Learn How to Get Found In AI Search

Episode Transcript
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Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions.
Today we're going to talk abouthow to get found in AI and what
design and remodelingbusinesses need to know.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions Podcast with Jason
and Miriam.
Tune in each week where we talkabout marketing PR and business

(00:24):
advice for designprofessionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:28):
This is one of the questions we get asked a lot
by clients is Are we also beingfound in AI search along with
SEO search?
Because oftentimes a lot of SEOcompanies may talk about this,
but may not actually explain.
Some of what you do on the SEOside will help you get found in

(00:48):
AI, but there are some otherthings you have to make sure
your website does to enhance it.
Huge aspect of that is PR.
So I'm going to let Miriam talkabout that.
But I'm going to first answeron the marketing side what needs
to happen.
And you need to start with yourwebsite and ensure that it's
answering the type of questionsthat AI would ask.

(01:08):
So when your prospects head tosearch, normally they'll type in
best kitchen remodelers nearme, best designers near me.
That's still I propose, but youalso need to ask: is it
answering these actual questionsabout what do you do?
What the services are, whattype of kitchen you design, bath

(01:29):
do you design, home remodeling,what actually is it that you
do, and do you answer thateffectively in your site?
Or are you just explainingabout who you are and telling a
story?
That's helpful, but you alsoneed to be able to answer the
type of questions that will beasked.
One good place isanswerethepublic.com.
That's actually used for normalSEO, but you can also use to

(01:52):
find out what are the questionsthat are being asked around your
industry in AI.
And oftentimes you'll hear ishow much does you know XYZ cost?
Whether it be a bathroom, howmuch does a kitchen cost?
That's one of the most askedquestions that you can normally
answer in like a FAQ section ofyour website.
And what I hear from a lot ofremote lers is that they don't

(02:14):
want to have the actual price.
One of the reasons they don'twant to say that is because they
could get pigeonholed into whatthe number is without context.
But what you can do is giveexamples.
For if you are to do a modernkitchen, a Mediterranean,
whatever it is, it willgenerally cost XYZ.

(02:35):
So you can have a range.
So you don't pigeonholeyourself into an actual price.
Another question that'snormally asked is what are the
services that are typically donein a kitchen remodel, bathroom
model, or whatever it is?
That's something else that youcan answer either on your
homepage or you can have an FAQsection that will answer that.
And that will get cataloged byAI so it can pull an answer up

(02:58):
from your site.
And so you could get referencedin that.
Another question that is askedis how long does XYZ take,
whether it be a kitchen remodel,bath remodel, whole home
remodel, that also you can havea general answer.
You don't have to getpigeon-poled into an actual time
frame.
So making sure that you A, knowwhat are the frequently asked

(03:19):
questions for your industry interms of what is asked in AI,
and then making sure that you'veanswered all of these questions
on your site.
Also, what you want to ensureis that on your site that it's
well organized, that everythinghas its place.
So when you go to the homepage,everything is laid out because
what you'll often see on somesites is you'll see a whole lot

(03:42):
of text.
It's not really defined thatit's in one section or not, or
if it just all jumbled into one.
And this often happens on thehomepage where you may have the
uh about us, you may uh talkabout that aspect, you may talk
about a little bit of thehistory, you may talk about a
little bit of the services youoffer.
And if that's not actuallyorganized and it seems all in

(04:03):
one, it'll be harder for AI tounderstand what the site is
about and what you're trying toanswer in that.
And by actually organizing itthat way, it's easier for AI to
find exactly what it's lookingfor and to actually reference
your site if anybody asks aboutthe topic that you have answered
on your site.
I'm gonna hand it over to Miraso she can talk about a little

(04:25):
bit of the PR, because that'salso vital in terms of AI
search.

Yes, Jason, it's like PR is having a moment,
you know, because um peopleused to think PR is kind of a
nice to have, but it'sdeveloping into a must-have if
you want to be visible in AI.
And the reason why that is, isreally what the the superpower

(04:50):
of PR is that it providesthird-party credibility, right?
It's I always say it's likeword of mouth, but it comes from
a reputable source.
It's not just anybody who saysit, but it's a media outlet.
And that is really what makesum earned media placements um

(05:11):
like just inherently valuable.
And it's always been this way,but it's even more important now
because of the way that um AIsearch has changed um how people
look and and f look for thingsand and find answers, right?
So third-party validationmatters more than ever.

