How a small business in India can show up in AI answers

AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) are two names for the same idea: making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity to find, understand and mention when someone asks a question. For a small business in India, it is mostly good local SEO done properly, plus a few cheap extras.

One honest line before anything else. Nobody can guarantee that an AI tool will mention your business. The companies behind these tools don't publish a full recipe, so anyone selling a guaranteed AI ranking is guessing.

Below, we cover what the official documents say about how sources get picked, what is still unknown, and a 10-point checklist you can screenshot and work through yourself.

Answer engine optimization means shaping your pages so a tool can pull a clear answer from them. Generative engine optimization means the same thing for tools that write a fresh answer in their own words, and then link to a few sources.

You'll also see “AI search optimization” and “LLMO” used. They're all marketing labels for one job. When a customer types “best bridal makeup artist in Kukatpally” into ChatGPT instead of Google, you'd like your studio to be one of the names that comes back, with correct details.

Here is what we could verify from the companies' own documentation.

• Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google says a page needs to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet to appear as a supporting link, and that there are no additional technical requirements. It also says no special optimization, new file or special schema markup is needed for these features. See Google's own page on AI features and your website.
• ChatGPT search. OpenAI has a crawler called OAI-SearchBot that powers search results in ChatGPT. If your robots.txt blocks it, your site won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though it can still appear as a plain link. OpenAI's bot documentation explains each crawler.
• Perplexity. It runs PerplexityBot to index sites for its search results, and says that bot is not used to train AI models. A second agent, Perplexity-User, fetches a page when a person asks a question, and generally ignores robots.txt for that reason.

A lot. None of them publish how they weigh one source against another, how much reviews count, or why a business appears for one person and not for the next. Answers also change from day to day and from person to person.

So treat any claim like “do these 7 things and ChatGPT will recommend you” with suspicion. What we can say is that the basics which help you in Google Search and Google Maps are also the basics these tools can read. The rest is cheap enough to do anyway.

Start here, because it takes ten minutes. Open yourwebsite.com/robots.txt in a browser and look at it.

Some website setups and security plugins block bots by default, and the owner never knows. If you want to appear in ChatGPT or Perplexity search results, make sure you aren't blocking OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. Blocking GPTBot only opts you out of model training, which is a separate choice, and OpenAI says the two settings work independently.

Changes aren't instant. OpenAI says robots.txt updates can take around 24 hours to be picked up.

AI tools quote short, clear passages. If your page makes people scroll through a story before it says what you do, there is nothing tidy to quote.

Say you run a salon in KPHB. Your page for bridal makeup should say in its first lines what you offer, which areas you serve, your price range or how you quote, and how to book. Then add a real FAQ below it, using the questions customers already send on WhatsApp: “Do you travel to the venue?”, “How early should I book for a Sankranti wedding?”, “Do you use branded products?”

Write them in your own words. Copy-pasted generic answers help nobody. If you run a clinic, keep it factual: qualifications, services, timings, location and booking, with no cure claims or treatment-result testimonials, in line with India's NMC rules.

Our website guide for small businesses shows how we lay out these pages.

Structured data (schema markup) is a block of code that labels your name, address, hours and FAQs so machines read them without guessing. It's cheap, it's standard practice, and it must match what is visible on the page. But Google says no special schema is needed for AI features, so don't expect it to work magic.

llms.txt is a plain text file some people place on a site to summarise it for AI tools. It is optional, and it is not a proven ranking factor. Google's John Mueller has said such files can't be used to decide which sites to surface, and Google's documentation tells site owners they don't need new AI text files. Add one if it costs you nothing. Don't pay anyone for it.

We can't prove how much weight any AI tool gives them, so we won't pretend. The reasoning is simple, though. These tools read the open web. If your name, address and phone number match across your Google profile, your website, Instagram and a few reputable directories, there is less for a tool to get wrong. If three places show three different phone numbers, you're asking for a wrong answer.

Genuine reviews help your Google Maps ranking anyway, and Maps is where most local customers look. Never buy fake ones. Our Google Business Profile guide covers how to ask for real reviews politely.

Screenshot this and tick them off over a couple of weeks.

• 1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: categories, hours, services, photos, a short description.
• 2. Keep your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere it appears.
• 3. Check yourwebsite.com/robots.txt and don't block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot.
• 4. Make sure Google can index your key pages, and that they load on a phone.
• 5. Put the direct answer in the first lines of each service page.
• 6. Add a real FAQ with questions your customers actually ask.
• 7. Add structured data for your business details, matching the visible text.
• 8. List your business on reputable directories and local sites that fit your trade.
• 9. Collect genuine reviews and reply to them.
• 10. Test monthly: ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google your customers' questions, and note what comes back. Results vary, so look for a pattern, not one lucky screenshot.

Do points 1 to 3 first. They're free, take an afternoon, and help your Google ranking too. Our local SEO checklist goes deeper on the same groundwork, and if you're curious how marketing gets done with AI in the team, read about AI marketing for small businesses in Hyderabad.

If the website part is what's holding you back, we can look at it with you. Ask us for a free website preview and you'll see a working version before you commit, with no obligation.