The Kaymak blog
What AI recommends, and why.
Field notes on how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity pick the local business they name, and on what the rest of the growth stack actually costs.
AEO for HVAC contractors: when the internet is wrong and you are right
The federal 25C tax credit ended on 31 December 2025, but most of the web still promises homeowners $2,000 back on a heat pump. That gap between what changed and what the corpus knows is the clearest citation opportunity in home services.
August 10, 2026 · 6 min read
The four numbers that decide whether a clinic grows
The average practice loses six figures a year to no-shows while paying $150 to $400 to acquire each new patient. Acquisition is the expensive lever. These are the cheaper ones, and the numbers you need to find them.
August 7, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for med spas: your best marketing asset is invisible to AI
Before-and-after galleries are the industry's primary selling tool and an answer engine cannot see any of them. The two questions patients actually ask, is this safe and what does it cost, are the two most med spas never write down.
August 6, 2026 · 8 min read
Meta ads for clinics: your pixel is probably not compliant
A standard Meta Pixel install on a healthcare site transmits data it should not, and Meta will not sign a BAA. Here is what that means in practice, what you can and cannot show, and what actually works on the platform.
August 5, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for plumbers: being the name AI gives at 2am
The 2am plumbing search is the lowest-deliberation, highest-intent query in local business. Nobody reads your website. They read one sentence and dial, which makes visibility a data problem before it is a content problem.
August 4, 2026 · 6 min read
AEO for chiropractors: when the AI has read the guidelines too
Ask an answer engine whether chiropractic works and you get a careful, hedged reply. That hedge is your strategic situation, and the clinics that match what the evidence actually says get cited while the ones that overclaim get contradicted.
August 3, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for real estate agents: you cannot win the property search
Portals own every listing query and no agent will outrank them. What is left are the two questions portals cannot answer: how to choose an agent, and what it is actually like to live somewhere. Plus a commission rule that changed in 2024 and a web that has not caught up.
July 31, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for roofers: winning the “best roofer near me” answer
Contractor fraud reports rose 38% from 2023 to 2025, and the official advice to homeowners is to reject the door-knocker and go research instead. Researching now means asking an AI, which makes the answer the new vetting step.
July 30, 2026 · 8 min read
AEO for veterinary practices: the question before the question
Pet owners do not start by asking which vet to use. They ask whether this is an emergency at all. Meanwhile a 2026 study found online price transparency in US small animal practice is virtually nonexistent, in a category where cost is the top reason care is declined.
July 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Google Ads for clinics: the click is not the problem
Dental keywords run about $8 a click and $73 a lead, but the average new patient costs $150 to $400. Almost all of that gap is created after the click, and most of it is fixable without touching the ad account.
July 28, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for law firms: AI took the free consultation
The free consultation was the top of the funnel, and answer engines have absorbed it. The upside is that bar advertising rules push firms toward exactly the kind of substantiated specificity that gets cited.
July 27, 2026 · 7 min read
Why Google keeps suspending trade business profiles
Google applies a lower tolerance to contractors, roofers, plumbers, locksmiths and movers than to almost any other category, and a mass suspension wave in April 2026 hit thousands of service area businesses. Here is what triggers it and how to get back.
July 24, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO for therapists: getting recommended when clients ask AI for help
Google quietly stopped answering “therapist near me” with AI, coverage on health provider-finding queries went from 100% to 0%. That is not a reprieve. Here is where the decision actually moved.
July 23, 2026 · 8 min read
Why your practice is not showing up on Google Maps
The map pack decides more of your new patients than your website does, and most practices are losing it on things that take an afternoon to fix. Including one rule about review replies that is specific to healthcare and widely broken.
July 22, 2026 · 7 min read
How to remove a bad Google review
Usually you cannot, and the move most owners reach for first is now a federal violation carrying penalties up to $53,088. Here is what Google actually removes, how to request it, and what to do with the ones that stay.
July 21, 2026 · 6 min read
How to get more Google reviews, and the tactics that are now illegal
A federal rule took effect in October 2024 with civil penalties reaching $53,088 per violation, and a lot of standard review advice has been quietly illegal ever since. Here is what you can still do, and what actually works.
July 17, 2026 · 6 min read
AEO for dentists: how to become the practice ChatGPT recommends
When someone asks an AI what dental implants cost in their city, Google answers with AI Overviews 97% of the time. Here is what decides which practice gets named, and what to change first.
July 16, 2026 · 8 min read
How to get your business mentioned in ChatGPT
A checklist, in order, with the steps that do nothing marked as such. Starts with the one most businesses skip: ChatGPT finds candidates through Bing, not Google.
July 9, 2026 · 7 min read
How ChatGPT decides which local business to recommend
Your page is not competing to rank. It is competing to survive a shortlist you never see. Here is the actual sequence (fan-out, retrieval, filtering, generation) and where a local business wins or loses at each step.
June 30, 2026 · 7 min read
AEO vs SEO: what actually changes for a local business
Pew tracked 68,879 real Google searches. When an AI summary appeared, clicks fell from 15% to 8%, and only 1% of people clicked a link inside the summary. Here is what that changes, and what it doesn't.
June 18, 2026 · 9 min read
What is answer engine optimization?
SEO got you into a list of ten links. AEO gets you into the one answer an AI gives. Here is what actually changes, and what stays the same.
June 9, 2026 · 2 min read