How AI tools decide who to recommend
AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity don't have their own independent database of every tradesman in the country. When they answer a question about local businesses, they're generally drawing on the same underlying information that search engines use: your website content, your Google Business Profile, review platforms, and how consistently your business is described across the web.
This means the same fundamentals that help you rank well in Google also help you get recommended by AI tools. There isn't a separate, competing set of tactics you need to learn from scratch.
What genuinely does help specifically
A few things matter slightly more for AI visibility than for traditional search:
- Content that answers real questions directly and clearly, so a reader, or an AI summarising for a reader, never has to dig for the answer - Structured data, sometimes called schema markup, that helps any system, human or AI, understand what your business does and where - Consistent, verifiable business information across the web, which both Google and AI tools use to judge credibility - Genuine expertise and specificity in your content, since AI tools tend to cite sources that actually say something concrete rather than generic marketing copy
What this doesn't mean
This doesn't mean you need to abandon your existing SEO approach and start over with some new "AI SEO" strategy. It also doesn't mean paying for a separate GEO package on top of your existing SEO work is necessary. The overlap between what ranks well in Google and what gets recommended by AI tools is real, and for most trade businesses, doing standard SEO properly already covers the majority of what AI visibility requires.
Where GEO does need something slightly different, more directly answering specific questions, being structured so an AI can quote a clear answer, being clearly written to establish expertise, that's simply part of how good content gets built anyway. It shouldn't be treated as an entirely separate cost.
Is this actually worth caring about yet
For most trades, AI search still accounts for a smaller share of enquiries than traditional Google search, though that share is growing steadily. It's not yet the primary channel for most trade businesses, but ignoring it entirely means missing a growing slice of how people are starting their search for a tradesman.
The practical answer: build your content and online presence properly, in a way that genuinely helps a real person, and you'll naturally cover most of what AI visibility requires without needing a separate strategy or spend.
If you want to know where your business currently stands, across Google, AI tools, and everywhere else customers might be looking, we offer a free visibility audit that covers all of it. You can also read more in the full SEO guide for tradesmen, which covers GEO alongside every other part of the picture.