How small businesses get cited by AI search: what the evidence says

By Oscar Espinoza, Founder, Alvento | Published 4 October 2026 | 5 min read

There is no secret trick. Google says appearing in its AI answers needs nothing beyond normal Search eligibility, and the one academic study on the topic found real but domain-dependent gains from changing how content is written. For a small business, that means doing the basics well and making your pages easy to quote.

What Google says

Google's documentation states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimizations are necessary. A page needs to be indexed in Google Search and eligible to appear with a snippet. You do not need AI-specific files, markup or schema.

Google's advice for site owners is the familiar list:

Let search crawlers in (check robots.txt).
Link your pages together so they can be found.
Keep the important content as text, not only in images.
Make sure structured data matches what is visible on the page.
Keep your Business Profile information current.

What the research says

The main academic paper on this, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (Aggarwal and colleagues, submitted 2023 and revised 2024), reports that its methods can boost visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%. It also finds that results vary by subject area, so one recipe does not fit every business. The tests ran on the authors' own benchmark, not on live commercial products, so treat the headline figure as a signal, not a promise.

What OpenAI and Microsoft say

OpenAI's help documentation says a site must allow its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and its host or content delivery network must allow traffic from OpenAI's published IP addresses, to be considered for ChatGPT search results. It also says placement is not guaranteed.

Microsoft's guidance on AI search answers recommends clear titles, H1s and headings, content in question-and-answer pairs, lists and tables, schema markup to label content types, measurable facts instead of vague language, and key details in HTML rather than in images or PDFs. It says there is no secret strategy and nothing guarantees selection.

The sources differ on one point. Google says no special markup is needed. Microsoft recommends schema markup as a help, not a guarantee. All three agree there are no guarantees.

What this means in practice

The points below are our judgment, drawn from the sources above, not guaranteed rules.

Be findable first. If your pages are not indexed, nothing else matters. For ChatGPT search, that also means allowing OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot.
Say plainly what you do, for whom, and where. A model quoting you needs a clear sentence to quote.
Put facts on the page. Prices, locations, opening hours, named services, dates. Specific beats vague.
Keep your listings consistent. Business Profile, website and directories should agree.
Write for the question people ask. Pages that answer one question clearly are easier to cite than pages that circle it.
Measure it. Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask, note whether you appear, and repeat monthly.

What to be sceptical of

Anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers. The engines change, the sources are not published, and Google, OpenAI and Microsoft each say there is no guarantee.

How we can help

We offer Answer Engine Optimisation as one of our services, including a review of how your pages read to AI search.

Sources

Sources checked 4 October 2026. Guidance from these companies changes, so check the originals before acting on any detail.

Want to know how your pages read to AI search? We can review it with you. Email hello@alvento.uk, first conversation is free.