A tough reality is settling in for small business owners across America, who already have a full plate: beyond staffing challenges, rising rents, and supply chain issues, now even your local deli needs to figure out how to appear on Perplexity and ChatGPT.

Visibility on the increasing number of platforms - especially voice and artificial intelligence - is a necessity for business owners.

I don’t use the word “necessity” lightly - it’s the truth.

A survey of 550 American small businesses conducted by The Discoverability Company offers the proof. Respondents rated “how critical online discovery is” to their businesses an 8.4 out of 10, clearly linking their success to how they appear online.

And yet, only 38% of these same respondents said they felt “sufficiently represented” on the platforms that matter so much.

Woof.

These responses underscore a broader reality: digital discovery is already a tough challenge for small businesses, and it’s only going to get tougher. Historically, small businesses have focused their efforts on Google search rankings, maps, and social media. But as AI platforms grow and traditional search engines lose ground, small businesses need to adapt to stay competitive.

Optimizing an online footprint for AI visibility is quickly becoming one of the most critical strategies for businesses hoping to stand out in a fragmented user experience landscape.

Here are a few key tips to improve your small business visibility in AI-based platforms and help future-proof your online footprint.

The First Step: Optimize Your Google Business Listing for Voice and AI Search

AI-driven platforms like to pull information from established online sources that offer information in a way that is clear and easy to understand. That means that your listings and reviews on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, Trustpilot, and elsewhere have a renewed importance: the more complete and accurate your business listings, the more likely you are to appear in responses from AI tools.

Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

AI platforms, especially those offered by Google, often use information from Google My Business listings when providing results. Ensure your listing is accurate, detailed, and complete, including up-to-date hours, phone numbers, locations, and service information.

Prioritize Consistency Across Directory Listings

AI-driven algorithms look for consistent information to verify a business’s authenticity. Inconsistent listings across Google, Yelp, Bing Places, and other directories can hurt your chances of being recommended. Ensure your business name, address, phone number, and other details match exactly across every platform.

Create AI-Friendly Content on Your Google Business Listing

AI platforms look for specific, relevant answers to questions, so by tailoring your content accordingly, you can significantly improve your visibility. Remember that end-users ask AI platforms direct questions, so create content that answers these questions concisely.

For instance, if you own a dental practice, you might look to ensure your Google Business listing Q&A section addresses questions like, “How often should I get my teeth cleaned?” or “What’s the best way to whiten teeth at home?” AI algorithms favor clear, straightforward answers, so make sure you provide them.

Along those same lines, be mindful of “near me” and location-based phrases in your questions and answers. Many voice searches and AI-driven queries are location-based. Creating Q&A content, blog posts, service pages, or FAQ entries that reflect this intent—such as “quick oil change in (your city)” or “where to find quality computer repair near me”—can help capture local searches and boost visibility.

Collect Reviews and Be Mindful of Your Online Reputation

Reviews have always been valuable, but they’re even more important in the age of AI-driven search. Positive reviews increase trust, which are a factor in whether an AI platform recommends your business over others. Positive reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms increase your credibility and can boost your visibility in AI-driven searches, since the nature of review sites is such that it’s easy for an AI platform to understand.

Engaging with customer reviews (both positive and negative) shows that your business is active and invested in customer satisfaction. AI algorithms value this engagement as a sign of trustworthiness and relevance, which can improve your position in search results.

How to Update Your Website and Content So It’s Featured on AI Search

While this is a little more technical, it’s critical to understand: to ensure your website is legible to the scrapers curating content for AI platforms, you need to ensure your page has properly-configured schema markup or structured data.

Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a form of code you add to your website to provide search engines and AI-driven platforms with extra context about your business. Think of schema markup as a way of “tagging” specific details—like your location, services, hours, and even pricing—in a way that makes it easy for AI scrapers to understand and categorize your business. It takes the guess-work out and helps AI platforms quickly interpret what your business offers, thereby making it more likely you’ll show up in relevant results.

If you use popular content management platforms like Wordpress, there are many guides to adding schema markup to your website by AIOSEO or you can engage the services of a consultant, though don’t be over-sold: it’s the kind of thing that should not be an expensive or time-intensive effort.

But if you’re the DIY type, once you get “under the hood” and find where to implement this, there are two best-practices to keep in mind:

1. Implement Local Business Schema: Adding local business schema allows AI platforms to recognize important details about your business, such as your industry, address, hours, and service offerings. This structured information improves your chances of appearing in local voice search results and “near me” queries, putting you front and center when potential customers are looking for nearby solutions.
2. Optimize for Common Queries: Schema markup can also help you target specific questions customers often ask. Think about the most common inquiries your business receives—questions like, “What are your sandwich rolls made from?” or “Do you offer same-day services?” Adding structured data for these queries makes your content more likely to appear in response when users ask an AI platform similar questions, increasing your visibility for search phrases that matter to your audience.

Using schema markup strategically allows you to target AI-driven platforms with precision, ensuring they pull the right information about your business to answer user questions accurately. By leveraging this structured approach, you can improve your chances of reaching customers in a way that’s both relevant and reliable.

Extra Credit: Social Proof and Off-Page Signals

While optimizing your website with structured data and schema markup enhances your visibility on AI platforms, there’s another essential piece to digital discoverability: social proof and off-page signals. These elements—things like customer reviews, mentions on other websites—provide AI platforms with valuable context about the credibility and popularity of your business.

Those off-page signals, like backlinks from news outlets that permit AI-scraping of their content, bolster your discoverability. When reputable sites link back to your website, it demonstrates credibility and authority, things AI scrapers consider.

The truth is this article, while accurate for how to drive AI visibility, also contains universal truths that will help bolster your small business visibility everywhere your users spend time online, including search and other platforms, too. That’s something we call a “holistic approach to digital discovery.”

Done properly, these steps won’t just boost your current visibility—it lays the groundwork for long-term relevance and growth as AI and other technologies continue to evolve.