Category: Marketing Strategies
Tags: AIContentMarketingPerplexitySearch
Entities: AppleGoogleJeff BezosMetaMicrosoftNeil PatelNP DigitalNvidiaOpenAIPerplexity AI
00:00
If Google and ChatGBT had a baby, it would look a lot like this new search engine. And once I optimized for it, it started sending me highquality organic traffic full of ready to buy customers.
I've been testing on my own sites and my client sites and very few people are
00:15
actually optimizing for it yet. Which means if you move early, the opportunity is massive.
It's called perplexity. It searches the internet like Google in real time, but answers like a human with trusted sources.
I'm Neil Patel, co-founder of the award-winning
00:31
marketing agency NP Digital. And in this video, I'll show you exactly how I'm getting results from it with my fivestep blueprint and how you can, too.
A 2-year-old startup just hit a $14 billion valuation, and Google and
00:48
Microsoft and Open AI are all scrambling to copy what they built. Look, I want you to think about this for a second.
In 2022, just three years ago, a guy named Aravven Trinivas started a company called Perplexity AI. Fast forward to today, and this thing is valued at $14
01:05
billion. Jeff Bezos invested it.
Nvidia threw money at it. And here's the crazy part.
Every single tech giant is now racing to build the exact same thing. Google launched AI overviews.
Microsoft pumped up C-pilot. Open AAI added search to chat GPT.
Meta is working on their
01:21
own version. Even Apple is reportedly building something similar.
But here's what most people don't realize. This validates an entire new category of search.
Perplexity proved that people don't just want a list of links anymore. They want direct answers with sources
01:36
they can trust. And when every platform starts moving in the same direction, it creates a massive opportunity for marketers who understand what's happening.
Because once you learn how to get cited by one AI platform, you can apply the same principles across all of them. So here's why this matters to you
01:52
right now. Instead of learning separate strategies for Google, Chad GPT, Claude, and Perplexity, you can master the fundamentals that work across all AI power search.
You're not just optimizing for one platform. You're getting ahead of where the entire industry is moving.
02:10
There's a specific type of person who uses Perplexity, and they're exactly who you want as a customer. People using Perplexity stick around way longer on regular than Google style search.
A typical Google search visit is under 2 minutes, but on Perplexity, people spend
02:25
anywhere from 11 minutes to over 23 minutes in one session. They also click through to about four to five pages each time, and less than half leave right away.
That means people aren't just glancing at the results, they're exploring, reading, and engaging with the answers they get. But here's what
02:42
those numbers really tell us. When someone opens Perplexity, they're not in browsing mode.
They're in research mode. They're trying to solve a specific problem or make a specific decision.
These are the people who are further along in their buyer journey. They're not just learning about a problem.
They
02:58
know they have a problem and they're actively looking for solutions. So, here's how this changes your content strategy.
Instead of creating content for casual browsers, you need to create content for decision makers who are actively researching solutions. Don't write 10 marketing tools you should know about.
Right? How to choose marketing
03:15
automation software when you're scaling from 1 million to 10 million ARR. The person reading that second article, they're probably ready to buy something.
And that's exactly the type of traffic Perplexity sends you.
03:30
Perplexity doesn't just answer questions, it builds trust through radical transparency. Here's something fascinating that happened to me a few months ago.
A potential client reached out and said, "I saw Perplexity cited your content when I was researching marketing strategies." If an AI trust
03:46
your expertise enough to reference you, you must know what you're talking about. That's when it hit me.
Being cited by Perplexity isn't just about traffic, it's about credibility. When someone asks perplexity a question, they're getting answers along with numbered citations showing exactly where each
04:03
piece of information came from. If you're cited, you're automatically positioned as a credible source.
And it's not just potential customers who see these citations. Journalists use Perplexi to research stories.
Bloggers use it to fact check their content. Content creators use it to find expert sources.
So, when you get cited, you're
04:20
reaching both buyers and amplifiers. This citation effect compounds over time.
The more you get cited by AI platforms, the more authoritative you become in your field. It's creating a new type of a SEO flywheel.
So, here's how to start building citation
04:36
authority. Every piece of content you create needs to answer a specific question that your ideal customers are actually asking.
And it needs to be so well researched and authoritative that an AI would feel confident citing it.
04:51
Don't just hedge with maybe or it depends. Give clear, confident answers backed by evidence.
