Hi Reader,

Over the last few weeks we've been digging DEEP into getting found through Google and AI chat. This is the last installment. Then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming!

So, you want to know whether the work you're putting into content is helping the right people find you?

Of course. Why do all this work if you can't tell if it's working?

When I publish a group of articles, I give it at least six months before making a serious judgment about it. In fact, 12 months is an even better timeline.

That can feel like a long time when you're paying for the work and wondering whether to keep going.

During those months, you can check whether search engines can read your pages, which questions people find you through, and whether those visitors become prospective buyers. You can also fix problems as you find them.

This is what I want to tackle today.

By the end of this issue, you'll have a way to record where you stand and choose your next improvement.

This is the final issue in my series on getting found through Google and AI chat. We've covered where to publish, how to turn existing expertise into content, and how to map the questions buyers ask before they hire you.

You can try this with a few existing articles, even if you're joining the series here.

1/ Your website

Begin with your site's three to five main pages that answer related buyer questions. For an engineering firm, that might be a group of articles about choosing a consultant for a drainage project.

Someone who manages your website can help check whether search engines can access those pages. Google provides a free tool called Search Console, where you can inspect an individual page and see whether Google has included it in its "index." That's the collection of pages Google can draw from when someone searches. Google's Search Console guide explains the available checks.

A page can load perfectly for humans while your website's settings prevent a search engine bot from reading or indexing it. Ask the person who manages your website to check both the page settings and any security service that filters automated visitors.

For AI search, major labs provide separate controls for how their search crawlers visit websites. OpenAI, for example, lets your developer allow its search crawler while keeping its training crawler blocked. OpenAI documents those controls separately.

This check matters because a blocked bot cannot read the page. If you do nothing else, check for this!

Next, look at the pages as a reader. Can you find the answer under a clear heading? Is the explanation available as text? Can you follow a link to a related example or service? Those are useful website basics, and Google's starter guide recommends them too.

The advanced work is to check your "schema markup." Schema labels information with tags for machines. Additionally, consider offering a plain-text version of each article. These are optional implementation choices. Google says its AI search features require no special schema or AI text files.

But if you're going to do it, I say do it all the way.

2/ Your starting measurements

Look for three kinds of evidence.

Search visibility. In Search Console, look at the questions people searched for, how often your pages appeared, and how many people clicked. Compare the same pages over equal periods. A monthly check is a good place to start. You can use Google's performance-report guide to understand the numbers.

Look closely at the questions themselves. In our engineering example, if you want drainage consulting projects, searches about hiring a consultant are more relevant than searches for a school assignment on drainage.

AI citations. Try a small set of real buyer questions in a fresh AI chat with web search enabled. Leave your company name out of the question. Save the question, date, tool, and links it cites, then check whether any of those links point to your work.

I'd treat this as a small sample. One answer tells you what appeared in that conversation. To compare over time, keep the questions and testing conditions consistent and save the answers so you can inspect what changed.

Buyer conversations. On your inquiry form or your next sales call, you can ask: “What made you reach out, and had you seen anything from us before?” Record the person's answer alongside any website referral information you have.

Someone may read your article in Google, encounter it again in AI chat, and type your company name into their browser later. Asking them gives you another way to understand how they found you.

Google includes traffic from its AI search features within Search Console's overall Web reporting. You should treat those totals as combined search activity when reviewing them.

3/ A baseline you can build with AI

You can put this into a simple spreadsheet. Start with your buyer questions, the pages that answer them, and whatever measurements you can access today. Leave missing information marked as unknown.

Copy/paste prompt

Check the result: Can you trace each number to something you supplied? Does every recommendation refer to a specific page or question? If the AI says a page has an access problem, did you provide a test showing that?

You should come away with a short list of things to check or improve. This exercise gives you a starting record; the person who manages your website still needs to verify any technical diagnosis.

4/ Your next improvement

If Google hasn't indexed an important page, the person who manages your website can investigate access and indexing first. If the page appears for relevant searches but gets few clicks, look at its position in the results and whether the title describes the answer a buyer wants.

If people visit but rarely inquire, review whether you're answering questions connected to your services and whether readers can find the next step. A relevant case study or a clear description of how you help may be useful there.

If AI chat cites you, record which page it used. Keep that observation separate from visits and inquiries until you have evidence connecting them.

Across a handful of pages, you can do this manually. As you publish more, someone has to repeat the checks, compare periods, review citations, and decide which changes deserve attention.

That's work an AI-assisted system can help with. With access to the reports and saved results, agents can prepare comparisons and flag changes for review. Your team still decides whether the findings matter and what to publish or change.

I'd choose one improvement from this first pass, record what changed, and review the same measurements next month.

Over time, the question I want to answer is whether more of the right buyers are finding our work and starting useful conversations.

And that's a wrap.

If you study these articles and take action, you'll have a way to check whether more people are finding your content through search and AI chat.

And if you've been following along, I'd love to hear what questions you have and how I can help.

Hit reply and tell me your thoughts!

- Dan

P.S. If you'd like my help getting your company found by the buyers you want to reach, book an AI strategy call. We can talk through where you stand and what to work on next.