Coming across AI visibility

How it all started

A few months ago, I was using Google’s Gemini to pick a new gym. As I scrolled through the answers, one thought appeared in my head: How is Gemini deciding which gyms to show me first, or at all?

I quickly set the gym search aside (my next workout was going to be leg day anyways), as that single question spiralled into a bit of an obsession (a healthy one).

As more and more people use AI to search (61% of American adults have used AI in the past 6 months, and nearly 1 in 5 use it every day), then whatever options ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity show in their responses must be having some effect on which players in each market are getting all the business!

And, going even further, if AI is now deciding which businesses your customers see first, then how do businesses make sure they show up?

Around the same time, I had a friend who owns Wandr, a healthy restaurant in Dubai. They say experience is the best teacher, so I pitched them an idea: let me experiment with their AI visibility, with a goal to ensuring they are mentioned by AI for their unique value proposition, which is around the concept of “healthy food that tastes deliciously”.

After much begging from my side, they agreed, with the condition that I don’t “break anything.” So I got to work!

The Initial Visibility Situation

When I started back in June, no matter how many ways I asked Gemini about “healthy restaurants in JLT,” Wandr never showed up. Zero visibility.

Fast forward to September: Wandr now appears in AI answers, and not just anywhere, but in 2nd place! (see image for before versus after optimisation).

The journey from “invisible” to “visible” wasn’t luck. It came down to three specific moves:

1. Publishing AI-Optimized Blog Articles

Why I did it

AI models don’t just scrape websites randomly, they actually learn from structured, topical content that demonstrates in-depth knowledge authority and expertise. The more a site has relevant, authoritative content, the higher the chance it gets pulled into AI answers.

What I did

Created blog articles optimized around Wandr’s key topics: healthy eating, plant-forward diets, casual lunch, and vegan-friendly. Instead of keyword stuffing, the content was structured in a question and answer format: direct, clear, and backed with context.

The impact

This started signalling to AI models that Wandr wasn’t just a restaurant, but an authority in healthy but delicious eating.

2. Allowing AI models to actually access Wandr’s website

Why I did it

Google’s AI overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity all rely on being able to crawl your site. You might have heard of the mighty robots.txt and llms.txt files. These 2 text snippets can make or break your AI visibility, so ensuring they are properly set is key. There is a world where you are doing everything you can to be AI-visible, but if your website is blocking AI crawlers, your efforts will amount to nothing (see Wandr’s robots.txt file in the image below).

What I did

I ensured they were not blocking crawlers, and were even helping them find the content they needed to. I tweaked Wandr’s robots.txt, and added a llms.txt file to explicitly allow major AI crawlers. This is the AI era equivalent of “submitting your site to Google.”

The impact

Suddenly, AI systems had permission to see Wandr. Before, it wasn’t even in the dataset. After, it was finally part of the pool of possible answers.

3. Adding Schema Markup to Key Pages

Why I did it

Schema markup (structured data) makes your website’s content machine-readable. Think of it as metadata that AI models rely on to understand your business details, menus, FAQs, and locations.

What we did

We added schema markup for:

• Home page (organisational info)

• Business info (address, opening hours, cuisine type)

• Menu items (structured so AI can surface them directly)

• FAQs (so common questions could be pulled into answers)

Image: Wandr’s home page schema markup, which is the code that you cannot see, but that AI can

The impact

Instead of guessing, AI now had structured signals pointing directly to Wandr’s relevance as whole, as well as relevant information in each website page.

The Big Lesson

AI visibility isn’t luck. It’s a strategy that works. It may seem daunting at the beginning, and results do take anywhere between a few weeks to a couple of months to materialise. But when you see that small entry on the LLM that you thought so hard for, you will know all of your efforts were worth it.

By:

1. Publishing AI-optimized content

2. Making the site crawlable for LLMs

3. Adding schema markup to key pages

and other actions I have taken in the meantime, Wandr went from invisible in June to 2nd listed option in September.

Next up is pushing for that #1 spot 🚀

Try it at home

If you’re running a business today, ask yourself. Have you tried prompting Gemini, ChatGPT, or Perplexity about your category? Does your brand show up? If not, now’s the time to start thinking about AI visibility, because your customers are already searching there.

If you are interested in knowing more about how to make your brand show up on AI models, I recommend you watch my video above talking about the basics so you can get started!