​is there a real business in helping websites show up on ChatGPT and Perplexity, not just Google. genuinely want to know if this problem is big enough. want honest feedback before I go all in.

I am going to share something I am thinking through and want honest input on before I commit to anything.

I run a small team. past few years have been standard website builds and restructuring for clients.

about a year ago something shifted in the conversations I was having.

clients kept saying the same thing. Google rankings are fine. but when their customers search on ChatGPT or Perplexity their business does not show up. competitors do.

so I started looking into why and helping them fix it. turns out showing up on AI search tools has almost nothing to do with traditional SEO signals. it comes down to how content is structured on the page. whether a language model can actually read and trust the information. whether the business is described clearly and consistently everywhere it exists online.

done enough of this work now that I am wondering whether there is a standalone business here. not just as an add-on to web development work but as its own thing.

the idea would be an AI search visibility service. auditing websites specifically for how readable they are to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and fixing what is broken.

three things I genuinely cannot figure out yet:

are most small business owners even aware this problem exists or is it still too niche for mainstream demand right now.

would someone pay for this as a standalone service or does it only make sense bundled with other web work.

is this a real business opportunity right now or am I about 18 months too early.

small team. not funded. needs to work practically not just directionally.

honest feedback welcome. especially from anyone who has tried to build something in an emerging space and learned the hard way about timing.