"AI Search" Isn't Someone Else's Problem. The Way Pet Owners Search Is Changing
Hello. We are a marketing team based in Nagoya, specializing in AIO and MEO strategies for local businesses. We consult with many local business owners about customer acquisition, and recently, we've seen a surge in questions about how to handle "AI Search."
"How do ChatGPT and Google's new AI affect my business?"
"Are my current SEO and MEO efforts no longer enough?"
Let's get straight to the point. It is not irrelevant. And, with only your current strategies, you may be left behind in a few years, or even just one year.
Imagine a future where a pet owner speaks into their smartphone:
"Find a grooming salon in Nagoya that's good at nail trimming and ear cleaning for this weekend."
"Where's a vet hospital that handles night emergencies and has a lot of experience with cats?"
Unlike traditional search engines that show ten blue links, AI will generate an answer by "recommending" the one to three most suitable businesses. What if your business is left off that "recommended list"? It means you won't even be considered as an option by potential customers. This is the dawn of the "AI Search" era that we are sounding the alarm about. In this article, we will provide a clear, expert explanation of a concrete step you can take to ride this wave of change and get ahead of the competition: "structured data."
Why Isn't Your Business "Recommended" by AI?
You might be thinking, "I've clearly written my services and business hours on my website, so why wouldn't AI choose me?" The reason lies in the fundamental difference in how AI and humans "read" information.
Humans can intuitively understand from a website's design and context that "this is an address" or "this is about clinic hours." But AI is a program. It reads a webpage's code, and accurately understanding "what this text is about" is actually a very difficult task.
For example, imagine your site says, "Sundays & Holidays 9:00-12:00." A human sees this and understands, "They're open on Sunday and holiday mornings." But to an AI, it's just a string of characters. It can't distinguish whether this refers to "holiday business hours," "a special campaign time," or even "staff working hours."
The solution to this "AI can't understand information" problem is the topic of this article: "structured data."
Structured data is a method of adding labels (tags) to information on your website—like "this is an address," "this is a service name," "this is a price"—to accurately convey its meaning to search engines and AI. A website without structured data is like an "unorganized bookshelf with information scattered everywhere" to an AI. It doesn't know where any particular book is and can't find the necessary information quickly. As a result, your business is quietly excluded from the list of candidates when an AI makes a recommendation to a user.
3 Ways to Use Structured Data to Get "Chosen" by AI
So, what kind of structured data should you specifically implement to convey information correctly to AI and increase your chances of being recommended? Here are the three most important methods that pet salon and veterinary clinic owners should tackle right away, complete with concrete code examples.
1. Accurately Convey Your Business's Basic Information (LocalBusiness)
The most basic and crucial step is to set up your business's fundamental information so that AI can understand it with 100% accuracy. You'll use a type of structured data called `LocalBusiness` and, importantly, specify a more detailed type according to your industry. For a veterinary hospital, `VeterinaryCare` is appropriate, while `PetStore` is suitable for pet salons or pet shops.
This makes it easier for AI to recognize your business as a candidate for searches that combine a location and industry, such as "veterinary hospital in Naka-ku, Nagoya."
[Example Implementation Code: For a Veterinary Hospital in Nagoya]
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "VeterinaryCare",
"name": "なごやペットクリニック",
"image": "https://example.com/images/clinic-photo.jpg",
"@id": "https://example.com",
"url": "https://example.com",
"telephone": "+81-52-123-4567",
"priceRange": "¥¥",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "栄3-1-1",
"addressLocality": "名古屋市中区",
"addressRegion": "愛知県",
"postalCode": "460-0008",
"addressCountry": "JP"
},
"geo": {
"@type": "GeoCoordinates",
"latitude": 35.168923,
"longitude": 136.906428
},
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": [
"Monday",
"Tuesday",
"Wednesday",
"Friday"
],
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "19:00"
},
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": "Saturday",
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "17:00"
},
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": "Sunday",
"opens": "10:00",
"closes": "13:00"
}
],
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/nagoyapetclinic",
"https://www.instagram.com/nagoyapetclinic"
]
}
</script>By embedding this code on your website, AI can programmatically and accurately understand that "Nagoya Pet Clinic" is a veterinary hospital in Naka-ku, Nagoya, its phone number is X, and it's open until 7 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 5 PM on Saturdays, and 1 PM on Sundays.
2. Specifically Describe Your Services (Service)
The next important step is to tell AI "what kind of services you offer." Instead of just writing "Grooming" or "Pet Hotel," you define each one as a separate "Service" using structured data.
This increases the chances that your business will match more specific and detailed user queries, such as "a salon that does summer cuts for Chihuahuas" or "a pet hotel where I can safely leave my cat."
