AI Assistants Overlook Most Small Business Websites, GEO Ready Analysis Finds

Most small business websites remain invisible to AI assistants, according to a new analysis from GEO Ready, which has introduced a diagnostic tool to help businesses understand how platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Grok interpret their online presence. This visibility gap comes as consumers shift away from traditional search engines toward AI assistants and generative Q&A platforms, creating significant implications for businesses that fail to adapt.

Industry data highlights this transition: ChatGPT is on track to hit 700 million weekly active users, AI Overviews appear on 84% of Google queries, over half of all Google searches end without a click, and one in three consumers uses AI tools to make purchase decisions. According to HubSpot research, 84% of users trust AI recommendations as much or more than traditional search results. "People are no longer just typing into Google, they're asking AI assistants," said Bailey Horne, co-founder of GEO Ready. "If your site isn't readable by these systems, you simply won't show up."

The problem stems from how websites are built. Industry research shows more than 70% of JavaScript-rendered websites may fail basic crawler visibility tests, over 60% require special rendering or hydration to be understood, and many AI systems rely primarily on raw HTML, structured content, and minimal JavaScript. This means millions of businesses, especially those built on client-side frameworks such as React and Vue, may not be interpreted or referenced by AI assistants. "These platforms are becoming the new local recommendation engines," said Gavin Horne, co-founder. "But most websites aren't built in a way AI tools can easily analyze."

The GEO Ready platform, available at https://www.geoready.app, offers a free assessment that analyzes how AI engines interpret business websites. The tool examines whether AI can understand a business's services and location, whether content is structured for AI extraction, whether brand trust signals are present, and where a site appears or disappears in AI explanations. The platform identifies key improvements AI systems expect, including entity clarity, content structure, trust indicators, structured data (schema), and on-page content used by AI to generate answers.

The founders developed GEO Ready after experiencing unexplained declines in their own businesses' website traffic and Google Ad performance. "When our Google Ads started underperforming without explanation, we knew something had changed," said Bailey Horne. "We learned that AI assistants were recommending entirely different websites. That's when we built GEO Ready, to give other businesses visibility into this shift." As the broader category of AI visibility develops, GEO Ready aims to make this emerging discipline accessible, practical, and affordable for everyday businesses.