooking

Haircuts in Tampere

Updated 3 September 2026

A women’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma costs €39–49 and a men’s €29. You can book online.

Hairdresser Sanna has been cutting hair for 12 years.

ServicePrice
Men’s haircut €29
Women’s haircut €39–49
Children’s haircut (under 12) €29

Frequently asked Can I get in the same day?

  1. 2.1 Question research The page answers the questions customers really ask.
  2. 2.2 Answer at once The answer comes in the first sentence, and the paragraph makes sense on its own.
  3. 2.3 Figures and sources Your own experience and figures make the text worth quoting.
  4. 2.4 Prices and comparisons The prices, and who the service is for, right on the page.
  5. 2.5 Fresh information A recent date shows the information is up to date.

2.1 Question research: find out what your customers ask AI

SEO starts with keyword research, AI optimization with question research. People ask AI in full sentences, and they write into the question what matters to them: the price, the location, the timing or a special need.

That is why one search term hides dozens of questions. A search for “hair salon tampere” can be about the price, a children’s haircut, Saturday opening hours or which salon is the best.

You’ll find questions in at least these places:

  • your customers’ emails, phone calls and chat messages
  • Google’s “People also ask” box
  • the long, question-like searches in Search Console
  • discussion forums where people talk about your field.

Write an answer to every important question on your pages. If there is no answer, AI will look for it elsewhere and recommend whoever has it.

Try the demo next to this text: tick the questions your page already answers.

What do your customers ask?

One search term hides dozens of questions. Tick the ones your page already answers.

hair salon tampere hides questions like these 12:

Price

Who it’s for

Booking

Comparison

You’ll find questions in your customers’ messages, in Google’s “People also ask” box and among the long searches in Search Console.

2.2 Answer at once, and write paragraphs that stand on their own

AI doesn’t read a page as a whole. According to Microsoft’s guide, AI answers pick content out in pieces and favor clear, self-contained wording. A piece is read apart from the rest of the page.

So two things matter most:

  • Answer at once. The first sentence of a paragraph answers the question. Introductions and welcomes can go.
  • Make each paragraph stand on its own. Spell out what you are talking about: “A women’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma costs €39–49 depending on hair length”, not “It costs €39–49 depending on hair length”.

Help readers and AI with structure: clear subheadings, short paragraphs, lists and tables.

This doesn’t mean chopping text into artificially small pieces or writing for machines. Google says separately that no such thing is needed. It is about clear writing, which benefits human readers above all.

Try the demo next to this text: split the page the way AI does and see which paragraph works as an answer.

Split the page like an AI

AI doesn’t read a page as a whole: it picks paragraphs out of it. Split the page and see which paragraph works as an answer.

A customer asks an AI assistant How much is a women’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

  1. A women’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma costs €39–49 depending on hair length.

    paragraph 2 Answers at once and works on its own

  2. Welcome to Kampaamo Kulma! Every customer is unique to us, and we’ve served with heart since 2015.

    paragraph 1 Doesn’t answer the question

  3. The haircut includes a wash and blow-dry. You can book online.

    paragraph 3 Doesn’t give the price

  4. Ask us more when you visit!

    paragraph 4 No content

AI assistant

How much is a women’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

At Kampaamo Kulma, a women’s haircut costs €39–49 depending on hair length.

  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi

Usable paragraphs 1/4

The paragraph gives the service, the salon and the price right away — and it works on its own. That’s why the AI quotes it and cites your page as the source.

2.3 Prove your claims: figures, sources and your own experience

AI would rather quote text with something checkable in it than general marketing talk.

The GEO study (Princeton University and others, 2024) tested what makes a text show up in AI answers. Expert quotes, statistics and cited sources worked best: they improved visibility by 27–41%. Repeating keywords was the weakest of the methods and even reduced visibility.

In practice:

  • Say it in numbers: how many, how long, how much.
  • Refer to reliable sources.
  • Tell about your own experience: who does the work, for how long and what they have learned.

