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Your Best Chance Of Appearing In AI Overviews? Being The Best

After reading this Linked post by Eli Schwartz, a very well-respected and well-known SEO expert, about how to appear in Google AI Overviews, the above slogan came to me. I wanted to give credit where credit is due and share how I was inspired. It all makes great sense and is in keeping with what we, as a fellow SEO expert, has been sharing in recent months, i.e., if you want a search engine to declare you as the best, or indicate less directly that your organization is the best or one of the best in its field and geography by mentioning your organization’s name or sharing a link back to your site (known as a citation), then your organization has to earn that “best” title.

We’ve already discussed ways your organization can send signals to AI engines that you are trustworthy in a number of recent blog posts, and that includes getting rave reviews from happy customers. But, ultimately, the way to get those reviews is becoming a company whose products, services, and customer service is unmatched by competitors, by demonstrating your commitment to the community/communities you serve, and by making sure you’re an “employer of choice.”

Why I’ve Got The Experience and Knowledge To Speak To What Makes An Organization An Outstanding One

Having worked since I was a teenager and until my mid-50’s for employers (and served in a number of manager and director roles), and now, for the past 12 years run a marketing agency that has successfully served more than 150 clients and received public-facing accolades (reviews), compliments and appreciation from clients, I believe I’ve got the background and experience to speak to what makes an organization stand out from competitors, and therefore, be considered “the best.” You can learn more about my corporate marketing and marketing agency background on my Our Principal and History website page.

As a life-long marketer I feel so strongly about how many of the attributes below influence an organization’s success that I’ve written about many of the below in past blog posts!

What Does It Take For Your Organization To Be The “Best” In Your Industry and Geography?

  • Treat your employees well.
    • Offer them opportunities to learn and take on new and larger roles.
    • Take the time to listen to and consider employee’s ideas to improve work productivity or process, or the products and services you offer.
    • Offer tangible and intangible benefits that they value and/or need.
    • Celebrate personal and organizational milestones and successes.
    • Offer financial incentives where, if the company does well, the employee does well.
  • Deliver exceptional, world-class service each and every day at every point of contact (EPOC) with customers. As a marketing professional with more than 35 years of experience I know first-hand how important good customer service is to success. Not only when it comes to assisting customers/clients of your organizations, but handling inquiries and leads that come into your organization respectfully, effectively, and on a timely basis!
  • Offer solid, reliable products and services that meet client expectations and needs at a reasonable, fair price.
  • Give back to your community/communities.
  • Always keep an eye on business and daily life changes and how they impact your clients — whether they be businesses or consumers — and how you can make their lives easier or respond to a challenge they are facing.
  • Always be evolving and considering what new innovative product or service you can offer.
  • Educate. Educate. Educate — make sure staff and leaders have time to stay in the know on industry changes and national, regional, and local happenings and anything else that could negatively or positively impact how they and your business does their work or the products and services you offer. Ensure they can learn from both internal and external experts. To support all of this, designate times of the week as meeting-free and learning time!
  • Encourage out-of-the box thinking by all staff and leaders!
  • Treat your clients and customers like family.
  • Take the time to walk in your clients’ and customers’ shoes. Check out this blog post about the importance of walking in your customers’ shoes.
  • Show both your clients and customers appreciation regularly. A small “thank you” goes a long way!

I’ll likely add new features and characteristics to the above list as they strike me, but I think any organization that achieves the aforementioned will succeed at being top in their field, in their particular geography!

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The ABCs & Ds Of Being Found In Answer-Engine-Prompt And Traditional-Search-Engine Results

We will continue to conduct our own informal research — assessing how and when our own website pages and posts appear in both AI/Answer Engine Prompt results and traditional search engine results — but based on what we are seeing as of the date of this blog post, the items outlined in the image and bulleted section below seem to be common features or characteristics of website content that is being served up most frequently in any kind of AI or search engine.

And, it’s also very much in keeping with what we observed and commented on almost two years ago related to commonalties among content that was being served in traditional and AI search engine results.