[Example Implementation Code: Grooming Service at a Pet Salon]
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Service",
"serviceType": "犬のトリミング",
"provider": {
"@type": "PetStore",
"name": "ふわふわペットサロン名古屋"
},
"areaServed": {
"@type": "City",
"name": "名古屋市"
},
"name": "トイプードル・テディベアカットコース",
"description": "経験豊富なトリマーが、トイプードル特有の可愛らしさを最大限に引き出すテディベアカットを施術します。シャンプー、爪切り、耳掃除、肛門腺絞りも含まれます。",
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"price": "8500",
"priceCurrency": "JPY"
}
}
</script>This code tells AI the details of the "Toy Poodle Teddy Bear Cut Course" service offered by "Fuwafuwa Pet Salon Nagoya." By describing the price (8,500 JPY) and what the service includes (shampoo, nail trimming, etc.), you make it more likely to appear in AI search results for users comparing options based on price and service details. For a veterinary hospital, it would be effective to define services like "Spay/Neuter Surgery," "Vaccinations," and "Regular Health Check-ups" individually.
3. Turn Customer Testimonials & Ratings into an Asset (Review/AggregateRating)
When an AI "recommends" something to a user, it places a high value on the reliability of the information. A powerful element that ensures this reliability is "third-party evaluation"—in other words, word-of-mouth and reviews.
While reviews on your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) are certainly important, the "customer testimonials" you post on your own website can also become a powerful asset when marked up with structured data. This allows you to directly showcase positive feedback on your site to the AI.
[Example Implementation Code: Customer Testimonials and Aggregate Rating]
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "VeterinaryCare",
"name": "なごやペットクリニック",
"@id": "https://example.com",
// ... (Include the basic business information explained earlier here) ...
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.8",
"reviewCount": "85"
},
"review": [
{
"@type": "Review",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "佐藤 様"
},
"datePublished": "2023-10-15",
"reviewBody": "先生がとても親身になって話を聞いてくださり、安心して愛犬を任せられました。院内も清潔で、受付の方の対応も丁寧です。",
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "5"
}
},
{
"@type": "Review",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "鈴木 様"
},
"datePublished": "2023-09-28",
"reviewBody": "夜間に急な体調不良で駆け込みましたが、迅速かつ的確に対応していただき本当に助かりました。",
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "5"
}
}
]
}
</script>This code tells AI that there are 85 reviews, the aggregate rating is 4.8 out of 5, and it provides the content of individual reviews. When an AI is asked, "What's a well-regarded veterinary hospital?" this dramatically increases the likelihood that it will present your business to the user as a trustworthy option. This is a very important strategy for future AIO (AI Optimization).
Easy for Beginners! 3 Steps to Implement Structured Data
If this seems too technical and difficult, don't worry. By following these three steps, you can implement structured data even without programming knowledge.
Step 1: Organize the Necessary Information
First, write down the information you want to include in your structured data on paper or in a spreadsheet. Use the items from the examples above as a reference to organize your own business's information.
- Basic Business Info: Official name, address, phone number, business hours (for each day), website URL, social media account URLs
- Services Offered: Service name, brief description, price (if known)
- Customer Testimonials: Reviewer's name (initials are fine), rating (out of 5), review text
Organizing this information is the key to making the next steps go smoothly.
Step 2: Generate the JSON-LD Code
Next, generate the code based on the information you organized. Writing this by hand is difficult, so let's use a free generator tool. A search for "Schema Markup Generator (JSON-LD)" will bring up several options.
- Go to the tool's website and select a schema type like "Local Business."
- Specify the subtype: "VeterinaryCare" for a vet hospital or "PetStore" for a pet salon.
- Enter the business information you organized in Step 1 into the tool's respective fields (Name, URL, Telephone, etc.).
- Once you're done, the JSON-LD code will be automatically generated in a window on the right. Copy this code.
Step 3: Implement and Test the Code on Your Website
Finally, paste the generated code into your website. If you're using WordPress, it's common to use a theme feature or a dedicated plugin to insert it inside the <head> tag or just before the closing <body> tag on all pages. (※Always back up your site before making changes.)
After implementation, be sure to check if it's being recognized correctly using Google's "Rich Results Test" tool. Enter your page URL, and the tool will detect the structured data and check for errors or warnings. If no errors appear, the implementation is a success.
This entire process can be considered a two-for-one measure: it strengthens your traditional MEO (Map Engine Optimization) and prepares you for the next generation of AI Search.
The Next Step to Winning in the AI Era
We've discussed the importance of structured data in the era of AI search and how to implement it. Structured data is not just an SEO technique. It's a "common language" for accurately communicating the appeal and value of your business to a new type of "customer": AI.
Let's summarize the key points.
- AI cannot read context like humans and relies on "structured data" to understand information.
- It is especially important for pet salons and veterinary hospitals to convey their "business info," "services," and "reviews" to AI with structured data.
- Implementation of structured data is possible even without expert knowledge by using free tools.
This is not a one-and-done task. Whenever you change your business hours or launch a new service, you must update your structured data as well. Consistently providing the latest, most accurate information to AI is essential for earning its trust.
The evolution of AI search has only just begun. Now, while many of your competitors are unaware of this shift, is the perfect opportunity to start taking action. By putting what we've discussed today into practice, you can seize a future where your business is the first one "recommended" when a pet owner consults an AI. Let's take a confident step forward in this new era of customer acquisition.
For a more systematic approach to AIO, please see the TrendPackage AIO plan for details.
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