AI AUTHORITY STRATEGY
Be the answer your clients find first…
…before AI sends them to a competitor instead.
94%
of B2B buyers now use AI tools in purchase research
Forrester, January 2026
2.5x
AI-recommended brands are 2.5x more likely to earn a site visit
Similarweb, June 2026
7x
AI-referred visitors are up to 7x more likely to convert
Orbit Media, July 2026
— THE PROBLEM
AI invisibility is handing your next client to a competitor.
Right now, someone searching for specialized expertise isn’t clicking through blue links. Instead, they’re asking AI who to trust. If you’re not in that answer, you’re losing business you never had the chance to win.
You’re the best at what you do…but you may be hiding in plain sight from your next client.
Most firms aren’t invisible because their work isn’t excellent. They’re invisible because their work hasn’t been showcased in enough depth — and corroborated by independent sources across the wider web.
AI authority compounds, and the firms that start building it now will be much harder to displace in the near future. Every month of inaction is a month a competitor spends getting ahead.
Request a free audit for an initial snapshot of how your firm shows up when buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini who to hire.
“Salience Strategies helps avoid the moment when a CEO asks: Why aren’t we showing up in AI answers for our category?”
— THE DIAGNOSIS
Reputation is earned, not engineered.
The goal of traditional SEO is position on a page. The goal of AI search is about building trust through a consistent, unique, and defensible presence online.
Many firms have already invested in some of the reputation signals AI rewards — things like thought leadership, earned media, and SEO.
But without a consistent drumbeat of those signals for AI to read, those same firms may not show up when buyers ask AI for answers.
That gap is widening, but it’s fixable through:
CLEAR POSITIONING.
AI cross-checks how a business describes itself against how others talk about it. If the story isn’t consistent, it’s not credible.
ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE.
AI screens for originality and specificity. Firms that speak in generalities don’t surface. Those that offer a genuine, unique point of view do.
INDEPENDENT REVIEW.
AI corroborates your authority with press coverage and third-party reviews. If those signals are scant, your authority is weakened.
— THE FIX
Our AI Authority System℠
AI authority isn’t built overnight, and it isn’t built by championing one channel over another.
It’s built by building a connected system of reputation signals that AI learns to trust.
Our AI Authority System℠ works in three integrated phases to establish, validate, and sustain your visibility where buyers are searching:
1) Audit.
Find the baseline. We start by seeing where your brand stands – and can stand out – in AI search.
This includes:
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We examine how your brand currently appears across AI platforms — and look at the sources behind the answers you lose
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We analyze the language your buyers actually use to describe their pain points
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We scope where your authority signals are strong and where they’re missing
2) Validate.
Build the system. We create content and promote your expertise across all the sources AI searches.
This includes:
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We position your website, launch client review campaigns, and capture the survey and performance data AI treats as authority signals
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We create original content — from blogs and LinkedIn articles to newsletters and press releases — that gives AI something worth citing
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We secure third-party coverage and speaking opportunities, and build case studies around the before-and-after transformations you deliver
3) Optimize.
Reinforce the trend. We track AI visibility gains and evolve the strategy through regular reporting.
This includes:
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We run the same set of buyer-specific prompts every day to track how often your business is mentioned, cited, and recommended — and how that frequency changes over time
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We step back each quarter to assess if the trend lines are moving in the right direction — and adjust the strategy if they’re not
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We monitor AI referral traffic, direct-traffic shifts, and question-based inquiries alongside your visibility trend to see if AI exposure and business activity are moving in the same direction
— Built for companies clients choose based on trust, not price —
Law
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Specialized healthcare
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Professional services
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Nonprofit
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Education
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Law | Specialized healthcare | Professional services | Nonprofit | Education |
Now accepting founding partnerships.
The early adopters who invest in a system to establish, validate, and sustain their authority will have a lasting advantage across all the ways modern buyers search.
If you’re curious whether this is the right move for your firm, a discovery call is a great way to explore without the pressure.
