Total Authority Podcast: Be the Brand that AI Recommends

ChatGPT is sending home buyers to Ben Kruse, and he says most of his recent leads are coming from AI platforms. The New Jersey realtor behind Choose Kruse explains how community pages, a tight geographic focus, and updated local content helped build a web presence that now brings inquiries beyond Google.
Ben also shares why AI referrals seem warmer and more willing to respond. We discuss the content changes his team has made, why local expertise matters when competing with Zillow and Redfin, and how he plans to expand without losing his focus.
 
🔗 Resources 👇Get your AI Visibility Audit:►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-auditFree AI Visibility Gap Calculator:►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-gap-calculator
 
Your local SEO work can build visibility beyond Google.
 
#AIVisibility #LocalSEO #RealEstateMarketing #ChatGPT #TotalAuthority

Claude now works inside Google Docs, Sheets and Slides — and that's only the first of 6 AI search stories this week. Chris Panteli and Nick Biggs break down what each one means for your business:
▶ Claude moves into Google Workspace — your connectors and skills come with it ▶ Google AI Mode monitoring is now live for everyone — what your customers will set it to watch ▶ Grok Bot becomes a model router (yes, it can use Claude Opus 5.5) ▶ AI Overviews jump from about 26% to 80%+ of branded queries — check what Google says about YOUR brand ▶ Google's updated AI-content guidance: you're responsible for every word, title, meta description and alt text ▶ ChatGPT tests visual ads during image generation + new measurement partners
🔍 Find out what ChatGPT and Google's AI say about your business — the AI Visibility Audit ($17 limited-time price, report in 1 business day): https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
🔓 Join the Vault — our FREE Skool community (180-day roadmap, every study we've run, live teardowns, and our first course on building an AI visibility strategy): https://www.skool.com/get-famous-ai-seo-authority-5281/
Sources:
Claude now works with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides — https://claude.com/resources/articles/claude-now-works-in-google-docs-sheets-and-slides
Google AI Mode monitoring capabilities now live for all — https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-mode-monitoring-capabilities-now-live-for-all-492202
Grok Bot Is Now a Model Router… — https://gizmodo.com/grok-bot-is-now-a-model-router-as-spacex-continues-to-pivot-further-toward-ai-infrastructure-2000823057
Google AI Overviews jump from 26% to 80% of branded queries — https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-jump-branded-queries-september-492962
Google Search's guidance on using generative AI content — https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content
Building advertising for the way people use AI (OpenAI) — https://openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-ads-format-and-measurement/
 
Total Authority helps businesses get recommended by ChatGPT, Google AI and the press. Hosted by Chris Panteli and Nick Biggs (Linkifi & Total Authority).

Meta just launched Muse — a personal AI agent that doesn't stop at recommending a product. It researches, asks for your approval, and then buys it. Stripe has wired its Link wallet into it, Shopify has made Meta an AI channel in every store's admin, and Amazon is already shutting the door. Nick Biggs and Chris Panteli break down what that means for anyone who sells online or runs a local service business — plus Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol & Luna, both landing cheaper than the models they replace.
In this episode:• Meta Muse — the "world's first personal AI agent built for everyone", and why it went straight to the top of the free app chart• Why Meta's data could make Muse better than anything built by the AI labs• The 3 eras of buying: Google → ChatGPT → an agent that checks out for you• Understandable, credible… and now transactable• Shopify makes Meta an AI channel; Stripe says 1,000,000+ businesses already accept Link• Local services: agents gathering quotes and booking the plumber• Amazon blocks Muse — and why ads are the real reason• Who ends up with your customer data• Claude Opus 5.5 (40% cheaper to run than Opus 5) and GPT-6 Sol & Luna (50% cheaper than GPT-5.6)
🔎 Find out how AI describes your business, who it recommends instead of you, and which sites it's getting its answers from — the Total Authority AI Visibility Audit ($17, delivered in 1 business day): 
https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit

