When ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews describe your business, they don’t just read your homepage. They pull together everything they can find about you and decide what’s true.
If that information tells one clear story, AI repeats it. If it doesn’t, AI fills in the gaps itself. That’s how businesses end up misdescribed, mixed up with competitors, or left out of the answer entirely.
A recent episode of the Best SEO Podcast, with host Matt Bertram and Carol Larson of Marketstorm, dug into exactly this. Here’s what matters most for building an entity AI can trust, plus how we put it into practice for clients.
TL;DR
- AI sees you as one entity. Your website, Google Business Profile, directories, LinkedIn, Crunchbase and Reddit mentions all get merged into a single picture.
- Inconsistency causes hallucinations. When your story doesn’t match across sources, AI invents connections to make sense of it.
- Write thoughts, not keywords. People ask AI full questions. Pages that answer them clearly get pulled in, whatever they rank.
- Most influence happens without a click. Your entity shapes the decision long before anyone reaches your site.
- Measure over months, not weeks. Considered purchases can take 45 days to six months.
What “entity” means to AI
An entity is the single picture AI builds of who you are. As Carol Larson put it, “every single piece of content around you, about you, is part of a single entity in AI’s view.”
That picture is assembled from places like:
- Your website
- Your Google Business Profile
- LinkedIn (company page and founder profile)
- Crunchbase and other business databases
- Directories and review sites
- Reddit threads and forum mentions
- Press, podcasts and third-party articles
You control some of these directly. Others you only influence. AI weighs all of them.
Why mixed signals lead to made-up answers
AI looks for what your sources have in common and treats that as the core of who you are. Then it tries to connect everything else to that core. When the pieces don’t fit, it makes connections up.
“You have to make sense of it before it tries to.” — Carol Larson, Marketstorm
Common causes of a fragmented entity:
- A name change that’s only updated in some places
- A shift in services or positioning that old profiles still don’t reflect
- A common business name that AI confuses with another company
- Old directory listings with outdated addresses, phone numbers or descriptions
- A different voice on every platform, so nothing reads like the same company
How to build an entity AI can trust
1. Tell the same story everywhere
Pick one clear description of who you are, who you serve and what you do. Then make every profile say it.
- Use the same business name, address and phone number everywhere
- Describe your services with the same words on your site, Google Business Profile and LinkedIn
- Keep the founder bio consistent across your site, podcasts and guest articles
- Use the same voice, so a reader (or a model) can tell it’s one company
2. Clean up what you haven’t looked at in years
The profiles you set up once and forgot are often the ones confusing AI. Find them and update or remove them.
- Old directory and review site listings
- Social profiles you no longer use
- Bios that describe a previous role or service
- Third-party pages that still use an old name
3. Write thoughts, not keywords
Keyword-stuffed pages were built for 10 blue links. AI search works differently.
“AI is looking for thoughts on your web page and not keywords.” — Carol Larson
People ask AI full questions, like they’re talking to a friend. If your pages clearly answer those questions, you have a real chance of being cited. If they don’t, ranking #1 won’t save you.
- Build pages around the questions buyers actually ask
- Answer the question in the first sentence or two
- Keep each page focused on one clear idea
- Back up claims with specifics: experience, locations, results, credentials
4. Stay consistent over time
AI and ad algorithms both learn from repetition. Changing your message every month resets that learning. Settle on your core story and give it time to build.
Why your entity matters even when nobody clicks
More and more buying influence happens without a visit to your website. A buyer reads an AI answer, sees a Reddit thread, checks your reviews, then comes back weeks later ready to buy.
Carol Larson used a great analogy. Google search is the cashier: essential, because it’s where the sale is rung up. But the cashier didn’t help anyone pick what to buy. That happened while they walked the aisles.
Your entity is the store. It’s what buyers see in the aisles, on every platform, before they ever reach checkout.
Buying journeys are longer than you think
From Marketstorm’s tracking of home services buyers, from first sign of interest to purchase:
| Category | Average time to decide |
|---|---|
| Plumbing | 38–42 days |
| Heating and air conditioning | 45–54 days |
| Roofing | About 6 months |
If you judge your visibility on last-click results or a 30-day window, you’ll miss most of what’s actually driving revenue. Look at a 90-day window at minimum for considered purchases, and use moving averages instead of month-to-month swings.
Your entity checklist
Work through this list once, then review it every quarter.
- Write a one-paragraph description of who you are, who you serve and what you do
- Make your business name, address and phone identical everywhere
- Update your Google Business Profile categories, services and description to match your site
- Align your LinkedIn company page and founder profile with the same story
- Update or remove outdated directory, review and social profiles
- Fix any page that still uses an old name, service or role
- Add Organization and LocalBusiness schema to your site
- Turn your top 5–10 buyer questions into clear, focused pages
- Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to describe your business, and note what they get wrong
- Track results over 90 days or more, not month to month
FAQ
What is entity SEO? Entity SEO is making sure search engines and AI tools understand exactly who your business is, what it does and how it connects to other trusted sources. It focuses on clarity and consistency across the web, not just keywords on your site.
Why does ChatGPT get my business wrong? Usually because your information doesn’t match across sources. AI merges your website, profiles, directories and mentions into one picture. When they conflict, it guesses.
Does ranking #1 on Google mean I’ll show up in AI answers? No. AI tools look for content that clearly answers the question being asked. A page that ranks well but doesn’t answer the question directly can still be left out.
How long does it take to improve AI visibility? Cleanup can be done in weeks. Seeing the impact takes longer, so measure over at least 90 days.
Find out what AI is saying about you
Most businesses have never checked how AI tools describe them. The answers are often outdated, incomplete, or pointing buyers to a competitor.
Our AI Audit shows you:
- How ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your business today
- Where your story is inconsistent across the web
- Which competitors show up in the answers you should be in
- Which sources AI is pulling from (and which it’s ignoring)
- Whether AI crawlers can actually access your site
You’ll get a clear list of what to fix first.
Source: Best SEO Podcast, “Entity SEO in the Age of AI,” with Matt Bertram and Carol Larson of Marketstorm, October 2026.
