AI Recommendations: How To Get Your Business Recommended

About This Episode

The assistant in your pocket has quietly become the referrer. Someone asks it who to hire instead of asking a friend, which means businesses now have to earn a recommendation from a machine.

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with Victoria Larson (Nebo Agency) and Tanner Jones (Consult Webs) to discuss what actually gets a business named when that prompt goes in.

The panel explores the shift from referral to recommendation. Tanner calls the LLM the new word of mouth, describing a talk titled the end of law firm referrals as we know them, since the investigative stage that used to happen over a conversation now happens in a prompt. Victoria pushes on where that leaves trust, noting the answer depends entirely on where your audience already finds you, so a social first brand fixes profiles and reviews before anything else.

They also discuss the EEAT signals models are reading on your site, why qualified directories outweigh open listings, why your about page suddenly matters, why AI referred leads arrive with more questions rather than fewer, how cookie permissions broke organic tracking, what happened when featured snippets turned into AI citations, and how to split a limited budget between brand and bottom of funnel.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why the LLM has become the new word of mouth

– Why AI referred leads arrive with more questions, not fewer

– How to work out where to focus before spending anything

– The EEAT signals AI is actually reading on your site

– Why qualified directories carry more weight than open listings

– Why your about page matters more than it used to

– Why cookie permissions broke organic traffic tracking

– Why leads and cases beat every vanity metric

– What happens when featured snippets become AI citations

– When to fund brand and when to stay bottom of funnel

Whether you’re a business owner, agency leader, marketer, or watching competitors get recommended while you do not, this episode provides actionable insights into building the signals AI checks, fixing the right platform first, and proving the work when tracking gets harder.

Because getting recommended by AI won’t come from being listed everywhere.

It will come from being verifiable in the places that are hard to get into.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & Meet the Guests

03:03 The End of Law Firm Referrals As We Know Them

04:46 Is an AI Recommendation the Same as a Friend’s?

09:34 Why AI Referred Leads Arrive With More Questions

10:50 How a Business Actually Earns an AI Recommendation

13:27 Reverse Engineering What Worked Before AI

15:45 Why Your About Page Suddenly Matters

18:20 Why Qualified Directories Carry More Weight

27:35 Why Cookie Permissions Broke Organic Tracking

33:23 When Featured Snippets Became AI Citations

42:43 Where to Spend When the Budget Is Limited

Two agencies on what decides whether AI names you or your competitor.