The
Journal.
Field notes from inside the AI search shift. What we’re seeing in Brooklyn, what we publish for clients, and the experiments we’re running in real time.
“Read by ChatGPT before it’s read by you.”
This week’s issue.
How to Check Your Own AI Citations: Ask Your Patients' Questions and Log the Answers
Run your own citation audit by asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google what your patients ask. Log the answers. No paid tools needed.
Organization Schema Parent Declarations Change Which Local Businesses Get Cited in AI Search
Parent company markup tells AI search whether a business stands alone or belongs to a parent. How to declare a single location, a franchise and a group.
Recent posts.
Why AI Search Answers at Neighborhood Resolution Instead of Borough
AI engines answer local questions at neighbourhood level, not borough. What that changes about who gets named, and how to check your own neighbourhood.
What a Citation Is Worth When Nobody Clicks It
AI answers name businesses without sending clicks. What a citation is worth, why page two stopped mattering, and how to see AI referrals in GA4.
Indexed, Retrieved, Cited. Three Different Things.
Indexed isn't retrieved, and retrieved isn't cited. How AI engines decide which local business to name, and how to find the gate you're stuck at.
How People Ask AI for a Local Business, and What Each Kind of Prompt Retrieves
How people phrase local questions to AI, from descriptive to prescriptive, why 'near me' fades, and what each kind of prompt needs from your site.
Audit Your Structured Data in Ten Minutes With the Rich Results Test
A five-step structured data audit for independent businesses, using Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator. About ten minutes a page.
How to Write an FAQ Section That an Engine Can Lift Whole
How to write and mark up an FAQ section AI engines can quote: one answer per question, five question frames, placement rules and FAQPage schema.
The Six Google Business Profile Fields That Change Which Queries You're Eligible For
Six GBP fields determine whether your business appears in AI search results. Fill them wrong and you're invisible to entire query categories.
Reverse Engineer a Competitor's Citation Surface Without Paid Tools
See which sources name a competitor, what schema they publish and which prompts cite them, using only a browser, free Google tools and the engines themselves.
How to Build Neighborhood Landing Pages AI Search Can Cite
How to build neighbourhood landing pages AI engines can cite: what goes in the first 50 words, headings, FAQs, schema, and hub-and-spoke for one location.
SameAs Is the Identity Graph Most Local Sites Never Fill In
SameAs markup tells AI engines which profiles and sites belong to the same business. Most local sites skip it. Here's why it matters.
Service Schema: Making Your Offering Visible to AI Search
Service schema tells AI engines what you offer separately from page text. Here's how to mark it up so Perplexity and ChatGPT cite you as a specific solution.
Service Area Radius in Schema.org. How to Declare It Without Diluting Citations Across Boroughs.
Declare your service area so AI search can match you to a neighborhood: named places in areaServed, a radius only when distance is the real boundary.
How to Mark Up Your Google Business Profile Hours in Schema.org
Schema.org openingHoursSpecification lets AI engines read your hours directly from your site. Here's how to mark them up correctly for local search.
Brooklyn BJJ Lessons: A First ChatGPT Citation 41 Days After Launch
Brooklyn BJJ Lessons got its first ChatGPT citation 41 days after launch. Here is what the one-page site included, and what one citation can't tell you.
Nostrand Optical: Four Rich-Result Types Validated on Launch Day
Nostrand Optical's new site validated four rich-result types in Google's Rich Results Test on launch day. Here is what the build included and what is on record.
The Seven Schema Types Every Local Business Is Missing in 2026
Seven schema types local business sites usually skip, what each tells AI engines, and where to go deeper on FAQ, Service, sameAs and hours markup.
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