When someone asks Google "best plumber in Wollongong" or asks ChatGPT "which web design agency should I use in the Illawarra", the answer is written by a model that has read the web and picked a handful of sources to cite. AI SEO (also called generative engine optimisation, GEO, or answer engine optimisation, AEO) is the work of becoming one of those sources. This is the checklist we run for clients, in the order that matters.
How do you appear in Google AI Overviews?
Rank well with a page that answers the question directly, state the facts an answer would quote, keep your structured data consistent with the page, and earn mentions on other sites. Google's documentation on AI features and your website says there are no additional requirements and no special optimisations: a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet. The work is ordinary search quality done more precisely.
Why AI answers matter now
Pew Research Center's 2025 study of Google users found people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits that showed an AI summary, against 15% without one, and that about 18% of searches produced a summary. Ahrefs' July 2025 analysis found about 76% of pages cited in AI Overviews ranked in the top ten for the same query; its March 2026 update, with a larger sample and an improved method, put the figure at about 38%, with many citations coming from pages outside the top 100 and from YouTube. Read together: AI answers are taking clicks, ranking still helps, and it is no longer enough on its own.
The checklist
1. Say what you are in one sentence
The first paragraph of your home page and each service page should state the business type, the location, what you do and for whom. "A digital marketing and web design agency in Wollongong working with service businesses across the Illawarra and Sydney" is quotable. "We craft bespoke digital experiences" is not.
2. Publish the facts people ask about
Prices or starting prices, timelines, areas served, opening hours, address, years in business, team and awards. A page with no price cannot be cited for "how much does".
3. Write quotable answers
Under each question-style heading put a direct one- or two-sentence answer, then the detail. FAQs on service pages are the easiest place to do this.
4. Use the words customers use
"Tradie website", "AdWords", "SEO packages": the phrases in your Search Console query report, not your internal names.
5. One page per service and per place
AI answers are specific. A page for web design in Shellharbour can be cited for a Shellharbour question; a general services page cannot.
6. Keep structured data honest
Organisation, service, article and breadcrumb markup with the same name, address, phone, areas and prices as the visible page. Google asks only that existing markup stays consistent with the text; nothing AI-specific is needed.
7. Case studies with numbers
"Phone calls up from 12 to 65 in six weeks" gets quoted; "great results" does not. Publish only figures you can stand behind, with the source.
8. Mentions on other sites
Directory listings with consistent details, industry associations, award listings, supplier and client sites, local news and genuine reviews that name the service all count. Models weigh what others say about you.
9. Reviews that describe the work
Ask clients to mention the service and the suburb. "They rebuilt our removalist website and we now rank for Wollongong searches" teaches a model more than five stars alone.
10. Let the crawlers in
Check robots.txt allows Googlebot and, if you want to be cited by those products, Google-Extended, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and OAI-SearchBot.
11. Keep pages fast and readable
Plain HTML headings and paragraphs, no text locked inside images or scripts.
12. Measure it monthly
Ask Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity your customers' questions each month and record who is cited. Watch Search Console for impressions on question-style queries. Expect movement over months, not days.
What does not work
Stuffing "AI" into headings. Publishing an llms.txt file and expecting Google to read it; Google's documentation lists no such file. Invented figures or reviews, which models increasingly discount and which breach consumer law. Blocking AI crawlers to "protect" content while hoping the same products recommend you.
An example from the Illawarra
A roofing company we work with is cited by Google AI Mode for roofing questions in its area because its pages state the services, suburbs, licences and process plainly, its reviews name the work, and its results are published. The same approach took its phone calls from 12 to 65 in six weeks, two years apart; the roofing lead generation case study shows the pages and the citations.
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT recommend local businesses?
Yes. Asked for a recommendation, ChatGPT and Perplexity search the web and cite directories, review sites and well-structured business pages. Being described consistently across those sources, with the same name, services and location, is what gets a business named. A thin or inconsistent footprint gets a competitor named instead.
Do I need llms.txt or special markup for AI search?
No. Google states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and snippet-eligible, and no special structured data. Time spent on AI-only files is better spent on clearer answers and more mentions.
How long does AI SEO take?
Months, not weeks, because AI answers draw on pages that already rank and on how other sites describe you. Expect first citations for narrow local questions within two to four months of the work starting, and broader visibility to follow the same curve as ordinary SEO. Our overview of how AI search is changing SEO explains the mechanics.
How much does AI SEO cost?
At Adcraft it is scoped together with SEO inside a marketing retainer from $750 a month, because most of the work is the same work done more precisely. The engagement starts with an audit of how AI answers describe your business today.
Getting your business into the answer
The AI SEO service page sets out the audit, the content and structure work and the mention-building that follow this checklist. Ask for an AI visibility audit to see how the AI products describe your business today.