How To Be Found Online? Do The Following Related To Your Website Content

  • Always keep your target audience in mind — what content/information would be helpful to them vs. content/information you want to share. Don’t be self-serving!
  • Keep your content clean and easily consumable by using bulleted or numbered lists
  • Don’t be afraid to take a different approach to what other experts are saying on a particular topic
  • We’ve talked about this in a number of blog posts, including this post about the types of links every website should have — always include internal links and external links to relevant content
This light gray vertical image says in a dark powder blue "the ABCs & Ds Of Appearing In Answer-Engine-Prompt and Traditional-Search Results and Has Bulleted Sharing the Same Bulleted Content That Is Served In the Post Itself

Need Help Figuring Out How To Write Content For Your Target Audiences Or How To Structure That Content?

Reach out today for a free marketing consultation regarding your organization’s particular challenges related to being found online.

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How Small Businesses Can Craft Winning Sales Pitches and Marketing That Last

Guest Blog Post by Charlie Michaels, Entrepreneurworld.net

Boston-area small business owners and marketing managers often face the same small business marketing challenges: low search visibility, inconsistent leads, and a nagging sense that efforts aren’t translating into clear ROI. When sales pitch development is driven by what the business wants to say instead of what buyers struggle with, messaging turns scattered and forgettable. The fastest way to tighten everything is target audience analysis that surfaces real customer pain points and connects them to a simple promise. That clarity becomes the foundation for effective brand communication.

Understanding a Credible Brand Narrative

At the center of a winning pitch is a brand narrative that starts with the buyer, not your business. You map the problem they are trying to solve, then choose storytelling techniques that make them feel understood. Strong research and clear strategy skills help you prove you can deliver, not just promise.

This matters because optimizing for search and ads only work when the message is consistent and believable. If your story is vague, prospects bounce and your marketing feels like a cost. When the story is grounded, it becomes easier to rank, convert, and measure what is working.

Picture a service company pitching “fast, reliable.” A better story names the stressful moment, offers relief, and shows evidence, since tapping into emotion helps people understand and care. Add your ‘why’ by defining the reason your business exists beyond profit..

This is the image of pitcher holding a ball in one hand and wearing a glove on the other and standing on the pitchers mound at a large ballpark and wearing a gray uniform with a long-sleeved navy blue top and the number 20 on it, plus a blue baseball cap

Turn One Core Offer Into 5 Assets and a Repeatable Pitch

If your brand narrative is clear, your customer’s problem, your promise, and the proof, your marketing gets a lot easier. Use the steps below to turn one core offer into a set of usable assets you can ship this week, then improve based on real engagement.

  1. Write a 30-second pitch template (and don’t improvise it): Draft one short script you can reuse across networking, sales calls, and your website hero section. Keep it to: Who you help ? the problem you solve ? your approach ? a believable outcome ? one proof point ? a simple CTA (call-to-action). Example: “We help busy local service businesses get found on Google by fixing on-page SEO and running targeted ads, so you generate consistent leads without guessing, here’s a recent result, and the next step is a 15-minute audit.”
  2. Translate your pitch into customer-centric messaging (“You” > “We”): Take each line of your pitch and rewrite it from the buyer’s perspective using the language they already use in emails and reviews. Aim for one sentence per stage of awareness: pain (“I’m spending on ads but leads are inconsistent”), desired outcome (“I need calls every week”), barrier (“I don’t have time to learn SEO”), confidence (“I want to know what I’m paying for”). This is how you keep the narrative credible without overpromising.
  3. Create 5 core assets from the same message spine: Build a mini “asset stack” so your offer shows up consistently in search, ads, and sales conversations. A simple set is: one landing page, one one-page PDF, a 6–8 slide deck, a short email sequence (3 emails), and 3 social posts that reuse the same hook and proof. Because collateral exists in physical or digital form, you can use the PDF both as a download for leads and as a leave-behind after meetings.
  4. Standardize your visuals with a print-ready template system: Pick two fonts, 2–3 brand colors, and one photo style, then lock them into a reusable layout for your one-pager and slides. A clean template reduces “design thrash” and makes your message easier to scan in a hurry; a great template can make a big difference in clarity, especially for pitch decks. If you also create quick printables for events, like a simple workshop sign, lobby flyer, or QR-code poster, using the same fonts and colors keeps everything consistent, and a printable free poster maker can help you produce those pieces without reinventing your layout.
  5. Add one proof element to every asset (and make it specific): Proof can be a short testimonial, a mini case study (“from X to Y in 60 days”), a screenshot of a metric, or a “what’s included” checklist. Tie the proof back to the customer’s problem from your brand narrative, avoid generic claims like “best in class.” If you’re new and lack results, use process proof: your audit checklist, reporting cadence, and what a client can expect in week 1.
  6. Track 3 engagement metrics and run a monthly “message tune-up”: Keep it simple: landing page conversion rate, email click rate, and deck/one-pager follow-up rate (how many people reply or book after receiving it). Once a month, update one thing based on the data: change the headline, swap the proof point, or tighten the CTA. When objections come up repeatedly, price, timelines, “we tried this before”, add a single slide, FAQ block, or one paragraph to address it with clear ROI logic and evidence.

