The way people search for local businesses is changing. Instead of only typing a few keywords into Google, potential customers are increasingly asking AI tools conversational questions such as “Who are the best website designers near me?”, “Find a roofing company in the Chicago suburbs,” or “What CPA firms serve businesses in McHenry County?”
ChatGPT can search the web and provide answers with links and citations to relevant sources. OpenAI also says location information can be used to make search results more locally relevant.
For businesses throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, this creates another opportunity to be discovered online. While there is no guaranteed way to make ChatGPT recommend a particular company, businesses can make their websites easier for AI-powered search systems to find, understand, and reference.
At Windy City Web Designs, we believe local SEO and AI search optimization should work together. Here are some of the most important areas businesses should focus on.
Make Sure ChatGPT Can Access Your Website
The first step is technical.
OpenAI states that public websites can appear in ChatGPT search and recommends allowing its OAI-SearchBot crawler to access website content. If the crawler is blocked through a website’s robots.txt file, it can limit ChatGPT’s ability to discover and surface that content.
Businesses should make sure their websites are properly configured for search engines and AI crawlers instead of accidentally blocking important pages.
Clearly Explain What Your Business Does
AI search systems need clear information.
Your website should quickly communicate:
- What your company does
- What services or products you provide
- Where you provide them
- Who you serve
- What makes your company different
- How customers can contact you
Avoid making visitors—and search engines—dig through your website to figure out what your company actually does.
For example, a company serving Chicago, Algonquin, Elgin, Schaumburg, Naperville, and surrounding communities should provide clear information about its services and service areas rather than relying on a vague homepage.
Create Individual Service Pages
One of the strongest ways to help search engines and AI systems understand your business is to create detailed pages for your primary services.
Instead of placing everything on one general Services page, consider creating individual pages for each important service.
A digital marketing company, for example, could have dedicated pages for website design, SEO, Google Ads management, eCommerce website development, and website hosting and maintenance.
This gives each topic enough room to be explained clearly and provides AI search systems with more context about the company’s expertise.
Build Useful Local Pages
If your business serves multiple Chicago suburbs, local landing pages can help establish geographic relevance.
A website design company might have useful pages dedicated to areas such as Chicago, Schaumburg, Naperville, Elgin, Algonquin, Crystal Lake, St. Charles, and other communities it serves.
However, simply copying the same page and changing the city name isn’t a strong strategy. Local pages should contain useful information relevant to customers in that particular market.
Google similarly recommends creating helpful, reliable, people-first content rather than pages designed primarily to manipulate rankings.
Answer the Questions Customers Actually Ask
AI search is conversational.
That means website content should answer real questions potential customers are likely to type or speak.
For a web design company, examples could include:
“How much does a website cost in Chicago?”
“How long does it take to build a small business website?”
“Do I need SEO with a new website?”
“How can my business show up in ChatGPT?”
“Should I redesign my existing website?”
“What is the best way to rank a local business in multiple suburbs?”
FAQs and detailed blog articles can provide direct answers while demonstrating your company’s experience with the subject.
Strengthen Your Google Business Profile
Your website isn’t the only source of information available about your company.
Google recommends claiming and maintaining a Business Profile so businesses can provide accurate information such as their address, business category, contact information, and photos for Google Search and Maps.
Keep important business information consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, directories, social profiles, and other reputable online sources.
The easier it is to verify who your business is, what you do, and where you operate, the stronger your overall online presence becomes.
Use Structured Data
Structured data provides search engines with additional information about a website and its content.
Google specifically recommends structured data as a way of providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page and supports information such as organizations, local businesses, breadcrumbs, and other relevant page details.
Properly implemented schema markup can help create a clearer technical picture of your company, services, locations, and website structure.
Build Your Company’s Authority Across the Web
Your own website is important, but your overall online presence matters too.
Businesses should work toward earning legitimate mentions, links, reviews, directory listings, partnerships, local coverage, and other references from trustworthy websites.
The goal isn’t to create hundreds of low-quality backlinks. It’s to establish a consistent and credible digital footprint that supports your company’s reputation and expertise.
Continue Traditional SEO
Optimizing for ChatGPT doesn’t mean businesses should abandon Google SEO.
Many of the fundamentals overlap: helpful content, crawlable pages, descriptive titles and headings, strong internal linking, website performance, local relevance, structured information, and authoritative content.
Google’s guidance for succeeding in its AI search experiences continues to emphasize creating unique, valuable content that satisfies users.
A strong strategy should therefore consider Google Search, Google Maps, AI search platforms, and the overall user experience rather than treating each one as completely separate.
Can You Guarantee Your Business Will Appear in ChatGPT?
No.
There is no legitimate way to guarantee that a business will be recommended for a particular ChatGPT search. OpenAI specifically states that ChatGPT Search rankings depend on multiple factors designed to surface reliable and relevant information and that top placement cannot be guaranteed.
What businesses can do is make their websites easier to discover, understand, verify, and trust.
Prepare Your Business for the Future of Local Search
Google is still extremely important, but local search is becoming broader. Potential customers can now discover companies through Google Search, Google Maps, ChatGPT, AI-powered search experiences, social platforms, and other online sources.
Businesses that provide clear service information, useful local content, helpful answers, strong technical SEO, consistent business information, and a trustworthy online presence will be better positioned as search continues to evolve.
Windy City Web Designs helps businesses throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs create websites built for today’s search environment. Our approach combines professional website design, local SEO, quality content, conversion strategy, and AI-friendly website optimization to help businesses strengthen their visibility and generate more qualified leads.