Free guide · Updated October 2026
How to get recommended by AI, in any market
Seven chapters on how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews decide which businesses to name, and what you can do about it this quarter. Built on six months of tracking 1,200 searches a month in Dubai, then checked against client markets in the UK, Europe and the US.
Rania Haddad and Mariam Al Zarooni · 45 min read · English and Arabic editions
The AdAscend Guides · No. 04
Getting named by AI
A field guide for growing businesses
Read this if
- You run or market a business that customers find by searching
- Someone has asked you whether you show up in ChatGPT and you didn't know
- You already do SEO and want to know what changes
Skip it if
- You want a list of AI tools to buy. There isn't one in here
- You sell only to a handful of named accounts and nobody searches for you
- You're after tricks. Most of this is patient, unglamorous work
Seven chapters
Read in order, or jump to the one you need.
- 016 min
How AI answers pick businesses
What actually goes into the shortlist, and why it rarely matches Google's top three.
- 025 min
Checking where you stand
A free way to test 20 of your own prompts in an afternoon, and how to log the results.
- 038 min
Pages that answer questions
Rewriting service pages so the first two lines answer what people ask. With before-and-after examples.
- 049 min
Getting mentioned elsewhere
The publications, directories and forums AI tools lean on in your market, and how to earn a place in them.
- 055 min
Reviews AI can quote
Asking for reviews that describe something specific, without scripting your customers.
- 067 min
Every language is its own race
Why the same question in Arabic, French or Spanish returns different businesses, and what a real local-language page needs.
- 076 min
Measuring it honestly
What to track monthly, what to ignore, and how to tell a trend from noise.
Chapter 01 · Preview
How AI answers pick businesses
When someone asks ChatGPT for a good physiotherapist in Al Barsha or Shoreditch, it doesn't look up a ranking. It reads what it can find, decides which names come up most often in a trustworthy way, and writes a short list.
"What it can find" is the important bit. Your own website counts, but so does every list, news story, review and forum thread that mentions you. If those sources agree about what you're good at, you're likely to be named. If they say nothing, your website has to carry the whole load, and it usually can't.
That's the main idea of this guide. The rest is detail on how to make those sources say something useful.
- Your websitePages that answer the question
- Other sitesNews, lists, directories, forums
- ReviewsWhat customers wrote, word for word
- Maps dataHours, location, categories
AI answer
Three physiotherapists in Al Barsha that patients rate well: Motion Clinic (known for sports injuries, open Fridays), ...
One page, printable
The whole guide as a checklist
Twelve things to check, in the order we'd do them. Stick it next to your monitor, or hand it to whoever does your marketing.
- Test 20 real prompts in ChatGPT and Perplexity
- Log who gets named, monthly
- One page per question customers ask
- Answer in the first two lines
- Proper pages in each language, written by people
- Hours, area and services on Google Business Profile
- Ask reviewers what they liked
- Reply to reviews with specifics
- Get listed in two directories that matter in your market
- Pitch one local publication a quarter
- Add FAQ and organisation schema
- Recheck everything every 90 days
AEO & GEO
Rather we just
do it for you?
Our AEO & GEO retainer covers everything in this guide, in any of seven languages, with a monthly report on which AI answers name you.
- No long-term contracts
- Writers in 7 languages
- Based in Dubai, working worldwide