How a small business website can appear in Google and ChatGPT AI answers

Carlos Imlau, AI Product Builder · Certified trainer (CCP) · AI applied to work · 2026-10-17

How does a small website show up in AI answers? By doing the basics well: the site has to be indexed, it has to let AI search crawlers in, and every page has to answer a question your customers actually ask. There is no magic file and no secret code. Google says so itself in its documentation for site owners: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."

The topic is back on the table since 15 October 2026, when Google announced changes to AI Overviews and AI Mode to give links to websites more prominence. In this guide I explain what changed and what a small business can do right now.

What did Google change on 15 October 2026?

In the post by Hema Budaraju, Google's VP of Product Management, four changes matter to anyone with a website:

• Inline links, higher up. Google says it has already substantially increased inline links in its AI answers and will now show them higher up more often.
• Official pages up front (a test). When someone wants to complete a specific task, Google will test a dedicated section at the top of the answer with the official page.
• More visible links at the end. They get image thumbnails and a more clickable design.
• Preferred Sources. The number of people using this feature, which lets you pick the sites you want to see more of, has grown more than 7x since the start of the year, according to the same post.

AI Overviews have been available in many European countries, including Portugal, Spain and Ireland, since 25 March 2025. Your customers already see AI-written answers before the regular results. The question is no longer only "am I on Google?" but also "am I the link the AI shows?".

What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?

GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of being found and cited by AI assistants: Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity. In practice it is SEO with extra attention to three things:

• Letting each AI's crawlers in, because every company runs its own.
• Answering the question straight away, because the AI looks for sentences it can use.
• Being clear about who you are, where you are and what you do, because the AI needs to trust the source.

If your SEO basics are not sorted yet, start with my guide on the first steps to get Google to find your site. Everything else builds on that.

How do you get a small website into AI answers in 7 steps?

1. Check that Google indexes your pages. Add your site to Google Search Console and use URL Inspection on the pages that matter. For Google, a page can only be a link in an AI answer if it is indexed and eligible to show a snippet.
2. Let AI search crawlers in. In your robots.txt, do not block Googlebot, OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot or Anthropic's Claude-SearchBot. OpenAI puts it plainly: sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.
3. Separate search from training. GPTBot (OpenAI) and ClaudeBot (Anthropic) collect content to train models. You can block them and keep the search crawlers open. They are independent settings, as both companies explain on the pages above.
4. Make one page per service. "Men's haircut in Gaia" on one page, "beard trim" on another. A page about everything answers every question badly.
5. Answer in the first paragraph. If the page is about prices, the price (or range) is in the first lines. Use question-style headings, like this article, and short lists.
6. Put the facts the AI looks for in plain text. Business name, address, service area, opening hours, prices, contacts. As text, not only inside an image. Google recommends keeping important content available in text form.
7. Measure in the right place. Google counts clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode in the Search Console Performance report, under the "Web" search type, together with everything else. There is no separate report (yet), so compare the pages you worked on before and after.

Do I need an llms.txt file or special markup?

For Google, no. The documentation says you do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup, and that there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add for these features.

That does not mean llms.txt or structured data are useless: they may help other assistants understand your site, and structured data still helps with other Google results. But if time is short, spend it on the 7 steps above first. An llms.txt on a site that does not answer customers' questions changes nothing.

Which mistakes make a small business disappear from AI answers?

• Blocking "all AI bots" without reading what each one does. It is common to see robots.txt files copied from the internet that shut out OAI-SearchBot and Claude-SearchBot when the goal was only to stop training.
• A site made of images and vague slogans. "Tailored solutions for your business" answers no question at all.
• Everything on one page. The AI cannot confidently cite a page that covers ten services in three paragraphs.
• Using nosnippet by accident. This tag stops Google from showing snippets, and with it the page can no longer be a link in AI answers.
• Expecting results the next day. Google warns that recrawling a page can take from several days to several months.

Where do I start this week?

Open your site on your phone, as a customer would, and ask three questions you hear all the time: how much does it cost, where are you, how do I book. If the answer to any of them is not on a clear page, that is where you start. Then check robots.txt and Search Console. Half a day of work covers the points that matter most.

If your site needs to be rebuilt with this structure from the start, that is what I do in websites for small businesses: one page per service, copy that answers questions and the technical basics ready for Google and for AI assistants. And if you are unsure about the format, read website or landing page first.

Frequently asked questions

Do Google Ads help me appear in AI Overviews?

There is no official indication of that. The links in AI answers come from pages indexed in Google, and Google's documentation does not list ads as a requirement.

If I block GPTBot, do I disappear from ChatGPT?

Not necessarily. According to OpenAI, GPTBot is for training and OAI-SearchBot is for ChatGPT search. You can block the first and allow the second. OpenAI says a robots.txt change can take about 24 hours to take effect.

How do I know whether AI already cites my site?

Ask your customers' questions in Google, ChatGPT and Claude and see which links show up. In Search Console, track clicks on the pages you worked on, keeping in mind that Google adds this traffic to regular "Web" search traffic.

Is the official pages section already live in my country?

Google describes it as a test and names no countries in its 15 October 2026 announcement. To be ready, the essentials are the same: one clear page for each task a customer wants to complete, such as booking, requesting a quote or buying.