AI Visibility Is SEO Squared, But Small Teams Can Still Win

What if your next customer never even visits your website because ChatGPT already gave them the answer? That’s the shift we’re living in right now. Google isn’t the only search engine anymore, and if your brand isn’t showing up in AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI-driven search experience, you’re not just missing traffic. You’re missing consideration.

I sat down with Jason Khoo, an AI visibility strategist and founder at Zupo, to unpack what it really takes to get discovered by large language models without a bloated SEO budget or a content team of twenty. Jason works with brands that want to show up in the answers, not just the search results, and he shared a practical way small teams can compete right now, even while the big players are still figuring it out.

AI visibility is not magic. It’s marketing fundamentals, strong SEO signals, and faster iteration than your competitors.

your buyers might never click, but they still decide

One of the biggest mindset shifts is accepting that a “visit” is no longer the only proof that marketing worked. People are asking AI tools for recommendations, summaries, comparisons, and next steps. The brand that shows up in those answers wins attention before the user ever opens a browser tab.

I said it early in the episode, and I stand by it:

“Google isn't the only search engine anymore, and if your brand isn't showing up in AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google search generative experience, you are invisible.”

That’s the game. The question is how small teams can compete in it.

AI visibility is SEO squared. and that’s good news for small teams

Jason put it bluntly, and it’s the best framing I’ve heard so far:

“It’s really similar to SEO if I wanted to be more, saying it with my chest, it's pretty much SEO squared.”

Here’s what that means in real life.

AI tools frequently do web searches behind the scenes. They pull information from indexed content, sources that look credible, and pages that match the search intent. And when they do that, the overlap between AI answers and Google’s first page is high.

Jason explained it like this:

“We’re finding that… they will still do web searches, and if they're doing web searches, we're finding a huge correlation between what's on the AI visibility answers… and first page Google results.”

So no, AI visibility doesn’t replace SEO. It builds on it.

But here’s where small teams get a real opportunity: the playbook is shifting, and many competitors are stuck chasing the same channels, the same tactics, and the same tired growth loops. That opens a window for the teams willing to test and move faster.

Jason called it a “gold rush” moment, and he’s right. Not because you need to gamble, but because early movers get leverage.

small teams starts with speed, not spend

The advantage small teams have isn’t budget. It’s agility.

This hit home for me because I’ve seen it firsthand. I shared that when I made small, deliberate changes to my podcast workflow, the results weren’t incremental. They were exponential.

Here’s exactly what I said:

“Those small iterations of changes that I made really exponentially grew the podcast downloads and visibility.”

This is what agile marketing looks like in the AI era:

• Test quickly

• Learn faster than your competitors

• Focus where traction is real

• Repeat what works

Jason described it from his side too:

“It’s really the teams and brands that are willing to gamble, roll the dice and try something new rather than waiting for… publications… to publish articles about what they should do.”

I’d phrase it slightly differently, but the point is the same. Don’t wait for permission. Build evidence.

AI visibility doesn’t require ten channels, it requires one channel that works

If you’re a founder or marketer on a small team, you already know the trap: you try to show up everywhere, and you end up showing up nowhere consistently.

Jason’s advice was simple: “You can cast a wide net, but you need to very quickly, specialize into one or two marketing channels that are working for you.”

I agreed, and I want to underline why this matters from a content strategy perspective. Writing ten versions of the same message for ten different platforms is not budget-friendly, and it dilutes clarity. Instead, pick the channel where your ideal customer actually pays attention, build a system, then repurpose outward.

My take in the episode:

“Pick the one that where your ICP is… create content for that channel… You can repurpose it everywhere else.”

Small teams win when they focus.

the overlooked channel opportunity

Here’s the twist I loved in our conversation: sometimes the best channel is the one your competitors assumed didn’t matter.

Jason shared a real example from late 2025 where businesses in visually-driven industries assumed social media was the only play. But when his team did the research, ranking on Google was surprisingly achievable because competitors were ignoring it.

His point was not “ignore your audience.” It was “don’t confuse industry habits with strategy.”

That’s why I do competitor analysis too. Not to copy what others are doing, but to spot gaps.

I said it clearly: “I wanna find out what they're not doing and where the opportunity is.”

AI visibility is full of those gaps right now.

AI visibility audit that actually matters

A lot of people are doing the AI version of vanity metrics: typing their brand into ChatGPT and feeling relieved if it says something nice.