“I’ve been incredibly impressed by the way Kari thinks as she helps us with two problems that are going to matter enormously over the next few years: how companies become discoverable in an AI-first search world, and how they build marketing that actually resonates with the specific audience they’re trying to reach. What I appreciate most is that she doesn’t approach marketing as more content. She starts with positioning, buyer behavior, differentiation, and the business outcome — then builds from there.”
— THE OUTCOMES
Here’s what we’re building.
There are no guaranteed outcomes in AI search, just like there aren’t in traditional SEO or PR. What we guarantee is a rigorous, documented process designed to improve your odds of surfacing when buyers ask about the specific expertise you want to be known for.
Clarity on where you stand in AI search, and a tailored plan to close the gaps before a competitor does
A content and validation system that positions your expertise in the moment buyers are deciding
Visibility, referral traffic, and inquiry trends tracked and reported every month — so you know what’s moving and why
— FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) positions your website to rank higher on traditional search engines like Google through things like keyword relevance, domain authority, page structure, and backlinks.
The goal: Top placement in a list of blue links.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) positions your content to appear as direct answers when users ask Google questions.
The goal: Brand visibility in Google’s on-page AI features like AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and “People Also Ask” sections.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) recommends you when buyers search LLM (large language model) platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.
The goal: Being the firm AI names when a buyer asks, “Who should I hire for [your category]?”
Good news: If you’ve already invested in strong SEO, that’s an excellent head start. Businesses that invest in GEO & AEO are gaining a competitive advantage in modern search. GEO/AEO doesn’t require a website overhaul or a rebrand. It requires a specific, unique point of view that’s positioned clearly and consistently across the web.
Note: AEO and GEO are sometimes used interchangeably, but we split them because the tactics differ. AEO is primarily built through structured content, and GEO mostly relies on earned, third-party validation outside of your website. -
SEO specialists optimize websites for higher Google rankings, while GEO/AEO consultancies like Salience Strategies optimize for AI citations and recommendations. GEO/AEO builds on strong SEO, which lays a content and keyword foundation. GEO/AEO takes the next step by helping businesses stay competitive across all the ways buyers now conduct their purchasing research. The firms that invest early will be better positioned to win, both now and as AI search continues to mature.
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If you’re a professional services firm offering specialized, licensed expertise – law, finance, healthcare, consulting, etc. – three out of every four buyers, especially knowledge workers, are already using AI in their purchasing research (PR Newswire, April 2026). Early research indicates that the companies recommended by AI are 2.5x more likely to earn a site visit versus their competitors who weren’t recommended (Similarweb, June 2026).
Here’s the catch: Web impressions and visits from AI search don't always show up in analytics the way other referrals do. Some buyers see an AI recommendation and navigate directly to a company’s website, which registers as direct traffic in Google Analytics (GA4). Others get what they need from the AI answer without clicking any links (known as zero-click search). In both scenarios, AI is still driving traffic and awareness – it’s just not fully trackable yet.
A few signs that AI is influencing your visibility:
Rising direct traffic with no obvious source
Declining organic click-through rate on keyword searches you still rank for
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GEO/AEO is new, but practitioner experience so far points to at least three months of sustained effort before any meaningful movement. Here's a realistic timeline:
Month 1: Baseline prompts are run and documented across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. This is the starting point every later result is measured against.
Months 2-3: Content, FAQ, and third-party profile updates go live, and earned media and thought leadership work begins. AI platforms need time to find and process new content before citing it, so early movement may be uneven. Over time, this work can begin to shape how AI describes your firm.
Months 3-6: How often you show up compared to competitors becomes measurable across repeated prompt runs. We track whether citation rates are moving in the right direction, and whether AI referral traffic is visible in your analytics.Months 6-12: Earned media, thought leadership, and authority-building compound. This is when trend lines show whether consistent, favorable recommendations are taking hold.
Throughout, Salience Strategies tracks mention rate, citation rate, citation gaps, and sentiment with monthly and quarterly reports. There are no guaranteed outcomes in AI search, just as there aren't in traditional SEO or PR. What we guarantee is a rigorous, documented process at every stage.