AI search doesn't work like Google search

There's a lie floating around the AI search optimization world.

It goes like this: "People are asking ChatGPT for 'best plumber in Dallas' and you need to show up in that list."

Tool vendors love this framing. Because "best [service] in [city]" generates clean lists of businesses. Lists are easy to track. Tracking is easy to sell.

But if you actually dig into the data, that's not how people use AI search at all.

What vendors track:

• "Best plumber in Dallas"
• "Top HVAC companies near me"
• "Recommended roofers in Atlanta"

Clean. Structured. Easy to monitor.

What users actually type:

"Zoinks, I think a pipe burst or something my finished basement is flooding everywhere. I need someone who can get here ASAP that can fix something like this, and isn't going to jack up the rates just because I'm in a bind. Who is local I can call?"

Read that again.

That's not a keyword. That's a conversation start. Multiple data points. Multiple constraints. Emotion. Urgency. Context. Plain narrative.

The prompt gap:

Real AI search prompts look nothing like traditional search queries.

Users are loading up LLMs with:

1. Situation context ("my basement is flooding")
2. Urgency signals ("ASAP")
3. Trust concerns ("isn't going to jack up rates")
4. Capability requirements ("can fix something like this")
5. Location needs ("who is local")
6. Action desired ("I can call")

That's six different inputs in one prompt. And the AI is weighing all of them to generate a recommendation.

"Best plumber in Dallas" has one input. One dimension. It's not the same game.

Why this matters:

If you're optimizing for "best [service] in [city]" and tracking whether you show up in those results, you might be winning a game nobody's playing.

The person with the flooded basement isn't typing keyword phrases. They're describing their problem and hoping the AI figures it out so it can recommend the right business.

Which means the signals that get you recommended are different:

• Do you mention emergency service on your site?
• Is "fair pricing" or "no surprise fees" anywhere in your content?
• Does your GBP show you respond quickly?
• Do your reviews mention reliability under pressure?
• Is your service area clearly defined so the AI knows you're "local"?

The AI is pattern-matching against all of this. Not just your keyword optimization.

What the tools miss:

Most AI visibility tools track structured queries because that's what's measurable.

But measuring the wrong thing precisely is worse than approximately measuring the right thing.

One study found that AI search queries average 23 words — compared to 4 words for traditional Google searches. That's not a small difference. That's a completely different input format.

When someone types a paragraph, the AI isn't looking for keyword matches. It's looking for relevance to a complex, multi-dimensional problem.

What to do about it:

1. Audit your content for context, not just keywords. Does your site answer the messy, real-world questions people actually have? Or just the clean keyword phrases?
2. Look at your reviews through the AI lens. Do they mention speed, fairness, reliability, expertise? Those become training data for recommendations.
3. Think in constraints, not queries. What are all the things someone might specify when asking for help? Urgency, budget, location, specific problem, trust concerns. Make sure your presence addresses each.
4. Test with real prompts. Go to ChatGPT and type what an actual panicked customer would type. See who gets recommended. That's your competitive set — not whoever ranks for "best plumber."

The uncomfortable part:

The tools you're paying for might be showing you a version of AI search that doesn't exist in the real world.

Not because they're lying. Because real prompts are messy, inconsistent, and hard to track at scale.

The businesses winning AI recommendations aren't optimizing for "best in city" lists. They're building presences that answer the desperate, context-heavy, plain-language questions real people actually ask.

That's harder to measure. But it's what's actually happening.

Talk soon, Garrett

P.S. — Try this: Open ChatGPT and type what you'd actually type if you had an emergency in your industry. Not a keyword. A real, panicked, human question. See who it recommends. That's the test that matters.