Visibility vs Recognition: What AI Sees vs What It Recommends

Why being visible isn't the end goal—and what actually earns trust in AI-driven environments.

I'm used to chasing visibility like my life depends on it. My life never did, but my livelihood…

First-page Google rankings. Extensive keyword research. A little bit of keyword stuffing. Always optimizing for impressions and indexed pages. In the SEO world, if you could show up - preferably in the top three results - you won.

But visibility is just table stakes now. It's the cost of entry. When it comes to generative engines (i.e. search happening in AI environments), recognition is what determines who gets recommended.

Here's the game: Visibility means you're seen. Recognition means you're remembered.

Big difference.

Why this matters (especially now)

Recent data from SEMRush reveals something fascinating about how people actually use AI:

70% of queries typed into ChatGPT have never been asked in a traditional search engine.

Think about that for a second. We're not dealing with the same four search intents that dominated Google for decades:

• Navigational (finding specific sites)
• Informational (learning about topics)
• Commercial (researching products)
• Transactional (making purchases)

Only 30% of ChatGPT queries fit these traditional categories. The other 70% are entirely new!

(Me when I read that: Bruhhh... not a new game to learn)

Yeah. We're talking unique queries that showed me (and you) that people are finding completely different ways to solve problems and gather information.

People aren't searching for just keywords anymore. They're searching for nuance. For context. For you - the way you think, explain, and solve.

But if your content is still optimized for keywords, hashtags, and impressions… you may find that you’re invisible in generative environments. Or equally frustrating - you’re getting woefully mismatched or unqualified traffic. #beenthere

Here’s the truth I want you to sit with this afternoon. You ready?

The old SEO playbook can’t answer questions that have never been asked. To get recommended by AI, you need to be known in context.

That means you have to structure a content strategy that allows you to be both seen AND recognized contextually.

Recognition is the new visibility

You want to show up in AI-powered results? You have to be known for something.

• For your POV
• For your frameworks
• For your signature outcomes
• For repeating your core ideas, consistently, across modes and channels

When AI encounters these novel, never-before-asked queries, it doesn't rely on keyword matching. It draws from patterns, associations, and contextual understanding. It remembers who consistently talks about what, and how they talk about it.

Tbh, it's the reason my website went from being a place where I publish deep thought and personal essays on craft beer to being my new hub for long-form thought leadership - all the things I figure out, apply in my work, and then dole out in bits and pieces on LinkedIn.

That stuff lives on my website now because generative engines are weighing my website pretty heavily in understanding who I am and what I'm about. Which brings me to the next insight I want you to grab:

Recognition is built on structured repetition. Different formats. Same message. Over and over again. 

I created a video version of this post for LinkedIn that I'll float around later in the week. Why? This insight right 👆🏽 here is why.

Once you're recognized, visibility becomes automatic

When you architect recognition:

• AI pulls you into the answer set
• People quote your language without tagging you
• You stop reintroducing yourself in every room
• You become the source

This is the foundation of my work right now - and the shift I'm screaming about from the mountaintops to give solos, micros, and mom and pop shops a running start on AI visibility. We're shifting from prioritizing awareness to building long-term presence.

This is the difference between being found and being chosen.