Ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for “the best aesthetic clinic in Jumeirah” or “a creative agency in Dubai for a perfume launch”, and you will not get ten blue links. You will get an answer, with a few names in it. If your brand is not one of those names, you are invisible to a growing number of customers. Welcome to AI search.
For twenty years, being found online meant ranking on Google. That still matters. But people now also ask AI assistants to compare, recommend and summarise for them, and Google itself shows AI-written overviews above many results. The new question for every brand is simple: when an AI answers a question about your industry, does it mention you?
How AI assistants decide what to recommend
AI assistants build answers from what they can read and trust: websites, reviews, directories, news articles, social profiles and structured information. They favour sources that are clear, consistent and repeated across the web. In other words, they reward the same things good marketing always rewarded, but they read everything at once.
Clarity
Pages that say plainly who you are, what you do, where and for whom.
Consistency
The same name, address, services and story everywhere online.
Authority
Reviews, press mentions, partnerships and expert content.
Structure
FAQs, headings and schema markup that machines can understand.
Seven ways to get your brand mentioned by AI
- Answer real questions on your website. Write pages and FAQs that answer what customers actually ask: prices, process, locations, comparisons. AI assistants love direct answers.
- Be specific about who and where. “Luxury event agency in Dubai for fashion and fragrance launches” is far easier to match than “we offer creative solutions”.
- Keep your details identical everywhere. Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Instagram, directories and your website should share the same name, address, phone and description.
- Collect reviews and respond to them. Reviews are one of the strongest public signals of trust, for people and for machines.
- Earn mentions on trusted sites. Interviews, case studies, industry lists and local media all strengthen your authority.
- Use structured data. Schema markup for your organisation, services, FAQs and articles tells search engines exactly what each page is about.
- Publish expert content regularly. Articles like this one show what you know and give AI assistants something useful to quote.
SEO helped people find your website. AI search decides whether your name is part of the answer.
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What not to do
Works
- Honest, detailed answers
- Real reviews and case studies
- Clear service and location pages
- Consistent brand information
Backfires
- Stuffing pages with keywords
- Fake reviews or invented claims
- Thin pages copied from competitors
- Different names and numbers on every profile
Classic SEO is not dead
AI search does not replace Google. It adds a layer on top of it. Fast websites, good structure, local SEO and helpful content still form the foundation, and many AI tools rely on search results to build their answers. The brands that win in the next few years will be the ones that do both well.
Is your brand part of the answer?
We optimise websites and profiles for Google and for AI search.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI search optimisation?
It is the work of making your brand easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to understand, trust and recommend. Some people call it GEO (generative engine optimisation).
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Recommendations in AI answers cannot be bought directly. They come from the information available about your brand across the web.
How long does it take to see results?
It depends on your starting point and your market. Clear website content and consistent profiles can be improved quickly; authority and reviews build over months.
