For years, getting found online meant one thing: Google. A potential customer might search “plumber near me,” “accountant in North Dakota,” or “website designer in North Dakota,” scroll through the results, and start clicking. That’s still happening, but it’s no longer the only way people search. Today, customers are increasingly asking AI tools questions like: “Who builds websites for small businesses in North Dakota?”, “Find an engineering firm that works with small communities” ,“Who can design a website for my city?”, “What are the best restaurants near me?”
Instead of giving users a page filled with links, AI-powered search tools can provide a direct answer, summary, or list of businesses. That creates an important new question for small-business owners: Can AI actually find and understand your business well enough to recommend it?
What Is AI Search?
AI search refers broadly to using artificial intelligence to answer questions and help users discover information rather than relying solely on a traditional list of search results. You may already encounter this through Google’s AI-powered search features, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and other AI tools. The technology is changing quickly, but the underlying goal isn’t terribly different from traditional search.
These systems are trying to determine:
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What does your business do?
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Where are you located?
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What areas do you serve?
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What are you knowledgeable about?
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Is your business credible?
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Does your website provide useful information relevant to the question being asked?
That’s why AI search optimization and traditional SEO have a lot in common. A clear, useful, trustworthy website matters for both.
SEO Isn’t Dead. Search Is Expanding.
Every few months, someone declares that SEO is dead. It isn’t. People are still using Google, looking at maps, visiting business websites, reading reviews, and searching for products and services. What’s changing is how they get there. Instead of optimizing a website exclusively around a handful of search phrases, businesses need to think more broadly about whether their online presence clearly establishes who they are, what they do, where they do it, and why someone should trust them.
That’s good news for small businesses. You don’t necessarily need to completely rethink your website for AI search. Many of the things that make a website valuable to Google also make it easier for AI systems and, most importantly, your customers to understand.
1. Clearly Say What Your Business Does
This sounds painfully obvious. Yet it’s one of the most common problems I see on small-business websites. A homepage might lead with: Solutions Built Around You. Sounds nice. But solutions for what? Instead, your website should make your actual business clear almost immediately. Something like: ‘Website Design for North Dakota Small Businesses’, tells a visitor, search engine, or AI system considerably more.
You can still have personality. Just don’t make people solve a riddle before they figure out what you sell. Your homepage should clearly communicate: What you do + who you help + where you do it.
2. Be Specific About Where You Work
Local SEO has always relied heavily on location, and geographic context remains important as search evolves. If you serve customers throughout North Dakota, say so. If you primarily serve Bismarck, Fargo, Jamestown, Ellendale, Oakes, Aberdeen, or surrounding communities, include those locations naturally where they’re relevant. Don’t create a giant paragraph stuffed with every town within 300 miles simply because you want Google to notice them. That’s not useful to anyone.
Instead, provide genuine local context through your:
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Homepage
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Contact page
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Service pages
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Project pages
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About page
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Blog posts
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Customer testimonials
For example, a contractor could feature a completed project in Jamestown. An engineering company could highlight municipal work in western North Dakota. A website designer could showcase websites created for North Dakota businesses. Those examples provide much stronger evidence of where you actually work.
3. Create Detailed Service Pages
If your entire website has one Services page with six bullet points, you’re missing an opportunity. Important services often deserve their own pages. Instead of simply listing: Web Design | Graphic Design | Website Maintenance, create useful pages explaining each service.
A strong service page should answer questions such as:
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What is the service?
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Who is it for?
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What does it include?
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What problems does it solve?
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What does your process look like?
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Where do you provide it?
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What should a customer do next?
This gives search engines and AI systems considerably more context about your expertise. It also happens to be much more helpful to humans. Funny how often good SEO comes down to simply creating a better website.
4. Answer the Questions Your Customers Actually Ask
Frequently asked questions are becoming increasingly valuable. Think about what customers ask you before hiring your business. “How much does a website cost?”, “How long does a website redesign take?”, “Do you work with businesses outside North Dakota?”, “Can you update a website someone else built?”, “Do I own my domain?”
