Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google for "a good physio in Los Cristianos who speaks English", "a vegan-friendly restaurant in La Laguna" or "a dentist in Costa Adeje that takes Sanitas", and you'll get an answer written by an AI. Sometimes it names specific businesses and links to their websites. Sometimes it summarises without crediting anyone.
If you run a business on the island, the question that matters is this: when someone asks about what you do, do you show up, or does someone else? I'm not going to sell you tricks. I'll walk you through what Google, OpenAI and Perplexity say in their own documentation for website owners, what gets sold as "AI SEO" with nothing behind it, and what you can check yourself this week without spending money. Every claim comes with a link so you can check it.
How do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google find your website?
There's no single "AI index". Each service finds websites in its own way, and it helps to keep them apart:
- Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode). It draws on its own search index. In its guide to AI features in Search, Google explains that to appear as a link in those answers, a page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google with a text snippet. There are no additional requirements.
- ChatGPT. OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot to show websites in ChatGPT's search features. In its crawler documentation it recommends allowing it in your robots.txt file, and warns that sites blocking it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, although they can still appear as plain navigational links.
- Perplexity. It has its own crawler, PerplexityBot. According to its documentation, it's there to show and link websites in Perplexity's results and isn't used to train AI models. Perplexity also recommends allowing it in your robots.txt.
The practical consequence is simple: if your site can't be crawled or isn't indexed, none of these tools will link to it. And Google says it plainly in that same guide: the usual SEO best practices still apply to its AI features. The basics don't change; what changes is where people read the result.
What can you do to show up in AI answers?
1. Check you're not shutting anyone out
Type yourdomain.com/robots.txt into your browser. If you see "Disallow: /" under "User-agent: *", or under OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, you're asking that crawler to stay out of every page on your site. It's worth checking whenever you change website or platform.
One detail that trips people up: OpenAI has a second crawler, GPTBot, which collects content that may be used to train its models. According to OpenAI, each setting is independent: you can block GPTBot if you don't want your site used for training, and still allow OAI-SearchBot so you show up in ChatGPT search. If you change your robots.txt, OpenAI says its systems take around 24 hours to pick it up, and Perplexity says up to 24 hours.
2. Keep your Google Business Profile complete and up to date
Google has a guide to optimising websites for its generative AI features. It says its AI answers can include information about local businesses, and that your Google Business Profile can help your products and services be visible both in those answers and in other search results.
In its help page on local ranking, Google explains that local results depend on three factors: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance and prominence (how well known the business is, which takes into account things like the websites linking to yours and your reviews). It also makes clear that you can't request or pay for a better local ranking. In practice: the right primary category, a description that says what you do and where, real opening hours (holidays included), current photos and replies to reviews. I go through it step by step in my Google Business Profile guide for Tenerife.
If your profile is abandoned and you don't have time to revive it, the Google Business Profile Rescue (in Spanish) exists exactly for this.
3. Write what only you can write
In that optimisation guide, Google keeps coming back to content that isn't generic: your own expert or first-hand take that goes beyond what everybody already knows. In its AI features guide it sums this up as helpful, reliable, people-first content.
For a local business this is easier than it sounds, because nobody knows your business like you do. A page called "Physiotherapy services" with a list of treatments looks like plenty of others. One that explains what happens at the first session, how long it lasts, which languages you work in, whether there's parking nearby and what to bring answers the questions a customer asks before booking. Write the questions the way your customer would ask them, and answer them properly.
4. Ask for reviews, and for reviews that say something
On that same local ranking page, Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. Ask your happy customers for a review and, if you like, suggest they mention what they liked: that the physio speaks English, that they were seen the same day, that the premises have wheelchair access. That helps the next customer reading your profile.
What you can't do: under Google's fake engagement policy, paid reviews, offering discounts, freebies or services in exchange for a review, and posting content that isn't based on a real experience are all prohibited. Google says that content will be removed.
5. Structured data: useful, but not required
Structured data (the Schema.org vocabulary, usually in JSON-LD format) is a standard way of telling a search engine "this is a barbershop, this is the address, these are the opening hours". In its introduction to structured data, Google explains that it uses it to understand the content of a page, that it recommends JSON-LD, and that you shouldn't mark up information users can't see on the page, even if it's accurate.
Now the important bit, because there's a lot of hot air sold here: Google says in so many words that structured data isn't required for generative AI search and that there's no special Schema.org markup you need to add. If your address and hours are written clearly on your site, Google can read them. What it does recommend is to keep using structured data as part of your normal SEO, because it makes you eligible for rich results, and to make sure it matches the visible text on the page.
For a local business, the LocalBusiness type (or a more specific one, like Restaurant or HairSalon) with name, address, phone and opening hours is little work. It's what I did on the Santos Barbertop website: it uses the HairSalon type with the name, address, phone and opening hours, the same ones you can read on the page, plus links to its Instagram, Facebook and Google Maps profiles.
