Someone gets your name from a trusted colleague and, before reaching out to you, asks ChatGPT what it knows about you. They want to know about your experience, the industries you know, the kinds of clients you work with and whether you’re someone they should consider for a particular matter or business need. They may even ask who else does similar work and compare you with several other lawyers or business professionals.
That kind of research is becoming more common as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and other AI tools become part of how people gather information and make decisions. The information these tools can find and understand about you is becoming another part of your reputation and your business development.
This is where AI search optimization comes in. You may hear it called generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO) or simply AI search optimization. Whatever terminology ultimately sticks, the idea is fairly straightforward for lawyers and business professionals: you want AI tools to be able to understand who you are, what you do, what you know and the areas where you have meaningful experience.
There’s still a lot we’re learning about how these platforms decide which sources and people to reference. ChatGPT’s citation behavior can change quickly, results can vary depending on how a question is phrased and different AI platforms may provide completely different answers to the same question. I’d keep that in mind when evaluating any strategy that promises a specific ranking or guaranteed visibility in AI search.
A more useful approach is to look at what you can control. You can make your expertise clearer online, create useful content around the subjects you know, strengthen the information available about your experience and pay closer attention to the third-party sources that help establish your credibility. You can also start testing how AI tools currently see you and your competitors, which can provide some very useful information for your marketing and business development strategy.
Think about the searches that could actually lead to business
Typing your name into ChatGPT is interesting, but it isn’t necessarily the best way to evaluate your AI search visibility. I’d start with the questions a potential client or referral source might ask when they’re trying to find someone with your experience.
For example, a private equity lawyer might want to appear when someone asks for lawyers who represent sponsors investing in healthcare services companies. An employment lawyer might want to be included in a search for lawyers advising employers on workplace AI policies. A business consultant might want to appear when someone asks who helps professional services firms develop business development programs or improve their LinkedIn strategy.
Create a list of the questions that relate to the work you want more of and try different versions of them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI search tools. Look at which people and organizations appear, how they’re described and which sources are being cited. This will give you a much better sense of whether AI tools are connecting you with the areas where you want to build your reputation.
Pay close attention to the sources AI tools are using
When an AI-generated answer includes citations, spend some time looking at them because they can tell you quite a bit about where an AI tool is getting its information and which sources seem to carry weight for a particular type of search.
You may see law firm websites and company websites, but you may also find industry publications, media articles, professional associations, conference websites, directories, podcasts and other third-party sources. The mix can vary considerably depending on the question and the platform, which is one reason I’d test more than one type of search before drawing conclusions.
I’d also do this with competitors who regularly appear in searches that matter to you. Look at where they’re being mentioned and how consistently their names are connected with particular subjects. A lawyer who repeatedly appears in searches related to private credit, for example, may have a detailed bio, several years of content on the subject, media quotes, conference appearances and outside articles that collectively reinforce that area of expertise.
This can also give you a good sense of what other professionals in your field are doing online and where you may be able to strengthen your own presence.
Make sure the internet knows what you actually do
One of the biggest AI search optimization issues for lawyers and business professionals has very little to do with AI technology. There’s often a significant difference between someone’s actual experience and the information available about that experience online.
Lawyer bios are a good example. A lawyer may have spent several years building significant experience with a particular type of transaction, client or industry while her bio continues to describe her practice in very general terms. A business professional may have developed expertise in several new areas while his LinkedIn profile still reflects the role he had several years ago.
Law firms often have an even bigger information gap because so much detailed experience lives in internal systems. Pitch materials, experience databases, deal lists and rankings submissions may contain much more information about what the firm and its lawyers have actually done than the public website.
Review the places where your expertise appears online and compare them with the work you’re doing today and the work you want to attract. Your bio, LinkedIn profile, practice pages, industry pages and other important profiles should clearly communicate the types of clients you work with, the issues you handle and the industries or subject areas where you have experience. This is helpful for AI search while also making those materials much more useful to the actual people researching you.
Create content around the way people ask questions
AI search is much more conversational than the traditional search behavior many of us are accustomed to. Someone may describe a complicated situation and ask a detailed question instead of entering three or four keywords into Google, which creates an opportunity to rethink how you identify content topics.
Your client conversations are one of the best places to start. Pay attention to the questions you’re hearing repeatedly, the issues you find yourself explaining on calls, the developments creating uncertainty and the areas where clients are asking for guidance.
A broad article on “AI Issues for Employers” could cover dozens of subjects. An article explaining what employers should consider when employees enter confidential company information into generative AI tools addresses a specific issue someone may actually be researching. A private equity lawyer could take the same approach by answering a specific question about diligence, financing, regulatory issues or portfolio company operations instead of writing another broad private equity trends article.