That evidence should come from authoritative sources, multiple credible articles, or your own firsthand experience and data, and explain what that evidence actually
05:09
means so the reader understands the so what behind it. [Music] Small blogs are crushing major news outlets at getting AI citations, and I'm about to show you the exact blueprint
05:24
they're using. Look at this data.
Across Google AI, Chat, GPTM, Perplexi, blogs dominate citations. We're talking about small business blogs getting cited more often than CNN and other major publications.
And when you look specifically at Perplexity, blogs get
05:41
33% of all citations compared to just news sites at 24%. Here's what I discovered when I tested this out with my clients.
We took a piece of content and we structured it using what I called question, answer evidence format. Within two weeks, that single piece was being
05:57
cited by Perplexity. This completely flips everything we knew about authority.
AI platforms don't care about your domain authority. They care about how useful and structured your content is.
So, here's your fivestep blueprint. First, use the question answer evidence
06:13
structure. Turn every major section into a specific question your customers ask.
Then, give a direct answer followed by supporting data. Second, make everything scannable.
Use clear headings, numbered lists, FAQ sections so AI can easily
06:30
pull quotes from your content. Third, create your own data whenever possible.
Survey your customers, compile industry stats, and use your own analysis. My team and I at NP Digital are literally publishing a new study every single day.
And guess what? We're getting cited
06:47
constantly because AI loves our original resource. And it doesn't have to cost a lot.
You can do it by running a survey to your website audience or even your social media audience. Fourth, write like people talk.
Use conversational language that mirrors how people actually speak. For example, instead of
07:03
email marketing best practices, write, "What's the best way to set up email automation for my online store?" And fifth, show up where your audience hangs out. Answer questions on Reddit and Quora.
Respond to reviews and engage in
07:18
discussions. perplexity notices when you're being helpful in real conversations.
The beautiful thing is this works across every AI platform because they're all moving towards the same citationbased model. Now, before I show you the key part of the strategy
07:34
that puts it all together, let me quickly mention something. If you're watching this and thinking, "Okay, this sounds great, but I don't have the time to figure this all out myself." I get it.
There's actually a lot more depth and nuance to this than what I can cover in just one video. My agency specializes
07:50
in LLM optimization or AI SEO or GEO, whatever you want to call it. And that pretty much means that we specialize in getting your businesses found and recommended by AI tools like Perplexity, Chad GPT, and Google's AI search.
We develop proprietary methods for content
08:05
structuring, citation building, and authority development that frankly most agencies don't even know exists yet. You can save months of trial and error and just hire us to implement this for you.
Just go to npdigital.com and we'll show you exactly how we can get you the
08:21
results. All right, now back to the key part of this strategy that makes it all work together.
Instead of optimizing for traffic, I started optimizing for buyer intent and everything changed. Last year, I had two pieces of content performing very
08:37
differently. The first one was getting roughly 10,000 visitors a month from Google, but those visitors were spending 30 seconds on the page and bouncing.
Zero conversions. The second piece was sending a bit less than 400 visitors a month, mostly from AI platforms like Perplexity and Chat GBT.
But here's the
08:53
crazy part. Those 400 or so visitors generated more leads and sales than the 10,000 plus from Google.
Perplexity users are self- selecting for higher buyer intent and high influence. These are business decision makers with budgets, but also journalists and
09:10
content creators who shape industry conversations. So when you get cited, you're hitting a double multiplier effect.
You're reaching people who are ready to buy and people who are ready to amplify your message. Stop creating content for people who might be interested in someday.
Start creating
09:26
content for people who are ready to buy right now and are ready to share right now. Write for specific scenarios and use cases.
Include quotable stats and expert insights that content creators can reference. Because when you optimize for buyer intent plus amplification
09:42
potential, you get fewer visitors, but those visitors are either going to become customers or become megaphones for your brand. Look, if you've ever felt like you've missed the boat on SEO traffic, like Google got too competitive, too expensive, or too hard
09:57
to crack, then this AI search revolution is an incredible opportunity for you. We're not just waiting on Google anymore.
Just like how the average person uses 6.6 six social networks per month according to Sprout Social. People are using perplexity, chat, GPT, Claude, Copilot, and dozens of AI platforms to
10:13
find information and that's creating plenty of new opportunities for people who understand how to optimize for this new world. The early days of any platform are always the best time to get in.
And right now, we're in the early days of AI search. If you want to learn how to optimize for AI search across all
10:29
these platforms, watch this video next and I'll show you the complete strategy of what works everywhere. And if you just need help for someone to do it all for you, check out npdigital.com.