If your website is showing up less in search results lately, you’re not imagining it. The way buyers find businesses has shifted, and most websites haven’t caught up. Jacki DeVries pivoted her entire business around this shift last year, and her perspective changed how I think about visibility for service businesses.
Why AI Search Optimization for Small Business Is Replacing Traditional SEO
The short version: Google’s blue links aren’t where buyers go first anymore. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overview. And those tools don’t decide who to recommend based on keywords. They build a profile of your business across the entire web. Your site, your LinkedIn, your reviews, your podcast appearances, your case studies. Then they look for consistency. If your website says one thing and your LinkedIn says another, that’s a mistrust signal. AI moves on to the next option.
What this means in practice: trust signals matter more than ever. Specific testimonials on the specific service pages they relate to. FAQs that answer buyer questions in plain language. Your business location stated clearly and matching across every platform. One of Jacki’s clients saw a 68% increase in AI recommendations after updating reviews on a single service page. Small change, big lift, because that’s where the trust gap was.
The other shift worth paying attention to: less traffic, better conversions. Buyers coming from AI tools are 4.4x more qualified than buyers from traditional search because AI already filtered for them. If you’ve been chasing volume, this is your sign to chase fit instead.
Is Your Brand Doing Its Job? Find Out in Five Minutes
If you are wondering whether your brand is doing its job, the Brand Audit Scorecard is the fastest way to find out. Ten questions, five minutes, no email gymnastics. Take it at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard.
If you’re a service-based founder wondering whether the way you’ve built your business is working for you — or just working — this one’s worth the listen. And if you want to know where your brand stands right now, start with the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard.
Connect with Jacki:
- Website: fireup-aio.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jackidevries
- Instagram: @jldevries23
THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Flodesk — the email marketing platform built for small business owners. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES
Not sure if your brand is the thing holding you back?
Take the Brand Audit Scorecard. Ten questions, an honest score, and a clear picture of where your brand is working and where it isn’t. No call required, no sales follow-up. Just the assessment.
Takes about 5 minutes. Built for established businesses ready for a brand that matches where they are.