AI search optimization for local businesses.

What this is

AI search optimization is the work of making a business the answer an AI assistant gives. It’s also called AI SEO, or GEO (generative engine optimization), and for a local business it sits on top of ordinary local SEO: the same name, address, hours, services and prices, stated so plainly that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews can repeat them without guessing. Signal does it for independent businesses, from Brooklyn.

The full definition, and how it differs from SEO, is on What is GEO? This page is about the work itself: what the engines say they need, what Signal builds, what it costs, and what is on record so far.

What a customer asks an AI, and what has to be true for you to be named

A customer doesn’t ask an AI assistant for “a business.” They ask for one that does the specific thing, near them, on the day they need it, for the plan or price they have. The assistant answers by finding pages that state those things plainly, and it names the businesses whose pages do.

Prompts stack conditions: a service, a place, a plan or price, a day, a language. Every condition has to be answered somewhere the assistant can read. The prompts below are illustrations of the kind a customer types, not measured search data.

The prompt	What the assistant has to find	The page or field that answers it
optometrist in Crown Heights Brooklyn that takes Medicaid	Whether the plan is accepted	The insurance page, plan by plan (optometrists)
physical therapist in Sheepshead Bay open Saturday	Saturday hours	openingHoursSpecification, matched by the Business Profile hours (physical therapists)
chiropractor in Bensonhurst that takes no-fault	Whether no-fault is accepted	The insurance page’s no-fault section (chiropractors)
[service] near [cross street] that speaks Russian	Languages spoken, in text	Service and staff pages, plus knowsLanguage
BJJ private lessons Brooklyn	The service named, and how to book it	A page for the service, and a booking link

A homepage with a phone number answers none of these. A page per question does. That was optional for a decade of blue links; it isn’t for a system that has to quote you to recommend you. The industry pages work the prompts through for their own field.

What Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity say about being in their answers

None of this is secret. The companies that run the engines publish what they need from a website, and it’s worth reading in their own words before paying anyone, this agency included.

• Google. Its Search Central page on AI features and your website says: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” The same page says a page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet, and that no new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup are needed for these features.
• OpenAI. Its crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot “is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features.” Sites that opt out of it aren’t shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.
• Anthropic. Its help centre says that disabling Claude-SearchBot “may reduce your site’s visibility and accuracy in user search results.”
• Perplexity. Its documentation says “PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity.”
• Google Business Profile. Google’s help page on local ranking says: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”

Read together, most of this is SEO done properly. The engines need to be let in, to find a page that answers the question, and to find the same facts wherever they look. There’s no secret file and no paid placement inside the answer. What separates the businesses that get named is whether those basics are actually done, for every question a customer asks.

Quoted from each company’s own documentation as of 4 October 2026. Documentation changes; the links go to the current versions.

What Signal builds

• Access. A robots.txt that lets the search crawlers in (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot), and pages that render without JavaScript. Signal’s own robots.txt does exactly this; you can open it.
• One page per question. Services, insurance or prices, hours, the people, the area: each on its own URL, written in the customer’s words, with answers an engine can lift whole. See how to write an FAQ section an engine can lift.
• Facts stated twice, in text and in markup. LocalBusiness with the most specific accurate subtype (a chiropractic practice is MedicalBusiness, not Physician, and the chiropractor page explains why), plus openingHoursSpecification, areaServed, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList. The markup matches the visible text. Every build is run through Google’s Rich Results Test before launch and fixed until it’s error-free. Validated is the word: the test proves eligibility, and whether Google displays an enhancement is Google’s call. The method is in auditing structured data with the Rich Results Test.
• The same facts everywhere. The Google Business Profile, the main directories and the site agree: one name, one address, one phone number. See which profile fields decide which prompts you’re eligible for.
• A record. Each prompt that matters to the business is checked and logged with a date, including when it isn’t cited. Signal keeps its own on the evidence ledger.

Signal ships an llms.txt file on every build because it’s cheap and harmless. Google says it isn’t needed for its AI features, so it isn’t sold as a lever. (The format was proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024.) The package and its contents are on the homepage.

Industry pages, where the details live

The method is the same everywhere; the facts aren’t. Each industry page states its field’s rules from the source and says exactly what proof it has.

The method is the same for any independent business that customers ask about by name: martial-arts instructors (the BJJ case), studios, clinics, shops. If your industry doesn’t have a page yet, the audit is where it starts.

What Signal has shown so far

Nostrand Optical — optometry. An independent practice on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Signal rebuilt the site with LocalBusiness, MedicalBusiness and FAQPage markup, and validated four rich-result types in Google’s Rich Results Test on launch day. The full write-up shows what was built and what is on record. The live site is nostrandoptical.com, and the industry version of this page is AI search optimization for optometrists.

Brooklyn BJJ Lessons — martial arts. The founder’s own practice: a one-page booking site with Person and LocalBusiness markup and a verified Business Profile. ChatGPT first cited it 41 days after launch.

The prompts for both were checked by hand and logged on 8 Sep 2026, and the BJJ prompt again on 28 Sep 2026. Each row is one check on one day, not a ranking, and the misses sit next to the hits:

Single-day spot checks, 8 and 28 Sep 2026. Not a rate, not a promise. Transcripts and screenshots on the evidence ledger.

