Manipulate AI responses to your advantage using SAIO.
If you want to change the answers generated by AI ChatBots, you have to modify the sources on which the AIs are based. To do this, there are two possibilities:
- Modify the content of the pages that are currently used as sources by the AIs.
- Create new pages that will serve as sources for the AIs.
SAIO (Search Artificial Intelligence Optimization) is the set of techniques that allows you to modify the answers generated by AI ChatBots. This acronym is a derivative of the word “SEO” and was invented by François Tréca.
Also read : How to master writing content for the web?
There are 4 steps to manipulate the answers provided by an AI:
- Determine the queries on which you want to be visible.
- List the sources that are used by the AI ChatBots.
- Modify existing sources by contacting the site administrators.
- Create new sources that you can control.
All these points are detailed in this article. 😉
AIs are integrated into search engines
Today, the work of AIs consists of generating texts, images, videos… in response to a user’s request (the prompt).
Since March 2023, AIs have been integrated into search engines in the form of “AI ChatBots”. Unlike traditional search engines, which direct the user to websites, AI ChatBots directly generate a complete answer by synthesizing the content of several web pages. The web pages used are called “sources“.
Some of these queries hide a purchase intention, such as “What is the best cordless vacuum cleaner?” For a cordless vacuum cleaner vendor, it is essential that its products are cited in the answer that the AI will provide, as this represents an opportunity to give visibility to its products.
But how to make its brand visible in the response of the AI of search engines?
The SAIO or the art of being visible in the answers of AIs.
If you type a query into Bing’s AI ChatBot, you can see that the sources it relies on are displayed with the result. If you study the source pages, you will easily see that:
- The AI ChatBot extracts the main information from them.
- It compiles them in a 5 to 10 line summary.
Therefore, there are 2 possibilities to modify the answer provided by the AI:
- You can modify the content of the pages that serve as sources for the AI.
- You can create new pages that will serve as sources for the AI.
The different steps of the SAIO.
Step 1: Determine the queries on which you want to be visible.
If you sell cordless vacuum cleaners, you don’t need to be visible on the query “What’s the best pizzeria in Paris”; it’s totally useless for you. Your goal is not to be visible in all the responses generated by the AI ChatBots, but only to be visible for the prompts that are typed by users who are likely to buy your products.
Here are some examples of interesting queries for cordless vacuum cleaner vendors:
- What is the best cordless vacuum cleaner?
- List the best cordless vacuum cleaners on the market
- How to choose a cordless vacuum cleaner?
- What is the average price of a cordless vacuum cleaner?
- What is the autonomy of a cordless vacuum cleaner?
- How to remove dust quickly at home?
- …
All these questions show that the user is about to buy a cordless vacuum cleaner. If you sell this product, the fact that your brand is mentioned in the answers increases your chances to sell your product.
So your first job is to list all the queries that are likely to be typed by people who need your products.
Step 2: List the sources that are used by the AI ChatBots.
Give each query to the AI ChatBot and copy the URLs of the pages used as sources.
Feel free to try variations for each query as it is likely to be based on very different sources. For example, “List the 10 best cordless vacuum cleaners” and “List the 5 best cordless vacuum cleaners” may give very different results if the AI ChatBot uses different sources to generate its answer!
With this method, you will quickly get a fairly complete list of the sources used by the ChatBot to generate the answers.
Step 3: Modify the existing sources by contacting the site administrators
Until now, the work was quite easy: it only required a little thought, observation, and time to do it. Nothing very complicated.
Now we arrive in a more random part: we will have to convince the owners of the sources to modify their web page. If your product is already known, it is of good quality and does not cost much, you should not have too much difficulty obtaining that the administrators of the sites speak about it on their pages (it is in their interest that the pages of their site contain useful information for their readers). On the other hand, if your product is totally banal, it might be more complicated to convince them.
The first thing to do is to contact the administrators of the different sites, tell them that their site contains a page (specify the URL) in which they should mention your product for excellent reasons that you will list (it’s your product, you’re supposed to know its strong points 😉).
Feel free to keep a history of your exchanges with the different administrators in a spreadsheet:
- Name of the administrators.
- Date and time messages were sent.
- Means of communication.
- …
This will be useful to follow and optimize your requests.
Three possibilities:
- The administrator accepts! Well done! Not only is your product now visible on a website but you increase your chances of it being part of the responses from AI ChatBots. 👍
- The admin does not respond. If you don’t get a response after a week, try to follow up with a new message. If you still don’t get any answer, you can try other communication channels: social networks, phone call, intermediaries…
- The administrator refuses because he is not convinced of the interest of your product. In this case, you must try to convince him by bringing new arguments. If he still refuses, you can try to ask for a “sponsored promotion” of your product in exchange for a consideration (sending a free product, visibility, money…).
Patience, diplomacy, and business sense are essential qualities to succeed in this approach.
Step 4: Create new sources that you can control
We can quickly see that the modification of an existing source poses a big problem: it is subject to the goodwill of the administrator who controls it.
He is likely to refuse and/or to ask for important counterparts. He may also accept today and change his mind tomorrow. All this is very uncertain!
Finally, isn’t the best way to get total control of the sources to create them yourself? You can then modify them as you wish without having to ask anything from anyone!
To do this, you need to create web pages on a site that you own. They must meet the needs of Internet users who would ask queries to a classic search engine since AI ChatBots use search engines to select their sources. In this case, classic SEO techniques are used.
Each of your pages must, therefore:
- Target a specific query, for example, “best cordless vacuum cleaner.”
- Respond perfectly to the need that the user seeks to solve via this query.
- Add semantically optimized text so that search engines understand what your page is about.
- Get links from other sites.
If you want to try this method but are not an SEO specialist, it is recommended that you get help from an SEO professional.
Does SAIO really work?
Yes, it has been tested and documented! A few days after Bing’s AI was integrated into Skype as a chatbot, François Tréca attempted a series of tests to modify the responses. These tests included:
- Adding the notion of SAIO in Bing/Skype, a concept he didn’t know before as it didn’t exist.
- Updating the list of French netlinking platforms so that his (Bulldoz) appears first.
These two tests were conclusive: after only 2 days, Bing/Skype was able to answer the question “What is SAIO for SEO?”
Similarly, 3 days after the start of the test, the Bulldoz netlinking platform was in the lead for the query “What are the 10 best netlinking platforms?”
The tests, results, and observations of François Tréca are described in detail in two articles that you can consult:
- Will SAIO replace SEO?
- Test SAIO – SEO: results and observations
A risk for ethics?
As François Tréca’s articles point out, SAIO represents a risk for users of AI chatbots who could make bad decisions based on biased information.
Therefore, it is necessary for the various players in the industry to demonstrate strong ethics and monitor the practices of others, including:
- Administrators of AI chatbots.
- Administrators of sites that serve as sources.
- SAIO professionals…
We will also need to educate users of AI chatbots, teach them to think critically about the responses of chatbots, and verify the accuracy of the information posted.
To summarize:
If you want to change the answers generated by AI chatbots, you need to change the sources on which the AIs rely. There are two possibilities for this:
- Either you modify the content of the pages that are currently used as sources by the AIs.
- Or you create new pages that will serve as sources for the AIs.
SAIO (Search Artificial Intelligence Optimization) is the set of techniques that allow modifying the answers generated by AI chatbots. This acronym is a derivative of the word “SEO” and was invented by François Tréca.
There are four steps to manipulate the answers provided by an AI:
- Determine the queries on which you want to be visible.
- List the sources that are used by the AI chatbots.
- Modify existing sources by contacting the site administrators.
- Create new sources that you can control.