Two types I recommended myself in the first version of this article need correcting:
- Review. Marking up, on your own site, reviews about your own business won't get you stars in Google. In its review snippet guidelines, Google says that if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages using LocalBusiness or any other type of Organization markup aren't eligible for stars. It also doesn't allow you to aggregate ratings from other websites.
- FAQPage. It used to show expandable questions under your search result. According to Google's documentation changelog, that rich result stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026. A good FAQ section is still useful for people reading your site; the markup just no longer produces that result in Google.
6. Get talked about outside your own site, for real
Google's optimisation guide says its AI features can show what's being said about products and services across the web, in blogs, videos and forums, but that chasing inauthentic "mentions" isn't as helpful as it might seem: its core ranking systems focus on high-quality content and other systems block spam. The mentions that count are the ones you earn: a story in the local press, an article on a local blog, a listing in a directory for your sector with complete and correct details.
And Wikipedia? Some people recommend "getting a Wikipedia page". For a small business that's usually not realistic. English Wikipedia's notability guideline for companies requires significant coverage in multiple reliable, secondary sources that are independent of the company, and makes clear that attention solely from local media doesn't establish notability, and neither do directory listings or paid articles and press releases. A local business usually doesn't meet that bar. Your time goes much further on your Google profile and your website.
What's noise
- llms.txt files and "special AI markup". Google says in its guide that you don't need AI text files, or special markup or Markdown, to appear in its search, because Google Search doesn't use them: having them neither helps nor hurts. If another service you care about uses them, you can keep them, but don't expect anything from Google for it.
- Rewriting your site "for AI". According to the same guide, you don't need to write in a special way for AI search, or chop your content into tiny pieces so AI understands it. Write for your customers.
- Filling your site with generic text, whether FAQs or articles, written by you or by an AI. It's the exact opposite of the original content Google asks for.
- Buying reviews or mentions. Paid reviews break Google's policy, which says it removes them, and inauthentic mentions, according to Google, aren't as helpful as they might seem.
- "Optimising for ChatGPT" by putting its name on your site. What OpenAI asks of website owners in its documentation is to allow OAI-SearchBot. I see no reason to think mentioning ChatGPT in your copy does anything.
- Services that guarantee you'll show up in AI answers. Google doesn't let you pay for a better local ranking, and its guide says there are no special optimisations for its AI. If someone sells you guaranteed "ranking in ChatGPT", ask them to explain exactly what they'll do and compare it with this list.
How do you check whether you show up in AI answers?
Before you spend time or money, open Perplexity or ChatGPT (with search switched on) and ask three questions the way a customer of yours would. For example, if you ran a restaurant in Los Cristianos: "best vegan restaurant in Los Cristianos", "good lunch menu in Los Cristianos", "where can I eat with kids in Los Cristianos". Do the same on Google and see whether an AI answer appears. Note whether you show up, whether you're described well, or whether you're not there at all.
Two caveats when you read the results. Answers can change from one day to the next and from one person to another, so repeat the test a few times before drawing conclusions. And if you use Google Search Console, Google explains in its AI features guide that visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in your overall search traffic, in the Performance report, under the "Web" search type. You won't see them as a separate line.
If you don't show up, this is what I'd check, in order: that your site can be crawled and indexed, that your Google profile is complete, that you have recent reviews, and that your site says clearly what you do, where, and in which languages.
How I do it
When I build a website for a Tenerife business, the basics (what it is, where it is, opening hours, phone, languages) are written on the page for anyone to read, and also in structured data that matches that text, as on the Santos Barbertop site. If you'd also like me to manage your Google profile, that's part of the Plan Teide Completo. And if you want sourced figures on Tenerife's digital market (tourism, languages, web speed), they're on the data page.
What I find fair about all this: according to its own documentation, Google isn't asking for tricks for its AI search, it's asking for the same things as always. If you run a good business and describe it clearly, on your website and on your profile, you're already doing what the platforms ask for.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to have AI recommend me?
Not in Google's organic results: its help page says you can't pay for a better local ranking, and its AI guide says there are no special requirements or optimisations to appear. In the OpenAI and Perplexity documentation linked above, what they ask of websites is to let their crawlers in. Advertising is a separate product. If someone sells you a guaranteed spot in AI answers, be wary.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
For Google, no. Its guide says Google Search doesn't use those files and that having them neither helps nor hurts. If another service you care about uses them, you can keep one, but it's not a priority for a local business.
If I block GPTBot, do I disappear from ChatGPT?
Not necessarily. OpenAI explains that GPTBot (training) and OAI-SearchBot (search) are set separately: you can block the first and allow the second. What takes you out of ChatGPT search answers is blocking OAI-SearchBot.
How do I know if I'm getting visits from Google's AI answers?
In Search Console they're included in the Performance report, under the "Web" search type, together with the rest of your Google traffic. Google counts them as part of overall search traffic, so you won't see them separately in that report.
