What you'll learn:

  • The difference between SEO (search visibility), AEO (being the answer), and GEO (being recommended/mentioned in AI)
  • Why zero-click + AI answers are changing what “good marketing” looks like
  • The fastest website/content updates that help AI understand what you do
  • How to structure pages so your business is more quotable and trustworthy online
  • The key “trust signals” that influence whether people click, call, or book
  • 2–3 practical next steps you can apply immediately (even if you’re not technical)

SEO, AEO and GEO Explained.

In this Digital Marketing Breakdown webinar, Patrice from ProFusion Web Solutions explains SEO, AEO, and GEO in plain English - what each one means, why they matter right now, and how small businesses can stay visible as search shifts toward zero-click results and AI-generated answers. You’ll learn how traditional search rankings still play a role, how to make your content “answer-ready,” and what it takes to earn trust and mentions in AI experiences -without turning your website into jargon soup.

If SEO, AEO and GEO were Harry Potter Characters... 

Breaking down modern search visibility using a simple (and fun) analogy:

🧙‍♀️ SEO = Hermione Granger
The rule-follower who makes sure everything is structured correctly so your website can show up in search results.
 
🪄 AEO = Harry Potter
The one with the answers people are actually looking for—clear, direct, and quotable in search, voice, and AI results.
 
🧙‍♀️ GEO = Professor McGonagall
The trusted authority whose recommendations carry weight—exactly how AI decides which brands to suggest.

Access Video Transcript

Patrice Valentine: Alright, so today's topic we are looking at is SEO, AEO and GEO. It's all about.

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Patrice Valentine: kind of getting your website found and how your website is showing up now that there is the explosion of AI. I'm going to try and do this in as non-technical terms as I possibly can, but again, like I said, if you have questions, please just ask.

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Patrice Valentine: We want to make sure what we're explaining today really kind of emphasizes the fact that.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, search has not gone away. People are still doing searches, they're just doing it a little bit different than they maybe did, you know.

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Patrice Valentine: 20… 10 years ago when we first got started in this industry. Um, the click has not gone away completely, but we're seeing that more searches are ending up without someone actually clicking through to the website. So what we're looking at today is how do we actually make sure that if someone is doing a search for our company or for the services that you offer.

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Patrice Valentine: That you are being found and having your information presented in a zero-click or an almost zero-click world.

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Patrice Valentine: Let's do a quick definition here on what we're even talking about. So we have SEO, which is search engine optimization, and that focuses on improving rankings within the search engine results pages. That includes optimizing technical elements, so this might be on-page.

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Patrice Valentine: Uh, items like link building or anchor links, um, that are actually on your website pages. Could be, uh, link building off of your website.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, could be just improving the website structure. So, it's all about increasing visibility across a range of possible results. That's search engine optimization.

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Patrice Valentine: AEO is probably one of the new ones that you might not have heard of before, and that is Answer Engine Optimization, and that focuses on earning the single… let me actually have examples here, so…

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Patrice Valentine: Uh, here's an example of SEO, so traditional search engine optimization. I did a search for best web developer, ferndale, Washington, and you can see in the Map Pack here, so these two listings at the top, is what's called the Map Pack, Google's Map Pack.

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Patrice Valentine: And then you can see down below here, it shows Yelp, and then it shows our ProFusion website. Um, so this is what we would consider traditional SEO, showing up in the Map pack, and then also being found.

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Patrice Valentine: With our website on the search engine results page.

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Patrice Valentine: And then, like I was saying, it's AEO, or the Anson Engine Optimization, focuses on earning that.

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Patrice Valentine: single summarized response delivered by an AI system. So in this search, you can still kind of see the map off to the left, so ignore that one, but I did a search for who is the top web developer in ferndale, Washington.

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Patrice Valentine: And I get the AI overview that this actually is giving me 3 different possibilities, so it gives us us, ProFusion, as well as a couple of our competitors that are on there, but it's giving me the answer to the question that I have asked.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, AEO relies heavily on structured answers, clarity, and content that fits within a specific answer framework.

