How to get your business cited by AI

Step by step

1. Write down your entity facts: legal and brand name, address or service area, phone, founding date, services, languages.
2. Use the same facts everywhere: website, Google Business Profile, directories, social profiles.
3. Publish answer-first pages that respond to real customer questions in the first sentence.
4. Add structured data: Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Breadcrumb.
5. Create an llms.txt file that summarizes who you are and links to key pages.
6. Claim and complete listings on relevant directories.
7. Earn mentions on trustworthy sites in your industry and region.
8. Test regularly by asking AI tools the questions your customers ask.

Signals and where they live

What llms.txt is and why it helps

llms.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a short, structured summary: who the business is, what it offers, where it operates and which pages matter. It is a proposed convention, not an official standard, and support varies by AI system. It costs little to add and makes your key facts easy to read.

Mistakes that confuse AI systems

• Different business names or phone numbers on different sites.
• Services described vaguely, without locations or specifics.
• Important facts hidden in images or PDFs.
• Structured data that does not match the visible page.
• Inflated claims that other sources do not support.

AI systems compare what you say about yourself with what other sources say. When the facts match across your website, listings and mentions, the business is easier to recognize and describe accurately. When they conflict, the safest choice for an AI system is often to mention someone else.

How to test whether AI tools know your business

1. Write 10 questions a customer would ask, such as “Who designs websites for small businesses in my area?”
2. Ask them in ChatGPT, Google, Gemini and Perplexity.
3. Note whether your business appears and whether the facts are correct.
4. Fix wrong facts at the source: your website and listings.
5. Repeat monthly and keep a simple log.

Results change often and differ by user and location, so treat tests as signals, not scores.

What Media Express has documented

Media Express was recorded being recommended by name in a Google AI Overview in live search results (video). We build client sites with the same approach: consistent entity facts, answer-first content, structured data and llms.txt files. Our own media network, Polish Network, with 120+ of our own websites and portals, is where we test these methods first. We never promise AI citations. See AI search optimization.

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