ChatGPT Recommended Me to Help an Elderly Woman Start an Instagram for Her Dog and What I Learned About How AI Recommends Businesses

By Jessica Boggio, Sage Media | Gladewater, TX

Last month, I got two phone calls that made me rethink everything about how my website communicates what I actually do.

The first was from a mobile home salesman in Texarkana. He said ChatGPT recommended me as someone who could help with his social media marketing. Texarkana is two hours from here.

The second was from an elderly woman in Shreveport, Louisiana—a whole other state—who wanted help setting up an Instagram account for her dog.

My first reaction was confusion. I build websites and manage Google Business Profiles for tradespeople in East Texas. Plumbers, glass companies, roofers. I help them show up when someone in Longview searches "shower glass installation near me."

So why did ChatGPT think I was the right person to launch a canine influencer career in Louisiana?

Then I looked at my own website. And I realized: ChatGPT wasn't wrong. I was.

The Page I Forgot I Had

When I started Sage Media a little over a year ago, I was still figuring out what I wanted to offer. Social media management was part of the mix. I built a whole page for it: "Social Media Marketing for East Texas Businesses." The headline said "Stop Posting. Start Converting." There was a FAQ section. A call-to-action to book a strategy call. The works.

Over the past year, I narrowed my focus. I realized the work I actually love—and the work that makes the biggest difference for my clients—is building websites and optimizing Google Business Profiles. That's where local tradespeople get found. That's what moves the needle.

But I never took down the social media page. I never rewrote it. It was still sitting there, telling anyone who landed on it—including AI systems—that I offer full-service social media marketing.

ChatGPT read my site. It found that page. It did exactly what it was supposed to do: recommend someone who says they do social media marketing to someone who needs social media marketing.

The AI wasn't confused. My website was.

What I Actually Mean by Social Media

Here's the thing: social media is still part of what I do. But it's not what that page made it sound like.

For local trades businesses—the plumbers, electricians, and contractors I work with—social media isn't about building a following or going viral. It's about not looking dead online. It's about showing up consistently enough that when someone checks your Facebook page before calling, they see recent activity and think, "Okay, this business is still open. They're still working."

That's a very different service than what the Shreveport dog lady was looking for. She wanted someone to build an Instagram presence from scratch, grow followers, create content strategies for a pet account. That's a real service—it's just not mine.

My page didn't make that distinction. It used broad language like "social media marketing" and "content strategy" without specifying who it was for or what it actually looked like in practice. So AI filled in the gaps with assumptions.

Why This Matters Now

We're in a new era of search. People aren't just typing keywords into Google anymore—they're asking ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for recommendations. And those AI systems are reading your website to decide whether you're a good fit.

The problem is, AI doesn't read between the lines. It doesn't know you pivoted six months ago. It doesn't know that page is outdated. It doesn't know you meant "social media for contractors" when you wrote "social media marketing." It takes your words at face value and makes recommendations based on what it finds.

If your website still says you do something you've moved away from, AI will keep sending you those leads. If your geography isn't specific, you'll get calls from two hours away—or another state entirely. If your ideal client isn't clearly defined, you'll attract everyone except the people you actually want to work with.

What I Learned About AI Search

After those two calls, I started reading everything I could find about how AI systems decide what to recommend. Here's what stood out:

ChatGPT runs multiple searches behind every query and pulls from pages that aren't even in Google's top 10. It rewards direct, specific answers and proprietary data—numbers only you can cite because you collected them yourself.

Claude cross-references your claims against other sources before citing you. It rewards longer content, links to credible external sources, and pages that acknowledge limitations. It also looks for a real author with visible credentials.

Gemini is Google's AI, so it plays by Google's rules. No Google ranking means no Gemini citation. Images, video, and author credentials all factor in.

The common thread: be specific. Be honest. Be clear about what you do—and what you don't.

What I'm Changing

Rewriting my social media page. It's not coming down—social media support is still part of what I offer. But I'm reframing it to reflect what I actually do: helping local businesses stay visible and consistent online, not building Instagram empires for pets. The page needs to say who it's for, what it includes, and what it doesn't.

Adding a direct answer block to key pages. Right under the headline, in plain language: what I do, who I serve, where I work. No fluff, no jargon. Just the answer AI is looking for.

Naming every town I serve. Not just "East Texas" but Longview, Kilgore, Gladewater, Henderson, Carthage, Tyler, Mineola. AI systems are literal. If I don't say it, they don't know it.

Clearly stating what I don't do. This feels counterintuitive, but it's necessary. "I don't manage Instagram accounts, run TikTok strategies, or work with businesses outside East Texas." The goal is to filter out bad-fit queries before they become bad-fit phone calls.

Citing my own results. I have a client who went from 5 Google Business Profile calls to 23 in a single year—a 360% increase. That's a number nobody else can claim, because I'm the one who tracked it. Proprietary data like this is gold for AI search.

The Takeaway

If AI is recommending you for the wrong stuff, your website isn't specific enough. Or worse—it's saying something you don't mean anymore.

Look at your own site and ask: Is there a page I built a year ago that no longer reflects what I do? Could someone read this and think I offer something I've moved away from? Could they think I serve an area I don't?

AI is reading your site right now. It's deciding what you do, who you serve, and whether to recommend you. And unlike a human, it won't call to clarify. It'll just make a guess based on whatever it finds.

Make sure what it finds is what you actually mean.

And if an elderly woman from Shreveport calls about her dog's Instagram, at least you'll know exactly which page to fix.

Jessica Boggio is the founder of Sage Media, a local marketing studio in Gladewater, Texas. She builds websites on Wix Studio and manages Google Business Profiles for tradespeople across East Texas. She does not manage Instagram accounts for dogs—but she does think your dog is probably very cute.