Course description

Customers can now ask AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity which local business to use, what it costs and when it's open. This course shows small business owners, sole traders and in-house marketers how to give those tools clear, accurate information to work with, using what the providers' own guidance says rather than tricks or guesswork.

You start with what AI answers are and where they come from, then make sure your pages can be crawled and indexed, decide which AI crawlers to allow, and write pages that answer the questions customers really ask. You show experience and trust, add structured data that matches your pages, keep your business details the same everywhere, earn genuine mentions and get local details right. Finally, you measure what you can, run careful monthly prompt checks and deal with wrong information when it appears.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Oriane, who runs a small picture framing shop, and her part-time marketing assistant from July to October 2026 as they audit the shop's AI visibility and fix what they find. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key and a cheat sheet, plus an AI visibility audit checklist, a crawler and robots planning worksheet, a question research worksheet, an answer-first page template, an FAQ writing template, a structured data planning sheet, a brand consistency checklist, a prompt check log spreadsheet, a monthly routine planner and a glossary.

What you'll learn

• AI search and AI answers: what AI answers are, how they differ from a classic list of results, what GEO and AEO mean and why there's no official standard behind them, and a first check of your own business.
• How AI tools find and cite sources: training, search and grounding, and what Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and Perplexity say in their own pages about how their tools find and show sources.
• Crawling, indexing and AI crawlers: robots.txt in plain English, the crawler names the providers document, choosing what to allow or block, snippet controls and Google's Search generative AI setting.
• Content that answers questions: finding the questions customers really ask, question-led headings, direct answers, answer-first pages, FAQs written for people and a content plan.
• Experience, expertise and trust: people-first content, first-hand experience, bylines and meaningful dates, writing with AI tools carefully and a trust review of your pages.
• Structured data in plain terms: what markup is and isn't for, the types that suit a small business, matching markup to the page and checking it.
• Entity and brand clarity: one name and one set of details everywhere, your about page, your Google Business Profile and reviews within UK rules.
• Mentions and local AI answers: earning genuine mentions, local PR and partnerships, what Google says about local information, service areas, hours and pages for places.
• Measuring, routines and risks: Search Console, referrals in Google Analytics 4 in general terms, manual prompt checks logged carefully, a monthly routine, and what to do when an AI answer gets you wrong.
• Final project: an AI search audit and 90-day plan for a made-up mobile bike repair business, with a prompt check log, a content plan, a fixes list and a worked model answer.

Who it's for

Small business owners, sole traders and in-house marketers who want their business described accurately when customers ask AI tools for help. You don't need any technical background; where a change needs a web developer, the course says so.

What this course is, and isn't

Nobody outside the AI providers can promise that a business will be shown or cited in an AI answer, and this course doesn't promise it either. It teaches the groundwork the providers' own guidance describes, and careful ways to check your results. Google says that from its point of view, optimising for generative AI search is still SEO. AI products change fast, so everything the course says about them is as their own pages described it when they were read on 3 November 2026. Oriane and every other person and business in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Explain what AI answers are, how they differ from classic results, and why GEO and AEO have no official standard behind them
• Describe how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity find and cite sources, as their own pages describe it
• Read a robots.txt file, tell search crawlers from training crawlers and decide which to allow or block
• Find the questions customers really ask and write answer-first pages and FAQs that answer them directly
• Show first-hand experience, accurate bylines and meaningful dates, and use AI writing tools without losing accuracy
• Plan, add and check structured data that matches what your pages say
• Keep your business name and details the same everywhere, including your about page and Google Business Profile
• Earn genuine mentions, ask for reviews within UK rules and get local details such as service areas and hours right
• Measure what you can in Search Console and Google Analytics 4, run careful monthly prompt checks and deal with wrong information
• Write an AI search audit and 90-day plan for a business, with a prompt check log, a content plan and a fixes list

Frequently asked questions