LLM optimization: the new SEO every small business needs to learn.

Here's something weird I noticed last month: my 14-year-old daughter doesn't Google anymore. She asks ChatGPT.

"Where should I get my eyebrows done in Williamsburg?" "What's the best brunch in Flatiron?" "Who's a reliable plumber in our neighborhood?"

And she's not alone. ChatGPT has 600+ million weekly users now. A growing share of what used to be Google searches are happening in AI chatbots. If those chatbots don't know about your business, you don't exist to that customer.

This is what people are starting to call LLM optimization. Or GEO (generative engine optimization). Or AEO (answer engine optimization). The name doesn't matter — the game does.

How AI chatbots decide who to recommend

Different from Google. Here's what I've learned by testing this for my own businesses:

1. They scrape the web during training. Anything the AI was trained on, it might cite. So your existing website content matters — but only if it's structured in a way the AI can understand.
2. They use real-time search at inference. Most chatbots now do live web searches when you ask a current question. They search the web, summarize what they find, and answer.
3. They prefer authoritative, recent, well-structured content. Wikipedia. Yelp. Reddit threads. Local "best of" lists. Reviews. They cite these heavily.
4. They ignore SEO games. Keyword stuffing, backlink buying, and most "old SEO" tricks don't move the needle in AI answers. The AI doesn't care.

The 5 things you can do this week

1. Add an FAQ page with schema.org markup. AI loves FAQs. Write 10-15 of the actual questions customers ask you, answer each in 50-100 words, mark it up. Suddenly you're the source AI quotes for those questions.

2. Get into "best of" listicles. Whatever local blog or magazine ranks for "best [your category] in [your city]" — get featured. Email the writer. Buy a sponsorship if you have to. AI cites these listicles constantly.

3. Get reviews on Reddit and Quora. Find threads where people ask "anyone know a good [your service] in [your city]?" — and ethically engage. Your customers can do this for you. Have them post. AI scrapes Reddit aggressively.

4. Update your Wikipedia presence. If your business has any Wikipedia presence — your industry, your category, your owner — make sure it's accurate and complete. Wikipedia is a top citation source for ChatGPT and Claude.

5. Write 1-2 long-form articles a quarter. Not for SEO — for AI. "Common mistakes people make when choosing a [your service]." 1500 words. Real expertise. AI training data is hungry for this.

The "ChatGPT test"

This is the single best thing you can do today. Open ChatGPT and ask:

"What are the best [your business category] in [your city]?"

Three things will happen:

1. Your business is in the recommended list. Congratulations. You're already optimized.
2. Your business isn't in the list, but a competitor is. Now you know who's winning. Go look at their FAQ page, their content, their Reddit presence. Reverse-engineer.
3. The AI gives a generic answer, no specific recommendations. This means the AI doesn't have local data — opportunity to be the FIRST business to populate this category for your city.

Whichever bucket you're in, you have your next move.

The new local SEO triangle

Here's how I think about getting found locally in 2026:

• Google search — still the biggest. Google Business Profile + reviews + mobile site = win.
• Google Maps — for "[service] near me" — same Google Business Profile work moves the needle.
• AI chatbots — the new entrant. FAQ pages + listicle features + Reddit presence = get cited.

You need to be on all three. Five years from now, the third one will probably be the biggest.

The short answer for busy owners

Add an FAQ page. Mark it up with schema.org. Update your Google Business Profile this week. Get into one local "best of" listicle this quarter.

That's not glamorous, but it's how you stay in the conversation when customers stop using Google and start asking AI.

And — full disclosure — at WebsitesDone4u, every site we build comes with this AI-ready structure baked in: schema markup, FAQ pages with answer-engine optimization, fast load times. Not because it's trendy. Because it's what's working.