Get human users talking to build authority with AI

Jon says: “User intent matters more than ever in AI search.”

How do you determine what the user intent is in AI search?

“So much of traditional SEO is about building your backlink profile, making sure that other reputable sites reference you, and making sure that other people say that you are who you are and you're authoritative.

That still matters, but more so now than ever. When the AI thinks about who to recommend as a brand, they care about real, actual humans saying you are a good brand. That is things such as Reddit, Quora, and YouTube comments. It includes case studies, user testimonials, review sites, etc.

Those all really matter to the AI when they think about how you should be referenced as a brand.”

Does AI specifically target users who match what your entity is and what it represents?

“Absolutely. When you search in ChatGPT or a tool like that and say, ‘I am looking for a recommendation for a database,’ or ‘a pizzeria down the street that I can go to for dinner tonight,’ they’re going to use references to state whether or not your pizza is good. They will have to use information that really matters regarding the experience, and whether they should recommend the brand.

More so than ever, in AI search, people are actually going into Yelp and TripAdvisor and other places and saying your pizza is good, or people are going to G2 and saying your database is good. That really matters.

Reddit threads that talk about why your database is excellent for working with certain kinds of companies matter more than ever to AI when they make their recommendations – and even more so recently, as these new models have been rolled out through the different platforms.”

How can this be applied in industries where it is more challenging to get user interaction?

“The first thing I always recommend is getting your customers to give you that testimonial you can use on your website to promote your brand. Those are ideal because they give social proof that your brand is doing very well, with a real human customer who can attest to that.

Now, there are a few tricks you can use for that as well. Planting that information, not just on your homepage, but also on certain types of content pages, can really help. Aligning that messaging to who you are as a brand overall can really be effective.

I'll give you a quick example. When you go into ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask it for a certain type of database, it will often say, ‘We recommend X database because companies A, B, and C really like them, and you are a similar company to A, B, and C.’ That really matters. They will have found companies A, B, and C and referenced them because they are featured on the About Us page or the product pages.

It's not just about having the testimonial out there; it's aligning that to your messaging and your information in a cohesive way. The best brands are winning by doing that effectively.”

Will AI search engines incorporate a testimonial within the results, or do they just make it more likely for your content to surface there?

“It's both. More so than ever, AI search engines are returning things like YouTube videos as answers to questions. Those are often user testimonials, product reviews, and things like that.

They seem to really matter because, again, it is user-generated content – not necessarily even made by you, but by a potential user or somebody else. Talking about yourself can really help as well, so it really is a combination of both.”

How do you decide where to encourage customers to write a review or testimonial?

“Google reviews matter, and the sites that you think would matter probably do matter.

However, the number one thing that you can do to figure that out is go to the AI search engines – Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT – and type in, ‘I am X brand. I do this thing. I'm really trying to grow my presence, and I want my user testimonials and my customers to speak highly of me in the right places. Where are you getting information to recommend customers to something like my service?’

The AI search engines will often tell you ‘We love X site because they seem to be highly authentic. It does a great job at taking out spammy results, so we really trust it.’

Those sites might be very different from what you might expect. For the businesses that we look at, you might assume that a certain type of review site would be most effective, but it's actually a random page that I'd never heard of before, and if the brand is not there, it's not going to be mentioned because they really trust their reviews and their site.

We identify those places, then we reach out and make sure that they have an authentic view of who we are as a brand. It's done amazing work for us, and we recommend it to all of our customers as well. You don't need special software to do that. You just need to go into an AI search engine and try to find what those sites are, then just hustle a bit and see if you can get yourself posted into those other areas.”

When do you reach out to customers themselves, and how do you ensure that the testimonial feels genuine to the consumer?

“I'm going to give a slightly annoying answer, which is that it really depends on your business.

For us, as a software vendor, we always wait at least a month after somebody signs up to even ask the question. If you ask them sooner than that, they might be really happy or they might be really sad, but you haven't really given them a chance to understand whether the software is working for them or not. We give them at least a month to understand how they feel so that they can provide a review about what your service is and what you're doing.

If you're delivering more of a consumer item, it might be at the point of receiving the item. If it's a luxury or excitement item, you really want to know, in the moment, did it work? Is this really exciting? Are they happy? You want that review right away.

It really depends on the business, and you know your business better than anybody. You generally know when people reach out to you and say they're upset or they're really happy. Use that as a guide to understand when you should be reaching out to them.

Brands can get this very wrong. I hate when I sign up for a software and within five minutes of signing up, they say, ‘Well, do you like it?’ I don't know. I'm not going to give you a review right now; that doesn't make any sense to me. I just signed up. I need some time to really review it and give an honest assessment.

Take the time to think about that. Use the experience you've had from previous customers who have given you negative or positive feedback and use that to guide your decision-making.”