Prospect Pitch and Marketing Questions Small Teams Ask

Q: What do I say when a prospect pushes back on price?
A: Reframe price as risk reduction and outcomes: what problem is costing them time, leads, or margin right now. Offer a smaller first step like a paid audit or a 30-day pilot with one measurable target. Then anchor with proof, even if it is process proof like reporting cadence and deliverables.

Q: How do I pick lead generation tactics without wasting money?
A: Match the channel to intent: search and local SEO for “ready to buy,” and email or retargeting for “not yet.” Start with one primary channel and one support channel, run it for 2 to 4 weeks, and keep the offer consistent so results are comparable.

Q: How should I measure marketing ROI if I do not have perfect tracking?
A: Use a simple baseline: leads, booked calls, close rate, and average deal value. Marketing leaders feeling that pressure from the board rose 21% is a reminder to report what you can, consistently, rather than waiting for perfect attribution.

Q: Can testimonials really improve conversions, or is that just nice-to-have?
A: They help because customer trust in SMB (small- and medium-sized business) sales is built on confidence, reliability, and credibility. Use specific testimonials tied to one objection, like timelines or results, and place them near your CTA.

Q: When should I change my pitch versus keep iterating on the same message?
A: Change it when qualified prospects repeatedly misunderstand what you do, who it is for, or what success looks like. Otherwise, keep the core claim stable and test one variable at a time like headline, offer, or proof.

Launch-Ready Pitch and Marketing Checklist

This checklist turns your pitch and campaign into a repeatable weekly system. It helps you stay focused on what moves revenue, especially when 60% fail to meet objectives and the difference is usually clarity and follow-through.

? Confirm a single goal and one primary success metric

? Define the buyer segment, problem, and decision trigger

? Draft a compelling elevator pitch that grabs attention fast

? Map three proof points to your top objections

? Choose one primary channel and one support channel

? Build one landing page with one CTA and one offer

? Track leads, booked calls, close rate, and deal value weekly

Ship the next iteration today, then let results steer your edits.

Turn Your Pitch Into a Long-Term Marketing Rhythm

Most small businesses don’t struggle with effort, they struggle with keeping the story consistent while results come in unevenly. The way through is a simple loop: treat your pitch and marketing as a living message, anchored by continuous marketing improvement through customer feedback utilization, sales performance analysis, and steady brand message refinement. When that becomes the norm, campaigns get clearer, conversations get easier, and your best customers start recognizing you faster. A strong pitch isn’t one perfect script; it’s a story you keep sharpening based on real results. Set a 30-minute weekly review to check what sold, what got ignored, and what customers repeated back. That rhythm turns day-to-day outreach into a long-term marketing strategy you can sustain through busy seasons and uncertainty.

About Our Guest Blogger, Charlie Michaels

Charlie Michaels created EntrepreneurWorld.net to connect and guide entrepreneurs all over the world! He came up with the idea in the midst of the pandemic. Feeling isolated and anxious, he thought other entrepreneurs, near and far, might be feeling the same way. He wanted to create a central digital gathering space where entrepreneurs could come to get support and learn from one another. Entrepreneur World is in its early stages, but Michaels is working hard to grow it to meet his big vision.

