For years, one of the easiest ways to get a sense of search visibility was to type a keyword into Google and see who showed up. A spot near the top was an encouraging sign. If you weren’t there, you wanted to know why.
AI search gives us another way to look at that question.
Netgain has started asking AI the questions our clients’ potential customers might ask. Alongside checking rankings, we’re looking at which businesses it recommends when someone needs a service:
- “Who is the best medical waste company in Illinois?”
- “Can you recommend a document shredding company near me?”
- “Who should I hire to install a standby generator?”
- “How do I find a good periodontist?”
Then we look at the answers. Which companies appear? How are they described? And what information does the assistant provide to support its recommendations?
Don’t Ask About Your Business. Ask About Your Problem.
If you ask ChatGPT about your company by name, you’re testing whether AI knows something about your business. That’s useful, but it isn’t necessarily how a new customer will find you.
The more interesting test is to ask as though you’ve never heard of your business.
Ask AI to solve the customer’s problem. Give it some context and ask it to recommend two or three companies. Then follow up with the questions a customer might ask:
- Which would you choose, and why?
- Which has the best reputation?
- Which is best for a small business?
- Which serves my area?
Now you’re getting closer to the way people are beginning to use AI to research their options and decide who to contact.
Being Found Isn’t the Same as Being Recommended
A company can have a good website and rank well on Google without being one of the businesses an AI system recommends.
An AI recommendation can draw on a broader picture of your company. Your website is part of that picture, alongside your reviews, business listings, service-area information, FAQs and mentions on industry websites or directories. Together, those sources help establish who you are, what you do and whether your business is a credible recommendation for the customer’s needs.
Having a page with the right keyword is only part of it. The information available across the web also needs to make it clear what your business offers and why someone should consider you.
AI SEO Starts With Testing, Not Guessing
There’s already an entire industry developing around “AI SEO” (search engine optimization), “GEO” (generative engine optimization), “AEO” (answer engine optimization) and whatever acronym comes next. Some of it is useful. Some of it is the same SEO advice we’ve been giving clients for years with a new label attached to it.
Our approach is simpler. Before deciding what needs to be fixed, find out what AI already thinks.
Run dozens of realistic customer questions. Change the location or the type of customer. Make the question more specific. Ask for recommendations, then ask why it selected those businesses. Look for patterns in the answers.
If the same competitor keeps appearing, investigate why. Maybe they have hundreds of strong reviews or pages that clearly explain where they operate. Maybe other credible websites mention them regularly. Or maybe their website answers customers’ questions far better than yours does.
Those are things you can act on.
Your Digital Footprint Matters More Than Ever
One of the bigger lessons from this exercise is that your website can’t exist in isolation.
Suppose your website says you’re the leading provider in your market, but very little elsewhere on the internet supports that claim. Compare that with a competitor that has hundreds of reviews, detailed service pages, complete business profiles, mentions on industry websites and consistent information about its services and locations across the web.
Which business is easier for an AI system to understand and confidently recommend? Probably the second one.
This doesn’t mean businesses should start manufacturing mentions or flooding the internet with AI-generated content. That’s the wrong response.
The goal is to build a clearer, more credible online presence around the business you actually operate.
The Questions People Ask Matter Too
Traditional keyword research isn’t going away, but AI gives us another source of insight: conversation.
People don’t always talk to AI the way they type into Google. Someone might Google “medical waste Illinois,” but ask ChatGPT:
“I run a small dental practice outside Chicago and need someone to pick up sharps and medical waste once a month. Who should I call?”
That’s a valuable marketing question. It tells us the customer’s industry, location, service needs, pickup frequency and intent. It also tells us what information a business needs to make available if it wants to be a strong answer to that question.
Multiply that across hundreds of potential customer conversations, and you start to see a new way to approach your search strategy.
Rankings Still Matter. But There’s a New Question.
We’re not abandoning Google rankings, organic traffic (visits from unpaid search results), paid search, local SEO (visibility in local searches) or any of the other things that drive leads today. AI search adds another way for people to discover businesses.
So we’re adding another question to the ones we’ve been asking for years.
We used to ask:
Where does our client rank?
Now we’re also asking:
Does AI recommend them?
And when the answer is no, the most important question becomes:
Why not?
Figuring out why, and what we can do about it, is quickly becoming an important part of search marketing.