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Patrice Valentine: Then if we look at GEO, you'll now see I have a search for, should I hire ProFusion Web Solutions for my website? So all different types of questions are getting me these different results. And you'll see GEO, which is generative engine optimization. It's related to AEO, but it is different. Um, GEO focuses more on creating content that gets cited by AI.

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Patrice Valentine: where AEO focuses more on optimizing the existing answers. So this gets cited where you can see the actual citations here. So you can see there's a little link, and if you click on the link, it pops open this, uh, kind of little link box on the right-hand side that shows.

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Patrice Valentine: It's citing ProFusion, our actual website, it's citing Yelp, which is about us, and then the third citation is also about ProFusion, so links to our ProFusion website right there as well.

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Patrice Valentine: So, SEO, search engine optimization, AEO is answer engine optimization, and GEO is generative engine optimization. SEO is that classic visibility, ranking in the local pack and being found.

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Patrice Valentine: AEO is making your content easy to use as a direct answer, and GEO is earning trust signals so that AI includes you as a recommended option.

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Patrice Valentine: So really, SEO is about getting indexed and discovered, AEO getting you understood and quotable, and GEO getting you trusted and recommended.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, we put out kind of a fun video yesterday about how we kind of likened AEO, GEO, and SEO to Harry Potter characters. Um, it's up.

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Patrice Valentine: on our Instagram and YouTube as well, but basically we said that SEO is Hermione Granger. Know it all, she's gonna have all the answers. She's gonna have a bunch of information ready and available for you.

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Patrice Valentine: She's gonna be able to give you that information at any time.

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Patrice Valentine: AEO is more Harry Potter, he is more relatable, he's gonna be more kind of human, he's gonna provide you answers to the questions that you're looking for on kind of a more, uh, plain-speak approach. And then GEO, we likened to Professor McGonigal, where it is going to be.

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Patrice Valentine: If she makes a recommendation, that is going to likely be very valid and trusted, and come with some level of authority, okay?

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Patrice Valentine: just to kind of give you a general breakdown on where AI pulls information from, because it is a variety of sources. AI can pull information from your website, so if you have services pages, FAQs.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, an About Us page, policy pages, all of that. Next week, we are doing a webinar on 5 ways you can make your website more attractive to AI, so I'm not going to go deep in onto what should be on your website, we will talk about that next week. But that, your website is going to be a massive source of information for how AI understands what your business is all about.

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Patrice Valentine: Your Google Business profile, uh, we'll talk again a little bit about that in this presentation, and the reviews that you receive.

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Patrice Valentine: So your Google Business Profile is one of the only areas on the web besides your website where you really get to dictate the information that is shown. You get to choose what category you're in, you get to choose what pictures show up.

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Patrice Valentine: For the most part, you get to kind of supplement it with information about your brand and about your company, so…

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Patrice Valentine: making sure that your Google Business profile is set up properly, and that you are actively soliciting and responding to reviews about your company. We'll talk a little bit about this as we kind of get further into today's topic.

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Patrice Valentine: major directories, industry platforms is another place that AI is going to be pulling information, so companies like Yelp, Angie, Howes, Healthgrades, um, I'm even going to include… I know we talk about social proof on this last bullet, but even in the kind of major directories or platforms, I'm also going to include social media on this.

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Patrice Valentine: Because your captions on your Facebook posts or on your Instagram posts, those are also included in, kind of, how AI is learning about your business. So what you're putting out there on social media is also something that AI can take a look at and say, okay, this is information that is coming from.

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Patrice Valentine: ProFusion, we're going to include this in our knowledge base about that company.

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Patrice Valentine: If you are involved in any local industry publications or associations, so if you've been cited in a trade magazine, if you are a member of your Chamber of commerce, if you are in a local women's networking group.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, any association that your company has is also going to be kind of part of that, um.

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Patrice Valentine: that case that is being built for you and your business in AI, so all of that information they kind of put into their briefcase about your company.

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Patrice Valentine: So that's just kind of general idea, so if you're wondering, where is AI even getting this information, that's where all this information about your company is coming from.

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Patrice Valentine: If we look at where GEO and AEO, where those results are coming in, it's going to be part of the Google AI Overviews, so that's the initial snippets that I kind of showed you when I was doing the searches for ProFusion.