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Do I Need To Keep Adding New Content To My Website To Continue To Be Found Online?

The answer to the above question is pretty straightforward, and in most cases, “yes.” Given that we are in the day and age where individuals are using what’s known as answer engines — think ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude — more and more for both business and personal purposes, if an organization wants to continue to be found online, it DOES need to regularly produce and publish new content. Unless your site is one that is only meant to provide very static information and credibility to people who already know or have found your organization, your organization will need to do the following to support your organization’s name being mentioned or a link to your organization being served up by answer engines in response to relevant prompts.

This image is a print screen of what it looks like when you go into a WordPress website to add a new post and says "Add new Post" at the top and "enter title here."

What Types Of Content Do I Need To Create If I Want To Be Found In Answer Engine Results?

  • Blog posts or questions that reside within a website FAQ (frequently asked questions) page that answer questions that your organization regularly gets asked by prospective clients and existing clients
  • Blog posts or questions that reside within a website FAQ page that answer questions that keyword research and answer research indicates your target audiences are asking answer engines/searching on
  • Blog posts that speak to topics that are “tangential” to the particular products and services you offer, but that are important ones for your target audiences. For example, you might offer seniors in-home care, but write and publish some blog posts about senior fraud, aging in place/aging at home, and exercises for seniors. You get the picture!

Even if you’ve already published such content, target audiences’ questions and needs change/evolve, and both from a marketing standpoint and a search-engine standpoint, you need to demonstrate that you are staying current/relevant/up-to-date. It’s not good to have clients or prospective clients visit your site and see that you haven’t put up any new content in many months and/or content is outdated — it looks like you’re not minding your shop, and if you aren’t, what else might you neglect? And, search engines are more likely to serve up new, fresh content than content that is old and dated.

In sum, a static site will NOT help your organization be found online by target audiences, given how individuals gather information these days. Sure, it’s time-consuming, but regularly producing and posting new content answering questions and providing information that benefit your target audiences needs to be an ongoing marketing activity. As we’ve always said, “SEO (search engine optimization) is NOT a one-and-done exercise.

Need Help Figuring Out What To Blog About And How Frequently?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion with our digital marketing agency about your blog strategy!

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The Marketing & Sales Downfall of Focusing Too Much On Appearing In Answer Engines (AI Search)

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:

This is a very brightly colored image with question marks of different colors in the background and then the words, where, what, when, why, how, and who in brightly colored captions bubbles -- yellow, blue, pink, red, green, and orange.

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?

  • Nextdoor Business Profile and Advertising – you can’t get more local than that!
  • 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
  • Publicity in Local Newspapers and/or on Local Media websites
  • 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

Why You Need To Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Check out our blog post on why it’s particularly important right now to diversify your marketing efforts and reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion of your organization’s particular marketing challenges and opportunities in the time of AI!

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Looking For An Additional Way To Be Found Online? The Answer Might Be Right Next Door.

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.

This an image that is a print screen of what our digital marketing agency's (Results Communications & Research's) business page looks like on nextdoor.com. The image shows our logo, a description about our business, plus an image that says "SEO."

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?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about whether or not your organization would benefit from an organic and/or paid advertising presence on Nextdoor and how we can help!

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What Does An SEO Audit Reveal?

One of the services we offer our clients — on both a one-off/one-time and monthly/ongoing basis is conducting an SEO audit that, then, allows us to make recommendations for what our client might do differently on the SEO (search engine optimization) front to be better found online by target audiences for relevant keywords (search terms) in relevant geographies.

What Can You Learn From An SEO Audit?

As we explained in this previous blog post about the mistake most people make when they manually conduct an SEO audit, your organization is better off hiring an SEO expert to conduct an audit, so that the results you get are unbiased. For most businesses/organizations, i.e., ones that have both a website and a Google My Business Profile, an SEO audit will provide information related to both your website and your Google My Business Profile, since Google may serve up either in search results (and as of the date of this post, the traditional Google search engine is still the one most used by search tool users, followed by YouTube, and ChatGPT.)

