@tjrobertson52

I wanna talk about what I think is going to be the best long term strategy for getting recommended by large language models like ChatGPT. Right now there are about a dozen or so ways to trick ChatGPT into recommending you, but I don't think those are gonna last. What is working now, and what I think will continue working for years to come, is becoming the authority in your space.

So let me break down what I mean and why I feel confident saying that.

As AI gets smarter and more capable, I assume these tricks will be less effective and AI's recommendations will become a better and better proxy for just good recommendations. However, for the foreseeable future, it'll still have one major limitation. It will only have access to the information available about you online.

So while I do think AI is gonna get remarkably good at recommending the best product, service, or business for given users needs, those recommendations will be based solely on the information available online. At that point, the entire game comes down to running a good business and making your voice as loud as possible online.

I recently just reread the dip by Seth Godin. It's a great book, and I think it's even more true today than it was back when he wrote it. One of the concepts he talks about in this book is how you have to be the best in your field, and if you can't be first in your category, you should pick a smaller category.

I think this is gonna become even more true as AI evolves.

When people go to AI to ask for recommendations, the first thing AI is gonna do is try to determine who is the main authority in this area. And that area could be your entire industry, or it could be a subsection or specialty within your industry. The important thing is that as the AI search the web about your specific category, your content, your voice, your opinions are showing up more prominently than anyone else's.

Not only will this help you get recommended just for being prominent, but as long as AI sees you as the authority in your space, you can control every recommendation they make.

In traditional SEO, I always talk about partnering with Google, understanding what Google wants, and then giving that to them so they promote you to the top of the search results. For Google, that means providing the best information for a given query. However, in large language models, it's mostly about providing the best advice or recommendation for the given prompt.

That's already the type of content we're seeing perform best in AI search pages that provide guidance or recommendations. However, in a sea of guidance and recommendations, the way that you win is by being the authority in your space. Be a thought leader.

Make content, have opinions. Get your voice out there. AI is Watching.