The same goes for Google: its guidelines stress experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

Try the demo next to this text: add one method at a time to the text and see how it changed visibility in the study.

What makes AI quote your text?

Add one method to the text at a time. The bar shows how much the same method changed visibility in AI answers in the study.

Your page’s text

Kampaamo Kulma does hair coloring in central Tampere. We use quality hair dyes and tell you how to keep your color looking great. In 2025 we did more than 1,200 hair colorings. Hair color manufacturers advise doing an allergy test 48 hours before coloring. “The shade is chosen to suit the color of your skin and eyes,” says hairdresser Sanna, who has been coloring hair for 12 years.

The study measured one method at a time, so the figures can’t be added together.

The figures are from the study’s main metric: how much of the text the answer quoted, and how high up.

Source: Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024) (opens in a new tab)

Your text Quotable

Figures, sources and expert quotes make the text quotable.

2.4 Give your prices, comparisons and who the service is for

Three questions keep coming up in conversations with AI: how much does it cost, which one is better, and is it right for me. If your page doesn’t answer them, AI answers with your competitors’ information, or guesses.

  • Prices: give the price or a price range. “Ask for a quote” tells AI nothing.
  • Comparisons: say honestly when your service is a good choice and when something else suits better.
  • Who it is for: say who the service suits, for example children, curly hair, businesses or large projects.

Try the demo next to this text: the same price question when the price is hidden and when it is on the page.

Hidden or visible price?

Switch the price list’s state and see whose prices AI gives.

Ask for a price

Price list

Prices depend on the length of your hair and the service.

Ask for a price by phone or book online.

AI assistant

How much is a haircut in central Tampere?

In central Tampere a haircut usually costs €32–65. For example:

  1. Hiusstudio Kaisla Women’s haircut €45–65, according to its price list.
  2. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircut €32, no appointment needed on weekdays.
  • Sources:
  • Hiusstudio Kaisla
  • Parturi Veitikka

Result Kulma not mentioned

The AI gave the competitors’ prices, because theirs were the only ones it found.

Prices on the page

Price list

Men’s haircut €29

Women’s haircut €39–49

Children’s haircut (under 12) €29

AI assistant

How much is a haircut in central Tampere?

In central Tampere a haircut usually costs €29–65. For example:

  1. Kampaamo Kulma You Men’s and children’s haircuts €29, women’s €39–49.
  2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Women’s haircut €45–65, according to its price list.
  3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircut €32, no appointment needed on weekdays.
  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi
  • Hiusstudio Kaisla
  • Parturi Veitikka

Result Kulma mentioned first

When the prices are on the page as text, AI can give them and bring the affordable option to the fore.

2.5 Keep your information fresh

When a question is about prices, opening hours or anything else that changes, AI looks for up-to-date information. But it doesn’t always know which information is the newest, especially if old information is still online.

A typical error comes from an old blog post, press release or directory listing that gives an old price. AI finds it and passes it on to the customer.

  • Update old pages or redirect them to the new page.
  • Show on the page the date the information was last checked.
  • When you change your prices, change them everywhere at once (section 3.1).

Try the demo next to this text: an old blog post and a new price list – which one does AI believe?

Which information does AI believe?

Switch the state: an old blog post and a price list without a date – or both up to date.

Old information online

New prices in effect

Men’s haircut €25.

Published 2021

Price list

Men’s haircut €29.

No date

AI assistant

How much is a men’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

At Kampaamo Kulma, a men’s haircut costs €25.

  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi/blog

Result Wrong price

The old post answered the question more directly than the price list, which had no date.

Information updated

New prices in effect

Our prices have changed: see the current price list.

Updated 3 September 2026

Price list

Men’s haircut €29.

Updated 3 September 2026

AI assistant

How much is a men’s haircut at Kampaamo Kulma?

