How do I get my business found when someone searches for me?
Updated 22 October 2026. Veloce Marketing, Perth.
Short answer: there are two places to be found now, and being in one does not put you in the other.
- Google. Someone types your name, or what you do and where. You want to show up at the top, and on the map.
- ChatGPT and apps like it. Someone asks "who should I use for a blocked drain in Fremantle" and gets back three or four names. You want to be one of the names.
Most of the work is free. None of it is hard. The catch is that the jobs that matter repeat every week, and they stop working the week you stop doing them.
The five jobs, in plain words
1. Claim your Google listing. Free. Search your business name on Google, click "Own this business?" and claim it. Put in the right name, phone, hours, website and the area you serve. Ask every happy customer for a review, and reply to each one. This is what puts you on the map. If customers come to you, or you go to them, nothing else matters more.
2. Have one website that says exactly what you do. Not "solutions". Say the job, the place and who it is for, in the words a customer would type: "emergency plumber, Fremantle", "dog grooming, Morley". One clear page per thing you do. A plain page that says the job beats a fancy page that says nothing.
3. Register the site with Google and Bing. Free. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools show you whether they can read your pages, which searches bring people to you, and what is broken. ChatGPT search reads Bing's index, so Bing matters more than it used to.
4. Write answers to the questions your customers ask. One page per question. "How much does a hot water system cost in Perth?" "Can you fix a cracked windscreen the same day?" ChatGPT reads pages like these before it answers, and the businesses whose pages it read are the ones it names. One real answer from you beats ten thin articles written by a machine.
5. Let the AI apps in. Some hosting companies block the crawler that feeds ChatGPT search (it is called OAI-SearchBot). If it is blocked, you cannot be named, no matter how good your pages are. Ask your web person to check. And keep what matters as plain text on the page, not inside pictures.
What does it cost?
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Google listing | Free |
| Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools | Free |
| Fixing the words on your website | Your time, or a one-off job for someone |
| New answer pages, every month | Your time, every month |
| The old way: an SEO agency on a contract | Thousands, six months, and you still do the list |
Start with the free things. Anyone who promises you first place on Google or a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT answers is selling something else.
Does this actually work? Real businesses, real numbers.
These are clients on the Veloce AI Marketing System, which does the five jobs above on their business every week. Google's own figures, full calendar months.
- Castle Cove Laundry & Dry Cleaning, Sydney. In the week to 12 October 2026, ChatGPT named them in 20 of 46 answers to questions that never said their name. Visits to their website sent by ChatGPT: none in the four weeks before, 7 in the last four weeks. Phone calls from their Google listing: 6 a month to 17 a month, up 183% in two months.
- WS Docks, Mandurah. Average Google position for their own name: 6.3 to 1.0 in four weeks. ChatGPT named them in 19 of 42 answers in the week to 14 October.
- Aquatech Pool & Spa Solutions, Melbourne. Clicks from Google search: 43 a month to 80 a month in two months, up 86%.
Wins shown here are real but chosen. Flat weeks exist too, which is why the questions get asked again every week.
Questions owners ask
Do I need to pay for ads to be found? No. Ads put you at the top while you pay. The five jobs put you there because you earned it, and you keep it when you stop paying.
How long does it take? Changes to your Google listing show within days. New pages take weeks to be read and named. Reviews work the day they land.
Is being on Google enough? Not any more. More customers now ask ChatGPT and apps like it, and get back a few names instead of ten links. Google does not put you in that answer. Your pages do.
I sell everywhere, not just locally. Does the map matter? No. Skip the map and put the effort into the pages and the questions. If customers come to you or you go to them, the map matters most.
If I only do one thing today? Claim your Google listing. Then type your website into the box and see who ChatGPT names for what you do. If it is not you, you know where you stand.
Want it done for you?
The Veloce AI Marketing System does these jobs on your business every week, starting the day you join, and shows you every job with the date and time it was done. Type your website and see who ChatGPT recommends for what you do, free, in under a minute. Then three days free on your real business. $199/mth after that, no lock-in, and every fix is yours to keep.