The way people search is changing. More and more often, instead of typing into a search engine, they ask an AI assistant: 'what creative thing can I do in Florence this weekend?', 'original gift ideas for someone who loves cooking', 'where can I learn ceramics?'. Getting suggested in these answers is the new frontier of visibility — and, surprisingly, the rules for pulling it off reward clarity and honesty more than tricks.
This shift — sometimes called GEO, generative engine optimization — is still in its early days, and that's exactly why it's an opportunity: very few artisans are thinking about it, so whoever gets found well today starts with an edge. The good news is that it doesn't require technical skills or tricks: the same things that make your content clear and useful for people also make it citable by AI. Investing in clarity pays off twice.
AI loves clear, factual content
AI assistants look for precise, verifiable, well-structured information they can report with confidence. That means whoever writes concretely wins: what happens in the workshop, where, for whom, what you take home, how long it lasts. Vague text full of empty superlatives ('an unforgettable, magical experience') gives the AI nothing concrete to quote. Facts, on the other hand, do.
- Spell out the discipline, location, audience and duration precisely: these are the facts an AI can report.
- Answer explicit questions (it's the structure AI reuses most willingly).
- Be consistent: the same information on your site, your profiles and everywhere you appear online.
- Describe what makes your experience unique in a specific way, not with generic adjectives.
Consistency and presence across multiple places
AI assistants build their answers by cross-referencing multiple sources. The more consistently your business is described across different trustworthy spots on the web — your profile on a recognized platform, reviews, any articles — the more you become a 'safe' source to cite. Being present on a structured, well-indexed platform helps: it gives AI orderly, reliable data about your business.
Think about how someone would 'ask' an AI about you
One concrete way to work is to imagine the questions someone would ask an assistant to end up at your door: '[where can I do a [discipline] workshop in [city]?](/workshops)', 'what to give someone who loves [topic]?', 'a creative couples activity for the weekend'. Then make sure your content contains clear answers to those questions, with the concrete facts (what, where, for whom, how long). The more your experience is described as the perfect answer to a real question, the more likely an AI is to suggest it exactly when that question gets asked.
Honesty and specificity beat inflated marketing
There's good news for artisans: AI tends to penalize inflated content and reward what's authentic and specific. Honestly describing what you offer, who it's right for and who it isn't, makes you a more reliable source. Specificity ('pottery wheel workshop for beginners, max 6 people, 3 hours, you take home a bowl') is exactly what an assistant looks for to give a useful answer.
Domande frequenti
- What can I do concretely to get cited by AI?
- Write clear, factual, specific content about what you offer (discipline, location, audience, duration, what you take home), answer explicit questions, and keep the same information consistent everywhere you appear online. AI reports facts, not adjectives.
- Do I need a complicated website?
- No: what you need is to be described clearly and consistently in trustworthy spots on the web. A well-made profile on a recognized, indexed platform gives AI orderly data about you — often more than a neglected website does.
- Does 'inflated' marketing help me get suggested by AI?
- Quite the opposite: assistants tend to reward authentic, specific content and to distrust empty superlatives. Honesty and precision make you a more reliable, citable source.
- Do I have to do something different for Google and for AI?
- Largely no: clarity, concrete facts, answers to real questions and consistent information serve both. The difference is that AI 'summarizes and cites' instead of showing links, so it rewards factual, well-structured content even more. If you do good work for people and for Google, you're already doing most of the work for AI assistants too.
On Handsome your profile and your workshops are structured and indexed: clear data that helps search engines and AI assistants suggest you.
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