Katie Godfrey: Would AI recommend your beauty business?

I want to ask you something before you read another word. If someone typed "best salon near me" into ChatGPT or Claude right now, would your business come up? Be honest. For most of you, the answer is no. And that's not because you're doing anything wrong, it's because none of us have really been taught this yet.

Here's the shift that's happening, whether we're ready for it or not. People aren't just Googling anymore, they're asking AI questions like "which stylist does the best balayage near me" or "what's the difference between this treatment and that one", and getting a shortlist handed straight back to them before they've opened a single website. If AI doesn't understand your business, you don't make that shortlist. You're not being overlooked, you're invisible.

I know that sounds dramatic but stay with me, because the fixes here are genuinely simple once you know what you're looking for.

Keep on top of your web content

Your website is your foundation and I mean that properly. Think of it as your house. If it's outdated, inconsistent or you haven't touched it in months, AI reads that as you not looking after your brand and it will rank you lower for it. 

I've seen the numbers on this: businesses without a website can score as low as 2% on an AI visibility check. Add a well-kept one and that jumps to 25% or more; that's before you've even looked at your socials.

Spell out your captions

Next, look at how you're actually writing your captions and your video intros. AI doesn't have time to read a full, rambling post, it needs your point in the first line or two. 

Same with video: say who you are, what you do and where you're based clearly in the first ten seconds and keep repeating it consistently across everything you put out. If you're not spelling it out, AI has no way of knowing.

Quality ranks higher than quantity

And please, stop measuring yourself by how much you're posting. This one took me a minute to properly sit with. Content depth beats content volume, every single time. 

A handful of well-thought-out posts with real substance, actual facts, stats, specifics, will outrank 10 empty Reels a week, no matter how consistent you are with the empty ones.

The value of your reviews

Your Google reviews and your Google Business Profile matter here too, more than you'd think. AI is watching those exactly the way it's watching everything else, so keeping that profile complete and those reviews coming in isn't just good practice anymore, it's part of your AI ranking, full stop.

If there's one thing I want you to walk away with, it's AI visibility isn't a future problem you get to put off, it's happening right now, quietly, in the background of every single search your

potential clients are making today. Check your website, tighten up how clearly you're stating who you are and what you do. Keep those reviews coming and go and find out where you actually rank before you change anything else.

Because the businesses that get ahead of this now are the ones that'll still be found by search engines in two years' time. The ones who wait are the ones who will be asking why their bookings dried up and nobody can tell them why. 

I'm launching a podcast on this very subject soon; listen to The Life Of KG wherever you stream your podcasts.

Katie Godfrey is an award-winning business strategist, best-selling author of Get Off the Tools and host of The Life of KG podcast. Connect with Katie on Instagram and LinkedIn.