Ryan Goloversic
🟩 Published by Ryan Goloversic • November 29, 2025
Everyone’s asking how to “use AI” in their marketing, but the better question is: how do you get AI to actually recommend your business over everyone else?
Whether it’s Google’s AI Overviews or tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, they’re all doing the same thing behind the scenes: running a long-term character test on your brand. They’re not just looking at one blog post or one keyword. They’re looking at the entire ecosystem of signals around you.
That’s where most “AI marketing” advice falls apart. It’s obsessed with tactics and hacks, while the real game is happening at the level of reputation, patterns, and trust.
How does AI actually impact my business day-to-day?
When people ask, “How does AI impact my business?” the short answer is this: AI is watching your patterns over time and turning them into a character assessment.
Google is using AI. Large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and the rest are using pattern detection too. They’re all evaluating the same thing:
Signal.
Just like you and I track people over time - how they talk to us, how they show up, whether they follow through - AI is doing that with your brand:
- Your Instagram and social content
- The copy on your website
- How customers engage with you (and how you respond)
- Your reviews and reputation over time
Google literally wants to know:
“Are you a good business doing good work—and are you the real deal?”
And when people start asking AI tools for recommendations, those tools still go back to the gatekeeper: Google. The LLMs crawl Google’s ecosystem to see who you are, where you are, and whether you’re safe to recommend. If Google doesn’t like what it’s seeing, you become invisible to everything that sits on top of it.
What is AI marketing and how is it actually changing SEO?
A lot of business owners are quietly asking,
“What is AI marketing actually supposed to do for my business?”
“Can AI really help my SEO, or is it just another gimmick?”
The short answer: yes, AI can help but not the way most people are selling it.
AI isn’t a magic button or a prompt pack, it’s a pattern-recognition engine that’s constantly judging whether your brand is real, trustworthy, and worth recommending.
Most of what you see online about “AI marketing” is junk food.
Right now, the space is flooded with people selling:
- Prompt packs
- “SEO with AI” that really means:
– Mass content spam
– Auto-blogs
– “Use ChatGPT to write 100 posts a day” - Tools instead of systems
- “Tricks to rank in AI Overviews!!!” like it’s 2012 backlink schemes with a fresh coat of paint
It’s all surface-level tactics and gamer mentality:
“Here’s how to trick the boss fight.”They’re still thinking in moves, not in physics.
Read also “How Is AI Changing SEO for Businesses?”
How does Google’s AI decide which businesses to trust and recommend?
Here’s the reality nobody wants to say out loud: Google’s AI and modern LLMs aren’t just reading your content, they’re running a constant character assessment on your brand.
When people ask, “How does AI decide which business to trust or recommend?” the answer isn’t “who used the best prompt.” It’s who’s sending the clearest, most consistent signals of being real, reliable, and useful over time.
To the machine, it’s all one file:
- SEO
- Reputation and reviews
- Social behavior
- Service quality and delivery
- Brand narrative
From the machine’s perspective:
It’s one dataset. One character file. One trust score.
That’s the game.
And this is why positioning matters so much. When we work with a client, we’re not just “making you look good online.” We’re having the hard conversation: can you actually live up to the bar we’re about to set in the market?
If we over-position you and you can’t meet it, people feel the gap first, then it shows up in your reviews, your customer interactions, and eventually in the patterns AI sees. So we always review content together and align it with where you truly are right now… while still nudging you to raise the bar.
There is no hack to win business. You out-serve your competitors. You give more. You become the obvious choice. The only way to win in an AI-driven world is to build your own house. A business that is so aligned, so strong, and so real that both people and the system can’t ignore it.
Can I game AI Overviews, or is AI actually judging my business?
Most people are asking: “How do we hack AI Overviews?”
Wrong question.
The real question is: “If I’m not who I say I am online… how long before the system erases me?”
Because that’s where this is heading.
AI isn’t a shiny feature bolted on top of Google. It’s the judge deciding whether you’re:
- Real or fake
- Safe or risky
- Worthy of being shown to a human being searching for help
If the pattern says “inconsistent, spammy, overhyped”, you don’t just slip a few positions…
You slowly get filtered out of the conversation.
How does AI-powered search actually work behind the scenes?
Strip the buzzwords away and it looks like this:
- AI = pattern recognition
- Pattern recognition at scale = reputation engine
- Reputation engine = long-term character test
- Character test = are you safe and useful for the user?
