Let’s face it, the world of AI/answer engine search is still rapidly evolving, and fellow marketing and SEO experts and I will still need to keep an extremely close eye on it, and test various tactics related to organizations (we work with or for) appearing on AI engines. But, in the meantime, if I had to suggest four steps/tactics to take now while we continue to monitor how businesses and organizations are impacted by the growing use of AI search/answer engines like ChatGPT (and I do regularly suggest the following to clients), the steps and tactics to support your organization mentioned or being cited in ChatGPT and other AI engines, would include the below. As you’ll see, we’ve already shared and explained these tactics/steps in distinct blog posts dedicated specifically to the step/tactic.
I’ve attended a decent number of webinars about AI search and how to get your organization’s name or a link back to your website (citation) to be shared by an answer engine in response to a topic-relevant user’s prompt. To-date I’ve heard the following list of key tactics mentioned related to how to get your organization’s name or page served up by answer engines like ChatGPT:
What Types Of Organizations Benefit The Most From Appearing In Answer Engines/AI Search Engines?
For bigger brands who offer services and products throughout the whole U.S., or even the world, it makes great sense to want your organization’s name and links back to your website to appear in answer engine results related to relevant-topic searches. But for organizations who only offer services or products locally, i.e., in one city or town, in one state, or in one region (such as New England), there will likely be far less value to your organization to your organization from being found on answer engines than there would be for a national or international organization. Why? Because many individuals entering prompts into an answer engine just want their question answered. They aren’t looking to buy a product or pay for a service. And, the answer engines are more concerned about serving up content that easily/readily answers the question, regardless of the geography of the content producer or of the individual who is looking to get their question asked or answered. Unless, of course, the searcher/prompter includes their geography in the prompt, such as a prompt like “who’s the best digital marketing agency in Braintree MA.”
The Big Mistake That Organizations Who Need To Rank Locally Are Making Related To AI Search
Let’s face it, smaller, local organizations have far smaller budgets than a national brand like Progressive Insurance. They also have far smaller marketing teams. When they put the majority of their marketing dollars and energy into producing content that will be found in AI tools like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT, they are missing out on other opportunities which might better help them be found locally, since, as we shared above, many individuals to whom their website content or name will be served up by answer engines won’t be in their geography.
What Are Some Marketing Tactics That Help Organizations Be Found Locally?
Google Search Ads – where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
Display Advertising – Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), other social media advertising – again, where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
Community Event Participation and Sponsorships – in communities your organization serves
Social Media Strategy and Posting – like with AI/answer engine search – you can reach local individuals and businesses who follow you this way, but there’s always some “waste,” where you are reaching individuals who can/will never become a client or customer because of geography or for other reasons
Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile — this is your best opportunity to be found locally and have your organization served up for “near me” terms
Writing a guest blog post for another local organization who serves your geography and/or requesting a backlink from their website to your website
Read on to learn about both free and paid opportunities to create awareness of your organization and its products and services on the Nextdoor social media platfform!
And, keep in mind, that while your organic/free presence may only reach local consumers and businesses, your organization can purchase online advertising that can be served up to businesses and consumers throughout the U.S. And, you can choose the city or state location of individuals to whom you want your ad served up!
Free Promotional Opportunities On Nextdoor.com
If you or your organization is not familiar with, and maintaining an organic/free business page on the social media platform geared toward sharing community news and event — nextdoor.com — you are likely missing out on a free and easy way to create awareness of your organization’s products and services locally. Once you set up a business page — something our digital marketing team can help you with — and provide documentation to nextdoor.com to verify your business is legitimate, fans of your organization can start posting recommendations/reviews to your page. Plus, you can start posting updates to your nextdoor.com business page the way you do to other forms of social media and to your Google My Business Profile.
Paid Advertising/Promotional Opportunities On Nextdoor.com
In addition, nextdoor.com offers the opportunity to run display ads (image ads) that are similar to ads that you can run on other social media platforms, like Instagram or Facebook, or on discussion-forums like Reddit. We are currently testing this advertising vehicle for our own business, as well as for a client’s business, and will be sure to provide updates on our experience with the tool and the results it does or doesn’t deliver!
