How to use AI to super-charge your small business marketing
(and no, I don’t mean using it to churn out all your social posts)
What does this blog cover?
Let’s take a look at some practical ways you can harness the power of AI to enhance your small business marketing. We’re going beyond the bounds of generic content creation and exploring the ways in which AI search is changing the landscape of website visibility. Then we’ll talk about how you can use that to your advantage and encourage Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini and friends to recommend you to their users.
“It’s all about AI now.”
How many times have you heard those words over the past couple of years? And what does it actually mean when it comes to small business marketing?
If you spend any time at all on LinkedIn or social media, you’ll be able to see that often companies take ‘harnessing AI in marketing’ to mean using it to write blogs or social captions. (I’d advise caution against doing this as it is all too easy to lose the authenticity and voice that makes your business so unique - but that’s a blog for another time!) However, there’s a far bigger and more powerful shift happening right now.
AI is changing the way people discover businesses online.
AI Search is Transforming How Customers Find Small Businesses
First things first. Google Search hasn’t disappeared! You still need to keep your SEO in mind.
However, search behaviour is changing.
Rather than typing specific keywords in, like ‘kitchen fitter West Sussex’ to help them find what they’re looking for, users are asking detailed and more conversational questions such as: ‘Can you recommend a reliable kitchen fitter in West Sussex serving the Petworth area with excellent Trust Pilot reviews?’
You’ll have seen yourself, rather than being served up a lengthy list of links, AI-powered tools now generate summaries and recommendations.
This means your business website needs to be understandable not only to Google’s traditional search rankings but also to AI systems too.
This raises the important question: Can AI understand your website well enough and in enough detail to recommend you to the right clients?
What is GEO?
(Generative Engine Optimisation)
Put simply, GEO is the process of making your website easier for AI tools to understand, trust and promote.
In the past, getting your website search-engine-ready meant working on keywords and terms, ensuring your meta descriptions were using the optimal words your potential customers might be typing into a search engine.
GEO is a little different - it’s about answering questions. AI engines generate longer form answers to their users, so they need to be able to find the information they need easily through your site.
So:
SEO =
keywords
backlinks
metadata
technical performance
GEO =
providing clear answers to questions
demonstrating expertise
providing context
creating reliable and well-structured information
Make your business the answer to the question!
What Are Three Ways to Improve Your AI Accessibility and Visibility?
Improve your question-led content
Rather than focusing on keywords. Think about the questions people might be asking AI tools, and answer those.
Consider:
The specific problems and needs your business solves for your customers
The questions you get asked by your clients
What comparisons your prospective clients will be making
Any common misconceptions or confusion that exists in your industry
Add FAQ sections
This is one of the easiest ways to improve your AI legibility, because it mirrors how users actually ask questions and search.
Include question-based headings throughout your website
Returning to our kitchen fitter example, these might include:
How much does a typical kitchen cost?
What’s the difference between a freestanding and full fitted kitchen?
What are the most popular kitchen designs in 2026?
Answer immediately and clearly BEFORE you go into details
Make sure you lead with a clear answer first and then expand with details and nuance. AI systems prefer content that gets to the point quickly!
2. Add Structured Data (Schema Markup)
A schema markup helps both traditional search engines and AI tools to understand what your content is and where to file it. Think of it as a way of tagging or adding labels to your website.
Schema will help AI identify you more accurately.
Types of schema to add for a typical small business:
Organisation schema - helps define your business information clearly
FAQs schema - Makes Q&A type content easier for AI systems to spot and interpret.
Article schema - Provides key context to blog content and features
Product/service schema - Great for businesses selling specific services or products
Author schema - Boosts your credibility and expertise messaging
3.Include the sort of content AI tools can use
No one needs more generic AI-generated content - not even AI! The AI systems are looking for genuine and original content that includes expert insights, clear explanations, up-to-date statistics and case studies.
And a bonus point: 4. Pay attention to your visual and multimedia content too
It’s not just about the written word. AI systems are becoming increasingly adept at understanding more than text. They can process videos and images too.
To help AI you can:
Use descriptive alt text to illustrate and contextualise image content
Include transcripts to make your video content searchable
Use descriptive file names on your images. Img_832.jpg isn’t going to be much of a help to AI as it tries to interpret your pictures.
Final thoughts
This is a development but not a complete about-turn. SEO and its principles remain as important as ever in getting your website to the top of the search lists. However, optimisation is evolving, and the businesses that succeed over the next few years won’t just be focusing their energies on search engine rankings. They’ll be paying attention to becoming trusted sources within AI-generated answers too.
We’re no longer asking simply ‘can customers find our website?’, but also ‘do AI tools recognise our business as the best answer to our clients’ questions.’
It’s actually a massive opportunity to get your site and business found by the people who want your services!
If you think your website could do with some tweaks to put it in the best position for doing just that, drop me a line.
Together we can create a practical marketing plan that helps your business become easier to find, easier to trust and easier for AI tools to recommend.