KNOWLEDGE

Research & insights on AI visibility.

Everything we know about GEO, sourced from KDD'24 research, market data, and our own audits of the Towson market.

00/100AI VISIBILITY SCOREWhy Most Local Businesses Score Zeroon AI VisibilityChatGPTPerplexityGoogle AIMAKIFGEO RESEARCH
GEO Research6 min read

Why Most Local Businesses Score Zero on AI Visibility — And What It Costs Them

We scored a sample of local businesses in the Baltimore–Towson area and found the average AI visibility score was 0 out of 100. Not low. Zero. Here's what that means and why it's happening.

By Ashton Ellis

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46TrustEntityRetrievalCitationMeasurementMAKIF46SIGNALS ACROSS 5 LAYERSThe Signals That DetermineIf AI Recommends YouFRAMEWORK · AUDIT
Framework8 min read

The 46 Signals That Determine If AI Recommends Your Business

When ChatGPT decides whether to recommend your business, it isn't checking your Google ranking. It's pulling from a system that operates on a completely different set of signals — and most businesses have optimized for none of them.

By Ashton Ellis

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202680%+50%$750BMAKIF2026AI SEARCH MARKET INTELLIGENCEWhat Every Local BusinessOwner Needs to KnowMcKinsey · Graphite · SparkToro · KDD '24
Market Intelligence5 min read

AI Search in 2026: What Every Local Business Owner Needs to Know

You don't need to understand how AI works. You need to understand what it means for your business. Half of all consumers now use AI-powered search. Here's the short version of what that means for you.

By Ashton Ellis

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chat.openai.com"Best attorney in Towson Maryland"ChatGPTnot cited ✕MAKIFHow to Check IfChatGPT RecommendsYour Business1Run 5 test prompts2Read results honestly3Check entity presence4Audit content structure5Know your score
How-To5 min read

How to Check If ChatGPT Recommends Your Business (And What to Do If It Doesn't)

This takes ten minutes. You need ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google — and you need to be honest with yourself about what you find. Here's the exact process.

By Ashton Ellis

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VSMAKIFSEORanked list of linksKeyword densityDomain authorityPage-one exposureGEOAI-synthesized answerCitation signalsEntity clarityNamed recommendationChatGPT"I recommend [Your Business] inTowson for this service…"KDD '24: keyword stuffing = worse performanceCitations + stats = 30–40% visibility improvement
GEO vs SEO6 min read

GEO vs SEO: Why Strong Google Rankings Don't Mean AI Will Recommend You

"We already have SEO." It's the most common thing we hear. Here's the problem: what ranks well in Google doesn't necessarily get cited by ChatGPT. In some cases, traditional SEO techniques actively undermine AI visibility.

By Ashton Ellis

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Trust25Entity10Retrieval15Citation5Measurement0COMPOSITE AI VISIBILITY SCORE7–15/100MAKIFTowsonLegal MarketAUDIT DATA · 2025What We Found AuditingAI Visibility for Law Firms📍 Towson, MDEntity layer: most common failureCitation triggers: absent in every firmJS rendering: silent retrieval blockMAKIF Pilot Audit · Baltimore–Towson · 2025
Local Research7 min read

AI Visibility for Law Firms: What We Found Auditing the Towson Legal Market

We picked law firms for a specific reason. Legal services is one of the highest-intent, highest-trust categories in local search. When we scored Towson-area law firms for AI visibility, the results were stark enough that we built an agency around what we found.

By Ashton Ellis

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