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Patrice Valentine: So when I looked for the best web developer near me, and it showed, you know, ProFusion as one of the choices, that's where.

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Patrice Valentine: your influence on GEO and AEO, you can help your company be found more in those Google AI Overviews. Those are those AI-generated search summaries.

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Patrice Valentine: The Position 0, or the Featured Snippet, that's the highlighted, summarized box at the very top of Google.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, I'm sure you've also seen when you've done your own searches that you'll see that the section that says, people also ask or people also search for in the… in those boxes. Um, you can also, you know, kind of influence what shows up there based on the products and services that you provide.

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Patrice Valentine: voice search response. So I did a search earlier when I was preparing for this, just to say, hey Siri, who's the best web developer near me? And it gave me 3 different answers, and, um, so people are doing, obviously, voice searches, especially if you are needing directions for something, or if you're looking for a local business recommendation.

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Patrice Valentine: Voice search and voice search responses are incredibly important to your business.

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Patrice Valentine: And then, obviously, AI Chatbots and engines, so any answers generated from platforms like ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity, um, your AEO and GEO will influence that as well. And then any knowledge or, uh, knowledge graph or panel that shows up.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, on those… on those search results can also be influenced. So, all of what we're talking about today, and making sure that your business can be… is kind of set up and ready for.

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Patrice Valentine: GEO and AEO is going to help your business be found in all of the areas that I have here, or all of the different sections that I have here.

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Patrice Valentine: all of these are contributing to what we call, uh, either zero clicks, so a search that is being done that does not result in a click. So, on the graph on my screen right now, you're seeing that they did a study, this was back in late 2024.

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Patrice Valentine: A study of 10,000, a little over 10,000 searches only resulted in 477 clicks. So, people are either finding.

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Patrice Valentine: the information that they need without having to click through to a website, or they're, you know, opting to do another search. But either way, we're not seeing a lot of clicks going through to websites. We'll talk about.

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Patrice Valentine: kind of measure results based on this, because this is happening, but just know that your analytics might show that your traffic has gone way down, right? You might see impressions go up, and your website traffic go down, because people just aren't having to visit.

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Patrice Valentine: Traditionally to your website in order to find the information that they're looking for.

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Patrice Valentine: Okay? So, the more information you can provide to AI about your business.

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Patrice Valentine: The more likely you are to be able to be found on any of those.

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Patrice Valentine: Different places that we just looked at.

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Patrice Valentine: if your customer… let's say you own a plumbing company, I'm gonna pick… I happen to know that one of the people registered for today's webinar is a plumbing company in Magnolia, Texas, so I'm gonna pick on you a little bit.

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Patrice Valentine: If someone is looking for plumbing services in Magnolia, Texas, and they search for it, and they find you in the map, and they click on your phone number and make a phone call, that's still a win for you, right? We still want that to happen, that's a conversion, and we like that. So we don't necessarily need people to click through to the website.

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Patrice Valentine: we just need to make sure that we can be found. So, how is it that, if I did a search here for who is the best plumber in Magnolia, Texas, and I see in the little red outlined square there, I see companies like Magnolia Plumbing and Heating.

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Patrice Valentine: Tom Ball, and Rooterman, those 3 got called out specifically. I happen to know the person that is on the call today, she didn't get called out, so her company name is not showing up in there. So why is it that some companies get selected.

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Patrice Valentine: And others don't. You can help AI choose to have you be selected here if you… if they're able to quickly identify who you are.

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Patrice Valentine: As a company, what you do, so what services you provide, where you serve, what your actual geographic reach is for your business.

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Patrice Valentine: and why you're trustworthy, so why they should recommend you. In order for your website and your information to be found in any of the places that I just showed you.

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Patrice Valentine: This information needs to be easily identifiable.

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Patrice Valentine: you can do this by creating what we call the Mention Engine. Um, this really, if you take nothing else from this presentation today, this is basically the presentation. Everything we're going to learn from here on out is basically on the screen right now.

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Patrice Valentine: Mentions happen when the platform, so Perplexity or chat or Claude, when the platform feels confident. If your business details are messy or inconsistent.

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Patrice Valentine: It's going to hesitate and will look for a business that doesn't have the messy or inconsistent message.