This image shows two hands of an older adult male peeling the skin off the onion.
Peeling Back An Onion Skin To See What Lies Beneath

Listed below is the information you can glean from having an SEO company or digital marketing agency, like ours, conduct an SEO audit for you:

  • what external websites and certain other digital properties (not owned by your organization/business) have links on them to your website, and therefore, are providing “referral” traffic via backlinks to your site — these may include other websites or discussion-forums like Reddit
  • as of the date of this post, any website traffic coming from searcher clicks on links to your website that appear in AI/chat/answer engine content is reported as referral traffic in Google Analytics, and information on how much traffic you’re getting from AI engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are included in an SEO audit
  • does your website and/or Google My Business Profile rank differently in Google in a particular geography for a particular keyword (search term), based on the device used by the searcher, i.e., mobile phone vs. desktop/laptop
  • what keywords your website and Google My Business Profile are ranking best for on Google and in what geographies
  • whether your Google My Business Profile or your website is being served up higher in search results in certain geographies for certain search terms — this will help you determine whether or not you should be putting more energy into getting your Google My Business Profile ranking better (you always want that to be served up for “near me” searches) and/or your website ranking better (ideally this would rank better for non-near-me terms)
  • missed SEO opportunities — these include best practices which haven’t been implemented by your organization, such as writing and entering SEO page title and meta description tags on your website platform/CMS for every page and post on your website, and writing an entering image alt-tags
  • mistakes/issues/challenges with your website that are likely causing it to be served up less than it could/should be in relevant geographies for relevant search terms, such as slow site load speed or broken links on your website
  • how much organic/search-engine traffic your website is getting from traditional search engines like Google, and how much website traffic you’re getting from AI search engines, and what traditional and/or AI search engines drove the most traffic to your website during the audit timeframe
  • what are the top 10-20 search keywords that Google is serving your website up most for
  • how many individuals are clicking on a link in your Google My Business Profile to arrive at your website
  • what are the most-viewed pages of your website
  • what pages of your website are being served up the highest in search results by Google
  • what marketing activities/vehicles are driving website traffic and what percentage of your overall website traffic is coming from AI or traditional search tools
  • what geographies/locations are your website visitors coming from
  • what devices do people use most to access your website, i.e., laptop/desktop vs. mobile

Hire An SEO Expert To Conduct Your SEO Audit

Want to learn more about our SEO audit services or ready to have us conduct an SEO Audit for you and to provide recommendations on SEO steps to take next, based on what the audit reveals? Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about SEO audits.

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How To Plan For A Print Campaign

Because we believe “traditional,” i.e., non-digital media and marketing is not dead, and often has a strong place in an integrated marketing plan, we’ve been recommending print advertising to clients, as appropriate, and helping to launch and monitor print campaigns.

What Is a Print Campaign?

Normally, when someone refers to a “print campaign,” they are referring to one or both of the following:

  • An advertisement that appears in a printed newspaper in one or more spots within an edition, and in one or more editions of the newspaper
  • An advertisement that appears in a printed magazine in one or more spots within an edition, and in one or more editions of the magazine

Keep in mind that often media/publications that offer print advertising will also share your ads in a digital version of the publication on their website, but that is not always the case. So, this blog post is focused on making sure hard copy/printed publication advertising is both effective and measurable.

How Do You Ensure A Print Campaign Is Effective?

  • Choose newspapers and magazines that your target audiences are likely to read
  • Include calls-to-action like “schedule a free consultation today.”
  • Don’t have too many competing messages or make the ad too cluttered
  • Use fonts appropriately — make sure there’s a hierarchy, so that the most important ad messages/ad content are in larger fonts
  • Provide several means for the ad viewer to get in touch with you, such as: a QR code that goes to the ad landing page (this is discussed below), the spelled-out URL of ad landing page like https://allintheresults/seospecial, a phone #, and if appropriate, an e-mail address. Never assume everyone wants to do business with you electronically or digitally. Always provide options for those who are less technologically savvy or who don’t like to use technology.
This is a very bright and colorful image showing about a dozen magazines with brightly colored covers spread haphazardly across a table.

How Can You Track Print Campaign Results?

