Insights / SEO
Google, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants pull answers from public websites, not your Instagram feed. Here is what that means if you rely on social alone.
If someone asks an AI assistant to find a business like yours, it will read public websites, not your Instagram feed.
Search is changing fast. Google now shows AI Overviews on many searches: a short AI-written summary with links underneath. Millions of people also ask ChatGPT to search the web and expect cited sources they can click and verify.
That shift matters if your business info only lives on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Those tools are good for posting. They are not a substitute for a site AI can read.
Traditional search showed you a list of links. You picked one and read the page yourself.
AI search tries to answer the question first, then point you to sources. Google pulls from indexed web pages to build its overview. ChatGPT searches the web and shows inline citations when it uses live results. People have learned to check those links because AI can get things wrong. They want to see where the answer came from.
If your business is not on a page those tools can find and cite, you are not in the conversation.
Not the way it reads a website.
Social platforms keep most business details inside apps, feeds, stories, and DMs. Search engines and AI assistants work best with public pages that stay in one place: your services, hours, location, phone number, and how to book or buy.
We covered the ownership side in If I Have a Facebook Page, Do I Need a Business Website?. The AI search angle is similar. A Facebook page helps people who already follow you. It does not give AI a clear, structured page to cite when a stranger asks “who does X near me?”
A proper business website lets you publish information in a format crawlers understand:
On social, you mostly get a follower count. You cannot see who actually visited, what they clicked, or whether those accounts are real. A website gives you traffic you can measure.
AI tools cite websites because they need a source they can link to. Your follower count is not a source. A public page with your name, services, and contact info is.
Convenience, mostly.
Typing a full question into Google or ChatGPT is faster than digging through posts. For local businesses, that means “best plumber in Yakima” or “who rents bounce houses near me” gets an AI summary before someone ever opens Instagram.
Google has expanded AI Overviews to more countries and query types since the 2024 launch. ChatGPT search adds citations so users can verify answers. The habit is forming: ask the AI, click the source, call the business.
If you are not on a citable page, the AI recommends someone else.
You do not need a huge site. You need a public page that states the basics clearly:
| On the page | Why AI and search care |
|---|---|
| Business name and what you do | So tools can match you to the right question |
| City, service area, or address | Local queries need a location |
| Phone, email, or contact form | The answer should lead somewhere actionable |
| Hours or how to book | Stops AI from guessing or skipping you |
| A few real details about your services | More to cite than a one-line bio |
Pages built this way show up in regular search and in AI answers that link out to sources. That is what people mean when they say AEO (answer engine optimization) or GEO (generative engine optimization). The label changes. The work is the same: make your official info easy to find on a site you control.
On Yakima Valley Events, public event pages are built to be indexed and cited. Traffic reports already show AI assistants, including ChatGPT, as referrers. That only happens because the content lives on crawlable pages, not inside a feed.
How do AI search tools find your business? Through your website, if you have one worth citing.
Social still helps you stay visible to people who already know you. AI search helps strangers find you when they ask a question out loud or type it into a chat box. Those strangers need a link. Give them a site with your name, services, and contact info in plain view.
Post where your customers already are. Make sure the official answer lives on a page AI can read and link to.
Every business needs a website. Growing ones need better tools.
Not sure what you actually need?
We will look at how your business works today and figure out what is worth building, and what is not.