ChatGPT ads just got Sponsored Agents — click an ad and a business’s own AI agent takes over the conversation. Chris Panteli and Nick Biggs break down what that means for your business, plus 4 more AI visibility stories from this week:
• ChatGPT’s Sponsored Agents — ads that answer questions for you (and why Nick Biggs expects them to be informational, not pushy)
• Google Business Profile’s new “Collected Info” tab — Google’s AI is filling in your profile from calls and WhatsApp chats, and it can get it wrong
• Google’s AI Contribution Pilot — paying publishers when their content shapes AI answers
• A $74.99 press release that put a study straight into ChatGPT (and the clever CTA behind it)
• Two GEO experiments — why listicles dominate citations, why half your sources vanish in 30 days, and the 12.25× jump from going comparative
👉 See what AI says about YOUR business — the Total Authority AI Visibility Audit ($17, delivered within 1 business day): https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
Sources:
OpenAI — Reimagining advertising with AI: https://openai.com/index/reimagining-advertising-with-ai/Search Engine Land — Google Business Profiles rolls out Collected Info: https://searchengineland.com/google-business-profiles-rolls-out-collected-info-488387Search Engine Roundtable — Google AI Contribution Pilot: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-contribution-pilot-42076.htmlPR Underground — Discoverable study: https://prunderground.com/discoverable-study-finds-google-s-number-one-unnamed-in-nearly-three-in-four-cha/cmu3zh20i000604igia6elr2qSearch Engine Land — Two GEO experiments challenge conventional AI visibility advice: https://searchengineland.com/geo-experiments-challenge-conventional-ai-visibility-advice-488342

Grok Bot is xAI's new "AI teammate" — every bot gets its own computer, signs into your tools and just does the job. Nick set up a roster of Star Wars-named bots, and this week one of them took a voice note from Chris, cancelled the day's runs and rewrote its own rules without a human touching Slack. Then it was a big week for models: GPT-6 Astra (who's actually got it, and how to test a new model on a real project), Claude Fable 5.1 (first impressions, how to stretch your usage, and the simple mistakes to watch for), Gemini 3.8 Flash and the day Google AI Mode stopped showing links. Plus Google Ads testing inside AI Mode, and Vogue reporting that fashion's biggest brands now treat AI visibility as a top metric — with over 80% of what LLMs cite tracing back to earned media.
🔗 Get your $17 AI Visibility Audit: https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
Sources:
- Grok Bot — https://x.ai/bot
- GPT-6 Astra — https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/
- Claude Fable 5.1 — https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-1
- Gemini 3.8 Flash — https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/3-8-flash-and-3-8-flash-cyber/
- AI Mode not link friendly — https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-mode-gemini-38-no-links-42011.html
- Ads in AI Mode — https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-serving-restrictive-match-types-ai-mode-42024.html
- Vogue: AI visibility — https://www.vogue.com/article/meet-fashions-newest-engagement-metric-ai-visibility

Reddit lost its crown as the most-cited source in ChatGPT — and the new king is your own website. Brand-owned sites went from roughly 12% to 46% of ChatGPT's shopping-answer destinations in a year. In this week's Total Authority Podcast, Chris Panteli and Nick Biggs go through the four stories that change how you get recommended by AI:
1. Brand websites are now ChatGPT's central source (Stackline) — and why a missing spec on your product page loses you the recommendation (featuring Nick's wine-fridge hunt)
2. What ChatGPT actually searches when someone asks about your brand — the fan-out patterns: your own domain, your parent company, external validation (patents, trademarks, reviews), literal phrases, reputation risk (MJ Cachón)
3. Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews — 2.5 billion monthly users, new Search Console insights, still no click data (Search Engine Land, Google)
4. The EU has designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine — alongside Reddit and Roblox (European Commission)
Want to know what AI is saying about your business — and who it recommends instead of you? Our AI Visibility Audit is $17, delivered in one business day: https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
Sources discussed:
- https://www.stackline.com/news/brand-websites-are-becoming-a-central-source-for-ai-answers
- https://www.mjcachon.com/en/blog/study-query-fan-out-chatgpt-brand/
- https://searchengineland.com/google-is-dynamically-expanding-ai-overviews-for-some-queries-486200
- https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-controls-website-owners/
- https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act
#AIVisibility #GEO #ChatGPT #AIOverviews #SEO #DigitalPR #TotalAuthority