Is it about the quality or quantity of reviews, and how do you encourage users to write a bit more rather than just give a star rating?

“This is really important because the text and intent of the review, and what they're saying, matter more than anything else.

If you can have one really strong, positive, well-thought-out review from a customer who gave it deep thought and really felt the need to explain themselves – whether that is on a traditional review site like G2 or Trustpilot, or on a Reddit thread where nobody's asking them to do it – that really matters.

It matters when they can give exact, specific details as to why they like the brand and why they recommend it. Maybe it's great customer service, a great product, or it’s really good value. Whatever that might be, home in on what those things are and align that information to what you want to be as a brand.

If you start seeing that all the reviews are talking about how you're great at customer service, that’s amazing. You're probably going to rank pretty well for customer service. However, that’s also an opportunity to say, ‘Nobody's really talking about how good my product is. Maybe my customer service is so good because I keep having issues. People are reaching out to me, and they're getting good customer service, but my product isn't as good as it needs to be. So, I need to up my product a little bit and get people saying how amazing my product is as well.’

This information really helps guide you as a brand. At the same time, you can absolutely use that to your advantage to make sure that the intent of the actual words in the conversations people are having, wherever that might be, aligns with what you want to be as a brand. If not, you need to work to improve yourself so that you are actively aligned with what you want to be.”

How important is the age of reviews?

“There's no set exact answer to that question, but recency does matter. AI models want to know that not only are you a good company, but you're a good company now, so it can confidently recommend you to somebody who wants to answer this question right now.

If your last review was five years ago, and you can't get more people to write reviews, then now's the time to start engaging on Reddit, Quora, YouTube, TikTok, or any other place you can to find ways to interact with real humans who are using your products.

You need to find a way to engage with people who can give you that intent that you are a good brand and that social proof that the AI models need to say that you have the authority to make the claims that you're making.

With the traditional backlink profile that Google would look at, if Forbes or the New York Times says you're good, it assumes that you’re good. With AI, they care less about that and more about what people in the New York Times or Forbes are saying about you, or what the actual human user who has used your product is saying in a Reddit thread about your topic.”

Is text enough, or does video work a lot more effectively nowadays?

“Things are changing so quickly, it's hard to know. Yes, video does really matter. If you'd asked me six months ago, I'd say no, not nearly as much. Now, though, you'd be surprised. We're seeing customers doing podcasts like this, which are getting posted to YouTube, and that is being cited in ChatGPT as a reason why you should use their tool.

It might just be a guy talking about his brand on a very casual podcast, but that YouTube video clearly had enough information in the transcription or the comments that led to the AI model saying, ‘Hey, this is a really good idea. This is exactly what you should be looking for. Here's why, and here's a 15-minute video to listen to.’

Video really does matter. It doesn't have to be in the review format that you may be used to. It can be any user-generated content, either outside or inside your four walls, that adds to the complexity of your brand.”

As well as being positive for AI search engine results, does this also help with reputation management?

“Absolutely. This plays into the broader scheme of how you make sure your brand is highly visible in AI and everywhere else, where reputation really does matter.

There's no exact algorithm for how OpenAI, Perplexity, or Anthropic think about these things. What we can say for sure is that they're using it because they're citing it, and they’re telling us this is what they're using to give you that authority.

If you go to a Gemini or a ChatGPT and say, ‘I'm looking for this type of product. Give me some examples and also tell me why it would work well for me,’ it's persona-driven. The AI model knows who you are (depending on the model). They're going to be able to say, ‘We know you run a software business, and other people who run software businesses really like this product.’ It's going to know that about you and use that as a way to provide authority to the brand.

It can then say, ‘They're not just good at doing what they do, they're really good at doing what they do for your exact persona.’ That is really powerful, and it’s really hard to get right in traditional Google search: being able to persona drive your content to the right people. You're matching keywords, but AI does an incredible job at understanding who you are and making sure you're getting fed the right answers from the right content. Being answer engines really gives them that flexibility to do that.

You, as a brand, need to make sure you're well optimized for your target personas. I say that like it's easy, but it's not. It's very challenging. It's something that we do a lot with our customers at ChatRank, and it is the number one thing you can be doing.

You know who your customer is. You need to make sure that your brand is front and centre, well represented, and has a good authority and reputation score for that exact user to make sure that, when they go and do the research, you are popping up as the best answer for that query.”

Jon, what's the key takeaway from the tip you shared today?

“Understand how your brand is perceived by users – whether that be on your website with testimonials and case studies, or outside your website on Reddit threads or YouTube.

Knowing how people are talking about your brand and owning that narrative is super important for making sure your brand is well optimized for the AI models.”

Jon Mest is the CEO at Just Reach Out and ChatRank. Find out more over at ChatRank.ai and JustReachOut.io.