u/DimlyStarchy

Context: over the last year a bunch of local businesses (HVAC, dentists, clinics, salons) started getting leads from people who literally "asked ChatGPT/Perplexity for a recommendation." Almost none of them know how to influence whether they show up there.

So we built ShowUpWithAI (showupwithai.com). It's a managed service, not another tracker. Instead of just measuring whether you appear in AI answers, we work the input side: entity consistency, schema, directory/citation presence, the third-party signals LLMs actually pull from. Tiered pricing ($97 / $497 / $2,499 a month by scope).

What I'd genuinely like feedback on:

1. Does "AI search optimization as a managed service" land, or does it read as "an SEO agency rebranding the buzzword"? Being honest with myself, that's objection #1.

2. Anyone running local/SaaS actually seeing real lead volume from AI yet, or is it still mostly hype?

3. Trackers (Profound, Otterly) measure the gap; we close it. Is that distinction clear from the site or muddy?

Not hard-selling, mostly want to know if the category resonates or if I'm early. Happy to return the favor on anyone's product.

clean structure, fast pages, sensible headings, schema, internal links, real authority. if youre already doing seo properly youre most of the way to geo, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

but the last 10% is genuinely new, and its not a tweak. its a different kind of visitor.

seo optimizes for a bot that indexes and a human who clicks. geo optimizes for an agent that acts. and that agent showed up with its own protocols, none of which have any equivalent in the seo playbook:

llms.txt, a file that tells agents whats actually important on your site and where to find it. for agents, not crawlers

mcp (anthropic), lets an agent call your tools and data directly

webmcp (google + microsoft), lets an agent operate your sites interface instead of guessing at it

a2a, your sites agent talking to other agents

and ucp, googles new universal commerce protocol, an agent completing an actual purchase on someones behalf right inside gemini and ai mode

that last one is the wild one. there is no title tag for "let a robot check out with my cart". thats the part thats truly different from anything in seo best practices.

so keep doing your seo, it still counts. just know the next visitor might not have hands to click. it has an api to call and a card to pay with.

genuinely curious, how many of those five had you heard of before today, besides llms.txt?

ill go first. i thought being good at the work was the hard part. it wasnt even close, the hard part was client management, pricing myself properly, and saying no to bad-fit clients before they wrecked my schedule. took me way too long to learn that.

whats yours? what do you wish you could go back and tell yourself on day 1