According to Kampaamo Kulma’s price list, a men’s haircut costs €29 (updated in September 2026).

  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi/prices

Result Right price

When the old post points to the price list and the date shows, AI finds the right information.

Chapter 3 / 4

Reputation: what others say about your business

AI doesn’t just take your own page’s word for it. It checks what others say about you: business profiles and directories, reviews, news stories, lists and discussion forums.

The more reliable sources say the same thing about you, the more confidently AI recommends you. This chapter tells you how to influence your reputation.

Chapter 3: what an AI answer is put together from
The AI’s answer put together from these sources

3.1 The same business details everywhere: Google Business Profile, Bing Places and directories

Your business’s basic details are online in many places: on your own site, in your Google Business Profile, in Bing Places, in Apple Maps, on Facebook and in business directories.

AI compares these sources. If the opening hours, address or phone number differ from place to place, it either answers uncertainly or picks the wrong information.

  • Write down every place where your business’s details appear.
  • Make the name, address, phone number, opening hours and services the same everywhere.
  • Claim your Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing if you haven’t already.
  • Remember exceptional opening hours, such as public holidays.

Try the demo next to this text: fix the conflicting opening hours and see how the answer changes.

Four sources, four sets of opening hours

Fix the wrong information and see how the AI’s answer changes.

  • kampaamokulma.fi Sat 10–16 – correct Your own site
  • Google Business Profile Sat closed – wrong
  • Business directory Sat 9–15 – wrong
  • Facebook page Sat 10–14 – wrong

AI assistant

Is Kampaamo Kulma open on Saturday?

The information conflicts: depending on the source, Kampaamo Kulma is either closed on Saturdays or open 9–16. Check the opening hours before you go.

  • Sources:
  • kampaamokulma.fi
  • Google Business Profile
  • Business directory
  • Facebook page

What the sources say 3 conflicts

AI compares the sources with each other. When they disagree, it hedges – or picks the wrong information.

3.2 Customer reviews: AI repeats your customers’ words

When a customer asks AI what a business is like, AI often sums up its answer from reviews. Besides the average star rating, it reads what the reviews say.

If customers praise how good you are with children, AI may recommend you to families with children. If they complain about waiting, AI mentions that too.

  • Ask satisfied customers for a review, for example with the booking confirmation or the receipt. Don’t offer a reward for a review: that is against Google’s rules.
  • Ask them to say what you did for them. Stars alone tell AI nothing.
  • Reply to reviews, critical ones too, in a matter-of-fact way.

Try the demo next to this text: choose what the reviews say and see how AI describes Kulma.

What customers write, the AI repeats

Choose what the reviews say. The AI’s description of Kulma changes with them.

Kulma’s reviews 4.3 · 3 reviews

AI assistant

What’s Kampaamo Kulma like?

Customers especially praise Kampaamo Kulma’s great coloring and same-day appointments. Some customers mention that they had to wait past their appointment time.

Tip

Ask happy customers to say in their review what you did – stars alone tell the AI nothing.

3.3 Mentions elsewhere online: news stories, lists and discussion forums

When AI looks for a business to recommend, it reads lists, articles and discussions: “The best hair salons in Tampere”, the local paper’s story about a new business owner, or a thread where someone asks for tips.

A business mentioned in these sources makes it into AI recommendations more easily, even when the mention has no link to its page. In a study by Ahrefs (75,000 brands, 2025), mentions on the web were clearly more strongly linked to visibility in Google’s AI Overviews than links were (a correlation of 0.66 vs. 0.22). In newer data, the strongest link was with YouTube mentions.

  • Tell the local media your news: openings, awards and new services.
  • Ask to be included in your field’s lists and comparisons.
  • Join local associations whose websites list their members.
  • Take part in discussions under your own name when you can help. Don’t advertise.
  • Talk about your work on video: mentions on YouTube count too.

Don’t buy or make up mentions. Google specifically advises that artificial mentions aren’t worth chasing.