Checked	Industry	Engine	Prompt	Result
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	ChatGPT	optometrist in Crown Heights Brooklyn that takes Medicaid	Cited — second of four named, with the correct address and phone
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	Perplexity	optometrist in Crown Heights Brooklyn that takes Medicaid	Cited — named first; nostrandoptical.com was the cited source
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	Google AI Overviews	optometrist in Crown Heights Brooklyn that takes Medicaid	Cited — one of two practices listed; both sources were Nostrand’s own pages
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	Gemini	optometrist in Crown Heights Brooklyn that takes Medicaid	Not cited
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	ChatGPT	eye doctor near Nostrand Avenue Brooklyn open Saturday	Cited — first of five, with Saturday hours quoted from the site
8 Sep 2026	Optometry	ChatGPT	best optometrist in Brooklyn	Not cited — the six practices named were all rated 4.7–4.9 with 179–564 reviews
8 Sep 2026	Martial arts	ChatGPT	BJJ private lessons Brooklyn	Cited — first of five, named as the pick
28 Sep 2026	Martial arts	ChatGPT, signed out (iPhone Safari)	BJJ private lessons Brooklyn	Cited — listed first of six, with the site as the source

The misses teach as much as the hits. For “best optometrist in Brooklyn,” ratings and review volume decided the answer, and a website can’t buy that. Gemini didn’t name Nostrand for the Medicaid prompt at all. This page summarises; the evidence ledger is the record, with the prompt, the engine, the date, what came back, and a screenshot or transcript when there is one.

Who should hire what: an SEO agency, a GEO agency, a tool, or nobody

Not every business needs an agency for this. A plain guide:

• Do it yourself if your site is small and you’ll keep your Business Profile, hours and services current. The engines’ own documentation, quoted above, is the checklist.
• A software tool if you want to monitor what the assistants say about you and can make the fixes yourself.
• A large SEO or GEO agency if you’re a multi-location brand, or a B2B company with an editorial team to feed.
• Signal if you’re an independent business that wants the site, the markup, the profile and the listings done by one person, at a published price, with a dated record.

Whoever you talk to, ask to see a dated result, including the misses, and ask what they’ll do if the assistant still doesn’t name you. Signal’s own answers are on the evidence ledger.

How the work runs, and what it costs

• 1. A free AI search check. Send a two-minute form; I ask the AI assistants what a customer in your area would ask, and reply in writing within one business day with what they answer and who they name. Get your free AI check.
• 2. Written findings. If the findings point to work worth doing, I’ll propose it. If they don’t, you keep the audit and I’ll say so.
• 3. The build — from $2,500. The site, the structured data, the Business Profile, the listings. Larger builds — multiple locations, 12+ pages — go up to $5,000.
• 4. The retainer — from $650 a month. Site care, fixes and changes, Search Console and indexing oversight, gated articles under your business’s byline, reporting, and the evidence ledger kept current.

The number is in writing before anything starts. The package is on the homepage.

Articles under your name, gated. On the retainer, Signal publishes articles that answer the questions your customers ask, on a schedule. Every article is checked automatically against a written rubric of what your business may claim before it can publish: no invented customers, no statistic without a named source, no outcome claims. An article without an outbound citation doesn’t publish, and one that fails the rubric is held back.

Brooklyn-based, available across the tri-state

Signal is based in Brooklyn, and the focus is close to home: South Brooklyn — Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Bensonhurst — and Crown Heights, where the named optometry case is. The Brooklyn page works through the borough neighbourhood by neighbourhood, with dated answers from four AI engines.

Signal is also available to businesses in the other New York City boroughs, on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk), in Northern New Jersey and in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The work is remote; the prompts are local, so every page is written for the neighbourhood your customers actually type.

Questions owners ask

Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend us?

No, and be careful of anyone who says they can. Signal builds the pages an assistant needs in order to name you, then records what the assistants actually return, by prompt and by date, on the public evidence ledger, including the prompts where you aren’t named. You see the same rows I do.

What does it cost?

A build starts at $2,500, and larger builds (multiple locations, 12+ pages) go up to $5,000. The retainer starts at $650 a month. The number is in writing before anything starts.

Do I need a new website?

Usually we recommend a new build, but we can work on your existing site. The free audit shows what the assistants say about you now and what’s missing, and the proposal says which route fits and why.

What’s the difference between AI search optimization, AI SEO, GEO and local SEO?

AI search optimization, AI SEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) are three names for the same work: making a business something AI assistants can find, trust and quote. Local SEO is the older discipline of showing up in Google’s local results and map listings. For a local business the two overlap heavily, because both depend on the same facts stated the same way everywhere. There’s a longer explanation on the What is GEO? page.

How will I know if it’s working?

Every prompt that matters to you is checked on a date and logged, cited or not, on the same kind of ledger Signal keeps for itself on its evidence page.

Do you work with businesses outside Brooklyn?

Yes. Brooklyn is home, but Signal is available to businesses across New York City, Long Island, Northern New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut. The work — service pages, structured data, Business Profile, listings — happens remotely.

How long until AI assistants mention us?

There’s no honest promise to make. The one timing figure Signal publishes comes from martial arts: Brooklyn BJJ Lessons, a martial-arts instructor and the founder’s own practice, was first cited by ChatGPT 41 days after launch. Businesses differ, prompts differ, and the evidence ledger shows what has actually happened, with dates.