Ask ChatGPT for "the best hair salon in Melbourne" right now (or you can also do the same search for your own industry). There's a good chance your business doesn't come up, even if you rank on page one of Google.
We wanted to know how widespread that problem actually is, so instead of guessing, we ran a full Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) audit across 50 real Melbourne businesses in our own client portfolio, spanning trades, professional services, education, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. No hypotheticals. No vendor-supplied case studies. Just what ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews actually surface when real customers ask real questions.
Here's what we found, and how to check where your own business stands.
The Headline Numbers
- 68% of the businesses we audited were never cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews for a single question a real customer would plausibly ask about their industry or service area.
- The average AI-visibility score across the portfolio was 38/100, while the same businesses averaged a traditional Google ranking position of 11.4.
- 62% had no structured data (schema markup) an AI system could reliably parse, even though most had reasonably modern websites.
- The lowest-scoring site in the study came in at 14/100, a business ranking on page one of Google for its core keyword, yet functionally invisible to AI search.
- Businesses with dedicated FAQ content, clear service-area pages, and up-to-date schema scored on average 24 points higher than those without.
(Methodology note: each site was scored across 5 criteria, see "How We Scored Each Site" below, using the same framework we run for paying clients.)
Why Ranking on Google No Longer Means You're Visible
Search has split into two systems that behave very differently:
- Traditional Google search: Still driven by keywords, backlinks and technical SEO. A page ranks, a user clicks, a user lands on your site.
- AI-driven search: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's own AI Overviews don't send a click. They read your site, decide whether you're a trustworthy answer, and either quote you directly or leave you out entirely. If they leave you out, the customer never knows you exist, because there's no page two to scroll to.
That second system is growing fast, and it rewards a completely different set of signals: clear, structured answers; consistent facts about who you are and what you do; schema markup that removes ambiguity; and content written to directly resolve a question rather than to rank for a keyword.
Most Melbourne small-to-medium businesses built their websites for system one. Almost none have touched system two. That gap is exactly what our audit set out to measure.
Strengthen Your Digital Presence With Our AI-SEO Strategy
What "Invisible" Actually Looks Like
A few patterns showed up again and again across the 50 sites:
- Stat counters and key numbers rendered only in JavaScript. AI crawlers frequently read the raw HTML, not the rendered page. So numbers like "20 years in business" or "500+ projects completed" showed up as blank or zero to the crawler, even though a human visitor saw them fine.
- No schema markup at all, or schema that hadn't been updated in years and pointed to outdated services or locations.
- Thin or missing suburb/location pages, so an AI system had no way to confidently answer "who provides this service in [specific Melbourne suburb]."
- Content written for search engines, not for questions. Pages often targeted specific keywords without clearly answering what a customer was actually asking. This can also make it harder for AI systems to identify and summarise the information accurately.
None of these are exotic problems. They're the kind of thing that gets missed because a site "looks fine" and still ranks reasonably on Google, which is exactly why they go unnoticed for years.
How We Scored Each Site
For anyone who wants to run a version of this themselves, our framework looked at:
| Category | What we checked |
|---|---|
| AI crawlability | Whether key content (including JS-rendered elements) is visible in raw HTML |
| Structured data | Presence and accuracy of schema markup (Organization, Service, FAQ, LocalBusiness) |
| Answer-shaped content | Whether pages directly answer likely customer questions in the first 2-3 sentences |
| Entity clarity | Consistency of business name, service area, and offering across the site and external listings |
| Citation readiness | Whether content is structured so an AI system could quote it directly and accurately |
Each category was scored out of 20, for a total AI Visibility Score out of 100.
What Actually Moved the Needle
The businesses that scored well weren't necessarily the biggest sites or the biggest budgets. The common threads were:
- A clear FAQ section built around real customer questions, not keyword-stuffed headings.
- Schema markup that matched what's actually on the page, no outdated services, no missing locations.
- Location and service pages with real, specific detail, not templated pages swapping out a suburb name.
- Facts about the business (numbers, credentials, years of operation) present in raw HTML, not only in animated counters or JavaScript widgets.
None of this required a rebuild. In most cases it was a matter of weeks, not months.
Check Your Own AI Search Visibility
If a business ranking on page one of Google can still score 14/100 on AI visibility, the only way to know where you stand is to actually check rather than just assume.
Weplanners is offering a free AI Search Visibility Score to any Melbourne business that wants one. Your website will be assessed against the same framework used in our study, with a clear, plain-English report showing how AI systems currently understand your business and what may be limiting your visibility.
See Where Your Business Stands in AI Search
FAQs
What is AI search visibility (GEO/AEO)?
It's how well a business is recognised, understood and cited by AI-driven search systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, as distinct from traditional Google rankings. Learn more about our AI-SEO services.
Can a business rank well on Google but still be invisible to AI search?
Yes. Our audit found this to be common. Google rankings and AI citation rely on different signals, and a technically sound page for traditional SEO can still be unreadable or untrustworthy to an AI system if it lacks structured data or clear, direct answers.
How do I know if my website is visible to ChatGPT or AI Overviews?
The most reliable way is a structured audit checking crawlability, schema, answer-shaped content and entity consistency; the same framework used in this study. Request a free AI Search Visibility Score.
How long does it take to improve AI search visibility?
In this audit, the businesses that made structural fixes (schema, FAQ content, fixing JS-rendered content) typically saw measurable improvement within 6 weeks. This can be much faster than a traditional SEO campaign, because it's largely a clarity and structure problem rather than a rankings-and-backlinks problem.