AI sees only public content. Praise in a closed Facebook group doesn’t end up in its answers.

Try the demo next to this text: add mentions of Kulma and see when AI starts recommending it.

Mentions get you recommended

Add mentions of Kulma around the web and see how the AI’s answer changes. For illustration only.

AI assistant

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

Here are a few good options in central Tampere:

  1. Kampaamo Kulma You Haircuts, coloring and shaves on the corner of Keskustori, Tampere’s central square. Mentioned in the local paper, on a blog’s list of salons, in the business association’s member directory and on a discussion forum.
  2. Hiusstudio Kaisla Specializes in coloring, good reviews on Google.
  3. Parturi Veitikka Men’s haircuts without an appointment on weekdays.
  • Sources:
  • Local paper
  • Blog
  • Business association
  • Forum
  • kampaamokulma.fi

Kulma in 1st place Public mentions: 4

Many independent sources mention Kulma, so the AI recommends it first.

Chapter 4 / 4

Tracking: does AI recommend you?

You can’t see the results of AI optimization from one screenshot. The answers vary with the person asking, the wording and the time, so visibility is tracked regularly and from many angles.

This chapter tells you what to track and how: mentions, citations, visitors and whether the information is right.

Four things to track

4.1 Ask the same questions regularly

Make a list of 10–20 questions your customers ask (section 2.1). Ask the main AI assistants these questions once a month and write down:

  • whether your business is mentioned, and in what position
  • whether the answer links to your page
  • which competitors are mentioned
  • whether the information is right.

Ask the same question several times. AI answers a little differently every time, so one answer doesn’t tell you much. A more reliable measure is the share: in how many answers out of ten you are mentioned.

You can do the tracking yourself in a spreadsheet. There are also paid tools that ask the questions automatically.

Try the demo next to this text: ask the same question ten times and see how much the answers vary.

The same question ten times

The AI answers a little differently every time. For illustration only.

AI assistant Round 1

What’s a good hair salon in central Tampere?

  1. Answer 1 : Kaisla , Sointu , Veitikka
  2. Answer 2 : Kaisla , Kulma , Sointu
  3. Answer 3 : Sointu , Kaisla , Veitikka
  4. Answer 4 : Kaisla , Veitikka , Sointu
  5. Answer 5 : Kulma , Sointu , Veitikka
  6. Answer 6 : Kaisla , Sointu , Veitikka
  7. Answer 7 : Veitikka , Kaisla , Kulma
  8. Answer 8 : Sointu , Kaisla , Veitikka
  9. Answer 9 : Kaisla , Sointu , Kulma
  10. Answer 10 : Kaisla , Veitikka , Sointu

Kulma’s share of answers 40%

  • Hiusstudio Kaisla 9/10
  • Kampaamo Sointu 9/10
  • Parturi Veitikka 8/10
  • Kampaamo Kulma 4/10

That’s why visibility is measured as a share: the same questions every month, many times over.

4.2 Traffic from AI in Google Analytics

When AI links to your page and a customer clicks, the visit shows up in Google Analytics. Visits from ChatGPT have chatgpt.com as their source, visits from Perplexity perplexity.ai, and so on.

With a filter you can group these into a channel of their own. Then you see each month how many visits come from AI, and to which pages.

One limitation is worth knowing: clicks from Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode show up as ordinary Google search traffic (google / organic) and can’t be told apart.

Two reports complete the picture. Since 2026 Search Console has had a report of its own for Google’s AI features, but it shows only impressions. The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools tells you how often Copilot and Bing’s AI answers cite your pages.

Many customers don’t click at all: they read the recommendation and then call you or search for your business by name. That is why the effect of AI often also shows as growth in searches for your business’s name.

Try the demo next to this text: add the AI filter and copy it into your own Analytics.

Find AI traffic in Analytics

Example figures.