With answer-engine use (think ChatGPT, Google AI modes, etc.) on the uptick, it can be much harder to be found online by relevant searchers. So, maybe it’s time to get creative, think outside the box, and consider this “push” marketing activity, in addition to “pull” ones that you’ve relied on in the past. Learn more about the difference between pull and push marketing and why, particularly, with the introduction of AI, you’ll want to create and implement both a push and a pull marketing strategy.
Need Help With Setting Up A Nextdoor Business Page Or Nextdoor Paid Advertising Campaign?
When someone “crowdsources,” their objective for doing so could be to obtain knowledge, services, or goods from a large group of people (often strangers). But, for the purposes of this blog post about being found online and SEO (search engine optimization), we’ll be focusing on the seeking out of opinions and experiences (knowledge) of others to reach a decision about something. The decision one may be trying to make might be similar to one of the following, or something all together different:
What type of sneakers should I buy if I plan to train for a marathon?
I’m thinking I’m going to buy this particular brand type of sneakers. Am I making a good/the right choice?
What local roofing company should I hire to replace my old roof?
What local estate planning lawyer should I engage to help me execute a comprehensive estate plan?
What stretches or exercises work best for improving a bad hip?
What’s a good recipe to make if you need to feed a large crowd?
What’s the best private elementary school near me?
I’m planning on holding an event at this particular venue. What are both the good and bad things I should know about it?
Where should I take my out-of-town guests to dinner in Boston’s North End?
Should I take this job offer or job interview with this particular employer?
We’ll also be focusing on knowledge crowdsourcing platforms vs. the knowledge crowdsourcing that one may conduct, or believe they are conducting (since information spit back by AI search tools is not always accurate), by simply posing a question like “who is the best family lawyer in Boston?” to an AI/answer engine like ChatGPT or Google AI Mode.
Knowledge Crowdsourcing Platforms and SEO
As SEO experts, we keep hearing and reading over and over again that, when making a decision about which organizations’ online content to serve back in response to a searcher’s query, AI search engines/answer engines/chatbot engines are looking for signals that an organization is creditable and reputable, and where do they get those signals from, in addition to testimonials and other signs of credibility that are on the organizations’ own websites (think badges of associations your organization belongs to, certifications you’ve achieved, and backlinks from other organizations, including press/media/PR backlinks)? From platforms where people post recommendations in areas of the platform specifically designed for sharing recommendations and/or in the comments section in response to other users’ posts requesting recommendations from or posing questions to other users.
Implications Of Crowdsourcing For Your Business/Organization
So, what are the implications of crowdsourcing for your business or organization?
Since some individuals seeking knowledge to support a decision they want and need to make go directly to a crowdsourcing platform to get information, you’ll want to have a positive presence on as many of the larger crowdsourcing platforms mentioned above as possible, and as appropriate for your particular industry. For example, Yelp might not make sense for your particular type of business.
If there are particular platforms that individuals use to recommend/rate businesses in your particular industry, you will want to ensure a favorable presence there, as well.
And, implementing what’s outlined in the two bullets above should provide plenty of positive trust and authority signals to search engines to encourage them to share your organization’s online content.
How To Show Up Favorably/Positively On Crowdsourcing Platforms
We mentioned above that your organization should show up favorably/positively on crowdsourcing platforms, but unfortunately what that looks like depends on the nature of the platform itself and the industry within your organization operates, and that’s why we encourage you to set up a complimentary discussion with us about how to use the current crowdsourcing trend to your specific organization’s advantage. But a common, over-arching way that all organizations can show up favorably/positively on crowdsourcing platforms is simply to encourage their customers to share positive information about them in online locations beyond the Google reviews section of their Google My Business Profile, i.e., on Yelp, Reddit, Quora, nextdoor and relevant industry crowdsourcing platforms. And, ultimately, all of this is about reputation management!