Once you see that chain, “AI optimization” looks very different.
It stops being: “How much content can we crank out?”
And becomes: “What patterns are we actually creating in the ecosystem around our brand?”
Why does winning in AI search depend on both marketing and operations?
This is where most agencies tap out.
Because if you’re honest about how AI works, you’re forced to say things like:
“We can over-position you…
but if you don’t become that version of yourself, the system will correct.
So either level up, or let’s set a truer frame.”
That’s not a sexy sales pitch. But it’s the only one that works long-term.
Traditional agencies are still selling:
- Deliverables
- Package tiers
- Volume of stuff
I’m more interested in: Can we architect your entire ecosystem so the machine can’t deny you?
That means your message, behavior, delivery, and reputation all line up.
What should I actually be doing to send the right signals to Google’s AI?
Here’s how I talk about it with clients:
– “Everyone else is teaching you AI tactics.
I’m teaching you the AI court your business is standing in.”
– “AI isn’t a tool you plug in.
It’s a judge deciding if you’re real or fake.”
– “Most agencies are trying to game the recommendations.
I’m building businesses that the AI has to recommend.”
– “We don’t optimize posts.
We optimize your character file in Google’s eyes.”
Tactics still matter, but only at the right layer. Schema, clean site structure, semantic hierarchy, strong internal links, a well-built Google Business Profile, and genuinely helpful content that outperforms your competitors… all of that is signal.
The problem is most of the industry is still trying to reskin old lies: backlink schemes, mass AI content, and anything they can turn into a checklist and sell as a “package.” Tactics are only as good as the plan you’ve mapped out. Without a real architecture, you’re just throwing tricks at a judge that’s watching your whole life, not your last move.
If you’re playing for next quarter, hacks might work.
If you’re playing for the next decade, you need alignment:
- Message
- Behavior
- Delivery
- Reputation
All saying the same thing.
Where is AI-driven SEO and local search headed next?
There are two places this is clearly going:
1. How will AI and Google become one blended gatekeeper?
Google’s AI and LLMs are effectively merging into one gatekeeper.
LLMs will still go check Google to decide if you deserve to be recommended.
Most businesses haven’t connected:
- Local SEO
- Brand behavior
- AI-driven recommendations
into a single feedback loop.
But that’s exactly what’s forming.
2. Why is “be who you say you are” becoming a ranking factor?
“Be who you say you are” isn’t motivational fluff anymore.
It’s literal ranking mechanics.
If your content paints you as the #1 expert but your reviews, delivery, or online behavior tell a different story, the system will eventually side with reality.
So what’s the play if I actually want AI to recommend my business?
Simple:
Stop trying to game the system.
Become the business the system can’t deny.
That’s the work I care about:
- Architecting the ecosystem
- Aligning the story with the actual experience
- Building a brand that looks good to humans and passes the machine’s character test
AI isn’t killing opportunity.
It’s just finally rewarding the people who are actually who they say they are.
Over five years, this is what the system sees:
↪ Keyword stuffing just to hit phrases → “They’re trying to game us, not help users.”
↪ Templates and mass AI content at scale → “They value output volume over depth and originality.”
↪ Fake locations in the map pack → “They’re misrepresenting where they actually serve.”
↪ Bad customer reviews that never get addressed → “They don’t deliver on what they promise.”
Put that all together and AI reaches a very simple conclusion:
“This is not a trustworthy source. If we recommend them, it hurts our ecosystem.”
That’s when Google quietly starts to **limit your visibility**. And when Google blocks or downranks you, all the chatbots that parse Google, Perplexity, Grok, ChatGPT, the personal assistants your customers are talking to, lose access to you too. You don’t just drop in rankings. You disappear from the recommendation layer entirely.
How do I get AI to recommend my business over my competitors?
➥ “Can AI actually help my business get more customers, or is this just hype?”
Yes, AI can absolutely help you win more customers, but not by spamming content or buying another tool. AI systems (Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) are constantly scanning for patterns of trust: clear expertise, consistent messaging, strong reviews, and a website that actually helps people.
When those patterns line up, you become the “obvious” recommendation. When they don’t, you become invisible, no matter how many prompts you bought.
This is why I talk so much about **authority marketing** and the long game.
