I was stuck in traffic one day while talking to my mom. She asked me, “What do you do?” and I replied, “I do AI SEO.” “Oh, okay,” she replied, and I could tell from her voice she had a blank face. I realized she didn’t understand, so here is the explanation I gave her, just a tiny bit polished.

So what’s regular SEO?

Firstly, what is traditional SEO? It stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is an important part of web development where we optimize a website so it ranks better on search engines like Google. It’s a good question to ask, “How does Google know which café is the best around me?” For local searches like that, it looks at how close the café is, how relevant it is to what you typed, and the reviews and ratings people have left, and ranks them accordingly. Then you scroll through the list and decide for yourself. Businesses sometimes also pay Google to be featured at the top, since hardly anyone scrolls, and you can tell by the small “Sponsored” label. That part is an ad though, not SEO.

And AI SEO?

When it comes to AI SEO, the AI engines rely on the same things and then some. It’s like a friend who has been to all those cafés Google showed you, and tells you exactly a few options based on what you need. Obviously, AI engines like ChatGPT can’t go there themselves. Instead, they read the reviews on Google, Yelp, local blogs, the café’s own website and other trusted sources, and give you the recommendations you need.

Interestingly, AI engines tend to be specific. When I asked for the “best cafés around me”, instead of showing a generic list, it showed me one or two cafés in each category, like best pour-over coffee, best baked goods, nice seating area for work, and so on. Behind the scenes it’s basically running a bunch of smaller searches, one for each thing “best” could mean. Same thing with dentists. If you ask for the best dentist near you, it might split it into the best one for emergencies, the best one for Invisalign, and the ones accepting new patients. A dentist could do all three, but if it’s not written clearly anywhere, AI might not put them in any of those lists. AI engines want businesses to be specific and say which categories or particular services they’re best at. A business can offer multiple services, but AI will only mention it under a particular category if that’s mentioned somewhere.

What this means for your business

AI won’t usually give you bad PR, it’s just radio silence. When a business doesn’t show up in these results, it’s as good as it doesn’t exist. If you search for that business specifically, it will usually tell you about it and cite the website as well, but when asked generically, that business might not be included, and that’s the real fear. And even when you search by name, it doesn’t always get it right. When I tested my own business, Google’s AI mixed me up with a different company with almost the same name and said the founder was “not disclosed”. I’m literally the founder.

AI engines’ results usually include businesses that have been mentioned across many places, even if those places don’t link to them. ChatGPT doesn’t need a link. Once it reads the name of a restaurant in a food blog, it can pick it up. One large study actually found that how often a brand gets mentioned online predicted AI mentions way better than backlinks did.

The systems that were essential for traditional SEO are still the same, just with added steps. It might sound different, but in theory it’s the same foundation, just with a different finish line.

What you can do today

So what can you do today? A few simple things:

• Claim your Google Business Profile and Yelp listing if you haven’t already, and fill in everything: the right category, hours, services, photos. This is where AI reads a lot about local businesses. Any discrepancy acts as a red flag.

• Ask each customer about their experience and to give their honest review online.

• Say clearly what you’re best at, on your website and your profile. “Emergency dental care, open on Saturdays” says a lot more than “quality care for the whole family”.

• Get mentioned. Local blogs, “best of” lists, community pages. A mention without a link still counts.

When I finished, my mom said “If I ever start a business, you just do all this yourself, as long as I am getting clients, I am happy”.