Our SEO experts on why AI Engines are ignoring your business

About the author

Anna Smith is an SEO Lead at Dark Horse. She has four years’ experience in SEO, specialising in taking brands to hitherto unreached heights in the new era of search.

In this article

1. How AI agents work
2. A starting point
3. More advanced tips
4. 4 additional things you should be doing

We’ve all seen it many times before. Your website is in good condition. You’ve played by SEO rules, having worked through your list of 100 technical SEO issues. Your pages are all indexed, you’re starting to see your rankings rise, and you’re publishing a blog post per week. Bingo. Yet when you ask ChatGPT ‘which estate agent should I use in Chester’, it’s tumbleweed. Your brand is nowhere to be seen.  

The good news is it doesn’t mean your website, products or services are wrong. You’re probably a very good estate agent. Your carefully curated SEO strategy is winning and you’re in those coveted top positions. So why is AI Iignoring your business? 

We asked our SEO auditors for their opinion. Can o’ worms. 

The verdict: Tech is the foundation, content is still king, but the secret sauce to AI visibility is what people are saying about you online.  

In other words, if your brand’s digital footprint is consistent, positive and genuine, you have a fighting chance. 

How AI agents work

No one’s arguing that your website isn’t important. Anyone in marketing will tell you how great it is. But when everyone is claiming that they’re the best estate agent in town, AI bots look elsewhere for an unbiased source of truth. Your brand needs to be consistently showing up exactly where LLMs get their data from.

A starting point

• Directories & reviews– If you’ve left a review somewhere, LLMs have probably crawled it. Google reviews, Trustpilot, Booking.com, App Store, all places they look. They are all central to your AI search visibility.  The kicker is that one bad review holds more weight than ten positive reviews put together. Never easy. Encourage reviews as much as possible and make responding to reviews a key component to your AI visibility strategy.   

• Reddit– The absolute source of truth that trained a lot of AI databases. Conversations about your brand from actual customers, users searching for recommendations or wanting to learn more about your industry. It makes sense why LLMs favour this as a source. When it comes to Reddit, knowledge is power. Know what people are saying about you, and whether they’re saying anything at all. Mentions are crucial, but sentiment shouldn’t be ignored. Any fundamental complaints that frequently pop up, do what you can to fix the problem. (Tip: you can measure LLM sentiment using a tool like Peec AI). Respond to threads that are looking for recommendations and get your business out there. 

• Listicles– This one may need budget. Your ‘Top 10 Estate Agents in Chester’ style articles as an example. If you’re not already getting featured in listicle style articles, your competitors have the advantage. If you understand SEO lingo from the early 2000s, choose high DA sites with high levels of authority and trust. Review their content. If you like what you see and think you can add something to the conversation, reach out via email. (Tip- creating your own ‘Top 10’ list is something many SEOers tend to do to get started).  

• Editorial content– the allure of the internet. Any editorial or blog style content you can produce or be featured within are like the golden tickets of AI search. Keep it interesting and written for humans. If you have a fresh perceptive on something within your niche, write a blog on it. This can work well. If there’s somebody in your business that is known in the industry, is part of an industry body, or even just posts regularly on LinkedIn, your life has just been made a whole lot easier.  

More advanced tips

• YouTube comments– People tend to forget that YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. It’s full of unique content, generated by real people (and some AI bots, but we don’t have time to get into that now). Getting mentioned in YouTube comments could be just what you need to become more visible in AI searches. Warning: spamming comments will have a negative effect.  

• LinkedIn– The rising star of AI sources and a key player in your AI visibility strategy. Long form content and original insights seem to win over repetitive ‘GEO is the new SEO’ posts (ironic, since this is essentially a ‘GEO’ post without the label). Personal or founder-led accounts tend to hold more credibility than your run of the mill corporate posts.  

• Podcast mentions– Podcasts are here to stay and should inevitably become part of your AI search visibility strategy. See if there are any existing podcasts within your niche and reach out with any unique perspective you can offer.  

• TikTok & Instagram reels– LLMs crawl transcripts from video content like Instagram reels more frequently than you likely realise. The influence of influencers recommending your brand is not something to be ignored in SEO. 

4 additional things you should be doing

1. Keep your brand name consistent EVERYWHERE- social media, website, review sites, everywhere. This is more than just good housekeeping, a consistent brand name online is the foundation AI visibility. The approach is simple. Google yourself. Check all mentions spell your brand name correctly.   

2. At the risk of repetition, high-quality content is king. Write about what you know, give your opinion and offer new perspectives. Stay away from anything generic and repetitive. 

3. Structured data should be part of your existing SEO strategy, but it’s crucial now more than ever. AI relies on structured data to explicitly link your name, address, logo, services, social media and locations. Without this, your business cannot be verified online. Just get AI to write your structured data for you. It’ll definitely get it right 100% of the time.

**The AI section is not actual advice. Always read the fine print.  

4. Don’t panic. AI searches still only makeup a small percentage of searches. You’ve not fallen behind yet, and your business can still be successful online. Form a strategy, seek professional opinions and play the long game.

Your journey to conquering the new era of search will probably take a village. Dark Horse knows the how, what, when why of AI visibility, so we can do the work while you keep doing what you do best. For an expert GEO strategy tailored to your brand, don’t be shy, our experts are always here to help.