In short: customers now find a business through Google, through map apps and increasingly through AI assistants like ChatGPT. All three rely on the same basics: a complete Google Business Profile, genuine reviews, the same business details everywhere, verifiable references and listings on reputable sites that link to your website. None of it costs money, and you can manage the first steps in an afternoon.
These steps apply to any business that works at the customer’s premises: to a painting company in Winterthur just as much as to a cleaning firm in Bern, a landscaping business in Aargau or a caretaking service in Lugano.
1. Fill in the Google Business Profile completely
The free Google Business Profile is the single most important step. It controls whether your business appears in Google Maps and in the map section of search when someone looks for “painter near me” or “cleaning Zurich”.
- Choose the right main category and add secondary categories for further services.
- Enter your service area, not just your address.
- Upload genuine photos: team, vehicle, finished work.
- Keep opening hours and phone number up to date.
2. Ask for a review after every job
For local searches, reviews are the strongest signal after the profile itself, and they also convince customers. The best moment is right after completion, when the invoice is paid and the work is still fresh in mind.
Send the direct review link from your Google Business Profile, not a general link to Google Maps: the direct link opens the review window immediately. Reply to every review, including critical ones, in a factual and friendly way.
3. Use the same business details everywhere
Google and AI assistants cross-check information from many sources. If the website says “Muster Malerei GmbH”, the directory says “Malerei Muster” and the letterhead shows an old phone number, trust in all three drops. Decide once how your name, address and phone number are written, and use that spelling everywhere.
4. List yourself in directories and create a verified profile
Listings in reputable directories help twice over: they confirm your business details and bring a link to your website. Good starting points are local.ch and search.ch, your trade association and your municipality’s page for local businesses.
Another option is the free business profile on MeisterOffice. It is verified automatically, for example through the federal UID register, shows your services, your service area and reference projects, and links to your website. You can create it in the settings after a free registration with MeisterOffice.
5. Show reference projects with photos
Nothing convinces like finished work. Three to six well-described projects with location, year and two or three photos say more than any advertising claim. Get the customer’s consent, do not show faces or house numbers, and describe in two sentences what was done: “Facade of an apartment building in Wil, mineral paint, 2025.”
6. Bring your own website down to the essentials
A website does not have to be elaborate, but it must answer four questions within ten seconds: what do you do, where do you work, what have you already done and how can you be reached?
- A page title with service and location, such as “Painting company in Winterthur”.
- A list of services and service area in the text, not only in an image.
- Phone number and email address on every page.
- A page that loads quickly on a phone.
7. Show up in AI assistants
When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude about a business, these assistants read ordinary web pages and compare the details. Files such as llms.txt play hardly any role today: in our own server log for October 2026, AI crawlers requested ordinary pages thousands of times and llms.txt not once.
What helps are the same basics as for Google: factual pages with clear details about services and region, the same business details everywhere, and independent sources that confirm your business, such as reviews and verified directory listings.
8. Collect links from associations, suppliers and your municipality
Every link from a reputable site to your website is a recommendation. Ask specifically:
- Your trade association, for the member directory.
- Suppliers and partner firms, for a reference list.
- The municipality or the local trade association, for the local directory.
- Customers with their own website, for example property managers, for a mention as a partner.
Do not buy links and do not swap links on a large scale: search engines detect this and discount it.
How to put it into practice
Start with steps 1 and 2, they bring the most. After that, set aside half an hour every month: a new reference project, a directory listing, a request to a partner. If you write quotes and invoices with MeisterOffice, you can ask for a Google review with one click after every paid invoice. More under Writing an invoice and in the Help Centre.
How customers find your business on Google and in AI assistants: see the guide Getting found online.