This type of content is useful because it reflects how people are increasingly searching for information while also giving you an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge in a way that’s relevant to the work you want to attract.
Develop more depth around your important areas
If you want to become better known for a particular area, think about the body of information that exists around that expertise. One article or LinkedIn post can be helpful, but a collection of useful content gives someone many more ways to encounter your knowledge and understand the depth of your experience.
A lawyer focused on healthcare private equity could address regulatory developments, deal activity, diligence issues, add-on acquisitions, financing, portfolio company challenges and other issues affecting investors. A business professional who works with companies on leadership development could create content around hiring, communication, team management, mentoring, succession and managing through periods of change.
This also makes content planning easier because you can identify several areas that are important to your business and continue developing ideas within them. You have a framework for deciding what to write about while still having plenty of room to respond to current events, client questions and new developments.
Update and strengthen the content you already have
Improving AI search visibility doesn’t require constantly publishing new material. Many lawyers, law firms and business professionals already have years of articles, alerts, webinars, presentations, interviews, videos and other content that could be working harder for them.
Review older content that relates to the areas where you want to build visibility. Update information that’s changed, add new developments where appropriate, improve vague headlines and look for opportunities to connect related pieces. An article you published three years ago may still contain useful information and could become much more valuable with a thoughtful update.
Law firms should also look at the detailed experience information they already maintain internally. Subject to confidentiality requirements and firm policies, there may be representative matters, industry experience and other information that can strengthen lawyer bios, practice pages and sector pages. This can help close the gap between the work the firm actually does and the experience someone can find when researching the firm online.
Build visibility in credible places beyond your website
Your own website is an important source of information, but your broader digital presence also contributes to how your expertise is understood. For lawyers and business professionals, that can include media coverage, industry publications, professional associations, conferences, podcasts, rankings, directories, outside articles and LinkedIn.
These activities become especially valuable when they reinforce areas that are important to your business. If you want to become better known for a particular industry, consider where the people in that industry get their information, which publications they read, which conferences they attend, which organizations they belong to and which podcasts or newsletters they follow.
A strong third-party presence also provides additional context around your expertise. When your bio, content, speaking engagements and outside mentions consistently connect you with a particular area, there’s a much richer body of information available to anyone researching you, whether that person is using Google, ChatGPT, LinkedIn or another platform.
Keep the writing useful for the people you want to reach
As more companies focus on AI search optimization, I expect we’ll see many of the same mistakes that happened with traditional SEO, including awkward keyword use, repetitive content and articles created primarily to satisfy an algorithm.
For lawyers and business professionals, the quality of the content still matters because the ultimate audience is a person who may hire you, refer you, invite you to speak, interview you or recommend you to someone else. Use clear headlines and subheads, answer the question the article promises to address, include specific examples where they add value and use the language your clients and prospects actually use when talking about an issue.
This is particularly important for lawyers because the terminology used inside a law firm may be different from the words a client uses when describing the same problem. Understanding that difference can help you create content that’s easier to find while also making it more accessible to the people you want to reach.
Track your AI search visibility over time
AI search optimization is difficult to evaluate based on a single search because the results are constantly changing. A more useful approach is to identify a group of questions that matter to your practice or business and revisit them periodically across several AI platforms.
Keep track of the people and organizations that appear, the sources being cited and any patterns you notice over time. You can also include several competitors so you have a broader view of how your market is being represented in AI-generated answers.
I’d combine that with the information you’re already collecting about new business. When a new client or prospect contacts you, ask how they found you and whether ChatGPT or another AI tool played a role in their research. Someone may have received your name through a referral and then used ChatGPT to research your background, while another person may have discovered an article through an AI-generated answer and later found you on LinkedIn.
Paying attention to how people find you will matter even more as more people use AI to research lawyers and other professional service providers
How to approach AI search optimization now
AI search optimization is going to continue evolving as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and other platforms change how they find, interpret and present information. That makes it important to follow developments in this area without rebuilding your marketing strategy every time citation patterns change.
For lawyers and business professionals, I’d focus on making the information about you online as useful, specific and current as possible. Identify the searches that matter to your business, make sure your experience is clearly represented, create content around real client questions, strengthen the subjects where you want to build your reputation and develop visibility through credible third-party sources.
I’d also make AI search testing part of your regular marketing and business development work so you can see how your visibility changes and learn more about how clients and prospects are using these tools. As AI becomes a bigger part of the research process, understanding how you and your expertise appear in those results will be increasingly important for your brand, your reputation and your business development efforts.
For more on AI and your visibility, take a look at these articles:
- What Does AI Know About You? Why Lawyers Need to Think Differently About Their Online Visibility
- How to Build Your Brand for ChatGPT, AI Search and Google
- 15 Ways AI Can Help Legal Marketers Work Smarter
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