Those are great questions to answer on your website because they’re written similarly to the way people search, especially when using conversational AI. You don’t have to create 75 FAQs just for SEO. Start with the questions you answer repeatedly in real life. Those are usually the best ones.
5. Build Your Website Around Real Expertise
One of the biggest opportunities small businesses have in the age of AI is something they already possess: Actual experience. Generic information is incredibly easy to produce now. Firsthand experience isn’t. Your website can demonstrate expertise through:
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Project pages
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Case studies
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Before-and-after examples
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Original photos
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Customer testimonials
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Detailed service information
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Helpful blog posts
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Local knowledge
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Answers to specialized industry questions
Instead of publishing another generic article called “5 Reasons You Need a New Website,” write about something you’ve actually encountered. For example: What We Changed When Redesigning a Website for a North Dakota Municipality or 5 Website Problems I Keep Seeing on Small-Business Websites
Specific experience gives your content something generic AI-generated articles can’t easily duplicate.
6. Keep Your Business Information Consistent
Your website isn’t the only place search platforms learn about your business. Your business name, location, phone number, hours, services, and other important information should be accurate and consistent across your online presence. Pay particular attention to your:
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Website
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Google Business Profile
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Social media profiles
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Industry directories
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Local directories
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Chamber or association listings
If one source says you’re open Saturday, another says you’re closed, and your website hasn’t been updated since 2022, you’re creating unnecessary confusion for customers and search systems alike. Consistency builds confidence.
7. Don’t Forget Reviews and Reputation
Your website can say you’re wonderful. Your customers saying you’re wonderful is considerably more convincing. Reviews and testimonials provide valuable context about what it’s actually like to work with your business. Encourage satisfied customers to leave honest reviews and consider featuring some of those testimonials on your website. This helps potential customers evaluate you and strengthens the overall credibility of your online presence.
8. Make Sure Your Website Is Technically Sound
Great content can’t do all the work if your website itself is struggling. Your site should be:
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Mobile-friendly
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Secure
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Fast enough to use comfortably
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Easy to navigate
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Accessible
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Properly indexed by search engines
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Free from broken links and major technical errors
You should also use descriptive page titles, logical heading structures, image alt text, and appropriate structured data where applicable. None of that is particularly glamorous. It is, however, the foundation that helps search engines understand your website and visitors actually use it.
Can You Test Whether ChatGPT Knows Your Business?
Sure. Try searching for your type of business the way a potential customer might. Instead of typing your company name, ask something like: “Who designs websites for small businesses in North Dakota?” Or: “Find a website designer who works with small towns and municipalities in North Dakota.”
Then try similar searches in Google. Don’t panic if your business doesn’t appear. AI-generated recommendations can vary, and appearing once doesn’t mean you’ll appear every time. Instead, use the exercise as a reality check. If someone who doesn’t already know your business name searches for exactly what you offer, have you given search engines enough information to connect the dots? That’s the bigger question.
So, How Do You Make Your Website More AI-Friendly?
Fortunately, you don’t need to start stuffing phrases like “AI optimized” into every page. Start with the fundamentals: Be clear. Be specific. Be useful. Be consistent. Clearly explain what you do. Show where you work. Answer real customer questions. Demonstrate actual experience. Keep your information current. Build a website that’s easy for humans to use. Those are good principles for traditional SEO, local SEO, AI search, and, frankly, good marketing in general.
Is Your Website Ready for the Way People Search in 2026?
Search is changing, but the purpose of your website hasn’t. It still needs to help the right people find you, understand you, trust you, and take the next step. The difference is that there are now more ways for those people to discover your business.
At Simple Wolf, I help small businesses, municipalities, nonprofits, and organizations throughout North Dakota create websites that are clear, easy to navigate, optimized for search, and built to grow with their business. If your website hasn’t been updated in a few years, now is a good time to look at it through a new lens:
If someone had never heard of your business before, would your website give Google, AI search tools, and your potential customers enough information to understand exactly why they should choose you? If not, we should probably fix that.
