Don’t worry about being cited by AI. The goal is to be recommended by AI
A lot of marketing agencies help you get cited by AI.
And there are a lot of reasons why agencies are promoting getting cited by AI:
👉 The type of content that works for AI citation can still be top of funnel
👉 Agencies can easily create top of funnel content without a lot of client input
👉 It’s easy to prove and verify progress in Google’s AI overview
And really this type of AI visibility optimization is just a more advanced version of the well known SEO model.
But, getting cited by AI doesn’t really translate into leads because:
❌ When buyers read AI overview answers, the vast majority of searchers don't click the citation link (zero click searches)
❌ Buyers don't do a single “keyword” search, they have a back and forth conversation with AI about what they are looking for.
❌ Buyers are not looking for information about their problem, they are looking for recommendations for vendors who can solve their problem.
Getting cited by Google's AI overview is nice for sure.
Who doesn’t like to be viewed as a creditable authority?
But the goal of content marketing isn’t to be cited as a source by Google, ChatGPT or Claude.
The goal of spending time, money and resources on content is to get more sales.
❌ When buyers use AI, they don’t see it as a more advanced search engine.
✅ Buyers see their AI tools as their research assistant.
And to get recommended by their AI Research Assistant, you need to:
✅ Answer the sales questions that buyers are asking their AI Research Assistant
✅ Update your website with this sales enabled content
✅ Make sure that your industry specific directories and listing are updated and are consistent with the message on your website
As a former agency owner I get why marketing agencies are focusing on getting cited by AI.
But buyers are shifting away from Google keyword searches and are instead having deep and multi layered conversations with their AI Research Assistant to help them find the right vendor to bring in and solve their problem.