Does ChatGPT recommend you? How being found in AI assistants works

More and more people no longer put their question to Google, but to ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. These do not give a list of ten links, but a single answer. So the question is no longer only "am I at the top?", but also "am I mentioned?".

What exactly is changing?

A search engine shows pages and lets you choose. An AI assistant reads those pages for you, summarises them and names a few companies at most. If you are not among them, you do not exist for that visitor. The same goes for the AI summaries that Google itself shows above the search results.

The good news: an assistant does not make up its answer out of thin air. It takes it from websites it can read and understand. That is something you can influence yourself.

What an AI assistant looks at

• Clear answers. A page that says in the first paragraph what you do, for whom and where, is picked up more easily than a page full of atmospheric phrases.
• Questions and answers. People ask an assistant full questions. A page with the questions your customers really ask, and a short answer to each, matches that directly.
• Structured data. Behind the scenes you can label a page: this is a service, this is the region, these are the opening hours, this is a review. Search engines and assistants read those labels.
• A fast, readable site. Text that only appears after a lot of script has loaded is often not read, or only half read.
• Mentions elsewhere. Reviews, your Google Business Profile and mentions on other websites confirm that you exist and what you do.

What you can do today

1. Ask the question yourself. Ask ChatGPT or Gemini what your customer would ask, for example "who installs custom kitchens in Leuven?". Are you in the answer? Is what it says about you correct?
2. Write out your services. One page per service, with what you get, who it is for and what people ask most often.
3. Keep your details the same everywhere. Name, address and services must be identical on your website, your Google Business Profile and social media.
4. Ask for reviews. A satisfied customer who says in their own words what you did is exactly the kind of text an assistant picks up.

So is SEO over?

No. What makes a page good for Google also makes it good for an AI assistant: clear text, a logical structure, speed and reliable details. The difference is that vague pages used to sit somewhere on page two, and now they are simply not mentioned any more.

That is why this is included as standard in every website we build: an answer at the top of each page, frequently asked questions, structured data and a structure that search engines and assistants can read. You can read more about this on our page about being found in Google.