  • As mentioned above, ideally, if you are running a print campaign you would have a devoted landing page specific to the print ad in-question, and if the print ad is running in more than one vehicle, distinct landing pages for each of the vehicles the ad will run in. You can use the identical landing page for both a newspaper and a magazine you plan to run an ad in. Just create the website page under one of the URLs you plan to use in a specific publication, and then, copy the page and assign it to a distinct URL for each vehicle. Distinct page URLs will help you, the advertiser/marketer, to determine which ads are driving traffic to the website (just use Google Analytics to check on page URL views).
  • You can also employ a system like CallRail to allow you to create and use distinct phone numbers in distinct publications/vehicles, so that you’ll know that any calls that come in on a certain number stemmed from a particular ad.
  • Whether they be phone, e-mail, or inquiry form submissions, in advance of the print campaign dropping, let appropriate internal staff know about the nature and timing of the campaign and ask them to record how inquirers learned about you. You can also add that question to your online inquiry form. Many marketers/advertisers include a drop-down menu (containing various marketing vehicles) on their inquiry form from which inquirers can choose “how they learned about you.”

Conclusions About Print Advertising

If you’re going to spend the time and $$ executing print ad campaigns, be sure that:

  • The ads themselves are effective and are geared toward generating leads, sales, and engagements for your organization as discussed above.
  • Ensure you put the right tracking mechanisms in place before you launch the print ad campaign, so you can evaluate the ROI of the campaign.

Need Help Creating, Executing, and Evaluating A Print Campaign?

Reach out for a complimentary discussion of your print advertising objectives and needs today!

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Being Found On AI Search Engines And Do You Need To Be?

Since the “AI search engine” questions outlined below come up regularly with existing and prospective clients, it made sense to address them in a blog post that can be shared as needed, and that can be found by searchers looking for answers to them.

Common Questions SEO Experts Get Asked About AI Search Engines, Like ChatGPT (Owned by OpenAI)

  1. How will my organization benefit from appearing in search results served up by ChatGPT or other AI search engines in response to relevant searches?
  2. What can I do to ensure my organization’s name and/or link to website appears in ChatGPT or in other AI search engine results?

Benefits To Appearing In ChatGPT Or Other AI Search Engines

Let’s start with question #1 above. Jumping on the latest marketing “toy” can, often, be a huge waste of time and energy. And, because of my organization’s tagline, “Maximizing Results Thru Research-Supported Marketing,” I’m the first one to speak out if data doesn’t support using that “toy” just because everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon. As you’ll see, I’ve done so related to social media – for many organizations it just doesn’t move the awareness, inquiry, or sales needle, even though there are certainly organizations for whom it does – and related to paid search/Google Ads (in this latter case, this is often an effective marketing tool for organizations, but it’s not effective for ALL organizations).

Sure, AI search engines that search the internet for you to provide answers to your question sound cool, fun, and interesting, but per this March 2025 article by Search Engine Land about search engine use in 2025, the majority of searchers are still using the traditional Google search engine to conduct internet-wide searches, and even if they weren’t, SEO best practices that apply to being found on traditional search engines, like Google and Bing, still make great sense related to being found in AI search engine results. Ultimately, it’s all about putting up helpful, consumable content that’s valued by your target audiences. And, that holds true for both traditional and AI search engine success, as we outlined in these two previous blog posts:

What Content Served Up In Google Generative AI Has In Common: 8 Practices To Implement Now
Understanding Google’s New Emphasis On “Helpful Content” Related To SEO

As you’ll see from reading the linked Search Engine Land article above, only about 1% of searchers use ChatGPT! Let’s move beyond the far-smaller-than-Google number of users who use ChatGPT, even though that will obviously impact your organization’s chances of being found by relevant searchers in relevant geographies, and tackle the question “would your organization benefit if someone conducted a relevant search in ChatGPT?” Your organization would likely only benefit and/or benefit most from appearing in AI search results if:

  • The mention of your organization in the results spit back included a link to your website.
  • The searcher originally included some kind of geographic mention when they conducted the search, so that your organization is appearing in search results in a geography you serve.