(05:33):
And a lot of that or thehighest value signals really
come from um articles that youare mentioned in, from
interviews, um, just from mediamentions in general, because it
it does provide that thatcredibility from uh a reputable

(05:54):
outlet.
Um that makes it really, reallyvaluable in in the eyes of the
LLMs that are um scraping thecontent.
And this is true for whetheryou use Chat GBT or Claude or
Perplexity.
This is true for all of them.

Real quick, Miriam, can you explain what LLM
means for anybody out therethat does not know what it is?

Yes, it's a large language model, which
really all the um AI um searchplatforms like chat or Gemini or
Claude, they're all LLMs.
Yes.
Thank you, Jason.
Too much jargon.
But basically, um it means nowif you are not quoted um in the

(06:40):
media, you are not part of theconversation and it's really
gonna harm your brand.
And that may soundintimidating, but you don't need
any big placements.
And especially as a design andremodeling company, it's it's
enough, or it's really good,even if you get quoted in a

(07:01):
local article that talks aboutremodeling trends in your area,
or if you get a mention in atrade publication, that's
excellent too.
Um, you can also just getpicked up for commentary in
various different um mediaplatforms online.

(07:22):
So these smaller placements arereally exactly what um AI pulls
from when it answers a questionthat's that somebody um asks
online.
And it's this is actually a lotof what we teach um in our
academy program.
Um, as we've been teaching thisfor years, and it just turns

(07:42):
out that it's actually justbecoming more and more valuable.
So I think we've been on theright track.
Um, another thing that's reallyhelpful um and is becoming more
valuable is press releases.
And I talk a lot about pressreleases too.
It's it's a it's the PR umtactic that has been used for

(08:03):
forever, you know.
It's really what people oftentraditionally think of when they
think PR is like it's like,ooh, let's issue a press
release.
And whereas that used to not bea great idea if you were not
like a larger company with bignews, that has completely
changed because what you can donow is you can um you every

(08:25):
every company, every um,everybody has news that uh that
are actually kind of newsworthy.
So you could do something likeum XYZ remodeling design or see
rising demand for warm woodtones in kitchen remodels.
It could be something that youyou make up a trend or you

(08:46):
identify a trend.
Don't make it up, okay?
Identify it.
I'm taking that back.
Or like if you have any kind ofcompany news, you um you write
a quick press release, um, youcan hire somebody to do it, or
you can just ask um one, you canask Chat GPT to write one for
you.
And then you need to distributeit.

(09:07):
The value really comes in whenyou distribute it, and there's
um news wires out there, there'smany different platforms where
for a very um small amount ofmoney, I'd say anywhere between
$100 and $400, you candistribute um your news to a lot
of different um websites andthey will pick it up and publish

(09:30):
it.
And when um ChatGPT goes andlooks for um mentions in that
area, you are gonna pop up.
So press releases, if they'reuh done the right way and
distributed the right way,really can be helpful nowadays.
So what the releases do andwhat they create um clear

(09:53):
structured content that's greatsearchable information.
And that's like Jason, you saidbefore, it is really important
that you structure whatever youwrite clearly because then it
sends consistent signals.
And what it is about, it'sabout your expertise.
You know, when somebody asks aquestion about who's the best um

(10:13):
kitchen remodeler in this area,it's like you want to float to
the top with your expertise, andthese types of um mentions and
um and and pickups can really,really help with that.
So you are not waiting to befeatured, but you are creating
your own content and youdistribute it that way.

(10:34):
It's a really um surefire wayum to do this.
The um the other option is uhthe other thing to think about
is you really it's critical thatyou are perceived as an expert
in your field, because that'swhat um AI values.

(10:54):
If somebody asks a question, AIgoes out and it says, well,
who's most qualified to answerthis question?
So the more content about thattopic that you can have that's
linked with your name, the thethe higher you will show up in
in that search.
Um so instead of sayingsomething like, and this is true

(11:17):
in whatever you write, it'salso true on the website or or
or on your blog or in any kindof communication that's um
accessible online.
But you don't just say, weoffer custom cabinetry.
Everybody says that.
You're not gonna stand out.
So you're gonna you're gonnawanna be quoted saying something

(11:37):
like, we're seeing morehomeowners choose painted
finishes over stained woodbecause they want flexibility
over time, you know.
Just like be as specific um asyou can be.
So if somebody um go if someGoogles, you know, you don't
Google anymore, but you canstill Google.
It'll also give you um AIsearch results in the meantime.