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Patrice Valentine: If your services pages are vague, or they're lacking in information, it's not going to be able to quote you in that… the AEO, in the answers, right?

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Patrice Valentine: If your website is broken, if you have broken links, if images take a long time to load, if form submissions are not going through, it won't send leads to your website.

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Patrice Valentine: So again, this is basically the whole webinar in one slide, but we are going to dive into each one of those pillars. So the first pillar is what we're calling Entity Clarity.

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Patrice Valentine: You want to make your business as unconfusing as possible. This could be, uh, in the form of.

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Patrice Valentine: making sure that your service pages… so if you have… we can stick with our plumbing example. If you do, um, you know.

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Patrice Valentine: plumbing repairs, emergency plumbing, you do new construction with plumbing, you want to make sure that each one of those services has a page on your website, and is really clear and specific about the services that you offer, and where.

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Patrice Valentine: So every service… every service that you have should have its own website, including some frequently asked questions about those services. We'll talk a little bit about that on the next slide.

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Patrice Valentine: The other big thing I want to call out here, so not only do you need to have the content on your page so it's really clear what you do.

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Patrice Valentine: It is really important that your name, address, and phone number, what can be referred to as NAP, NAP.

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Patrice Valentine: that your name, address, and phone number is consistent across the web. So, if your business is…

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Patrice Valentine: Um, you know, we're ProFusion Web Solutions. If we were shown as ProFusion Web Digital Solutions in one directory, and ProFusion Web Services in another directory, and ProFusion Web Solutions in Google.

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Patrice Valentine: That's going to confuse.

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Patrice Valentine: any of the AI, and it's going to make it so that it's, okay, we don't know exactly who this ProFusion is, and so we're not going to include information about them, or we're going to include information about them that has, you know, some kind of caveat around it.

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Patrice Valentine: If you want to run a scan, we offer a free scan. You just go to scan.profusionwebSolutions.com. You'll see, once you enter in your information, so just put in your name.

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Patrice Valentine: Your business name and your address, and make sure you put your address in the way that it appears on your website, most likely.

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Patrice Valentine: Include that information, hit run scan, and in real time, you're gonna see a results box that looks like the little graph that's on my screen right now, and it's going to tell you.

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Patrice Valentine: Where… what directories have your name, address, and phone number correct, and in what directories you are confusing.

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Patrice Valentine: the different, um… the different, you know, either search engines or AI.

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Patrice Valentine: So, that is something that you want to make sure is cleaned up as well, is that your name, address, and phone number is consistent across the board.

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Patrice Valentine: And then last, I don't… I don't want to call out some of our other customers that I know are on here, but we do have a large customer base that.

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Patrice Valentine: Um, that they are a franchise, and they tend to all use a…

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Patrice Valentine: Um, a website that is kind of given them to them by the corporate headquarters, okay?

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Patrice Valentine: So I'm not going to try and call you out by name, but you know who you are. If I go to your specific, specific franchise.

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Patrice Valentine: website. And if I go to the About Us page, and I see about information.

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Patrice Valentine: That is about your headquarters, that is a fail on your part.

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Patrice Valentine: Even if you own a franchise, your About Us page should show about you, the franchise owner, and where you live, and what products and services you provide, and what your experience is, and why you're the best choice.

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Patrice Valentine: I know that those franchise sites, they do give you the ability to make edits.

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Patrice Valentine: And you should be making those kind of edits.

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Patrice Valentine: Excuse me. Okay.

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Patrice Valentine: So again, not to call out a couple people there, but I just want to make sure that we… you know exactly what I'm talking about here.

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Patrice Valentine: Okay. Moving on to pillar number 2.

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Patrice Valentine: is…

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Patrice Valentine: Uh, the main focus of AEO, so Answer Engine Optimization, is going to be to have your information be quotable.

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Patrice Valentine: Your site should answer questions like cost and timeline, um, you know, do I need a permit, what's included?

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Patrice Valentine: any of the most frequently asked questions that people would ask before they work with you, your website should also answer this. Now.

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Patrice Valentine: I'm going to show you something on my screen right now. Might be hard to read, but so I'll just kind of give you the gist of what this is.

