Can a new business get named by Google and AI in one week?
Tift is a new Sydney business with no customers yet. From 14 to 21 November 2026 we are doing for ourselves what we set up for owner-run businesses, and we are logging it here.
Where we stood on day one (14 November 2026)
We asked ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode the same questions, each time starting fresh. ChatGPT did not know Tift. It could not find a business called Tift in Sydney, and it could not find a verified website for tift.com.au.
Google's AI answer to "What is Tift in Sydney?" described Tift as a voice-activated business admin tool, not as a business that helps with AI search. Asked what tift.com.au does, it described us correctly.
We also asked six questions the way a customer would, such as who helps small businesses in Sydney get found by ChatGPT, or who sets up AI for a physio clinic. Neither ChatGPT nor Google named Tift in any of the six answers.
In a Google search for "Tift Sydney", tift.com.au came first. Google had indexed 2 pages of the site. Bing did not show tift.com.au on its first page for "Tift Sydney", and Bing blocked our check of which pages it had indexed, so we could not confirm.
What we did on day one
We added an llms.txt file, a plain summary of the business written for AI tools, so they can read what we do in one place.
We made a real 404 page, so a broken link shows a useful page instead of a dead end.
We set up Google Search Console and submitted our sitemap, so Google knows which pages exist.
We set up Bing Webmaster Tools and submitted the same sitemap, so Bing knows too.
We sent our pages to IndexNow, which tells Bing and other search engines about them straight away.
We added Organization structured data to the home page, so search engines can read our name and what we do without guessing.
We created a Google Business Profile. It is waiting for Google to verify it, and it is not visible yet.
We wrote a plain answer to the question What is Tift? so that anyone, or any AI, asking it finds one clear page.
What comes next
Each day until 21 November we will ask the same questions again and add the result here.