Traffic acquisition: sessions by session source / medium, example figures
Session source / medium Sessions
AI total 51
google / organic Also includes clicks from Google’s AI answers – they can’t be told apart. 1,184
(direct) / (none) 402
facebook.com / referral 96
bing / organic 58
chatgpt.com / referral 31
duckduckgo / organic 12
perplexity.ai / referral 8
copilot.microsoft.com / referral 5
gemini.google.com / referral 4
claude.ai / referral 3

Add a filter to the GA4 report: dimension Session source, match type “matches regex”, value:

.*(chatgpt\.com|openai\.com|perplexity\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.com|gemini\.google\.com|claude\.ai|meta\.ai|chat\.mistral\.ai).*

4.3 When AI gives wrong information about your business

AI can give an old price, the wrong opening hours or a service you no longer offer. The error doesn’t come from nowhere: the information usually comes from some source on the web.

  1. Look at the sources. Most AI assistants show which pages the answer is based on.
  2. Fix the information at the source: on your own site, in your business profile or in the directory. If the source isn’t yours, ask whoever runs it to fix the information.
  3. Give feedback. In most AI services you can rate an answer and say what is wrong.
  4. Check again in a few weeks.

If the error comes from the language model’s memory and not from a web search, the fix shows only in the model’s next version. Then the best you can do is make sure the right information is online clearly and in many places.

Try the demo next to this text: click a wrong part of the answer and trace where the wrong information comes from.

Trace wrong information to its source

The answer has two errors. Click a wrong part to see where the information came from.

AI assistant

How much is a haircut at Kampaamo Kulma, and is it open on Saturdays?

A haircut at Kampaamo Kulma costs €25, and the salon is closed on Saturdays.

  • Sources:
  • Business directory
  • Google Business Profile

Business directory: Kampaamo Kulma

updated 2021

price Haircut €25

Google Business Profile: Kampaamo Kulma

opening hours Sat closed

How to fix wrong information

  1. Ask, and look at which sources the answer cites.
  2. Fix the information at the source: on your own site, in your business profile or in the directory.
  3. Give feedback in the AI service (e.g. a thumbs down).
  4. Ask again in a few weeks.

Can I do AI optimization myself?

You can do a large part of it yourself. Many important things need no technical skills: finding out the questions, putting answers on your pages, making your business details the same everywhere and asking for reviews.

It’s worth asking for help when the work goes into your site’s code or settings: robots.txt and the firewall, content made with JavaScript, structured data and the analytics filters.

The checklist next to this text sums up the whole guide. Check off what’s done, and filter what you can do yourself and what you need a pro for.

AI optimization as a checklist

Check off what’s done. Filter what you can do yourself and what’s worth getting help with.

Checklist

Frequently asked questions about AI optimization

Does AI optimization replace SEO?

No. AI assistants get their current information from search engines’ indexes, so SEO is the foundation of AI optimization.

Can anyone guarantee that AI will recommend a business?

No. AI answers vary with the person asking, the wording and the time.

You can still influence the answers: fix the things they are based on, and track your visibility regularly (chapter 4).

How quickly do the results show?

In AI assistants that use web search, changes can show within a few weeks, once the bots have read the updated pages. Influencing the memory of language models is slower, because the memory is only updated in the model’s next version.

In SEO, results typically show in 3–6 months.

Is AI optimization right for a small business?

Yes. In local services, competition for AI recommendations is often still low, and many things, such as your business details, reviews and good answers on your pages, are easy to get in shape even for a small business.

Can you buy an AI recommendation?

Not directly. In August 2026 OpenAI announced it would expand ChatGPT’s ads to Europe, Finland included, and they are shown to Free and Go users. The ads are separate and labeled, and according to OpenAI they don’t affect ChatGPT’s answers.

The only way into the answer itself and its sources is for AI to find good, up-to-date information about your business.

What do GEO, AEO and LLMO mean?

They are all names for the same thing: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization). In Finnish it is called “tekoälyoptimointi”.

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