Where to start so AI recommends your company (and how to prioritise)

You already know which questions AI doesn't name you in. Now you have a long list of possible changes: new pages, clearer copy, directories, press, technical fixes. You can't do everything at once. What comes first?

The answer depends less on the list and more on what AI does in each question.

First, look at what happens in each question

A question where you don't appear can be in two very different situations:

• AI recommends others instead of you. It names competitors consistently. The spot is taken.
• AI recommends nobody. It answers with general advice, without consistently naming any company. The spot is free.

It sounds like a detail, but it changes the order of work. Displacing whoever is already there is slow. Taking a free spot is usually easier.

We see it in our own measurement. In the latest one for yovara.io, out of the 28 questions that don't name us, AI recommended other tools in 10. In the other 18, neither we nor any competitor appeared consistently. Those 18 are our priority list. This article, in fact, answers one of them.

Then, find the cause

For each important question, the next question is why you don't appear. The most common causes, from easiest to hardest to fix:

1. AI can't read your website. You block its crawlers or the text only appears with JavaScript. If this happens, nothing else works. It always goes first.
2. AI reads your website but doesn't name you. It uses your content as a source without linking it to your brand. Making clear who you are on that page is often enough.
3. You have a page, but it answers weakly. It mentions the question in passing, without saying who it's for, what it does and how it's different.
4. No page of yours answers the question. It needs to be written.
5. AI relies on third-party websites where you're absent. Guides, comparisons, directories, media. This is the slowest, because it doesn't depend only on you.

Rank with two criteria

With the situation and the cause of each question, rank with two simple criteria:

• How much the question matters. A question where the customer is about to decide is worth more than a general one. And a question about what you sell most is worth more than one about something secondary.
• How much it costs to move. A technical block gets fixed in an afternoon. Appearing in other people's guides can take months.

Start with what matters a lot and costs little. In practice, the order is usually this:

1. Fix whatever stops AI from reading your website.
2. Improve the pages AI already uses without naming you.
3. Write pages for the questions where AI recommends nobody.
4. Build presence outside your website for the questions your competitors hold.

One change, one question

Every change should have a specific question behind it that you want to move. "Improve the content" can't be measured. "Write a page that answers which invoicing software do you recommend for a small business" can.

That way, when you re-measure, you'll know what to look at: whether that question changed and whether AI started using that page as a source. We explained how often to measure and how to tell whether a change is real in another article.

What not to do

• Change everything at once. Afterwards you won't know what worked.
• Write for AI instead of for your customers. A page that answers a customer well is the page AI can use.
• Chase every question. If a question has nothing to do with what you sell, it isn't worth your time.
• Expect results in days. Search engines have to read your pages before AI uses them.

How Yovara does it

Yovara classifies each question by what AI does: whether it names you, names others instead of you or names nobody. Then it compares each question with your website and with the sources AI used to tell you the cause. Every recommendation links to that evidence. We explain it in our methodology.

The first measurement costs 4 credits and re-measuring costs 1. No subscription: prices are on the pricing page. And you can start with the free preview.

Frequently asked questions

What should I do first so AI recommends my company?

Check that AI can read your website. Then improve the pages it already uses without naming you and write pages for the questions where it recommends nobody. These are usually the cheapest changes.

Why does AI recommend my competitors and not me?

Usually because they have a page that answers the question or appear in the guides and comparisons AI consults, and you don't. To know in your case, look at which sources it cites in those answers.

What does it mean when AI recommends nobody for a question?

That it answers with general advice, without consistently naming any company. It's an opportunity: you don't have to displace anyone.

Can a change guarantee that AI will recommend me?

No. Nobody can guarantee what an AI will say. What you can do is give it clear sources about what you do and measure with the same questions whether anything changed.