What Happened
Search Engine Journal published a guide on 9 September 2026, contributed by Reviewly AI, on how local businesses can get recommended by ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews inside 90 days. The piece sets out why some local businesses stand out in AI-generated answers while competitors offering the same service do not appear at all.
The context matters more than the headline. Assistants such as ChatGPT and features such as AI Overviews do not return a ranked list of ten links. They assemble a short answer, and for local queries that answer is usually built from indexed web pages, business listing data, review content and third-party mentions. If a business is missing or inconsistent across those inputs, it has nothing to be assembled from.
For a UK reader, the practical version of the question is simple. When someone types “best accountant in Croydon” into an assistant instead of Google, does your firm get named?
Where to start if you want to be named in AI answers
Begin with your data, not with software. Check that your name, address, phone number and opening hours match exactly across your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, your own website and the major UK directories you already appear in. Assistants tend to reflect the consensus across sources, so contradictory hours or an old office address dilute you.
Then look at what you actually publish. Assistants quote text that answers a question directly, so a page that states your service area, your pricing model and your typical turnaround in plain sentences is easier to cite than a page of positioning copy. Review content works the same way. Recent reviews that mention the specific service, not just “great team”, give an assistant something concrete to repeat.
Measurement is the step most firms skip. Set up referral tracking in GA4 so you can see sessions arriving from assistant domains, and record a monthly manual check of five or six buying-intent prompts for your sector and area. That baseline is what tells you whether anything is working. Our AI marketing services usually start with that audit rather than with tooling, because no single AI tool fixes inconsistent listing data.
Be realistic about the clock. A 90-day window is enough to correct your data, publish better answer content and establish a baseline. Broader organic movement typically shows at 4 to 6 months, and AI citation patterns shift week to week as models are updated.
Key takeaway
Visibility in AI answers is downstream of accurate business data, specific published answers and steady review activity. Buy an AI tool if it saves you time on monitoring, but do not expect it to substitute for the underlying tidy-up.
What this means for your local search set-up
We treat AI visibility as an extension of local SEO rather than a separate discipline. In practice that means auditing listing consistency first, rewriting service and location pages so they answer the questions buyers actually ask, and then tracking prompt-level visibility alongside rankings and calls. London businesses often have the added complication of multiple historic addresses and serviced-office listings, which quietly undermine the consensus signal.
We will also tell you when an AI tool is not needed. If your Google Business Profile categories are wrong and your last review is from 2024, no monitoring platform will change the outcome.
Questions about getting recommended by AI assistants
Do I need new software to appear in AI Overviews?
No. The fundamentals are accurate listings, clear on-page answers and recent reviews. Monitoring software helps you track progress, it does not create the visibility.
How long before I see a change?
Data corrections can register within weeks, but meaningful movement in organic and AI visibility usually takes 4 to 6 months of consistent work.
Can I track ChatGPT referrals properly?
You can see referral sessions from assistant domains in GA4, and you can manually check a fixed prompt set each month. Neither gives full coverage, so use both.
Considering an AI search review this quarter
If you are unsure whether your business is being named in AI answers, a short review will tell you where you stand and what is worth fixing first. You are welcome to get in touch for a conversation about your local visibility, with no expectation of a project attached.
Written by the London Marketing Company team.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ai-overview-recommendation-plan-reviewly-spa/587030/
