Basics
AI search: how your business gets found in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode
By Dominik Natter · Last updated on 5 November 2026 · 9 min read
In short
You get found in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode with the same fundamentals as in classic search: your pages must be discoverable, answer questions clearly and come across as trustworthy. Google itself says that AI search has no additional requirements and needs no special optimisation. What makes the difference today is clear answer pages on prices, process and region, well-maintained business profiles, complete product data in your shop and a deliberate decision about which AI crawlers you allow. There is no guarantee of being named in AI answers.
What changes when customers search with AI?
Instead of a list of ten links, your customers get a ready-made answer. It names a few sources and sometimes a few providers. If you are named there, you are in the running. If you are missing, you often do not get clicked at all.
In Switzerland this has been everyday reality since 8 October 2025. On that day Google launched AI Mode in Switzerland in German, French and Italian, at the same time as in Germany and Austria. AI Mode breaks a question down into many sub-questions, searches them in parallel and summarises the result with links. On top of that, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity also search the web for many questions.
The good news: AI does not make up its recommendations out of thin air. It relies on pages it can find, is allowed to read and can understand. These are largely the same fundamentals as in classic search engine optimisation.
- of the Swiss population start their search for an SME directly with ChatGPT or Copilot
- 13%
- among 18 to 29-year-olds
- 21%
- of Swiss SMEs have never checked what AI systems say about them
- 58%
- Google AI Mode launches in Switzerland, Germany and Austria
- 8 Oct 2025
First search for an SME starts with an AI tool, by age
+Show values as a table
| Value | Share |
|---|---|
| 18 to 29 years | 21% |
| 30 to 44 years | 16% |
| 45 to 59 years | 12% |
| 60 to 79 years | 6% |
Fewer clicks, but better enquiries?
AI answers simple questions directly. Opening hours, a rough price range or what a service includes are things customers no longer need to look up on your website. So expect some informational visits to disappear. There are no reliable figures on this for Swiss SMEs, which is why we do not quote any.
People who still click after an AI answer are usually further along in their decision. They have compared providers and now want an appointment, a quote or a product. Google states that clicks from AI answers are of higher quality because users stay longer on the website. That is Google's claim, not an independent measurement. Our assessment: for SMEs, the number of enquiries and orders matters more than the number of visits. So measure those.
Getting found in ChatGPT: what your website needs
AI answers rely on sources that are easy to find, clearly written and credible. This leads to five fundamentals that apply to every business website:
01
Be discoverable
Your pages are indexed by Google and Bing, load quickly and show their content without JavaScript. The search crawlers of Google and OpenAI are not blocked.
02
Answer clearly
For every important customer question there is a page with the answer in the first paragraph: what you offer, for whom, in which region, how the process works and roughly what it costs.
03
Structure your data
Name, address, opening hours, services and products are marked up as schema.org structured data and match the visible text.
04
Get confirmed
Your Google Business Profile and your listings on local.ch and search.ch are complete and consistent. Reviews, associations and industry portals mention you.
05
Stay up to date
Prices, offers and contacts are current. Outdated pages are updated or removed so that AI does not pass on old information.
Checklist: business website, online shop or B2B shop
For service providers, trades and consultancies, what matters most is that AI can clearly identify your services, your region and your contact details.
- One page per service, with region, process and a guide price or price range.
- A page of frequently asked questions that answers customer questions in their own words.
- Structured data for Organization or LocalBusiness with address, phone number and opening hours.
- Google Business Profile, local.ch and search.ch complete and with identical details.
- References and testimonials with location and industry so that AI can place you.
In a shop, the quality of your product data decides whether a product appears in an AI answer or a product comparison.
- Complete product data: GTIN, brand, variants, dimensions, material and meaningful images.
- Prices including VAT, availability, delivery time, shipping costs and return policy on the product page.
- Structured data for Product and Offer that matches the price and stock level in the shop.
- A product feed for Google Merchant Center that syncs automatically with your shop and stock.
- Clean categories and filters so that products can be found by their attributes.
In B2B, prices are often customer-specific. Even so, what you supply and to whom should be publicly visible.
- Public product pages with technical data, standards and data sheets, even if the price only appears after login.
- Clear information on minimum order quantities, delivery times and delivery area.
- Manufacturer part numbers and GTIN so that buyers and AI systems can identify products clearly.
- An interface to your ERP so that stock levels and delivery times are correct.
Structured data: what it does and what it does not
Structured data is a machine-readable description of your page based on the schema.org standard. It tells a search engine unambiguously: this is the company name, this is the address, this is the price, this is the availability.
