More and more people are skipping Google and asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Gemini broad questions like “where should I dine in Rotorua?” or “are there any golf courses in NZ with geothermal features?” rather than searching for a specific business by name. If your business doesn’t come up in those broad, generic answers, you’re invisible to a growing segment of your potential customers – even if you rank well on Google for your own niche or specific searches.

We wanted to find out: could we actually fix that? So we picked one of our clients, Secret Spot Hot Tubs Rotorua, as a test case.

Secret Spot co-founder Keith Kolver said this AI piece was on their to-do list, knowing AI is a rapidly evolving field.

“We have been working with Redspot since the inception of Secret Spot, and we have come to respect and trust the Redspot team’s knowledge and experience. This was a great opportunity to bring the Redspot know-how to the Secret Spot brand, improving our searchability on AI.”

The starting point

We set a deliberately hard test. Rather than a niche, on-brand search like “hot tub Rotorua” where Secret Spot already shows up well in regular Google search, we asked AI tools the broad, generic question a first-time visitor to Rotorua might actually ask: “what are some fun activities to do in Rotorua?” That’s a far more competitive search, with dozens of attractions and experiences competing for the same answer.

A month ago, Secret Spot didn’t come up in that question across ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini. Not because the business isn’t great, but because AI tools weren’t picking up the right signals from the website to connect it to that broader kind of search.

What we did

Without changing how the site looked or how it worked for visitors, or requiring a redesign or rebuild, we:
• Re-wrote homepage copy so it answers the questions people actually ask AI tools, in plain language
• Added an FAQs section covering the things customers genuinely want to know
• Linked relevant blog posts together so AI tools (and Google) can better understand what the site is about
• Added structured data behind the scenes, a kind of label that tells AI tools and search engines exactly what the business is, where it is, and what it offers

It’s the kind of work that sits quietly – and powerfully, we confirmed – behind the scenes.

The result, four weeks later

We asked the same broad question again. This time, Secret Spot came up as a recommended activity in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.

It’s worth being clear about what this does and doesn’t mean: this broad, competitive kind of question is the hardest kind of search to win for any business, AI or not, and Google’s own AI Overviews are still catching up here. That’s our next focus. Real movement across three AI tools on that question, in four weeks, told us this works.

Independent blogs and write-ups matter too

There’s another piece to this puzzle worth knowing about: Google and AI tools lean heavily on independent, trusted sources such as travel blogs, local guides, review sites when they’re deciding what to recommend, not just on what a business says about itself. If a well-read blog or directory mentions a business, that carries real weight with both Google and AI tools.

That means getting featured (or featured well) in the independent blogs and guides that already rank for your area is part of the same strategy, not a separate project.

HINT: We’re happy to help clients identify which local write-ups already exist, and where there might be an opportunity to be added or better represented.

The client took it further themselves

What told us this really landed was what happened next. Without us asking or suggesting, our client updated their Google Business Profile and Tripadvisor listing to use the same new language we’d worked into the website. They’re also planning to carry those same phrases into how they respond to customer reviews.

That’s a good sign. When the language genuinely reflects how customers think and search, it’s easy for a business owner to pick up and run with it everywhere else they show up online.

Keith said, “We have come out of the AI-cold, and now noticeably appear more on AI searches. We have learned a lot from the Redspot team, who have also given us tips and tricks we can implement to continue improving our AI searchability.”

What this means for your business

If you’ve never checked whether your business shows up in AI search results, there’s a good chance it doesn’t as most local businesses haven’t done this work yet, which means there’s a real opportunity to get ahead of it now.

If you’re keen for us to conduct an AI visibility check on your website – even if we don’t host your site – get in touch today.