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Patrice Valentine: One of the most frequently asked questions that we get as a web development company or as a digital marketing agency is, how much does it cost?

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Patrice Valentine: That's a really hard question for us to answer, because it's like asking, how much does a car cost? It really depends. Do you need a coupe? Do you need an SUV? Do you need four-wheel drive? Do you need a truck?

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Patrice Valentine: so many variables go into it, right? So it's hard to answer that question with just one broad answer.

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Patrice Valentine: But I will say, if this teaches you anything, what you see on my screen right now, I did a quick search for what does a website cost.

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Patrice Valentine: What does a website from ProFusion Web Solutions cost? We don't have this information specifically laid out on our website. Well, we didn't, we do now because of this, but we didn't have this specifically laid out.

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Patrice Valentine: And because AI doesn't really like to say, gosh, I don't have an answer to that, you know, you should call them, you should call that company and get an answer. AI is not going to do that. It's just going to come up with its best guess.

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Patrice Valentine: So you can see on my screen.

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Patrice Valentine: It says, based on available search results.

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Patrice Valentine: And it gives some kind of qualifying information here, but it highlights an hourly rate of $25 to $49, which is not accurate.

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Patrice Valentine: And then it goes on to further give some information here that says, we have projects that often range between $50,000 and $200,000.

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Patrice Valentine: great, would love that, but we also work with a lot of small companies, so, um, you know, and then it offers an alternate option of ProFusion 360, which is not us. So it has totally just kind of.

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Patrice Valentine: Taken its best guess based off of available information on the internet and has put it into an answer that actually is really wrong information.

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Patrice Valentine: So, to combat this.

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Patrice Valentine: While we normally wouldn't want to put out a price list, that's not something that we like to do, because we do like to have conversations with our customers before we just give them pricing. We like to make sure that we're solving their problem, that we know and understand what they need, before we provide pricing.

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Patrice Valentine: And to combat that, we are now having to put out our pricing, or else it has just really wrong information, so…

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Patrice Valentine: There is a… you want to put out information that helps.

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Patrice Valentine: the AI companies, or the AI.

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Patrice Valentine: Engines create a full, comprehensive picture of what your business is all about, including.

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Patrice Valentine: potentially pricing. Even if you don't usually put out pricing, it might be a good idea for you at least to say.

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Patrice Valentine: Here's a range, right? Like, here's a range of the prices so that it doesn't come up with a random hallucination like what we have on my screen right now.

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Patrice Valentine: Alright, pillar number 3.

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Patrice Valentine: is authority and trust. Um, and this really is for that generative engine optimization, and the goal is to be recommendable. You want AI to be able to recommend your business.

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Patrice Valentine: Uh, AI and search, they lean on proof. So this is where, if you get reviews from Google Business Profile, this is where reviews matter, because they are independent mentions.

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Patrice Valentine: of your business, and they matter because they're that external validation. It's not you saying how great you are, it's not you saying, we have the best XY, and Z. It is actual people who have used your business before.

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Patrice Valentine: Validating that you are, and you do what you say you're going to do.

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Patrice Valentine: So if on your website you have all things, like, we offer the best in the world, the best cup of coffee in the world, as alluded to my e.l.f. GIF here.

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Patrice Valentine: change that to, you know, something like, you know, we have the best black coffee on the Upper East Side, or something like that, that is actually, you know, something verifiable that people could actually.

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Patrice Valentine: that would… they would say that about your… your company. So, offer content that is not exaggerated, it's not hype, it's just simple.

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:18.000
Patrice Valentine: and truthful and consistent in your brand voice. Reviews, like I said, they matter a lot. Um, people ask us if they should be gathering reviews on Google versus.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:31.000
Patrice Valentine: Facebook versus just gathering them on your website. And at this point, I would say that Google reviews are going to be the ones that you want to lean into the most. Um, getting reviews consistently, so we have.

00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:39.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, you know, getting… having a system to be able to… to solicit reviews on a regular basis is going to be incredibly important.

00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:47.000
Patrice Valentine: every time you finish a job, send that email that says, hey, we really appreciate your… you working with us as a small business. We really heavily rely on.