Google does not require any special structured data for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does, however, help make your information unambiguous and remains important for products in Google Shopping. What matters is that it matches the visible text.
An example of how quickly things change: Google has no longer shown FAQ rich results, the expandable questions directly in the results list, since 7 May 2026. A good FAQ page is still worthwhile because it answers customer questions directly. That is exactly what AI systems look for.
Should I block AI crawlers in robots.txt?
In the robots.txt file you specify which crawlers may visit your website. Over the past few years, many companies have blocked AI crawlers across the board. That can make sense if you do not want your texts used to train AI models. But it can also mean that you no longer appear in AI answers.
What matters is which crawler you block. The providers now distinguish between training and search:
AI crawlers and settings: what blocking does
| Crawler or setting | Purpose | What blocking does |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI) | Search in ChatGPT | Your pages no longer appear in ChatGPT search answers, at most as a plain link. |
| GPTBot (OpenAI) | Training AI models | Your content is not used for training. It has no effect on search in ChatGPT. |
| ChatGPT-User (OpenAI) | Page visits triggered by a user in ChatGPT | According to OpenAI, robots.txt may not apply here because a person triggers the visit. |
| Google-Extended | Training and answers of Gemini | No effect on Google Search or ranking, according to Google. |
| Search Console: Search generative AI | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Your pages no longer appear there. According to Google, regular search is not affected. |
| Googlebot | Google Search as a whole | You disappear from Google Search. Do not block it. |
Our recommendation for most SMEs: allow the search crawlers, that is OAI-SearchBot and Googlebot. Whether you allow GPTBot and Google-Extended for training is a matter of principle that you should decide deliberately. According to the providers, it plays no role in search visibility.
If you want to opt out of Google AI Overviews and AI Mode completely, use the Search generative AI setting in Search Console. Google introduced it in June 2026 and had rolled it out to all websites worldwide by the end of August 2026. Bear in mind that you then give up visibility exactly where your customers increasingly search.
Agentic commerce: can AI agents already buy in your online shop?
Agentic commerce means that an AI assistant does not just search for products but buys them on the customer's behalf. The providers are working on it, but the picture is contradictory and still a long way off for Switzerland.
Where OpenAI, Google and Stripe stand
September 2025
OpenAI launches Instant Checkout
Buying directly in ChatGPT, initially only in the US, developed with Stripe on the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
January 2026
Google unveils the Universal Commerce Protocol
Buying in AI Mode and Gemini. Today available to selected merchants in the US, Canada and Australia.
March 2026
OpenAI moves away from its own checkout
ChatGPT focuses on product discovery and purchases happen in the merchant's shop. Shopping is only live in the US for now.
30 June 2026
Stripe announces Germany
Businesses in Germany are to be able to sell products directly in AI interfaces from the end of 2026.
Switzerland
No date yet
None of the providers has announced a launch for Switzerland or Liechtenstein.
What does this mean for your shop? There is no need to rush. All approaches have one thing in common: they need complete, current product data that can be retrieved by machines. Price, stock, variants, shipping and returns must be correct, otherwise an AI will not recommend your product or will recommend it incorrectly. If you maintain your product data properly for Google Merchant Center today, you are well prepared for the next steps.
Those who control their own data have the advantage. On an open shop platform without licence fees, your product data, orders and interfaces belong to you. You can connect new channels as soon as they become available in Switzerland, without waiting for a platform vendor's roadmap. Our Extremprint reference shows what such a switch looks like: the online print shop moved from WooCommerce to an open shop platform.
What you can measure today and what you cannot
Measurable today
- Visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and similar services: Google Analytics 4 groups them in the "AI Assistant" channel.
- Links from ChatGPT carry the parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com, and you can recognise visits from Perplexity by the referrer perplexity.ai.
- How often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode: in the generative AI report in Search Console.
- Enquiries and orders by source, if your contact form asks how people found you.
Not or barely measurable
- How often ChatGPT names your company without anyone clicking.
- Which questions customers asked the AI before they came to you.
- Clicks from Google AI Mode separately from the rest of Google Search. Google counts them as organic search.
- A fixed position in AI answers. Answers change from question to question and from user to user.
What does it cost to get your website or shop ready for AI search?
For a technically sound website, this is usually not a big project. The main work lies in clear texts, and you can write some of them yourself. As guide figures at an hourly rate of CHF 70:
- Review of discoverability, crawler settings and structured data: 4 to 8 hours, i.e. CHF 280 to 560.
