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What Is AI SEO? How to Get Your Business Found on ChatGPT and Perplexity

By Ahmad Jamhour, Founder — AMJ Marketing Group·

Google is no longer the only search engine that matters. A growing number of people — especially younger consumers — are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overview for recommendations instead of scrolling through search results. If your business isn't optimised for these platforms, you're invisible to an entire generation of potential customers. For our dedicated Search & AI marketing service, see the full page.

What Is AI SEO?

AI SEO is the practice of structuring your website, schema markup, and online presence so that AI-powered tools can find, understand, and recommend your business. It's different from traditional SEO in one key way: AI models don't just rank pages, they synthesise information and generate answers. Your business needs to be in the data those models train on and retrieve from.

Why It Matters for Restaurants and Local Businesses

When someone asks ChatGPT "best halal restaurant in NJ" or asks Perplexity "top social media agencies in New Jersey," the answer it generates is based on what it can find and verify about your business online. If your website has no schema markup, no crawlable NAP data, and no structured content about your services, you won't appear in those answers.

Three Things You Can Do Right Now

  1. 01Add LocalBusiness schema markup to your website. This tells AI crawlers your name, address, phone number, hours, and what you do.
  2. 02Add FAQPage schema. AI models pull heavily from structured Q&A content when generating answers.
  3. 03Make sure your Google Business Profile is fully populated and consistent with your website NAP.

The Difference Between Google SEO and AI SEO

Traditional Google SEO is about ranking in a list of blue links. AI SEO is about becoming the answer. The goal shifts from "appear on page one" to "be the business the AI recommends when someone asks."

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AI SEO?

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The practice of structuring your website, schema markup, and online presence so AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can find, understand, and recommend your business in generated answers.

How is AI SEO different from traditional Google SEO?

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Traditional SEO aims to rank in a list of links; AI SEO aims to be the answer the model generates and recommends when someone asks a question.

What can a business do right now to improve AI SEO?

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Add LocalBusiness schema markup, add FAQPage schema for structured Q&A, and ensure the Google Business Profile is fully populated and consistent with the website's NAP data.

Why does AI SEO matter for local businesses?

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A growing share of consumers — especially younger ones — ask AI tools for recommendations instead of scrolling search results, so businesses absent from that data are invisible to them.

AMJ Marketing Group is a digital marketing agency in Little Falls, NJ serving businesses across New Jersey and NYC. Book a free strategy call or call (973) 200-0233.