What does an AI assistant do when I ask it for a recommendation?
It searches, then reads, then writes. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode all turn a question such as who is a good commercial electrician in Halifax into a handful of searches, sometimes a dozen, covering different phrasings and related needs. They fetch the top results for each, read them in full and pull out businesses along with the facts stated about them. Only then does the model write its answer, and it prefers businesses that turned up in several of those searches with the same details each time.
The practical upshot for a Halifax firm is that ranking well for the searches a model would run is the entry ticket. Nothing else gets read.
Which sources do the assistants trust?
Your own website, your Google Business Profile, review platforms, directories, trade bodies, local press and any page that describes you in some detail. Google’s AI answers draw heavily on the Maps listing and its reviews for local questions. ChatGPT leans on web pages it can fetch, so a listing that hides its content behind a login is worth little to it. Across all of them, a source that is independent of you counts for more than your own claim, and a source that names specifics counts for more than one that says you are excellent.
Halizona’s own site, this one included, follows the same rule: every claim on it can be checked on halizona.com or on a client’s site.
What makes one business more recommendable than another?
Consistency, specifics and evidence, in roughly that order. Consistency means the same name, address, phone number and list of services wherever the business appears, so the model is sure it is one entity. Specifics means plain statements it can quote: Gas Safe registered, established 2003, EV charger installation, installation teams nationwide, based in Hipperholme. Evidence means reviews with substance in them, named projects, photographs and results. Standeven Flooring’s site carries the actual stores it has fitted, including the M&S Food store in Pudsey, filmed as the work happened, and that is the kind of thing a model repeats when it explains its choice.
Does being top of Google mean AI will recommend me?
It helps a great deal and it is no guarantee. Google’s own AI answers are built from the pages Google ranks, so a top position puts you in the running for every question that touches your search. Bond Brickwork sits at the top of Google for the commercial brickwork searches that matter and is recommended by AI search as a consequence. A page can rank and still be passed over, though, when it says little a model can use, or when the businesses beside it are better corroborated elsewhere.
Why are the answers different each time I ask?
Because the answer is generated fresh from whatever was retrieved that time. Change the wording, the platform, the day or the account and the searches behind the scenes change too, so the shortlist moves. That is normal, and it is why a single screenshot proves very little either way. We check a fixed set of questions across the main platforms and count how often a business appears, which gives a figure that can be tracked month by month and compared with the enquiries that arrive.
What can a Halifax business do about it?
Build the signals the assistants check, in the order they check them. Get the pages ranking for the searches a model would run, which is ordinary SEO done well. Make every fact about the business consistent everywhere it appears. Give each service a page that answers the customer’s question in its first sentence. Gather reviews that mention the job, the town and the trade. Write up and photograph real work. Add structured data so the machine reads the same facts the person does. Then earn mentions on sites you do not own. It is the same list this site was built from.
