This guide covers the highest-impact actions you can take to improve your AI visibility score, based on what Scope has observed across thousands of business scans. Actions are ordered roughly by impact and accessibility.
Tier 1: High Impact, Doable This Week
1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
The single highest-leverage action for most local businesses. A complete, active GBP is heavily weighted by Google AI Overviews and also gets picked up by ChatGPT and other platforms via web retrieval.
Checklist:
- [ ] Business name exactly matches your signage and primary website
- [ ] Category is set correctly (primary and secondary)
- [ ] Address and phone number are correct and match all other listings
- [ ] Hours are complete and current (including holiday hours)
- [ ] Business description uses your target service keywords naturally
- [ ] At least 10 photos uploaded (exterior, interior, products/services, team)
- [ ] Q&A section answered for your most common questions
- [ ] Weekly GBP posts published
2. Install Structured Data on Your Website
JSON-LD schema markup is one of the most reliable signals AI platforms use to understand and cite your business. If your website doesn't have it, install it immediately.
Use Scope's Schema Pack to auto-generate the correct markup, then follow the installation guide.
3. Claim and Complete Your Yelp Listing
Perplexity relies heavily on Yelp for local business data. If your Yelp listing is incomplete or unclaimed, you're invisible to a large percentage of Perplexity users.
- Claim your listing at biz.yelp.com
- Fill out every section (hours, services, photos, description)
- Respond to all reviews — positive and negative
Tier 2: High Impact, Requires More Effort (2–4 Weeks)
4. Launch a Review Generation Campaign
Reviews are an extremely strong AI visibility signal. AI platforms weight:
- Volume — more reviews signal a busier, more established business
- Recency — reviews from the last 6 months carry far more weight than older ones
- Diversity — having reviews across Google, Yelp, and industry-specific platforms is better than all reviews on one platform
Tactics that work:
- Post-service text or email to customers with a direct review link
- Include a QR code on invoices, receipts, or business cards
- Train your team to verbally mention reviews at the end of service
5. Build Citation Consistency
Your business Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) must match exactly across every directory listing. Even small variations (Suite vs Ste, & vs and) introduce inconsistency that reduces AI confidence.
Audit your top 20 directory listings and standardize your NAP. Use your Google Business Profile as the canonical source of truth.
Key directories to prioritize:
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- BBB
- Apple Maps
- Bing Places
- Facebook Business
- Industry-specific directories (Houzz, Healthgrades, Avvo, etc.)
6. Create a Genuine Services Page
Many business websites have a homepage that briefly mentions services but no dedicated, detailed services page. AI platforms use your website as a citation source, and a well-written services page with clear descriptions, pricing ranges, and FAQs significantly improves how AI describes your business.
Include:
- Each service you offer with a 2–4 sentence description
- Who each service is for
- What the process looks like
- A price range or "starting at" figure if applicable
Tier 3: Longer-Term Building Blocks
7. Publish an FAQ Page
Frequently Asked Questions pages are one of the most cited content types by AI platforms. AI is designed to answer questions — a well-structured FAQ gives it exactly what it needs.
Write answers to the 10–15 most common questions your customers ask. Use the exact language customers use in your prompts (which you can find in your Scope prompt results).
Add FAQPage schema markup (Scope's Schema Pack includes this automatically if you add FAQ content to your site).
8. Get Local Press Coverage
Mentions in local news websites, industry publications, or authority blogs are strong AI citation signals. Outreach strategies:
- Pitch a data-driven story using your industry knowledge
- Offer expert commentary to local journalists covering your industry
- Sponsor a local event that generates a news mention
- Publish an original study or report in your industry
9. Build Links from High-Authority Sources
Standard link building still matters because it increases your website's authority, which increases how much AI platforms trust your website as a citation source. Focus on:
- Industry association memberships (and getting listed on their member directory)
- Chamber of Commerce listings
- Guest articles on industry publications
- Sponsorships with a web presence
Q: How long until I see results? A: Tier 1 actions (GBP optimization, schema installation) typically show results in 1–3 weeks as AI platforms re-crawl and update their data. Tier 2 actions (reviews, citations) take 4–8 weeks. Tier 3 (press, links) takes 2–6 months to fully compound.
Q: Is there anything I should avoid doing? A: Yes — keyword stuffing your business description with service terms, creating fake reviews, or building low-quality directory listings at scale. AI platforms are increasingly good at detecting manipulation and these tactics can actively suppress your visibility.