As you’ll see from the below print screen, our digital marketing agency and SEO company appears at the top of ChatGPT’s list when someone enters the relevant search shown in a relevant geography. Did we do anything beyond adhering to long-standing SEO best practices to ensure we appeared there? Nope.

This image shows results that appear in ChatGPT when the "ask anything" command is used and we asked "who are the best SEO experts on Boston's South Shore?" At the top of the results is our SEO company, Results Communications & Research.

For a geographic-neutral search, i.e., one where the searcher didn’t enter a specific location as part of their search, we don’t appear. But, we wouldn’t expect to, as our organization is literally competing with 1000s and 1000s of other SEO companies and digital marketing agencies across the entire country, and maybe the world. We’re not even slightly upset or disappointed by this, as we find many people still want to hire an SEO company or digital marketing agency that’s in the same state or at least same region (in our case, New England) as them. So, we aren’t concerned that our organization’s name and/or a link to our website isn’t being served up to someone who may be searching from as far away as California.

This image shows the results generated by ChatGPT when we used the "ask anything" command to answer the question "who are the best SEO experts. The list includes Neil Patel and other well-know national and international SEO experts.

And, as you’ll see from the below image, when people search more broadly/generally about SEO services, the names of organizations who offer such services aren’t even mentioned, and links to such organizations websites, therefore, don’t appear. So, it doesn’t seem there is a lost/missed opportunity there…

This image shows the results generated by ChatGPT when we used the "ask anything" command and searched on "what types of companies offer SEO services?" It spit back a list tht includes, but is not limited to SEO Agencies, and Digital Marketing Agencies.

A more indirect SEO benefit to appearing in AI search engine results is related to this longstanding SEO basic tenet: unless you’re getting a lot of website traffic from spammy referral sites, the more traffic your website gets, the more creditable/reputable search engines will view your site to be, and the more likely they will serve it up in search results. That said, most of our clients are only getting 1-5 visitors, at most, a month to their websites, so focusing heavily on trying to appear in AI search results, just to get additional traffic, doesn’t seem worth an organization’s efforts.

What makes appearing on ChatGPT even more complicated is that individuals who have signed up to use the tool at https://chatgpt.com, can either “ask anything,” and automatically put the type of “search” statement/question into it that they would put into Google or Bing, or they can click on the “search” (world) icon underneath the “ask anything” command/feature.

In full disclosure, we used the “ask anything” command vs. the “search” command to generate the search results we’ve shared in this post, but we don’t think the average person knows or thinks about when to use one command or feature vs. the other. We did see that when we used the “search” command/feature that different results than what were generated for “ask anything” were spit back. Regardless, our thinking is the same regarding time and energy spent to be found on ChatGPT. Unless someone completes a search (using either of the two commands/features that includes a geography, there’s probably neither a large chance that your organization will be served up nor a large chance that the person searching is going to engage you for your services or buy your products.

How To Appear In AI Search Results, Including Those Generated By ChatGPT

Moving on to question #2 above — which we’ve already addressed to a decent degree as part of answering question #1 – if you want to appear in AI search engine results, including ones generated by ChatGPT, continue to put out fresh, and easy-to-understand content that is of importance to your target audiences. The content may or may not be directly related to your products or services. The important thing is to be helpful and to try to drive appropriate traffic to your website thru content that is either directly related to the products and services you offer, or only very tangentially related. An example would be a roofing company. You don’t always want or need to put up content about roofing. Since your clients would tend to be local, you could post content about community events going on in your area/the towns you serve and/or share information about non-roof home improvements. And, be sure the content provides enough detail that if the reader wants to take a next step/action, they know what that step or action is.

Our Conclusions About Appearing on ChatGPT and AI Search Engines, In General

To quote Shakespeare, right now all the frenzy and energy spent around AI search engines that search the internet feels like “much ado about nothing.” At least for now/the immediate future. But, of course, as SEO experts, we will continue to keep our eyes on things, test and use AI search engines, attend relevant courses, and read relevant information.

Need Help Understanding The Pros and Cons Of Putting Time & Energy Into Being Found On AI Search Engines

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary consultation with an SEO Expert.

