James Dooley Podcast

James Dooley: How Be The Brand AI Recommends helps get your business recommended in ChatGPT. Today I'm joined with the co-founders Peter Jones and Paul Truscott, who are the founders of BeTheBrandAIRecommends.com, which provides an AEO or a GEO service, which is helping businesses specifically get more citations and more recommendations in ChatGPT. So Peter, to get things started, what do you recommend businesses need to be doing to get more citations in ChatGPT?

Peter Jones: Yeah, so what we do for home service businesses is we make sure that on the website we're mentioning awards. We've got pages for awards, for accreditations, for case studies, um, and defining who the... Who the staff are, who the founder is. Go into detail about every aspect of the business on the business website. And then we spread that information across the web using business directories. Um, so we take the same mentions about awards and case studies and use them on, um, wherever we're listing the business online, along with their images and, uh, the correct name, address, phone number, etc. of the business. Making sure all the, uh, information about the brand is consistent across the web.

James Dooley: Yeah, for sure. So obviously defining that entity is very important. But Paul, how important is, when you started talking there about echoing it off on third-party corroborative sources, how important is cascading confidence to the large language models like ChatGPT to make sure that they've got the confidence and clarity in knowing who you are, what you do, and why you are brilliant?

Paul Truscott: Yeah, for sure. And then obviously with regards to ChatGPT citations and obviously trying to be recommended, so not just cited but actually recommended by ChatGPT. Peter, quite a lot of times in local, you do a lot of local lead generation and the Maps get pulled in quite a lot. How important is it to make certain that you're optimising your map listing as well and trying to get reviews on the map listings and, and obviously the third-party corroboration to get your Maps being pulled into ChatGPT?

James Dooley: Yeah, I mean, that's the... That's the foundation of everything to do with getting a local business mentioned and recommended by ChatGPT, is first of all getting... Getting into Google Maps, um, Bing Maps, and getting reviews on those listings, um, and reviews on other third-party platforms as well. You know, like Foursquare, Yelp, Yell, any... Any online business directory where you can get reviews. The... The LLMs are... Are reading and seeing those reviews and using them to form an opinion of the business.

Peter Jones: Yeah, and then Paul, we're going to expand a little bit. So, BeTheBrandAIRecommends.com. One of the first things that they ask people to do is create a brand SSOT, which stands for a brand single source of truth. Why is it important right from the word go is it to get that brand single source of truth being created?

Paul Truscott: Yeah, for sure. So, once they've got the brand SSOT, so BeTheBrandAIRecommends.com comes along, we create the brand SSOT, we've defined the entity, we've built that confidence and clarity with ChatGPT, they know who we are.

James Dooley: Peter, you've then basically... We've spoke about the importance of awards, the importance of case studies, the importance of reviews, testimonials, and accreditations. But one of these clients comes along and says to you, "Yeah, but Peter, I've been told that all you need to do is... All you need to do is listicles and comparison articles." Why is it important before doing the listicles and comparison articles, which, bear in mind, can work well to help you get cited in ChatGPT, why is it important to get those... Those reputation roots formed and get that information which then they can use as being verifiable facts in the listicles? Why is it important to systematise it, to get the awards, the case studies, and the testimonials done first before you then try to start doing the comparisons and the listicles?

Peter Jones: So, yeah, I, I see it as kind of like if you're building a house, the, the brand SSOT, pulling all the information together about the business, is laying the foundations. It's bringing everything together for the brand, that single place, before you then start spreading the truth about the brand around the web on different, different platforms. So, in the form of... They could be in the form of listicles. Um, and that just... It just creates a consensus around what the brand is that's correct across the web consistently. And I think that's the thing, is the consistency to it.

James Dooley: Yeah, for sure. And then Paul, with regards to building this consistency, this third-party corroboration, how important... Can you just touch upon how important that being cited or recommended in ChatGPT isn't just about discovery, isn't just about new inquiries that might be being generated for the business, but also at the 11th hour, that Decision Engine Optimisation time, where a headteacher comes along and decides, "Am I going to go with quote number one or quote number two? Which one am I going to go with?" And AI, especially ChatGPT, is making that decision. How important is it to make certain that when you are using these skill sets to get AI to recommend who you are, it's way more than just discovery, it's bottom of the funnel as well?

Paul Truscott: Yeah, for sure. Anyone who's watching this, if you're looking to have your brand or your business start getting cited more in ChatGPT, maybe you're ranking well in Google Maps, maybe you're ranking well in Google Search, but you can't seem to get yourself specifically in ChatGPT mentions, citations, or be recommended. There could be some core fundamentals that you could be blocking certain bots, which is stopping you from getting in ChatGPT. Over at BeTheBrandAIRecommends.com, we're able to do a full AI audit of why you might be showing or might not be showing. We'll give you a full shopping list of what's needing to be done, starting out with that brand SSOT, starting out with all the trust signals, and starting out how you're going to echo this to get cascading confidence throughout the internet. Make sure you head on over to BeTheBrandAIRecommends.com, fill in the form, and one of the team will be in touch.

James Dooley: Peter and Paul, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.