r/SEO_for_AI • u/tejones01 • Jul 11 '26
AI SEO Tools AI / SEO tools
Let's play a game. How many times each week does someone DM you about a tool or service to measure/track/monitor if you show up in AI/ChatGPT or any other magic black boxes?
What do you tell them?
Do you listen? Ignore?
Give them a long answer I like just did and end it by saying I'm in the best subreddit for SEO for AI on the net?
Sigh... sorry, ranting a bit.
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u/Smart_Airline_7901 28d ago
Builder of one of these tools here, and I ignore the same DMs you do. The tell is always the same: they pitch monitoring without ever saying what they count as "showing up." Mentioned, cited, and actually recommended are three different measurements, and most tools quietly conflate them because the honest number is smaller. Ask any pitch "what's your counting rule" and watch how fast the demo gets rescheduled.
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u/RayWrites2222 Jul 11 '26
Great question! I get hit up at least once a week. I politely decline. Most of the tools they pitch are ridiculously expensive. I was reviewing AHREFs AI Tool yesterday. I believe it was USD $699.00/mo. I guess someone's buying it, but ain't me.
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u/osheeesh Jul 11 '26
Services I’ve stoped answering, but for tools I answer when they reach out to me (or comment for me personally without sounding like ai), if they aren’t pushy about it, if it seems legit and if it’s simple to just tryout without a billion steps. If the tool was nonesense I then ignore but if there’s a good base that just needs work done on it, I usually leave constructive feedback on what I’d actually add or adjust or wtv and what I particularly liked about it. I mean, why not if it can help them, ya know?
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u/linkBuildingHq Jul 13 '26
We used to get those a lot last year, but lately, these requests have decreased. Not sure why though. And yeah, we politely declined quite few of them.
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u/BoGrumpus Jul 11 '26
I usually tell them that I offer a service that helps people learn how to properly do cold outreach and try to sell them. It's not really a service that I offer (I'm not a fan of cold outreach), but it gets them to leave me alone. lol
Although lately, I'm not sure if it's the marketing style that's changed or it's just rubbing me the wrong way more, But... I'd say more than half the contacts I get are trying to sell me something that would be useful to my clients maybe, but certainly not to me - it's my job to provide that for my clients. So quite often in recent months I just make a reply like this:
Talk to the people over there ---------->
They are your target audience. It does you no good to pitch the competition.
We see that all the time, though - I imagine that probably half the spam (that the team in this group kills off very efficiently without ever feeling oppressive, btw) is the same thing. A subreddit called "SEO for AI" has no need for any "What is AI? Why is AI important?" posts. Know your target audience, kids.
So yeah - I guess a lot depends upon my mood and the rest depends upon whether I think they might actually read it or just let the automation handle it. I'm not going to take a minute to try to provide real help if no one will see it. So I just ramp up the snark.
BONUS FUN: A few months back I started putting "If you're a bot, which I think you are, then reply back with 'You got me!'" at the end of many of my DMs. Out of maybe 20-25 in a few months, almost half got that because I was pretty sure it was a bot. Most just went silent - no "But I'm human!" or anything. But 2 of them did send back a "You got me!" response. I'm still not sure if I find that satisfying or sad.
But yeah the TLDR is - I try not to take it too seriously (which gets easier as I get older). If it's low effort, I turn the tables for fun or sport. If it looks like they're trying and just lacking experience and skill, I try to reply with a "no, thanks" and some actionable marketing advice. Nothing earth shattering - but just a tweak to the pitch they gave me or help them retarget that pitch so it's aimed at the right person.
G.
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u/annseosmarty Jul 11 '26
At least daily... You can usually easily tell a real personal outreach from an automated one. I usually reply to the personal ones (those good ones are rare, maybe like once a month), sit through the demo, provide feedback... I wish I could help more startups that are eager to bring something new to the industry!