Setting Up Your Business for AI Recommendations: A First-Week Plan

Setting up for AI recommendations means putting the basic pieces in place so assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot can find, read and describe your business. There is no switch to turn on and no account to register with the AI companies. Instead, you prepare your website, profiles and tracking, and this plan does it in five working days.

Before You Start

Gather your logins for your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, main social accounts and the directories you use. Write a one-line description of your business, for example “family-run Italian restaurant in Ghent with gluten-free menu”. You will paste this in many places this week.

Day 1: Profiles and Listings

• Claim or update Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business.
• Check Apple Business Connect if customers find you on iPhones.
• Update LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram bios with the same description, address and website.
• Note any old or duplicate listings to clean up later.

Day 2: Website Access

• Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and check it does not block the crawlers you want. Our technical SEO for AI crawlers guide explains the common rules.
• Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Make sure key pages are readable without logging in and without relying only on JavaScript.

Day 3: Structured Data

Add structured data to tell machines the basics. For most businesses, that means an Organization or LocalBusiness block with name, address, phone, opening hours, logo and social profile links. Product companies should add Product data with price and availability. Use your website platform’s SEO plugin or ask your developer. Then test it with a structured data testing tool.

Day 4: Core Content

Check that these pages exist and are clear:

1. A homepage that states what you do in the first lines.
2. One page per main service or product line.
3. A contact page with full details in text.
4. An FAQ with eight to twelve real customer questions.
5. An About page with your story, team and experience.

You do not need to write everything this week. Mark gaps and plan them.

Day 5: Prompt List and Baseline

Write 15 questions a customer might ask an assistant, such as “best Italian restaurant in Ghent for gluten-free” or “romantic dinner Ghent city centre”. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot. Record whether you appear, how you are described and which competitors and sources show up. This baseline is what you will measure progress against. See measuring AI visibility for a simple recording format.

Who Should Own This Work

In a small business, the owner or office manager usually handles Days 1, 4 and 5, while a web developer or agency handles Days 2 and 3. Agree who is responsible for each step before you start, and keep all logins in one secure place so updates do not stall later.

After the First Week

With the foundations in place, the ongoing work is about evidence and content: earning reviews, getting mentioned on the sites assistants cite, and publishing pages that answer the questions where you are missing. Re-run your baseline monthly.

Common Setup Mistakes

• Using a different business name on each platform.
• Leaving a “coming soon” page or staging site indexable.
• Putting opening hours only in an image.
• Blocking all bots in robots.txt “for security”.
• Skipping Bing, which Copilot relies on.

How Keboost Helps

Keboost takes over the tracking from Day 5 onwards. It monitors your prompts across major AI assistants, shows where you and competitors appear, and helps create and distribute focused content to fill gaps. Run a free AI visibility check to get a starting baseline in minutes.