Morningscore Calls AI SEO Confused. They Are Correct. The Distinction Is Everything.
Morningscore's guide argues that 'AI SEO' conflates two separate things: using AI tools to do SEO work, and getting cited by AI engines like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The guide warns that chasing AI visibility metrics can look like progress on a dashboard while generating zero revenue. For location-based businesses, the guide recommends focusing on which specific prompts trigger your appearance rather than chasing broad visibility.
This demonstrates what I call Metric Substitution Error. The mechanism is that practitioners confuse activity metrics with outcome metrics, then optimize the wrong one. Showing up in an AI answer is an activity. Generating revenue from that appearance is an outcome. The mental model: always trace any metric back to a dollar. If you cannot draw a line from the metric to money, the metric is decorative. This applies far beyond SEO.
Morningscore, an SEO tool company, published a guide distinguishing between AI-assisted SEO work and optimizing to appear in AI-generated answers. They criticize existing coverage as either tool listicles comparing Semrush and Surfer by price, or vague playbooks lacking actionable budget guidance for spending your first $200 monthly.
- Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and type queries related to your business or expertise area, such as 'best [your service] in [your city].' Note whether your business appears in the response. Expected outcome: you establish a baseline for AI visibility.
- Search the same queries in Google and compare which businesses rank traditionally versus which get cited by AI. Expected outcome: you see the gap between traditional SEO and AI citation, confirming they are separate systems.
- Pick one query where you did not appear and create or update a webpage that directly answers that specific question in clear language. Expected outcome: over time, AI engines crawling that page have a higher chance of citing you when the prompt recurs.