How to show up in Google, Maps and AI search
Eight steps, none of them hard. The difficult part is knowing which ones you need.
Last updated September 2026.
Introduction
Google, Google Maps and AI tools like ChatGPT all decide whether to show your business the same way: can they work out what you do, who you do it for, where, and whether you're any good. Here's what that takes, in order.
Every step below is something your team, your developer or you can do this month. The reason most businesses don't is that nobody's told them which steps matter for their site and which are a waste of a week. That's the strategy, and the doing is the easy bit.
01 - Make sure Google can read your site
Make sure Google can read your site
If Google can't crawl it, nothing else on this list matters. The hard part is knowing whether you have this problem, because it's invisible from the front of the site.
Check your site has an XML sitemap, it's submitted in Google Search Console, and Search Console isn't reporting pages it couldn't index. Fix broken links. Make sure every page loads in under three seconds on a phone.
Doable in: an afternoon, once you know what's broken.
02 - Say what you do, plainly, on every page
Say what you do, plainly, on every page
Google and AI tools don't infer. If your homepage says "we help you grow", they have no idea whether you're an accountant or a gym. What's difficult is deciding what you're for, which is a business question, not a web one.
Every page needs a heading that says what it's about in the words a customer would use. "Emergency plumber, Ballina" beats "Solutions for every drip." One page per thing you sell. One page per place you sell it, if that's how people search.
Doable in: a week of writing, once you've decided what the pages are.
03 - Set up your Google Business Profile
Set up your Google Business Profile
For most local businesses this is the single biggest lever, and most profiles are half-filled. The tricky part is knowing which categories, services and attributes to pick, because the wrong primary category quietly caps your visibility.
Claim it. Pick the right primary category. Fill in every service, every hour, every attribute. Add real photos. Post something monthly.
Doable in: two hours.
04 - Get reviews, and reply to them
Get reviews, and reply to them
Reviews are the trust signal Google Maps and AI tools weigh most heavily. The difficult bit is building a habit of asking, not the asking itself.
Ask every happy customer. Send them the direct link. Reply to every review, good and bad, in a sentence or two. Aim for a steady trickle, not a burst.
Doable in: ongoing, five minutes a week.
05 - Answer the questions people ask
Answer the questions people ask
AI Overviews and ChatGPT lift answers from pages that answer a specific question clearly. What's hard is knowing which questions people ask in your category, and which ones you can realistically win.
Find the ten questions customers ask you on the phone. Write a short, direct answer to each on your site. Put the answer in the first two sentences, not after a 400-word preamble. Mark them up as FAQs.
Doable in: a day of writing.
06 - Get mentioned somewhere other than your own site
Get mentioned somewhere other than your own site
Google and AI tools check whether anyone else vouches for you. The difficulty is working out which mentions count and which are junk, because most "link building" is junk.
Get listed in the two or three directories that matter for your industry. Ask a supplier or partner to mention you. Pitch a local paper or industry site one real story. Sponsor something and get the link.
Doable in: a few hours a month, once you know where to aim.
07 - Make your business a consistent entity
Make your business a consistent entity
AI tools in particular want to see the same business name, address, phone and description everywhere. The tedious part is finding the old listings with your previous address still on them.
Same name, same details, on your site, your Google profile, your socials, every directory. Add structured data to your site so machines can read who you are without guessing.
Doable in: an afternoon, plus a bit of hunting.
08 - Measure it, then adjust
Measure it, then adjust
Most of the above takes three to six months to show up in results. What's difficult is knowing whether what you're seeing is working, normal lag, or a sign you've done the wrong thing.
Search Console for what you rank for. Google Business Profile insights for Maps. Once a month, ask ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode the questions your customers would ask, and see whether you're in the answer.
Doable in: twenty minutes a month.
09 - You don't need all eight
You don't need all eight.
You need three or four of them, in the right order, for your site.
A five-page trade site needs 01, 03, 04 and 07 and almost nothing else. An online store needs 01, 02 and 05 and can mostly ignore Maps. A professional services firm lives or dies on 05 and 06.
Working that out is what the audit does. The plan tells you which steps, in which order, and what to skip. Then your team does the work, or I do it with you.
10 - Contact
Want to be found first?
Tell me about your business and I'll tell you what's worth doing. If I can't help, I'll say so.
Prefer email? hello@foundfirst.com.au