AI assistants recommend Jersey businesses from the same places a careful customer would check: your Google Business Profile, trusted local directories, map listings and a clear page on your own website for each thing you sell. To be named, your site has to be in Google's and Bing's indexes, your Google Business Profile needs the right category and a steady flow of reviews, and you need to be listed where the assistants look. Google says there is no special AI trick on top of that: its AI features need a page that is indexed and eligible to show in search, and nothing more.
What we found when we asked the assistants
On 11 November 2026 we put six questions a Jersey business owner might ask (about choosing an agency for advertising, websites and SEO) to Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity, and noted where each answer got its information. This is a small test and AI answers change from one run to the next, so read it as a snapshot of the patterns, not a ranking.
| Assistant | Where its answer came from | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Mode, website question | Google Business Profile cards: all ten businesses it suggested were shown with their profile, and seven of the ten were listed as "Website designer" | Your profile's category decides which questions you can appear in |
| Google AI Mode, SEO and advertising questions | Businesses' own service pages explaining exactly what they do, plus a local directory | A clear page per service, in plain words, is what gets quoted |
| Perplexity | Almost every claim in its answer was cited to Digital Jersey's member directory | Membership directories of trusted local bodies carry a lot of weight |
| ChatGPT | Businesses' own websites and a local directory, with a map of its shortlist; one business it recommended was missing from the map because it had no map listing | Map listings beyond Google (Apple, Bing, OpenStreetMap) are worth having |
Seven steps to get your Jersey business recommended
1. Make sure Google and Bing have indexed your pages
An assistant cannot recommend a page its search engine has never stored. Google's own guidance for its AI features says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional technical requirements. ChatGPT's search draws heavily on Bing, so set up both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap to each, and check that your main service pages are actually in the index. New sites are often surprised how many pages Google has found but not yet indexed.
2. Choose your Google Business Profile category carefully
In our test, the answer to a question about websites was built almost entirely from Google Business Profiles, and most of the businesses it chose were in the "Website designer" category. Pick the primary category that matches what most customers ask you for, add secondary categories for the rest, and fill in services, hours, photos and a description. Then build a steady flow of genuine reviews: our guide to getting more Google reviews in Jersey covers how to ask without breaking Google's rules.
3. Get listed where the assistants look
Assistants lean on sources they trust: local directories, membership bodies and published lists. In Jersey that can mean Jersey Insight, the Jersey Chamber of Commerce directory, your trade or professional body, and for digital firms, Digital Jersey's member directory. Keep your name, address, phone number and description the same everywhere, so an assistant can tell it is the same business.
4. Add map listings beyond Google
Claim Apple Business Connect and Bing Places as well as your Google profile. Some assistants draw their maps from other sources, so a business that only exists on Google Maps can drop out of the picture even when it is in the written answer.
5. Write one clear page per service
Say what you do, where you do it and who it is for in the first paragraph, then answer the questions customers actually ask: what it costs or what drives the cost, how long it takes, and what is included. Google's AI features search several related questions behind the scenes to build an answer, so pages that cover the follow-up questions get more chances to be used. Our study of 392 Jersey business homepages found 53% had no business structured data and 22% had no meta description, so the basics are still a quick win for most local firms.
6. Let the crawlers in
Check that your robots.txt and your hosting or security settings do not block the crawlers assistants use to read pages, such as Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot. Some security services block these by default without the site owner knowing.
7. Ask the assistants yourself every month
Ask Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions your customers would ask (always say "Jersey, Channel Islands", or you may get New Jersey), note whether you are named and which sources they cite, and work on getting onto the sources that keep appearing. Answers vary between runs, so look at the trend over a few months rather than one answer.
What you do not need
Google says there are no special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: no special files, no AI-specific markup and no rewriting of pages for machines. Structured data is still worth having because it helps search engines understand your business, but it should match what the page says. Be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed place in ChatGPT: nobody controls what it says.
Where this fits with SEO
Being recommended by AI assistants (often called AEO or GEO) is built on ordinary SEO: indexed pages, a complete Google Business Profile, reviews and mentions on trusted local sites. If you would like this done for you, see SEO, AEO and GEO for Jersey businesses, or check any term in our marketing glossary.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website (read 11 November 2026).
Questions people ask
How do AI assistants decide which Jersey businesses to recommend?
They search the web and use what they find: Google Business Profiles, local directories such as Digital Jersey and Jersey Insight, map listings and businesses’ own service pages. In our test on 11 November 2026, a Google AI Mode answer about websites was built from Google Business Profile cards, and Perplexity cited Digital Jersey’s member directory for almost every claim.
Do I need special code or an llms.txt file to appear in Google AI Overviews or AI Mode?
No. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The page needs to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet, the same as for normal results.
Can anyone guarantee my business will be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Nobody controls what ChatGPT or other assistants say, and their answers change from one run to the next. What you can do is make your business easy to find and verify: indexed service pages, a complete Google Business Profile with genuine reviews, and consistent listings on trusted local sites.
Related: Arctic Media, digital marketing agency in Jersey · SEO, AEO and GEO in Jersey · See the results behind our numbers · Terms explained in the glossary