Why AI assistants read your text differently than Google

If you've ever written text for your website with Google in mind, you've probably paid attention to keywords. Words that customers type in, appearing a few times in the text, that sort of thing. It worked, and still works to some extent. But more and more people are no longer asking their questions to Google, but to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Copilot. They don't type "plumber Utrecht" but something like "which plumber in Utrecht can come quickly for a leak". That's a completely different way of searching, and it calls for a different way of writing. An AI assistant doesn't search for loose words. It tries to understand the question and provide an answer. To do that, it doesn't just read your website, but also all other places where your business is written about, and tries to extract a coherent picture from it. If your website clearly states what you do, for whom, and why someone should come to you, then there's a better chance that an AI assistant will actually mention you as an answer. What does this mean for your text The biggest difference from writing for Google is that complete sentences now matter. Where with search engines it was often about the right word in the right place, with AI assistants it's about clear, complete information. A sentence like "we repair boilers of all brands, even on weekends" tells an AI assistant more than a list of keywords like boiler, repair, brands, weekend. It also helps to be specific about what you do differently than others. Not in the vein of "the best service", because anyone can say that and an AI assistant can't do anything with it. Rather something like "we visit you within two hours for emergencies" or "we only work with parts of the brand itself". Those are facts that an AI assistant can cite when someone asks for a fast or reliable tradesperson. What you can do today Go to your own website and read the texts as if you were a stranger who knows nothing about your business. Is it clear what you do, for whom, and what someone can expect from you? Or is it mainly about what you'd like people to think of you? It's a small difference, but it's exactly the difference between text that an AI assistant can understand and text that it can't. You don't need to hire a marketing agency for this. It's about clear sentences, concrete facts, and leaving out vague qualifications that don't say anything. Your website doesn't need to have an answer for every question. But for the questions your customers do ask, it helps if the answer is there literally, in plain language.