By Jack Dotchin, Client Services Director at Flatdot Marketing
Picture a business owner in Liverpool looking for a new accountant. A few years ago they would have searched Google and scrolled through a page of links. Now, more and more of them simply ask ChatGPT, and get back two or three names. If you’re not one of them, you were never in the running.
That was the message of our Bloom Talk at Baltic Creative, “Your Customers Stopped Searching. They Started Asking”, delivered to a room of agencies, architects and other skilled professionals. Here’s a quick round-up of what we covered and what you can do about it.
What’s changed in how your customers search
AI is already part of how the UK finds businesses. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report found:
- 53% of UK adults say they often see AI summaries at the top of search results
- About 30% of searches now show an AI Overview, without anyone asking for one
- 1.8 billion UK visits to ChatGPT in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million a year earlier
Instead of typing a few keywords and clicking through links, buyers now ask detailed questions and get one answer with a shortlist. Fewer people visit websites, but those who do are much readier to buy. In short, your customers now have a personal assistant doing their research for them. Your job is to make sure it recommends you.
What is AI search visibility?
AI search visibility is how often, and how accurately, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews recommend your business when people ask about what you do. It is the new version of ranking on page one of Google.
Why your content and your code both matter
Getting recommended by AI depends on two things: your content and your website’s code. Think of it like a shop. Your content is the window display and the staff who answer questions. Your code is whether the front door is unlocked. A great display is wasted if the door is locked, and an open door does nothing if the shop is empty.
“Most of the businesses we audit have fixed one half of the problem and assumed the job was done. AI doesn’t give partial credit. If it can’t read your site, your content doesn’t exist. If it can read your site but can’t tell what you do, you don’t exist either. You need both, and the good news is that neither is expensive to fix.”
Jack Dotchin, Client Services Director, Flatdot Marketing
Your content: what AI rewards
AI recommends the businesses that trusted sources already agree on. In the talk, we gave three simple tests:
- Is it clear? Describe who you are, what you do and who it’s for in one sentence, and use it everywhere: your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories. Mixed messages send AI to a clearer competitor.
- Is it backed up? AI trusts what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. Ask three happy clients for a review that says what you did for them.
- Is it easy to quote? Turn the ten questions customers ask you most into an FAQ page with short, direct answers. AI often lifts these straight into its responses.
Your website: can AI even read it?
This is the half most businesses never check. Some popular website security services now block AI tools by default, so plenty of good websites are invisible to AI without their owners knowing.
Two quick checks:
- Ask AI about you. Give ChatGPT or Gemini your web address and ask: “What does this business do, where, and who for?” A wrong or vague answer, or “I can’t access that”, is what your customers are hearing too.
- Ask your web developer one question. “Are we blocking any AI tools from reading our website?” It’s usually a quick fix.
Try it yourself in five minutes
We finished the session by asking the room to test themselves. Ask ChatGPT and Google a few questions your customers would ask, such as:
- “Best architect for a Georgian terrace renovation in Liverpool”
- “I run a café on Bold Street and need a new website. Who should I hire?”
- “Affordable branding agency in Liverpool for a start-up”
Are you named? Which competitors keep appearing? Is what AI says about you accurate? The answers will tell you a lot about where you stand.
Become impossible to ignore
Your customers haven’t stopped looking for businesses like yours. They’ve just started asking an assistant to look for them. The content side is something you can start on today. The website side is harder to see, so we built a tool to check it for you.
Run the free AI Readiness Check. Enter your web address and it checks whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity can find, read and trust your site. You’ll get your score straight away, with no sign-up needed.
And Flatdot will be back at Baltic Creative in November delivering a Bloom Talk on ‘Tripling your revenue through paid for ads’! If you are interested in attending drop a line to joa@baltic-creative.com or scan the QR codes around our buildings.