00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000
Patrice Valentine: on reviews, and, you know, if you wouldn't mind, please giving us a Google review and linking to it.

00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:03.000
Patrice Valentine: Okay? Having proof, uh, certifications, licenses, guarantees on your website. We offer case studies on ours, just so people can feel comfortable about using us. Um, anything that you can.

00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:08.000
Patrice Valentine: kind of remove that fear factor barrier is going to help with GEO.

00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:19.000
Patrice Valentine: Okay, the last pillar here is, um, is access and experience. Even if you get mentioned in AI, even if you do have that, that zero-click placement.

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:29.000
Patrice Valentine: if taking the next step becomes painful for me as the user, then AI is not going to continue to recommend to send traffic to your website or mention you in those zero clicks.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:42.000
Patrice Valentine: So, you have to make sure that your website is fast, it's mobile-friendly. I've got a link there to this… the pagespeed.web.dev, that's Google's PageSpeed test. Go take a look and see how your website is actually performing.

00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:50.000
Patrice Valentine: Then… and then somewhat objectively try and look at your website and say, okay, is it easy for someone to convert on my site? Can they call me? Can they…

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:59.000
Patrice Valentine: uh, you know, book an appointment? Can they request a quote? Are my forms working? If you go through and you fill out the form on your website, do you receive.

00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:01.000
Patrice Valentine: Notification that that form has been submitted.

00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:12.000
Patrice Valentine: And then always make sure that your most important information is visible. Your contact information, your, uh, you know, how someone can… the hours of operation, your location, so all of that should be.

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:20.000
Patrice Valentine: in an easy and visible place for people to be able to see. Again, making it easy to access your website and making the experience good.

00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:31.000
Patrice Valentine: If we were going to tell you, uh, one way you can nail all four of those pillars, my first thing I'm going to tell you that you have to get right is your Google Business profile.

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:44.000
Patrice Valentine: If you don't know what that is, we will have a whole session on that, but go to business.google.com, and if you have a login and you can manage your account, do go in and make sure that you've claimed your business profile, that the information is correct.

00:26:44.000 --> 00:27:01.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, that you have, you know, your hours are right, that your categories are selected correctly. It's gonna look like… I have a screenshot of ours up right now. It's gonna look somewhat like that. It'll have your business name, your location, all of that will appear in your Google Business profile. But claiming that and optimizing that is going to be your step one to getting.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:16.000
Patrice Valentine: a lot of the AEO and GEO correct. Making sure you have service pages on your website that match what people are actually searching for. So if they're looking for web development, have a web development page. If they're looking for, you know, whatever services you provide, make sure that you have a page for each one of those services.

00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:21.000
Patrice Valentine: and include a list of FAQ on every one of those service pages.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:33.000
Patrice Valentine: So if people have questions on, you know, how to hire you, or how much you charge, or what the process looks like, have you done this before? Have all of those as an FAQ on your site.

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:44.000
Patrice Valentine: Have a place or a system in review for getting… have a system in place… getting my words all mixed up… have a system in place for getting reviews.

00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:51.000
Patrice Valentine: So again, post-project launch, after you've made a sale, after you've, you know, whatever your transaction looks like.

00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:57.000
Patrice Valentine: make sure you're asking for those reviews. Not only is it just good as a business owner to kind of have that check-in point to make sure that you're.

00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:08.000
Patrice Valentine: you know, providing the services that you… that you say you're going to provide. You want to make sure that you're… you're actually doing what you say you're going to do, and that your customers are feeling that from you as well, but it does help with the… with…

00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:19.000
Patrice Valentine: SEO, AEO, and GEO is getting those reviews and getting that proof. And then I have schema on here, but we're going to talk about that heavily next week, so, um, you can take a look at schema. It's just structured data, it's basically…

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:31.000
Patrice Valentine: allowing the search engines and the AI, the models to speak in their own language. Take a look at your website, and it basically allows them to, in their language, look and see.

00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.000
Patrice Valentine: that your website, uh, has the right structured data. So we'll talk through that on next week's call.

00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.000
Patrice Valentine: Now, how you measure success.

00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:48.000
Patrice Valentine: in this kind of new world is a little bit different than it used to be, because we used to, when we would, you know, send out reports, we look a lot at.