(11:59):
But if it's specific, ifsomebody asks a specific
question, you will show up as umas the expert.
And that's that's true umacross the board, um, I would
say.
Then and I know Jason, you aregonna talk about this more, but
it's like if you think about howmarketing and PR work together

(12:21):
for this, it's like if you issuea press release about a project
and and it gets picked up oryou distribute it on a wire.
And it's really important thatyou have content that supports
that on your own platforms, likeJason said in your Q ⁇ As or um

(12:42):
in a well-structured um articleon on your website.
It's really important that thatyou show up in different places
with the same kind of message.
That's what AI rewards morethan um anything.
Jason, would you um would yousecond that?

I would agree.
I would agree.
Yeah.

So for example, um, if you say, okay, what does
a modern kitchen remodelinclude?
Um like you could havereferences to that um in a media
placement that you've earned umthrough one of the ways that I
just explained.
You can have it on your yourwebsite, um, or you can have it

(13:28):
in a in a blog post, um, likejust so you always like the the
message that you put out thereneeds to be consistent, and
that's what's rewarded.
Yeah.
So Jason, what's should we say,what if people are asking,
well, what should we do now?
Um, what should we do next umto position us to be found in AI

(13:50):
search?

I would say what you need to do is do an audit
on your site.
So there's a site that's calledaudit sky, so a u d I t s-a y.
And I'll I'll put that in theshow notes, but it can show you
where your site is in terms ofhow the LLMs and how, like the
chat GPTs, the clause of theworld, how they view your site.
And you can use that tounderstand where you are, and

(14:14):
also hand you some gestures orhow you can enhance from there.
One of the things I hear aboutfrom a lot of clients or
remoulers is if they can use AIcontent on their site.
And that's a no-no if you wantto be found by AI.
Because I often, when I'm askedthat, I say, if you have a
question about something youdon't know, would you ask

(14:35):
yourself that same question?
And they said no.
I'm like, well, that's how AIfeels.
Because if you have AI content,if anybody asks that question,
AI already knows that answerbecause that's an AI answer.
So you need to create contentthat is unique and that can add
value, and that's how the AIwill find you.
So I always say AI content isgreat, but not on your website.

(14:57):
Because if you want to be foundby AI, they will ignore you
because they already know allthat information because that's
where you got it from.
Make sure you actually haveauthoritative, unique content
that can add value to theindustry and to that topic, and
then that's how you can getfound.

I think that's a great point.
And that is also true foranything you provide the media.
You have to be really carefulto not just have AI generate
your press release completely,or if you want to contribute a
quote to an article, the mediawill actually punish you if you
send them AI generated contentfor this very reason because

(15:35):
they rely on original authenticinput from their sources.
So definitely have to be.
You can use a little help, butyou have to be um really
creative and authentic in howyou create your content.
No, I would say on the PR side,if you really want to amp up

(15:55):
your AI visibility, it's likeyou have to start generating
some of these expert mentions,which is pretty easy to do.
We have a lot of content thattalks about it, and we um teach
it in our academy.
Press releases are the nextpossible option.
Um, and any kind of mediarelations, any kind of any way

(16:18):
you get published is a goodthing.
So if definitely if um you knowhow to do that, great.
If you don't listen to some ofour podcasts or check out our
academy program where we teachall of that on a regular basis.

I'll just say, like what Miriam said about how
the media will actually hurt youor they will punish you for
that.
AI won't hurt you, but theyjust will ignore you, which is
actually worse.
So they'll just ignore you ifyou have the information.
So we've been talking todayabout how you get found.
And then honestly, what I'llsay, all this that we talked
about is great, but oftentimeswhen I do presentations and I

(16:56):
see the same people six months,a year later, they haven't
implemented anything.
They said it was greatinformation at the time, but
then they just cataloged it andforgot.
So make sure that you take someof what you've heard today and
you actually implement and youactually take action on it so
you can be found.
So the next time you hear us inthe future, you can say, okay,

(17:16):
that information actuallyhelped.
What else do you have for us?
So that's why we have this, andwe hope you start to implement
all of this.
And like Miriam said, also wehave the academy, which we teach
all of this in.
So if you want to find out moreinformation on that, the link
is in the show notes, and we'llbe happy to help you out there.
So that's all we wanted to talkabout today.
So we hope to hear and see youhere in two weeks on Design

(17:37):
Discussions.
We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
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(17:58):
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