AI visibility
&AI searchHow AI decides where people eat
Ask ChatGPT for “a good breakfast spot nearby” and it names three places with confidence. That answer isn't advertising, and it isn't random. Here's what's behind it — and what a small venue can actually do about it.
The search box got an opinion
For twenty years, being findable meant ranking in a list. Now assistants answer with a recommendation — a shortlist of two or three names, not ten blue links. Either you're in the answer, or you don't exist for that guest.
What assistants actually read
Assistants don't visit your dining room. They read the public record of it — and they weigh roughly four things:
01
Rating, backed by volume
A 4.8 from twelve reviews and a 4.8 from twelve hundred are different facts. Academic work has long shown ratings move real revenue — one extra star lifts an independent restaurant's revenue by 5–9%.
02
Freshness
A wall of glowing reviews from two summers ago tells an assistant one thing: something changed. Steady, recent feedback reads as a place that's still good — this week.
03
Detail
“Great place” teaches an AI nothing. “Quiet on weekday mornings, oat flat white, dog-friendly terrace” answers ten different guest questions. Detailed review text is what assistants quote — stars alone can't be quoted.
04
Consistency across platforms
Assistants cross-check. If your hours, address and story differ between Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor — or you're simply absent from half of them — the safe move for the AI is to recommend someone else.
The honest playbook
No tricks, no “AEO hacks” — the levers are boringly real, and they compound:
- 01Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current — hours, menu link, photos, attributes.
- 02Ask every guest, every service — steady volume and freshness beat any burst campaign.
- 03Ask in a way that produces sentences, not just stars — detail is what gets quoted.
- 04Be present and consistent on every platform your guests use, not just one.
- 05Reply to reviews — it signals a live, listening business.
Free · takes us a few days · no strings
How visible is your venue to AI?
Leave your venue and email — we'll ask the assistants about your neighborhood, check your data across platforms, and send you an honest checkup: where you show up, where you don't, and what to fix first.
Where Norly fits
Every lever above is a habit — and habits need a system. Norly turns them into one: the QR on the table produces steady, recent reviews; the video ask produces detailed ones; one code covers every platform at once; and the analytics show it's actually happening.
Signal → system
Norly Research
We're studying this properly
We're running our own research on AI visibility for cafés and restaurants — what assistants recommend, what the recommended places have in common, and what actually moves the needle. The findings will be published here, free.