AI search optimisation in Kilkenny. Be the name ChatGPT gives.

What AI search optimisation in Kilkenny means

I'm Fionn Murphy. I run FMOps, a one-person operation based in Waterford, which puts me about forty minutes from Kilkenny city. I work with businesses across the county and most of the work is remote, so distance is not the point — knowing the place is.

AI search optimisation in Kilkenny means making sure ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can identify your business and name it when someone asks for the best in your trade locally. Somebody types "best physio in Kilkenny" or "good restaurant near the Medieval Mile" and gets back two or three names. Either you are in that answer or you are not, and nobody sends you a report about it.

Who this fits in Kilkenny

Kilkenny's economy gives this work an unusually good fit.

Hospitality and weddings first. Kilkenny city sells itself on a weekend, and people now plan those weekends by asking an assistant where to stay, eat and drink. Hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and wedding venues around the city, Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh are all named or not named in that answer. Wedding queries in particular are long and specific — "wedding venue near Kilkenny for 120 guests with accommodation" — which is exactly the kind of question a well-written page can win.

Then the craft and design businesses. Kilkenny has a genuine reputation for making things, from the design trail in the city out to studios and workshops around Thomastown and Castlecomer. Assistants answer "where to buy Irish craft in Kilkenny" with specific names, and small makers are usually invisible to them because their web presence is a shop platform with no local detail.

After that it is the same as everywhere: solicitors, accountants, clinics, dentists, agri-services and the trades working out of Callan, Castlecomer and the city. Those are high-value enquiries where one recommendation pays for months of work.

One precondition, plainly: a verified Google Business Profile and honest local reviews come first. They are the largest single input to what an assistant recommends. If you do not have them, that is the first month's work, and I will say so on the call rather than sell you a retainer you are not ready for. Not sure where to start? See set up your Google Business Profile.

Illustrative example: a Thomastown wedding venue

This is an illustrative example, not a client. A small wedding venue near Thomastown wants more enquiries for midweek dates.

Couples do not type keywords any more. They ask: "wedding venues near Kilkenny with on-site accommodation", "quiet countryside wedding venue in Kilkenny under 100 guests", "Kilkenny wedding venues that allow outdoor ceremonies". When an assistant answers, it is reading the Google Business Profile, the review text, the venue's own pages, and third-party pages — wedding directories, supplier blogs, local press.

What is usually missing is specifics in plain text. Capacity, whether there are rooms on site, what the outdoor ceremony option actually is, and where the venue sits relative to Kilkenny city are often only in a PDF brochure or on an image. An assistant cannot read a brochure it never downloads. Reviews mention the day but never mention Thomastown or Kilkenny.

What changes: the profile is corrected, honest reviews are requested after events, the brochure facts are written out as text on the page, and each real question gets its own answer in words. Then the same set of questions is re-run monthly across ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI, and the answers are logged with screenshots. No promises about the numbers.

The AI visibility audit for Kilkenny: what I check

The free check is run by hand. You get the screenshots and the counts, whether or not you go any further.

• What ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI actually say

  A fixed set of buying-intent questions for your trade and town, run repeatedly, with screenshots and dates.

• Who they name instead

  The competitors that come up, and the sources the assistants cite for them.

• Your Google Business Profile

  Verification, category, name, address, phone, hours, services and photos — the single biggest input to a local recommendation.

• Your reviews

  How many, how recent, and whether the text mentions what you actually do and where.

• Your website

  Whether there is a readable page for each real reason someone contacts you, and whether the facts are in text rather than in images or PDFs.

• Your entity data

  Whether the same business name, address and phone number appear consistently everywhere, and whether the site carries correct structured data.

• Third-party mentions

  Directories, local press, suppliers and associations — the pages assistants already trust.

What I do each month to get you recommended by ChatGPT in Kilkenny

1. 1

   Entity groundwork

   First two months. Getting your business identifiable: profile, consistent details, structured data, the basics fixed once and kept fixed.

2. 2

   Two optimised pages a month

   Written to answer the questions your customers put to an assistant, in plain text, in your own words.

3. 3

   One trusted placement a month

   A citation on a source the models already read.

4. 4

   Reviews prompting

   A simple, honest routine for asking customers for reviews. Never scripted, never incentivised for a rating.

5. 5

   The monthly scoreboard

   The same questions re-run, with screenshots, on the same day each month, plus a short video walking through what moved and why.

Price

Everything starts with the free check. Retainers run from €750 a month to €2,000 a month depending on how many questions, pages and placements are in scope. The scope is capped and written down before anything starts.

Your data: I only need your business details, your website and your public profiles. I do not need customer records, and I do not ask for them. Anything you do send is processed under GDPR, kept only as long as the work needs it, and deleted on request. Ask me for the data processing agreement and I will send it.

Related

Start with the free AI visibility check. The full service, including how the monthly scoreboard works, is on the AI visibility audit Ireland page. If you want your team using AI properly day to day, see Claude for Small Business setup. If the bottleneck is admin rather than visibility, see business automation.

Other counties: Waterford · Kilkenny · Wexford · Cork · Carlow · Tipperary

Questions

• Do you visit businesses in Kilkenny?

  Yes. I'm based in Waterford, roughly forty minutes from Kilkenny city, so the first meeting can be in person. After that the work is done remotely and reported by video each month.

• How much does AI search optimisation cost in Kilkenny?

  The first check is free. Retainers run from €750 a month to €2,000 a month, on a capped scope agreed in writing before anything starts. There is no county surcharge.

• I run a hotel or venue. Is this different work?

  The method is the same, but the questions are longer. Hospitality and wedding queries carry a lot of conditions — guest numbers, dates, accommodation, location — so the pages that win them have to answer those conditions in plain text rather than in a brochure.

• Is this the same as SEO?

  It overlaps. Traditional SEO aims at Google's blue links. This aims at the answer an assistant gives when asked to recommend a business. Related groundwork, different scoreboard.

• Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?

  No, and be careful with anyone who does. The models change their answers month to month. What you get is the same questions re-run every month with screenshots, and a plain explanation of why the answer moved.