- Adding structured data for your company, locations and services: 4 to 16 hours, i.e. CHF 280 to 1,120.
- Product feed for Google Merchant Center from an existing shop: 8 to 24 hours, i.e. CHF 560 to 1,680.
- If your website is assembled in the browser and barely readable for crawlers, a relaunch often pays off. That is a separate project.
Checklist: what to do over the coming weeks
Ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode about your industry and your region and see who gets named. Then go through these points:
- Ask the AI directly about your company: are your services, address and opening hours correct?
- Check your Google Business Profile, local.ch and search.ch for complete and consistent details.
- Have someone check which crawlers your robots.txt blocks, and decide deliberately.
- Write one clear answer on your website for each of your five most common customer questions.
- Shop: add missing GTINs, shipping costs, delivery times and return policies.
- Set up the reports on AI visits and AI impressions in Google Analytics 4 and Search Console.
- Ask new customers how they found you and record the answer.
Sources and notes
The launch of AI Mode in Switzerland, Germany and Austria on 8 October 2025 is described in Google's blog for Germany. The statements on requirements, structured data and click quality come from Google's documentation on AI features for site owners. The generative AI report in Search Console and the Search generative AI setting are described in the Google Search Central Blog of 3 June 2026, the Google blog with its update of 31 August 2026 and the Search Console Help. On Google-Extended we rely on Google's overview of its crawlers, on the end of FAQ rich results on the FAQPage documentation and on buying in AI Mode on the Merchant Center Help on the Universal Commerce Protocol.
OpenAI and Stripe
The information on OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User comes from OpenAI's documentation on its crawlers, and the parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com from OpenAI's FAQ for publishers. For the status of shopping and Instant Checkout we use OpenAI's merchant page and the announcement of Instant Checkout from September 2025. The information on Germany comes from Stripe's press release on Stripe Tour Berlin of 30 June 2026.
Studies and measurement
The figures on searching for SMEs with AI come from the "KMU Digital Pulse 2025" study by localsearch and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, as published by localsearch in December 2025. The figure of 58% of SMEs comes from the "KMU Digital Pulse 2026" study, a survey of 504 decision makers in Swiss SMEs conducted by intervista in May 2026. The "AI Assistant" channel is described in the Google Analytics 4 Help. You can find the llms.txt proposal at llmstxt.org.
Status and note
The offerings of Google, OpenAI and others change quickly. Check dates and availability with the provider before making a decision. Nobody can guarantee a mention in AI answers, including us. The cost figures are guide values and do not replace a quote.
As of: November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How does my company get into ChatGPT answers?
There is no listing that guarantees your company will be named in regular ChatGPT answers. For many questions, ChatGPT searches the web and relies on pages it is allowed to read and that answer the question clearly. So make sure the search crawler OAI-SearchBot is not blocked, that your website explains your services, prices and region in plain language, and that your details match on Google, local.ch and other directories. Mentions on third-party sites such as industry portals or the local press help as well.
Should I block AI crawlers in robots.txt?
For most SMEs the answer is no, at least not for the crawlers that handle search. If you block OAI-SearchBot, your site will no longer appear in ChatGPT's search answers. GPTBot and Google-Extended, by contrast, only control whether your content may be used to train AI models, and according to OpenAI and Google they have no effect on search. For Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, there has been a separate setting in Search Console since 2026.
Can I measure how many visitors come from ChatGPT?
Yes, clicks can be measured, but mere mentions cannot. ChatGPT adds the parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com to its links, and Google Analytics 4 groups visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and similar services in the "AI Assistant" channel. Clicks from Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, however, count as organic search. No tool today reliably shows how often your company is named in an answer without anyone clicking.
Can AI agents already buy in my online shop?
In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, practically not yet. In 2026 OpenAI moved away from its own checkout in ChatGPT, purchases are completed in the merchant's shop again, and shopping in ChatGPT is only available in the US for now. Google offers purchases in AI Mode for selected merchants in the US, Canada and Australia, and Stripe has announced selling through AI interfaces for businesses in Germany from the end of 2026. None of these providers has named a date for Switzerland, but complete product data already pays off today.
Medusa, Shopify or WooCommerce: which do you recommend?
For a shop with standard products and standard prices, Shopify or WooCommerce is enough. We recommend Medusa when customer-specific prices, configurable products, approval processes or a close ERP integration are required. We make the decision in the discovery phase, based on your requirements.
Are stock levels and prices synchronised in real time?
Where it pays off. Orders and availability usually sync within seconds, master data and prices at intervals. What matters is what your ERP allows and where delays cost money.
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