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Get Found Playbook · Part 7

When someone asks ChatGPT where to eat, let's make sure it says you.

Customers now ask ChatGPT and Google's AI where to eat and who to call, and the AI answers with a short list. Here's how to make sure your name is on it.

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A customer at a taqueria counter asking a phone assistant where to eat, with a plate of tacos in front of them
In plain words
  • The AI reads your Google listing, your reviews, and your website, then sums you up.
  • Say what you sell in your customers' words, the same way everywhere.
  • Five real questions and answers on your site is enough to start.

Don't want to read? Let an AI walk you through it.

Tap the button, then paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. It becomes your coach for this one fix.

You're a patient, friendly coach helping a small business owner show up when customers ask an AI like ChatGPT or Gemini for a recommendation. Talk to me like I'm brand new to this. Give me one short step at a time, and wait for me to say "done" before the next one.

First, ask me two questions and wait for my answers: (1) What kind of business do I have, and what town is it in? (2) Am I on my phone or on a computer?

Then walk me through it. Step 1: the test. Tell me honestly what you already know about my business. If you know nothing, or have something wrong, say so. Step 2: help me write five real questions my customers ask, like "Do you take walk-ins?" or "Do you deliver?", and answer each in full sentences, in my own words. Step 3: fix my description. Ask me what customers actually order or ask for, then rewrite it with those exact words, not "quality food" or "great service." Step 4: a consistency checklist: same name, phone, address, and hours on Google, my website, and Facebook. Flag what doesn't match. Step 5: where to paste the new description. Phone: Google Maps app, tap my profile picture, then "Your Business Profile," "Edit profile," "About." Computer: search my business name on Google, find the "Your business on Google" panel, then "Edit profile," "About."

Ground rule: only advice that follows Google's rules for Business Profiles. No fake reviews, no made-up claims, no paying or gifting for reviews, and never invent awards or numbers about my business.

Open ChatGPTOpen ClaudeOpen Gemini

Where the AI gets its answer

An AI assistant has never been to your shop. It reads about you. It pulls from your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your website, and mentions of you around the web, then sums all of that up in a sentence or two. If those sources are thin, or they contradict each other, you get skipped or described wrong.

This has fancy names now. AEO, answer engine optimization. GEO, generative engine optimization. Both just mean "help the AI describe you right." For a local business it comes down to one thing: being clearly described, everywhere, in plain words. Want the longer version? Read What is AEO? and SEO vs. AEO.

Do this

  1. Be consistent everywhere. Same name, same phone, same address, same hours on Google, your website, and Facebook. The AI cross-checks. When two sources disagree, you read as unreliable, and it moves on to the next name.
  2. Describe yourself in the words customers use. In your Google description and on your site, say "birria tacos," "brake repair," "quinceañera cakes." Not "quality food" or "great service." Nobody asks an AI for quality food. They ask for birria. Your services list (Part 5) is the place to start.
  3. Earn reviews that mention specifics. When you ask for a review (Part 3), it's fine to say "mention what you ordered!" A review that says "the barbacoa plate is the best in your area" is exactly the sentence an AI quotes. Never pay, discount, or gift for a review. Google bans it.
  4. Add an FAQ to your website. Five real questions, answered in full sentences. "Do you take walk-ins?" "Do you deliver?" "Do you do quinceañera cakes?" AI answer engines love question-and-answer text because it's shaped like their own output. Five is enough to start.
  5. Keep facts current. The AI quotes stale hours and old prices with total confidence. Your holiday-hours routine from Part 1 protects you here too.
  6. Get mentioned locally. Your EDC's business directory, the chamber, local news, community pages. Every legitimate mention teaches the AI who you are. Ask to be listed.
The good news: it's the same work. Everything in Parts 1 to 6 (a complete profile, photos, honest reviews, fresh activity, services in real text, a working website) is exactly what the AI reads. Fix your Get Found score and you've done your AEO.
Make it a routine: ask the AI once a month. Open ChatGPT or Gemini and type "best [what you sell] in your area." Are you on the list? Did it get your hours right? Whatever it gets wrong is your to-do for the month.
5

Real FAQ questions on your site is enough to start showing up in AI answers.

Your EDC · Get Found Playbook

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