00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:55.000
Patrice Valentine: How many people came to your website? How many clicks did you get? How many users? How many visitors? Um, and that is no longer…

00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:08.000
Patrice Valentine: kind of the gold standard for success measurements, right? We have to look now kind of beyond the number of clicks. Of course, we still want people to click through the website, because the website is still very important, especially as a conversion tool.

00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:19.000
Patrice Valentine: But now we have to look beyond that to look at, okay, in your Google Business profile, did we see an increase in calls? Did we see an increase if you have a physical location? Did more people ask for directions to your location?

00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:24.000
Patrice Valentine: Did more people upload a photo, or a review, or view photos that were already uploaded?

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:39.000
Patrice Valentine: in Google Search Console, we can look and see if impressions went up, even if clicks were flat. So if you still had, you know, the same number of people that clicked through to your website, but the impressions were up, that indicates that your content was seen in the AI overview.

00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:49.000
Patrice Valentine: And then, you know, kind of the obvious one is if your lead quality is getting better, if people are starting to hire you and they seem more knowledgeable when they first make that phone call or send that email.

00:29:49.000 --> 00:30:02.000
Patrice Valentine: it's because they probably did learn a little bit more about the products and services that you offer before they even called you. So before they even allowed you to introduce yourself, they already kind of know a little bit about you and about the products and services that you offer, so…

00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:09.000
Patrice Valentine: If the lead qualities are better, better fits, fewer tire-kickers, then that's an indication that this is working as well.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:21.000
Patrice Valentine: This is a lot of content on one screen, I understand that, but I did want to leave you with, um, what we would call kind of an action plan. So, here are 7 things that I would recommend that you do.

00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:34.000
Patrice Valentine: over the next little bit, take a month to do this, so spend, you know, half an hour a day working on this, but first is make sure your Google Business Profile is… is dialed in. And again, that's making sure your categories are correct in Google Business Profile.

00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:43.000
Patrice Valentine: That you have pictures, that you are posting updates on a regular basis, that you're adding photos, um, that you're soliciting reviews, all of that.

00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:58.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, number two is add photos to your Google Business Profile. So, uh, same thing. Number one, they kind of go hand-in-hand there, but the more photos you add to Google Business Profile, it allows Google to understand and have a better understanding of what you do and who you offer, or who you offer your services to. So.

00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:03.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, provide that. And then take a look at your website. Are you…

00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:15.000
Patrice Valentine: are you offering pages for each one of your services that you really want to be known and found for? Do you have a page for each one of those? If not, it's time to take a look at creating a core service page and making sure that it is.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:25.000
Patrice Valentine: really clear on who you are and what you do, who you offer it to, and then that you have the number 4 FAQs on there that shows, you know, pricing, timeline.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:33.000
Patrice Valentine: product offering, success stories, um, anything like that that would be something that someone might have an objection to that fits into that FAQ.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:46.000
Patrice Valentine: Number 5 is launch a review request process. Um, this could be… we did… we do it in email marketing, so you'll see in our email marketing, we, um, went pretty heavy on it for the holidays, and coming up with a.

00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:50.000
Patrice Valentine: a system to request reviews. It's…

00:31:50.000 --> 00:32:02.000
Patrice Valentine: it's not something that is super comfortable, but the more times you do it, the better you get at it, so if you start feeling comfortable and asking for reviews, it is important for small businesses, and I think small business owners are.

00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:15.000
Patrice Valentine: are of the mind to help each other, so if you ask for a review, and also be willing to give a review. So if you have had a good experience with the company, go leave them a review, and then it's kind of one of those things where if you leave them a review.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.000
Patrice Valentine: And then they offer, or they use your services, they're more likely to leave you a review as well.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:35.000
Patrice Valentine: Uh, clean up your top directory listings. That was that… that scan that I first talked about on one of the, uh, the pillar number one, which was the entity clarity, making sure that your name, address, and phone number are consistent across the web. So, again, you can go to scan.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:47.000
Patrice Valentine: dot ProFusionWebsolutions.com, and run a scan for your company. It's completely free to do. You can run that scan to see just how… if your citations need some cleanup, that'll show you exactly where you need to clean up.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:59.000
Patrice Valentine: And then to your website, to your social media, to, you know, wherever you have the ability to add proof, add licenses, add testimonials, add case studies, add before and after pictures.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:11.000
Patrice Valentine: anything that's going to show that you really can back up the claims that you're making on your website. We claim to be the, you know, the best web developer in our area, and we consistently prove that by, you know.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:17.000
Patrice Valentine: Posting new… new case studies, we show… we host webinars like this that just show our knowledge base.

