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AI Shortlist Plays / Proof engines can quote

Should we publish how we work as a public method page?

Yes, if your offer is a process. A public method page states your stages, who does what, how long each takes and what the client receives. Without one, an engine describing how you work fills the gap from someone else’s page.

Effort: 3 to 5 hours

Who does it: Head of delivery, with marketing

Best for: Service firms of 20 to 500 people: agencies, consultancies, IT services

Evidence: Early (Google Search Central guidance, read 8 November 2026)

01 / WHY IT MATTERS

Why it matters.

Buyers ask AI how a supplier works before they ask for a call: “What does an audit include?”, “How long does onboarding take?” If your process lives only in a sales deck, nothing public answers that question in your words.

Google’s guidance on helpful content asks publishers to answer “Who, How and Why”, and says “it’s helpful to readers to know how a piece of content was produced” (Google Search Central, read 8 November 2026). No controlled study yet measures method pages and AI answers, so we grade this play Early. It is still the cheapest way to put your own process into the public record.

02 / SELF-CHECK

The 10-minute self-check.

Ask ChatGPT: “How does [your company] work with new clients, and what does the first month include?” Then check:

  • Does the answer match what your sales team says? Mark each point correct, missing or wrong.
  • Is there one page on your site that answers the question on its own?
  • Does that page name the deliverables and the timing, or only adjectives?

Two or more “missing” or “wrong” marks mean the public record is thinner than your process.

03 / STEPS

Steps.

  1. List the stages a client goes through, using names you will keep everywhere.
  2. For each stage write what happens, who does it, how long it takes and what the client receives.
  3. Say what you do not do. It saves both sides a call.
  4. Show one real output, redacted if needed: a sample report, a plan, a dashboard.
  5. Date the page and record changes at the bottom.
  6. Link it from every service page and from your about page.

For our own AI search visibility service, the method is shown through a full sample report.

04 / OUR OWN SITE

What we saw on prolinkage.com.

05 / MEASURE

How to measure it.

  • Method accuracy: the self-check question, each month, scored correct / missing / wrong.
  • Reach: Search Console impressions on the method page.
  • Sales signal: first calls where the prospect already knows your stages.
07 / SOURCES

Sources.

AI Shortlist Plays

The self-check shows what you can see yourself.

What the engines say across repeated runs, which sources they read and who they name instead is harder to see from inside. Our free AI Visibility Snapshot runs a sample of your buyers’ questions and is reviewed by a person.

More than a decade of experience, across businesses and markets.