Jason gave a great warning about why that’s unreliable, including a story where a tool recommended an agency because it knew the person asking worked there.

The better approach is what he called a stress test. It’s not “what does AI say about us?”

It’s:

• When someone asks for a solution like ours, without naming us, do we show up?

• And if we show up, is the recommendation positive?

Jason put it this way:

“When someone searches for a prompt that is essentially looking for our solution, but doesn't name us, are we in the answer? And then two, what is the sentiment of those answers?”

That’s the audit that matters.

AI visibility is built by reverse-engineering how AI searches

If you’re wondering how to fix it when you don’t show up, Jason’s answer was one of the most actionable parts of the episode: query fan-out.

In plain language, AI isn’t “thinking” in a mystical way. It’s doing searches, collecting sources, synthesizing, then answering.

Jason explained it like this: “AI is essentially doing the searches for you… If you can appear in the web searches the AI is doing for you, it will be… in the AI visibility answers.”

Here’s the practical move he shared:

Use Perplexity. Ask it a question you want to be found for. Then look at the searches Perplexity ran to build its answer. Those searches become your roadmap.

This is especially helpful for small teams because it replaces guesswork with evidence.

And it supports something I added from the user behavior side: people aren’t typing robotic keywords anymore. They’re asking questions in natural language, like they’re talking to someone.

When you understand how they ask, and you understand how the AI searches, your content strategy gets smarter immediately.

AI visibility success metrics small teams can actually track

Traditional SEO gives you rankings. AI visibility works more like a score.

Jason recommends tracking your visibility as a percentage: how often you appear in the answer when your target prompts are asked.

His benchmark: “Because we're so early, we deem anything above 50% good. 75 is very good.”

One nuance I agree with: being cited in sources is nice, but being mentioned in the answer is what matters most. If the AI includes your name in the response itself, you’re in the decision set.

If you don’t have a tool budget, Jason shared a practical workaround:

• Use temporary chat or the most neutral mode possible

• Ask the same prompt multiple times across a day or two

• Document whether you show up and how you’re described

It’s not elegant, but it gives you a starting baseline.

AI visibility is about to change when ads and attribution mature

Toward the end, I asked Jason to forecast what’s coming next. This matters because the teams that prepare early will have an easier time adapting when the platform rules change.

Jason predicted that ads coming to ChatGPT will push more transparency and better data, because advertisers demand it.

He explained the logic clearly: “With ChatGPT coming out with ads… we are hopeful that… some version of that data will come out and that we'll have better ability to understand what the highest frequency of prompts are.”

This is the part that made me pause, because it’s easy to miss. Ads force measurement. Measurement creates visibility into what’s working.

I reacted in real time:

“Ads coming onto a platform is forcing the platform to be more transparent with our data.”

If that plays out, small teams will finally have clearer direction instead of operating in the dark.

What to do this week if you want to improve AI visibility

If you want a simple plan you can actually execute without a massive budget, here’s where I’d start based on this conversation:

1. Pick 5 to 10 prompts that represent buying intent for your offerExample: “best AI visibility strategist for small businesses” or “how do I show up in ChatGPT results”

2. Run those prompts in Perplexity and document the queries it used

3. Check where you show up today, and whether you’re named in the answer

4. Create or improve content that matches those specific queries

5. Focus on the one or two channels where your audience actually engages, then repurpose outward

6. Look for the overlooked channel your competitors are ignoring, and test it fast

Small teams don’t win by doing more. They win by doing the right things sooner.

If AI visibility really is SEO squared, then the opportunity is also squared for the teams that are willing to iterate and stay curious.

10 smart AI prompts your audience might ask after reading this

• What are the highest-intent prompts people use before buying services like mine?

• How can I run an AI visibility audit without paying for tools?

• What does “query fan-out” look like for my industry, and how do I map it?

• Which pages on my website should I optimize first to improve AI visibility?

• How do I write content that gets mentioned in ChatGPT answers, not just cited?

• What is the fastest way to increase AI visibility in 30 days with a small team?

• How can I use Perplexity to discover the searches behind AI-generated answers?

• What SEO signals matter most for showing up in LLM results today?

• How do I measure AI visibility as a percentage for my brand or product?

• What channels are my competitors ignoring that could become my blue ocean?