We asked an AI assistant to recommend a lawyer 375 times across America's biggest
cities — and in 3 out of every 4 answers, it never opened a single law firm's website.
Here's what it read instead, and the 4 plays that get you in front of it.
Inside this video:
• Why "build a great website" quietly stopped working the moment AI started answering
• The 5 kinds of page AI actually reads when it recommends a person
• Why 400 websites got cited but 2 of them decide most of the answers
• The official directory almost nobody claims — and why AI trusts it more than the news
• A 60-second test to find out whether you're on the list in your own industry
📊 THE FULL RESEARCH REPORT — "Who Picks Your Lawyer?"
375 AI answers across the 25 largest US metros, 2,992 citations logged, methodology
frozen and hashed before collection. Free, no email required:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JSuKMfX_lK7O06TgYb65HpO22si1FKRS/view?usp=sharing
🔍 GET YOUR AI VISIBILITY AUDIT
We run the same test on your market and show you exactly which sites AI reads about
your category — and whether your name appears on any of them:
https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
📈 THE AI VISIBILITY STRATEGY BLUEPRINT
The full playbook for getting recommended by AI, not just ranked by Google:
https://totalauthority.com/strategy-blueprint
Subscribe for original AI visibility research every week.
#AIVisibility #GEO #AISearch #ChatGPT #SEO

Zillow is the biggest real-estate site in America — and when AI is asked to recommend an agent, Zillow shows up in about 1 of every 40 sources it reads. If your AI visibility strategy is “be on Zillow,” AI is not seeing you. Here are the 4 plays that fix it.
Total Authority asked AI to recommend an agent in 50 US cities (750 controlled tests) and logged every source it cited. Realtor.com’s agent directory was cited 8× more often than Zillow; in 27 of the 50 cities Zillow wasn’t cited once. What AI read instead — agent directories, U.S. News rankings, local business journals, brokerage sites and agents’ own websites — is the whole strategy: build a home base you own, get listed where AI already looks, get written about locally, and publish answers instead of listings. Works for any industry with a giant platform in the middle of it.
 
📄 Full report (every number, the 50-city table, the method): ►► https://app.totalauthority.com/zillow-report-ai
 
🔗 Resources 👇
Get your AI Visibility Audit: ►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
Free AI Visibility Gap Calculator: ►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-gap-calculator
 
This is AI visibility strategy for real estate agents, brokers and anyone whose industry is dominated by one platform: why Google authority doesn’t transfer to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and why agent directories, local press and answer-shaped content get cited when listings don’t. The study is a single-day snapshot and citation is not endorsement — the limits are in the report.
 
#AIVisibility #AISEO #LLMVisibility #RealEstateMarketing #Zillow

We asked ChatGPT to recommend a real estate agent in the largest city of all 50 states — 2,826 recommendations naming 1,952 different agents. Houston got 234 names. Charleston, West Virginia got nine. And the metric that best predicted who gets recommended isn’t Domain Rating.
In this video: why ChatGPT refuses the question entirely without web search (0 for 75), the ten websites that control 37% of everything AI reads, why ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude agree just 9.2% of the time, and the one signal — referring domains — that beat every authority metric in the data (p = 0.0006).
 
📊 Full study + open dataset (CC BY 4.0): ►► https://totalauthority.com/real-estate-agent-ai-recommendations-study
 
🔗 Resources 👇
 
Get your AI Visibility Audit: ►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
 
Free AI Visibility Gap Calculator: ►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-gap-calculator
 
AI recommendation visibility is the new local SEO: if the portals, directories and trade rankings AI actually reads never mention you, no amount of on-site optimization makes you nameable at the moment someone asks. This study shows exactly which sources the retrieval layer trusts, and what separates repeatedly-recommended businesses from one-off mentions.
 
#AIVisibility #AISEO #LLMVisibility #ChatGPT #RealEstate

We analysed nearly 4,000 pages across 117 California MedSpas and scored more than 300 machine-readability signals against citations across seven AI platforms. The surprise? Clinics that were never cited by AI were still highly crawlable. Technical accessibility alone isn’t what separates the winners from the invisible.
The bigger opportunities are provider transparency, deeper treatment content, fresh information, structured data and — most importantly — authority. If your site can already be crawled, stop turning technical tweaks into a multi-month project and focus on the signals that can actually increase AI visibility.
 
🔗 Resources 👇
Med Spa Study:►► https://totalauthority.com/med-spa-ai-readable-website-study
Get your AI Visibility Audit:►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-audit
Free AI Visibility Gap Calculator:►► https://totalauthority.com/llm-visibility-gap-calculator
 
AI visibility is becoming an authority game, not another technical SEO checklist.
 
#AISEO #AIVisibility #GEO #MedSpaMarketing #SEO