00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:27.000
Patrice Valentine: We're consistently doing things that back up the claims that we're making. So add that proof, case studies, anything that you have available, or that you can create, put those on your website and on your.

00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:29.000
Patrice Valentine: social media.

00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:38.000
Patrice Valentine: I realize I've been yapping for well over my allotted 20 minutes, so thank you for your extended time here, and I do want to jump in and see if there's any questions that I can answer.

00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:54.000
Patrice Valentine: Uh, let's see, we do have a question here. Uh, Jamie says, if the majority of your customers are B2B, what social media platform do you find is the best? That's a good question. Uh, on March 11th, we are having a full social media webinar, so feel free to jump in on that one too, but I'll answer it here.

00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:02.000
Patrice Valentine: you want to be wherever your customers are. Um, for us, we find… we found that, because we're B2B primarily also, um…

00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:19.000
Patrice Valentine: we find that LinkedIn is an obvious one, but that a lot of our customers are a lot like us, and they spend some time on Instagram, and they, you know, while they're not going to Instagram necessarily to maybe look for a web developer, they're looking for educational information, so…

00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:31.000
Patrice Valentine: We post things regularly to Instagram, to Facebook, and to LinkedIn, but you really just want to be where your customers are, and if they're spending time on Instagram, then you should have your information there as well.

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:39.000
Patrice Valentine: Of note, uh, again, the content that you're putting on social media now can be indexed in the search engines.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:49.000
Patrice Valentine: So, even if they're not seeing it immediately, so in chronological order that you're posting it, it can be used in those.

00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:54.000
Patrice Valentine: Excuse me.

00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:03.000
Patrice Valentine: it can be used in those AI overviews. It can pull, um, you know, the AI models can pull from your social media, so even if you're thinking.

00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:15.000
Patrice Valentine: gosh, I'm looking at the insights on my Instagram, and, you know, I only had 22 people that saw my last post. Okay, that's great, but it might also be included in an AI overview, or in an answer, or it might pull in.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:22.000
Patrice Valentine: You know, any other time, so it's still important to show up and be visible on those platforms where your customers are as well.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.000
Patrice Valentine: Um… great, so I answered that one.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.000
Patrice Valentine: Any other questions?

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:36.000
Patrice Valentine: That I can answer on AEO.

00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Patrice Valentine: GEO, SEO, any of the EIEIOs.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:46.000
Patrice Valentine: That we can answer questions, or anyone from my team, if I missed anything, did you want to…

00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:50.000
Patrice Valentine: chime in on… on anything that I've missed here.

00:35:51.000 --> 00:36:01.000
Patrice Valentine: If not, we'll just talk through, uh, the next webinar. We're doing these every Wednesday. I'm gonna try and keep them shorter, try and keep to my 30-minute timeline, because I know everyone's busy, and we just want to make this a quick lunch and learn.

00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:12.000
Patrice Valentine: Next week, we're going to talk through, um, AI-ready website foundations, so the 5 things that build trust and win clicks, actually, that you can put right on your website, so…

00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:19.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, that'll be a good one to talk through. We'll talk through some of the things that we touched on a little bit today, but kind of dive a little bit deeper into them next week.

00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:29.000
Patrice Valentine: So, I don't see any other questions coming in. We very much appreciate you all showing up. If you'd like to go leave a review for us, feel free to go Google ProFusion Web Solutions and leave a review right there.

00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:39.000
Patrice Valentine: Um, these are the kind of educational opportunities that we'd like to provide to make sure that you have the latest in marketing information so that you can help your business get found, um, as much as possible.

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:44.000
Patrice Valentine: Any questions, please let us know, and we look forward to seeing you next week. Thanks, everyone.