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11 Years and Close To 150 Customers Later…

We can’t believe it either, but today (April 1, 2025) marks 11 years of Results Communications & Research (Results C & R) being in the marketing agency and SEO company business.

As we always have been, we are very grateful to the many talented marketing consultants, marketing agencies and their staff, and other marketing professionals we’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with, and to learn from. We mention a few of those marketing collaborators on our Our Team page, but the list is so long, it’s hard to give a shout-out to everyone we’ve enjoyed meeting, knowing and working with the last 11 years!

And, we are incredibly grateful to the close to 150 client organizations — both for-profit and non-profit — with whom we’ve brainstormed and strategized to achieve the best possible level of awareness, sales leads, and actual sales (both product and service sales). Many of our current clients have been with us a number of years. You can access a list of our past and current clients to see examples of industries we’ve served by visiting the Clients page of our website.

Lastly, we’d be very remiss if we didn’t give a huge shout-out to the various students or recent-college- or recent-graduate-school graduates who worked for us over the years, and to our Principal’s late sister-in-law who greatly supported our mission, contributed to our success, and believed in us. All of the aforementioned individuals will always be a part of Results C & R’s rich history!

What’s Next For Our SEO Company and Marketing Agency?

In general, it’s full speed ahead with serving the same type of customers we’ve always loved serving — small to mid-sized for-profit and non-profit organizations. But, right now, we are enjoying spending more time getting up-to-speed on anything new and different going on in the Google Ads space. We love helping clients create awareness, sales, and leads with Google Ads and always have, so we are refreshing our Google Ads skillsets (even though we’ve taken and passed a number of Google certification exams in the past), particularly, Google Performance Max ones, so that we are not missing out on any opportunities to maximize our clients’ Google Search, Google Display, and Google Performance Max campaigns. Think of this latter campaign type as of a hybrid of the two former Google Ads types of campaign, and one with an AI component, like Google Display.

AI Is Not New To Google Ads/Google Ads Is Not New To AI

Related to our above desire to continue to grow our Google Ads skills, we want to remind our readers that AI is not new to Google Ads and Google Ads is not new to AI. For years, Google Ads has been able to offer “display” ad campaigns that are targeted to individuals who show affinity to certain products or services because of past buying or researching of them, having interests related to them, visiting websites focused on them, or reading about them on a variety of diverse websites.

AI and Writing Website Content, Particularly Blog Posts

And, speaking of AI, another area in which we hope to do more client work in the coming year is blog writing for clients. We’ve offered blog-writing services for years — and a number of clients have taken us up on it — but because we really enjoy writing, we hope to do more of this work for clients.

We don’t think AI search-engine/tools like ChatGPT will, or should ever, replace humans when it comes to website content and blog post writing. There’s great evidence that, at least some of what is spit back by AI search engines is not accurate. Plus, we don’t think an AI tool can ever bring the behinds-the-scenes knowledge or heart ‘n soul of an organization to website content writing or blogging. Only the organizations, themselves, truly understand what challenges their target audiences face — what their pain points are — and what they most need help with and how the organization’s products and services make a difference in their client’s/customer’s lives.

Traditional Marketing Opportunities Are Often Missed Ones

And, we always enjoy — and hope to do more of this in the coming year — helping our clients out with traditional marketing opportunities like print, radio, and TV/cable/streaming advertising, transit advertising, outdoors (billboard advertising) and more. We’ve got years and years of experience related to it and can help you gather information on possible traditional marketing opportunities and evaluate them! By dismissing traditional opportunities because they aren’t online/digital ones, organizations can also miss out on reaching target audiences who don’t spend a lot of time on the internet!

An image of our digital marketing agency's Founder and Principal, Gail Snow Moraski who is wearing glasses and who has shoulder-length blonde hair and who is weraing a red dress, a black cardigan and a sliver necklace.
Our Principal, Gail Snow Moraski, in a photo from around 2014, the year she founded Results C & R

Many Thanks and Let’s Catch Up!

Many thanks to the clients and marketing professionals we continue to collaborate with!

If you’re a past client, a prospective client we spoke with, or a fellow marketing professional with whom we collaborated in the past, or if you’ve interned with us in the past, let’s catch up. Schedule a time to do so today!