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Every week, my inbox fills up with some version of the same email:
“How to rank in AI search.”
“Optimize for ChatGPT.”
“Your clients are losing visibility. Here’s the fix.”
I delete them all. Here’s why.
We’ve been here before
Go back 15 or 20 years. Search engines were primitive, and SEO was largely a game of tricks. One of the most common was keyword stuffing. Scroll to the bottom of a website and you’d often find a wall of repeated keywords, invisible to readers but visible to search engines. And for a while, it worked.
Then it stopped.
Google’s business depends on people trusting its results. If every search led to spammy sites gaming the algorithm, users would leave. So Google fought back with updates like Panda and Penguin. Over time, the shortcuts stopped working.
The tricks failed because Google had too much to lose by letting them succeed.
AI search is following the same path.
What AI search engines actually want
When someone asks ChatGPT for the best MSP in Chicago, OpenAI wants to provide the best answer available. It wants to recommend an MSP with a proven track record of delivering MSP services businesses trust—not the company with the most schema markup or the fanciest AI optimization package.
The same principle applies across every AI platform. If ChatGPT delivers poor recommendations, users can switch to Claude. If Claude falls short, they can move to Microsoft Copilot. These tools compete on trust and accuracy.
Just like Google, AI search engines must provide the best answers or risk losing users.
Why shortcuts don’t last
That’s why the AI search tricks being sold today have a short shelf life. Most exploit temporary gaps in systems that are constantly improving.
As AI models get better at evaluating quality and credibility, those shortcuts matter less. The vendors selling quick fixes are chasing weaknesses that won’t stay open for long.
What actually works
Here’s what I tell clients: get featured somewhere real.
One of our clients, CyberStreams, was featured on local news. When someone asks an AI tool for the best MSP in the area, that kind of third-party validation matters. A news feature. A strong Google review profile. A genuine reputation in the community.
It’s not glamorous, and it doesn’t come packaged in a cold email campaign. But Google has rewarded these signals for years, and AI search is moving in the same direction.
A good website. Helpful content that answers real questions. Public relations. A strong reputation built over time.
That’s the list. It hasn’t changed, and I don’t expect it to.
A simple test for every vendor pitch
When someone emails me about a shortcut to AI search visibility, I ask one question:
If this really worked, why are they cold emailing strangers about it?
The answer is usually obvious.
The MSPs winning in search today are the ones that committed to the fundamentals years ago and stayed consistent. They aren’t scrambling to react to every algorithm change. They already did the hard work, and the results continue to compound.
That’s the game worth playing.
We’ve helped MSPs navigate every major search shift for more than a decade. We’ve seen algorithm updates, endless “SEO is dead” headlines, and now the AI search panic. The fundamentals still work.
Book a free Growth Call and we’ll show you what we’d focus on for your site today.
If you want more practical, no-fluff advice like this, follow me on Instagram @natehelpsmsps, where I share what’s working for MSPs right now. Or email [email protected] with “List” in the subject line, and I’ll add you to my email list.
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