The short version
- AI assistants build answers from what they can read & trust: your website, your Google profile, your reviews & what other sites say about you.
- Make sure AI crawlers aren’t blocked, & state what you do, where & for how much in plain words.
- Keep your facts identical everywhere, & earn detailed reviews & genuine mentions.
- Check monthly by asking the questions yourself, & track AI referrals in GA4.
Ask ChatGPT for a good place to get a club fitting in Perth & you won’t get ten blue links. You’ll get a short list, usually two or three names, often with a line about price or what to expect. For a golf business that’s both a threat & an opportunity: the list is short, but the golfers reading it are close to booking.
Getting onto that list is what generative engine optimisation (GEO) is about. None of it is magic, & most of it is good marketing housekeeping that helps your Google rankings too. Here’s where we start with every golf business we work with.
1. Make sure AI can actually read your site
It sounds obvious, but it’s the most common problem we find. AI assistants use their own crawlers, such as OpenAI’s GPTBot, Anthropic’s ClaudeBot & PerplexityBot, & plenty of websites block them without the owner knowing. Security plugins & firewalls can block them quietly, & Cloudflare now offers to block AI crawlers by default.
Check your robots.txt file & your firewall or CDN settings. If you want to be recommended, let the major AI crawlers in. On every golf site we launch, we allow them deliberately & check again after go-live.
2. Say what you do, where & for how much
AI answers are assembled from statements an assistant can lift & trust. “Experience the ultimate in golf performance” gives it nothing to quote. “One-hour iron fittings on TrackMan at our Yokine studio, from $135” answers the golfer’s question in a single line.
For each service, make sure the page states what it is, who it’s for, where it happens, how long it takes, what it costs (even a “from” price) & how to book. Then add FAQs written the way golfers actually ask: “Do I need my own clubs for a lesson?”, “Can non-members play on weekends?”, “How far ahead should I book a simulator for a work function?”
3. Add structured data
Schema markup is code that labels the facts on your page, such as your business name, address, opening hours, services, prices, products & FAQs, so machines don’t have to guess. Schema.org even has a dedicated GolfCourse type.
Google stopped showing FAQ rich results for most websites in 2023, but well-structured questions & answers are still easy for AI systems to read & quote, so they’re worth keeping.
4. Keep one set of facts everywhere
AI assistants cross-check. If your website says you open at 7am & your Google profile says 8am, or one page lists last year’s prices, you’re giving them a reason to hedge or leave you out.
Audit your name, address, phone number, hours, prices & staff details across your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram & any directories, & fix the conflicts.
5. Get talked about in the right places
When AI assistants recommend local businesses, they lean heavily on what others say: Google reviews, local news, community forums, club & association websites & “best of” lists. You can’t fake this & you shouldn’t try, but you can make it easier.
Ask happy golfers for a review after a lesson or round, & encourage them to mention what they did (“my driver fitting with Sam”). Make sure you’re listed wherever golfers in your area look, & when you sponsor the junior pennant team or host a charity day, ask for a mention & a link.
6. Don’t forget Bing
Google gets the attention, but Microsoft Copilot runs on Bing & other assistants draw on Bing’s results too. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools & submit your sitemap. It takes ten minutes.
How to tell if it’s working
AI visibility is harder to measure than rankings, so be wary of anyone promising precise numbers. These are the three things we track each month:
- Prompt checks. A fixed list of real golfer questions, asked across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity & Copilot, logging which businesses get named.
- AI referrals. Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com & copilot.microsoft.com in GA4, & the bookings they lead to.
- Foundations. Crawler access, schema, facts & reviews, scored before & after.
If you’d like a quick read on where you stand, our AI Search Readiness Scorecard checks the foundations for you. Or see how we handle it day to day on our AI search service page.
