Ask an AI assistant where to find a good plumber or a marketing service, and it no longer returns a list of links. It names a few businesses outright — and the ones it names just received something close to a personal referral. The ones it skips have gone invisible.
Marketers call the new contest answer engine optimization, or AEO: shaping an online presence so tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini cite your company when someone asks a question in your field. The stakes are real. According to the marketing firm Sapt, about 90 percent of business buyers now lean on AI while deciding what to purchase, and half begin their research in a chatbot rather than a search engine.
Getting named is not magic. According to optimization specialists, AI favors clear, factual pages that plainly answer real customer questions — straightforward service descriptions and FAQs, not marketing fluff. It rewards credibility signals, too: a named author, visible dates, and specific facts it can quote with confidence. Because ChatGPT's searches draw on Microsoft's Bing index, the specialists add, listing a site with Bing's free Webmaster Tools can improve the odds of turning up in its answers.
Mentions elsewhere matter as well. The systems weigh how others describe a business, so reputable directory listings and honest discussion on sites customers visit all add weight. The one shortcut to avoid is faking it: planted reviews and phony accounts get caught, and the lost trust outweighs any gain.
To see where you stand, ask the chatbots the questions your customers would ask, and watch for your name. If a competitor turns up and you do not, you have found your next marketing project.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
