Web + Wins #19 Is Your Business Showing Up in AI Search?
Takeover 3/4 by Jade Pruett, HelloSEO + MetaMonster
This Week's Update
When I moved to Columbia, I was still working full-time as an SEO manager at a tech company based in California. I was freelancing on the side, desperately trying to match my salary so I could finally quit and go all in on HelloSEO.
What I didn't expect was how fast this city would move for me.
Within the first few weeks of living here, I'd been connected to just about everyone at SOCO, FemmeX, and the Boyd Innovation Center. Those introductions turned into new clients, business advisors, and a level of support I hadn't experienced anywhere else. It wasn't one big break. It was a hundred small ones, all because people here are genuinely generous with their connections.
Columbia is a small city that punches above its weight for entrepreneurs. If you're building something here and you're not tapping into those communities (or your own local community), you're leaving a lot on the table.
Get a Web Win: AEO Is Changing the Game for Small Businesses
You've heard of SEO. Now there's AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, and if you haven't started paying attention to it, this is your nudge!
AEO is about getting your business cited by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. When someone asks one of these tools a question, it pulls from websites it trusts. The businesses that show up aren't necessarily the biggest. They're the ones whose content is structured in a way that's easy for AI to read and reference.
Here's the thing: this is actually a huge opportunity for small businesses. AI search levels the playing field in a way traditional SEO never quite did.
A few places to start:
Write in clear questions and answers. AI tools love FAQ-style content. If someone might ask "how do I find a therapist in Columbia?" you want a page on your site that answers that directly and specifically, not buried in a wall of text.
Be specific about who you are and what you do. Vague content gets skipped. "We help clients feel their best" tells AI nothing. "We're a group therapy practice in Columbia, SC, specializing in anxiety and trauma" is something AI can actually use.
Get cited on other sites. AI learns who to trust partly based on who's linking to you and talking about you. The backlinks we covered last week? They pull double duty here.
Use schema markup. This is a small piece of code you add to your website that tells search engines (and AI) exactly what your business is, where you're located, and what you offer. Most website platforms have plugins that make this easy.
None of this requires a technical background. It requires being clear, specific, and consistent about what you do and who you serve. If you've been doing good SEO, you're already partway there.
Convo Corner: Madeline and Elizabeth, Columbia Counseling Collective
I was connected to Madeline and Elizabeth through Dana, which feels fitting given that I'm currently writing in her newsletter.
Columbia Counseling Collective is exactly what it sounds like: a community of mental health counselors who share a building, host workshops, and actively help new therapists get established. It's the kind of infrastructure that's hard to build alone and makes a real difference for clinicians who are just starting out.
What I love most about what Madeline and Elizabeth are doing is that they're not keeping it to themselves. They're working with therapists in other states to help them build their own collectives, sharing the model so more communities can have what Columbia has.
Given that my entire business is built around helping therapists get found online, these are exactly the kinds of people I want to know. Their mission and mine line up in a way that feels genuinely exciting.
Learn more about Columbia Counseling Collective and reach out to Madeline and Elizabeth at https://www.columbiacounselingcollective.com/.
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– Jade
