[I rewrote parts of this blog post a week after publication to reflect updated knowledge.]
In my last blog post, I wrote about problems I’d been having with AI search summaries. My business specialisms and identity were being quite badly misrepresented in AI-generated search results.
I made some adjustments to my website and social media to make it easier for AI to see who, what, and where I was. This included adding “I am” statements to the top of webpages, mentioning my business name more often, and being clearer in my footer text. I also added an FAQ page.
Within 24 hours, the problems I’d noticed in the AI search summaries became a lot less pronounced.
The biggest difference came when I dropped “Editorial” from my website name. AI search then stopped associating me with literary publishing and falsely identifying me as various published poets.
Let’s not forget human readers
A few days after making the initial changes, they began to show up in AI search summaries.
This created an unexpected problem. I’d written statements to give clear signals to AI, but hadn’t thought about how they would come across to human readers. The statements looked a bit odd when they appeared in the search results, to put it mildly.
I got around this problem by using more natural language and removing some of the statements.
And let’s not worry about it too much
Despite my efforts, the AI search results still contain errors. Sometimes, I’m mixed up with other people and businesses. Odd declarations are made about my reasons for being in business and my choice of website name.
Eventually, I decided to stop worrying about it so much. I recognised that some of the wilder hallucinations in AI-generated search results were beyond my control.
I’m intrigued about why AI slots my website into unexpected patterns and categories, but I also recognise that investigating it is a rabbit hole.
You can read my earlier blog post about AI search at this link.
I’m a UK-based editor and proofreader. I focus on editing and proofreading for documents used in education, training, and workplaces.
TIDE and CANUTE 