You don’t “hack” your way into AI’s good graces. You spend the next 3–5 years becoming one of the actual authorities in your industry. You define the frames in your customer’s mind because you’re so helpful, so consistent, and so good at what you do that you’re the obvious choice.
When we write for a new client, we almost always set the bar a little high. Then we have the hard conversation:
“Here’s what we wrote. Can you match this? What needs to change? Where do we position you *right now*?”
If we over-position you and you can’t meet it, you end up overpromising and underdelivering, and the system will punish that. If we position you honestly and then work together to help you **grow into** that higher standard, you move up in the ecosystem the right way.
If you can rise to the occasion, if you can actually live what your site promises, both AI *and* your customers will pick up on that. That’s how you win this ecosystem as a whole.
➥ “What should I focus on if I want AI to recommend me instead of my competitors?”
Focus on the things that create real signal:
- Tight, helpful content that actually outperforms your competitors
- A site that’s structured properly (semantic hierarchy, internal links, schema)
- A Google Business Profile that’s complete, accurate, and active
- Reviews that reflect real-world delivery and real customer experience
- A value prop that’s specific, consistent, and backed up by how you operate
You can still use AI to help you write, research, and plan, but the inputs need to be your real ideas, your real process, and your real voice. AI should amplify your depth, not replace it.
➥ “Is there still a shortcut or hack to rank in AI Overviews?”
Short-term? Maybe.
Long-term? No.
You might find tricks that work for a few months, but the system will always trend back toward one thing: reality. If your content claims you’re the best but your reviews, behavior, and delivery say otherwise, the gap will show up in the data.
There is no lasting hack. The only durable play is to be who you say you are, out-serve your competitors, and build an ecosystem the machine can’t deny.
➥ “How do I know if my brand is ready for this level of positioning?”
If we worked together, we’d start by asking two questions:
- Can we clearly articulate why you’re the better choice?
- Can you consistently deliver at the level we’re about to promise?
If the answer is “not yet,” that’s not a problem, it’s the roadmap. We dial in the positioning to where you are today, then build content, systems, and service around the future you you’re growing into. The bar will be high, but that’s the point. In an AI-driven world, the brands that win are the ones willing to do the work to actually become the thing their marketing claims to be.
How can I tell if my business is actually ready to win in an AI-first search world?
Here’s the high-level filter I’d use if I were you, looking at your own brand from the outside:
- Signals, not stunts
Ask: “If AI only had my reviews, my core pages, and my last 10 posts… would it believe I’m the best option?”
If the answer is no, you don’t need more content, you need better signal. - Consistency across the ecosystem
Check your Google profile, website, social channels, and real-world delivery.
Do they all tell the same story about who you are and what you’re great at, or does it feel like four different businesses stitched together? - Depth over volume
Take one core problem your ideal customer has and look at your content.
Have you actually gone deep on it, clear explanations, real examples, outcomes, or have you just skimmed it in a few generic posts? - Positioning vs. reality
Look at your headline claims next to your reviews and case studies.
Are you slightly under-selling compared to what you deliver (good), perfectly matched (great), or talking way above your current proof (danger)? - AI-ready, not AI-dependent
Use AI to tighten your ideas, structure pages, and speed up production, but make sure the core thinking, stories, and perspective are yours.
If a competitor could swap their logo onto your content and it would still make sense, you’ve got work to do.
If you read through this and realize, “Yeah… we don’t have a real system, we just have pieces,” that’s exactly where my AI + SEO Optimization work comes in.
My job isn’t to sell you more tactics.
It’s to help you architect the kind of ecosystem that:
- Feels right to humans
- Makes sense to Google
- And gets your business consistently chosen by AI
If you want that level of structure and honesty around your brand, reach out and let’s map it.
Ryan Goloversic
Ryan “Rygo” Goloversic is a senior SEO strategist, brand consultant, and the founder & CEO of Rygo Labs—an agency trusted by law firms, watersports brands, partner agencies, and service-based businesses across the U.S. and Canada. With over a decade of hands-on experience, he builds content systems that scale trust, traffic, and long-term growth—and currently serves as the lead strategist for WiseBear Creative, a national branding and web agency.
He’s also a globally recognized kiteboarder and Airush team rider. His marketing career began in video, where he built the largest retail-based SEO and YouTube program in watersports with MACkite. When he’s not leading SEO campaigns or consulting teams, you can find him in the gym or competing on the KPLxGKA world tour.