Has your website gone quiet, or have your buyers?
TL;DR – Enquiries slowed down? Before you blame your buyers, check whether AI can find you. More people now ask ChatGPT or read Google’s AI answer and go with whoever gets named. Three free checks will tell you which problem you’ve got in about 10 minutes:
Compare clicks and impressions in Google Search Console against last year.
Ask ChatGPT who it would recommend for what you do, and see if you’re named.
Open yourbusiness.co.uk/robots.txt and check it isn’t blocking AI tools.
Here are the three checks you can do today with a cup of tea.
When enquiries slow down, most business owners decide their customers have stopped buying. It’s the season, or the economy, or everyone’s tightening their belts. I understand why. It’s the kinder answer, and it means nothing is wrong with anything you’ve built.
But there’s another reason worth ruling out first. More people now skip the list of Google links. They ask ChatGPT, or they read the AI answer at the top of Google, and they go with whoever gets named. If your business isn’t in that answer, you don’t get a look in. Your website still loads, still looks fine and still says all the right things. It just isn’t being seen.
The fix for each of those problems is completely different. So before you spend money on ads or drop your prices, give it 10 minutes and find out which one you’ve got.
Check 1: ask the AI yourself
Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. Type the question your customer would ask, for example “Who would you recommend for kitchen design in Ludlow?”
Are you named? Then ask “What do you know about [your business name]?” and see if the answer is right. Try it two or three times, because the answers change each time.
Check 2: make sure the door isn’t locked
Every website has a small file that tells visitors like Google and ChatGPT which pages they’re allowed to read. You can see yours by typing your web address with /robots.txt on the end, like this:
yourbusiness.co.uk/robots.txt
You’ll see a short page of plain text. Look for GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot with “Disallow: /” underneath. If that’s there, your site is telling AI tools to stay out. Some hosting and security settings add this without you knowing.
Check 3: see what Google is telling you
Google Search Console is a free Google tool that shows how often your website appears in search results and how often people click through.
- Log in and click Performance, then Search results.
- Click Date, choose Compare, and set the last three months against the same three months last year.
- Tick Total clicks and Total impressions. Impressions means how many times you were seen.
What it means:
- Impressions steady but clicks down: people still see you, but Google’s AI answer is often giving them what they need before they click.
- Both down: your site has dropped out of view and needs looking at.
- Both steady: your website is probably fine, and the change is more likely with your buyers.
If you’ve never logged into Search Console, ask whoever built your website whether it was set up. If nobody set it up, that’s worth knowing too.
What to do with what you find
If check 1 or 2 turned something up, you’ve just found a problem that can be fixed. If all three look fine, you can rule your website out and look at your offer and your buyers with a clearer head. Either way, you’ll stop guessing.
Free guide: why your website has gone quiet
The enquiries that used to come in have slowed, and you can’t quite put your finger on why.My free guide gives you 5 signs your website has gone quiet, a 5-point SEO check you can run yourself with no tools, and one simple way to see whether ChatGPT and Google’s AI recommend you.After that, I send short weekly website and SEO tips. Unsubscribe whenever you like.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR | MELISSA CRITCHLEY
With over 20 years in marketing, I founded Wildcurrant Marketing to help small business owners get more from their websites. I build WordPress and Shopify sites with SEO worked in from day one, so your site brings in the right kind of traffic and does some of the selling for you — no constant tinkering required.
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