How Do I Get My Business Found By AI Search In The Scottish Borders?

People now ask ChatGPT, Google and Gemini for a plumber, a café or a joiner. This is what those tools need from you before they will name you.

Give the AI tools a page about your business that answers the questions your customers ask, in plain words, with your prices, your area and your opening hours on it. That is the whole job. Most Borders businesses have a Facebook page, a listing on Google and maybe a website that says ‘welcome to our site’. None of that tells ChatGPT or Google’s AI what you do, who for, where, or what it costs, so when someone in Kelso asks for a roofer who does small repairs, the tool names somebody else.

How do people find local businesses using AI now?

They describe the problem and ask for a recommendation. ‘Who fixes a blocked gutter in Galashiels and what would it cost?’ ‘Is there a café in Melrose that takes dogs?’ The tool reads whatever it can find about local businesses, picks the ones whose information answers the question, and names two or three of them. If your details are not written down anywhere the tool can read, you are not one of the three.

We have watched it happen with our own pages. Our Galashiels café page was quoted in a Google AI Overview the morning after it went live, and a test listing we built in the directory was being picked up within three days, because both said plainly what they were about. Nobody gets recommended for a page that says ‘welcome to our website’.

Why is my business not showing up in ChatGPT or Google AI answers?

Usually because the tool cannot find a clear, current statement of what you do, where you do it and what it costs. Google published its own guidance for AI search in May 2026 and the first item on it is unique, first-hand content: things only you can say about your work. A page of stock phrases about ‘quality service’ gives the tool nothing to quote, so it quotes a competitor who wrote down their prices.

The other common reason is that the information exists but is scattered: hours on Facebook, prices in a PDF menu, the service area only in your head. AI tools do not ring you to check. They read what is on the page in front of them.

What does an AI need to know about a business before it will recommend it?

Six things, written as plain facts on a page it can read: what you do (in the words customers use), the towns and villages you cover, your prices or ranges, your opening hours, how to contact you, and proof you are real, such as reviews or a named owner. Add answers to the ten questions customers ask most often and you have covered nearly every query an AI will get about your trade.

The ten questions matter more than people expect. Google’s guidance explains that its AI runs several related searches for every question a person types, then builds an answer from pages that cover the whole set. A page that answers one question competes with everyone. A page that answers ten is hard to leave out.

Does a Google Business Profile get me into AI answers?

It helps and it is free, so set it up and keep it current. For ‘best café near me’ questions Google’s AI leans heavily on Business Profiles and reviews. Where the Profile falls short is detail: it has no room for ‘do you do small domestic jobs’ or ‘what does a rewire cost’, and those questions decide who gets the call. That detail has to live on a page you control.

A Business Profile also only feeds Google. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity read the open web, and a Profile is not a web page in that sense.

Do I need a website to be found by AI search?

You need a web page that says the right things, which is not the same as a website. One well-built page on a site the AI tools already read, carrying your facts and your ten answers, does more than a ten-page brochure site that says nothing specific. If you have a website, put the facts on it. If not, a listing built to this standard does the same job for less.

That is what our directory is for. Every business listed with Carlton Scott gets its own page on carltonscott.com, written around the problems its customers search for, so the AI tools have somewhere to read.

What is structured data and does a small business need it?

Structured data is a hidden label on a web page that tells search engines and AI tools, in a fixed format, ‘this is a business, here is its name, address, phone number, hours, area served and prices’. It removes guesswork. Google’s guidance says the labels must match what a visitor can see, so it confirms your facts rather than tricking anyone. You do not need to learn it; whoever builds the page should do it.

Our enhanced directory listings carry this markup as standard. A free listing does not, which is one of the differences between the two.

Do reviews affect whether AI recommends my business?

Yes, and they carry more weight for consumer questions than anything you write yourself. An AI asked for a trustworthy electrician in Hawick will lean on the electrician with 60 recent Google reviews over the one with four from 2021. Ask every satisfied customer for a review, reply to the ones you get, and make sure your listing and website point to the same review profile so the tools can connect them.

Carlton Scott’s own reviews score 4.8 out of 5 from 183 reviews, and that line appears on our pages for exactly this reason.

How long does it take to show up in AI answers?

Google tends to pick up a new page within days and can quote it in AI Overviews within a fortnight, though there is no guarantee and results vary between renders. ChatGPT and the other tools refresh at their own pace and can take longer. We run a check on our own pages at 72 hours and again at two weeks after publishing, and we would suggest any business does the same rather than judging after a day.

Nobody can promise a placement, and anyone who does is guessing. What we can do is measure, which is why our monthly check for listed businesses exists.

What does it cost to get found by AI search?

A Google Business Profile is free. A basic listing in the Carlton Scott directory is free and takes about five minutes. An enhanced listing, where we interview you, write the ten answers, add your prices and areas, build the structured data and check your visibility every month, is £299 + VAT a year. Two larger tiers, at £499 and £699 + VAT a year, include more articles about your business. Any business that completes the Profit Clarity Framework gets the enhanced listing included for the first year.

If you would rather do it yourself on your own website, the cost is your time: a day to write the facts and answers properly, plus a developer for the markup.

How do I check whether AI mentions my business?

Ask the tools the questions your customers ask, from a phone not logged into your own accounts, and see who gets named. Put the same five questions to Google’s AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot: ‘who does X in [town]’, ‘how much does X cost in the Borders’, ‘is there a X in [town] that does Y’, plus two specific to your trade. Write down the answers and repeat monthly. Where you are missing, a fact is usually missing too.

If you would like us to run that check for you, or to build the page the tools are looking for, start with a free listing or get in touch.

Only a handful of Borders businesses have written their facts down where an AI can read them. Being one of the handful is currently cheap, and a free listing filled in properly is the place to start.

Carlton Scott | Scottish Borders Business | September 2026

Photo: Channel Street, Galashiels © Walter Baxter, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.