Google is still the main place people go to find the specific services or products they are after. But more and more people are also turning to AI platforms like ChatGPT to sanity check brands, compare options and work out who to go with.
Whether it is someone asking about the best manufacturing businesses in Staffordshire, or someone asking what the reviews say about a particular salon, AI can give quick answers to those questions. That is exactly why it is becoming more and more popular.
This means your business needs to think about being visible in more places than ever before, because you never know how someone might search to find exactly what you are offering.
In this blog we look at the rise of AI search, how important SEO still is when it comes to AI, and what your business needs to do to stay visible online as search continues to evolve.
The rise of AI search
It is the question we get asked more than any other at the moment: how important is AI when it comes to search visibility?
The short answer is that AI is changing things, but not in the way most people think.
Google has not gone anywhere. It is still where the vast majority of searches happen, and it is still where most enquiries come from for most UK businesses. But it is no longer the only place.
People are still using Google. They are also using tools like ChatGPT and AI-powered search features to ask more detailed questions and get quicker answers. Instead of typing three words into a search box and working through a page of blue links, they are asking full questions and expecting a straight answer back.
That is the real shift. Not Google losing its crown, but the number of places your business needs to show up quietly growing.
What has actually changed is how businesses get discovered
Search itself has not changed. People still have a problem, and they still go looking for someone to solve it.
What has changed is the route they take to find you.
A few years ago that route was fairly predictable. Someone typed a query, scanned the results, clicked two or three, and made a shortlist. Now that same person might ask ChatGPT to compare their options, read an AI summary at the top of a Google results page, and only then start clicking.
The result is that your business can be considered, compared and ruled out before anyone has visited your website. That is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to make sure the information about you that is out there is clear, accurate and easy to find.
Google and AI are looking for the same things
This is the part that should reassure you.
Whether it is Google or an AI platform, both are looking for signals that tell them whether a business is worth putting in front of someone. And broadly, they are the same signals.
- Does the website have clear pages?
- Does the business look authoritative?
- Are there customer reviews?
- Is the information consistent?
- Is the business mentioned elsewhere?
All of these things are massively important, and none of them are new. They are the same foundations good SEO has always been built on. AI platforms have simply given them a second job to do.
So does that mean SEO is becoming less important?
Quite the opposite.
AI has not replaced Google or SEO. It has just expanded the places you need to be visible.
Strong AI SEO is what builds the trust, authority and credibility that both search engines and AI platforms look for when deciding which businesses to recommend. The content on your site, the reviews you have earned, the coverage you have picked up and the clarity of your pages are all part of the picture an AI platform draws when someone asks it about your industry.
Put simply: the work that makes you visible on Google is the same work that makes you visible in AI results. You are not choosing between the two. You are doing one thing and getting the benefit twice.
If anything, visibility has become even more important, because there are now more places where a customer can form an opinion about you without ever speaking to you.
What AI search visibility looks like
It helps to picture a few real searches.
Someone types “best manufacturing company in Staffordshire” into Google. Someone else asks ChatGPT “who are the best warehouse security providers?” A third person asks what the reviews say about a particular salon before booking. Same underlying intent, three different routes.
In both cases, the businesses with strong visibility and credibility online are the ones most likely to come up. Not because they have gamed anything, but because there is enough clear, consistent, credible information about them for a search engine or an AI platform to feel confident putting their name forward.
The businesses that struggle are usually the ones with a thin website, no reviews to speak of, an out of date Google Business Profile and nothing written about them anywhere else. There is simply not enough for anything to work with.
The question to ask yourself is a blunt one. If someone asked an AI platform to recommend a business like yours in your area, would there be enough out there for it to recommend you?
What your business should be doing now
None of this requires a brand new strategy. It requires doing the fundamentals properly, and doing them consistently.
Make your pages clear and specific
One page per service, one page per location where it makes sense, written in plain English. If a page tries to cover everything, it will be chosen for nothing.
Answer the questions your customers actually ask
The way people phrase things in ChatGPT is closer to how they speak than how they used to type. Content that answers real questions directly is easier for both Google and AI platforms to draw on.
Show who is behind the business
Named authors, real credentials, genuine experience. This is what Google’s E-E-A-T guidance is getting at, and it is the same thing an AI platform is weighing when it decides whether you are worth mentioning.
Keep your Google Business Profile current
Correct opening hours, services, photos and categories. For local businesses, keeping your Google Business Profile updated remains one of the highest value things you can maintain and it takes minutes.
Earn reviews properly and respond to them
Ask real customers, make it easy, and reply to what they leave. Never buy them or write them yourself. Fake reviews are illegal in the UK under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Get mentioned in places that are not your website
Trade press, local news, industry directories, supplier and partner sites. Digital PR can get you independent mentions and they are one of the strongest credibility signals there is.
Sort the technical basics
Make sure technical SEO elements are up-to-date including fast loading, works properly on a phone, clean site structure and accessible to everyone. If a page is hard to crawl or hard to use, none of the above lands.
Measure what is actually happening
Set up GA4 properly and keep an eye on where your traffic and enquiries are coming from, including referrals from AI platforms. You cannot improve what you are not watching.
The businesses that will win enquiries over the next few years
They will not be the ones chasing quick fixes.
Every time search shifts, a wave of shortcuts appears promising to game the new system. They tend to work briefly, if at all, and they tend to leave a mess behind.
The businesses winning enquiries over the next few years will be the ones building trust, authority and credibility, and making it easy to be found wherever their customers are searching.
That is not a new answer. It is the same answer it has always been. AI has just made it matter in more places at once.