The short answer
Nobody can guarantee that ChatGPT, Google's AI answers or any other assistant will name your business. What you can do is make your business easy to find, easy to verify and easy to quote: the same details everywhere, a real About page, service pages that answer the questions buyers actually ask, detailed reviews, listings on third-party sites, structured data, and a regular check of what the assistants say about you. That is what AI search visibility and generative engine optimisation mean for a small business, and most of it is good search practice done with extra care for facts.
We offer a fixed-quote audit that lists what to fix, in order, and a monthly check where we hand test 20 buyer questions across the main assistants and report what changed. We are a US-based company with remote teams, including senior engineers in Kampala on East Africa Time (UTC+3). It sits alongside our wider SEO services for small business, because the two share the same foundations.
What you control, and what you do not
An assistant answers from a mix of what it learned in training, what it finds when it searches the web, and what other sites say about you. You do not control the model. You do control the evidence it can find. These are the parts that matter, roughly in the order we work through them.
- Consistent business details. Your name, address, phone number, opening hours, services and website written the same way on your site, your Google Business Profile, your Bing listing, directories and social profiles. Conflicts make an assistant hedge or leave you out.
- A real About page. Who runs the business, where you operate, how long you have been doing it, named people, and how to reach them. Assistants and buyers both look for proof that a real business sits behind the site.
- Question-style service pages. One page per service, built around the questions a buyer asks, with the answer in the first two sentences, then the detail: how pricing works, how long it takes, who it is not for.
- Reviews with detail. A review that says what was done, for whom and what happened is worth far more than "great service". Ask for them, reply to them, and never buy or write fake ones.
- Third-party listings. Industry directories, trade bodies, local press and partner sites that mention you with the same details. An assistant trusts a fact more when it appears in more than one independent place.
- Structured data. Schema markup for your organisation, services and common questions, matching what is visible on the page. It helps machines read your site. It does not force a mention.
- A monthly hand test. Twenty real buyer questions, asked across assistants, recorded and compared month to month.
What you do not control
You cannot control which sources a given assistant prefers on a given day, whether it names anyone at all, or how answers shift after a model update. Answers also vary by wording, location and account. Anyone who promises a fixed position inside ChatGPT is guessing, or selling something else.
How to appear in AI Overviews, and why Bing matters
Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on Google Search. As far as Google's public guidance goes, there is no special tag or form for them: your pages need to be indexed, useful, clear and trustworthy enough to rank for the question. So the route to appearing there is the same strong foundation described above, plus clear, quotable answers near the top of each page.
Bing plays a bigger part than most owners expect. ChatGPT's search feature draws on third-party search providers, and Bing is one of them, although OpenAI does not say how much it relies on each. Microsoft Copilot is grounded in Bing results. A site that is missing from Bing, or that has stale details in its Bing listing, can be invisible to part of the AI layer even when Google looks fine.
The fix is cheap and mostly one-off: verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap, and claim your Bing Places listing with exactly the same details as your Google Business Profile. If you are not sure the basics are even in place, start with why your website may not be on Google.
The monthly hand test of 20 buyer questions
You cannot improve what you do not look at, and one automated score hides too much. Answers differ by wording, place and account, so we test by hand and read the answers like a buyer would.
How it works
- Write 20 questions in your buyers' own words. A mix of "best [service] in [place]", "how much does [service] cost", "who can help with [problem]", "[option A] or [option B]", and "is [your business] any good".
- Ask each one across the main assistants. ChatGPT, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Bing and Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity.
- Record four things. Whether you are named, whether the description is correct, which sources are cited, and which competitors appear instead.
- Trace wrong answers to a source. A wrong phone number or an old price almost always comes from an outdated listing or page, and that is usually fixable.
- Repeat monthly with the same questions. Add a few new ones each time. Judge the trend over several months, not one answer on one day.
Because any one answer can change from run to run, we read patterns rather than single results. If a fix takes hold, it shows as a steadier mention, a correct description or a new cited source, and we tell you plainly when nothing has moved yet. How long that takes depends on your market and starting point, much as it does for ordinary search.
Audit, monthly check and what it costs
You can start with the audit alone, add the monthly check, or do the whole list yourself. The table shows the options, including the free one.
| Option | Our price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly hand test and report | per month | The 20-question test across assistants, a log of what changed, and the next fixes in order. |
| Audit and ranked fix list | Fixed quote before work starts | A review of your details, About page, service pages, reviews, listings, structured data and Bing and Google setup, with the fixes ranked by impact. |
| Do it yourself | Free, your time | Use the list on this page and run the 20-question test yourself each month. |
Every job starts with a fixed quote you see before work begins, paid 50/25/25, and you own the code and the data. A US team member joins your video calls, and our Kampala team's East Africa Time hours overlap the UK and European working day and the start of the US East Coast day. We have 37 live website and app builds on our portfolio, which shows how we build the pages this work depends on.
When not to hire us
We would rather tell you now than after you have paid.
- You want a guaranteed mention. We cannot offer one, and neither can anyone else.
- Your site has no real service pages yet. If the site is a single page with no About page and no pricing information, fix that first. A rebuild or the free list above will do more than an audit.
- You have no reviews and no history online. Winning your first genuine reviews and a handful of listings is the better first spend.
- You already work with a good SEO agency. Ask them to run the 20-question test. If they will, you may not need us.
- You need a result in a few weeks. Corrected listings can be picked up quickly, but earning a steady place in answers takes longer, and we will not pretend otherwise.
If none of those fit, the next step is simple: send us your website and your main service, and we will say honestly where you stand. You can also read about the company first.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
We cannot guarantee it, and nobody honestly can. We make your business easier for assistants to find, verify and quote, then test 20 buyer questions by hand each month and report what changed.
How much does the audit and monthly check cost?
The monthly hand test and report starts from per month. The audit is a fixed quote you see before any work starts, with payments split 50/25/25.
Is generative engine optimisation different from SEO?
It overlaps heavily. Indexed, clear, trustworthy pages with consistent business details, good reviews and third-party mentions help in both. The extra work is checking facts across the web and testing what assistants actually say about you.
Why does Bing matter for AI search?
ChatGPT's search feature draws on third-party search providers, Bing among them, and Microsoft Copilot is grounded in Bing results. A site missing from Bing, or with stale details in its listing, can be invisible to part of the AI layer. Verifying your site and claiming your Bing listing is cheap and quick.
Can a team in Kampala work with my time zone?
Yes. The Kampala team works East Africa Time (UTC+3), which overlaps the UK and European working day and the start of the US East Coast day, and a US team member joins your video calls.