How AI learns about a business.
What you can control, and advice not to give. The short version of how AI models learn, written for marketers so you can explain it to a client who’s heard otherwise. Twelve pages. Sixteen sources. No Wikipedia page required.
The model doesn’t hold information about your business. It looks you up.
Trained once on a frozen copy of the web, then taught manners. When someone asks about your business, it searches the live web and reads what it finds. So you aren’t part of its learning. You know, like good old fashioned SEO. That is the one layer you can work in, and the guide is about what to do there.
Advice not to give.
I’ve heard all three from AI experts in the last two years, on big stages in front of lots of business owners. Most of it comes from a misunderstanding about how AI models get built, and it leaves me wanting to roll around on the floor in frustration.
- “You need a Wikipedia page. ChatGPT cites Wikipedia constantly.”
- “Put everything out as a press release. AI reads these as a priority.”
- “Post about your business on Reddit. ChatGPT gets all its information from Reddit.”
I want you, my marketing pals, to understand what is going on here. So you don’t pass bad info on to your clients, and you don’t waste time or energy on weird shit that has zero impact on being cited by AI.
What’s in the guide
Twelve pages. Page two is the whole thing in a hot minute, if it takes you a while to get into the learning mood. The rest is the why, so you can explain it to a client who’s heard otherwise.
- 1The tl;dr, on one page
- 2The three layers, and the one you can influence
- 3Seven things you control
- 4The twenty minute audit, six checks
- 5Eight myths and what to tell a client
- 6Sixteen sources, because receipts
Who I am
I’ve spent ten years running my own business, Clever Digital, a Google Ads consultancy in New Zealand. These days I’m also the consultant who shows her working to other women in business. So they can grow too.
Ten years of Google Ads means I’ve watched every “new science” arrive, get a name, and turn out to be the old fundamentals in a new jacket. This one is no different, and I’ve got the sources to show it.
Read it for your clients. Test it on your own business.
Because I am sure there is something in this list you haven’t done for yourself. There’s no follow-up sequence after the download. Take it or leave it, love it or bin it. And if you want to confess your AI SEO sins, hit reply. I collect them.