There's no form to sign up for. AI answers mostly draw on what's already on the web, including search indexes, so the basics are the same as for search: be findable on Google and Bing, say clearly what you do and where, and be described the same way everywhere else your business is mentioned.
1. Make sure Google and Bing have your site
Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisation. A page just has to be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. So if you're not on Google, you're not in its AI answers either.
Our guide to a website not showing on Google covers how to check and fix that. Then do the same for Bing:
- Sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Use the Import option to bring your site across from Google Search Console, which verifies it for you.
- Check the AI Performance report. It shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries.
Bing also recommends IndexNow, a free way to tell participating search engines when you add or change a page.
2. Check you're not blocking the crawlers you want
Each AI search tool has its own crawler, and your site's robots.txt file can shut them out. Open yourbusiness.co.nz/robots.txt and look for these names:
| Crawler | Used for | What blocking it does |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | How ChatGPT finds sites for its search answers | OpenAI says sites that block it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers |
| PerplexityBot | Indexing sites for Perplexity's search results | Perplexity recommends allowing it if you want to show up |
| GPTBot | Collecting content for training OpenAI's models | Doesn't keep you out of ChatGPT search |
If you see Disallow: / under either of the first two, that crawler can't read your site.
Also check Cloudflare, if your site uses it. Since July 2025 Cloudflare has asked every new domain whether to allow AI crawlers, and its settings for blocking them have changed more than once since. Look in your Cloudflare dashboard for the AI crawler settings and make sure search-type crawlers are allowed.
3. Say plainly what you do and where
An AI tool can only repeat what it can find. If your home page says "quality solutions for your needs", there's nothing to quote.
Check your site has these in plain text, not inside images:
- What you do, in the words customers use. "Electrician" and "heat pump installs", not just "electrical services".
- Where you work. Name the towns and suburbs: "Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Papamoa".
- Prices, if you can. Even "call-outs from $120 + GST" gives people and AI tools something concrete.
- How to reach you. Phone, email and address or service area on every page, usually in the footer.
Bing's own advice for being cited is similar: clear headings, accurate and current information, and pages that answer real questions.
4. Be described the same way elsewhere
AI answers often pull from other sites as well as yours: directories, review sites, your Google Business Profile. Use the same business name, address and phone number everywhere, so it's clear they're all the same business.
Start with your Google Business Profile; our setup guide walks through it. If it isn't showing, see not showing on Google Maps.
Reviews matter here too. They're part of what's written about you, and Google says reviews count towards how prominent a business is in local results. Ask every customer.
5. Skip the tricks
You'll see llms.txt files, special AI markup and "AI-ready" plugins sold as the answer. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special structured data to appear in its AI features. Google staff have said it doesn't use llms.txt.
6. Test it yourself
- Ask as a customer would. Try ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini with a question like "who does heat pump installs in Tauranga?"
- Ask about your business by name too.
- Fix wrong details at the source. If the answer gets your details wrong, look for where the wrong version lives online and fix it there.
- Check again in a month, not every morning. The same question can get a different answer each time.
When to get help
Get help if your site isn't on Google or Bing at all, if you can't work out what your robots.txt or Cloudflare settings are doing, or if AI tools keep repeating wrong details you can't trace. For a second opinion on how your site looks to search engines, start with our free website check.