Growth log, October 2026: AI still skips us
Our first monthly growth log: Claude named sbw studio in 0 of 8 answers, cold email got no replies, and the answers cited directories and lists we're not on.
In October, AI still didn't recommend sbw studio. On 2 November we asked Claude, with web search on, the eight questions a customer might ask when looking for a studio like ours, and it named us in 0 of 8 answers, the same as in early October. Most of its answers cited a directory or a list of agencies, and we are on none of them yet, so that is where November's work goes.
This is the first of our monthly growth logs. We sell help with being found on Google and in AI answers, so we measure ourselves the same way and publish the result, zeros included.
The numbers
The tracker compares today's numbers with its snapshot from 15 October, so that is the "before" column.
| Measure | 15 October | 3 November | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reports sold | 0 | 0 | none |
| Calls booked or clients won | 0 | 0 | none |
| Outreach emails sent | 26 | 41 | +15 |
| Owners who replied | 0 | 0 | none |
| Press pitches sent | 4 | 5 | +1 |
| Press mentions | 0 | 0 | none |
| Data articles published | 3 | 5 | +2 |
| Directory listings live | 0 | 0 | none |
| Social posts published | 6 | 6 | none |
| Followers on Xiaohongshu, Instagram and X | 202 | 202 | none |
| AI answers that name us | 0 of 32 | 0 of 8 | none |
| Target keywords in Google's top 100 | 0 of 18 | not measured again |
The two AI counts are different checks. On 7 October we asked four assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude) the eight questions, which made 32 answers. On 2 November we asked Claude alone, so the fair comparison is Claude's own eight answers from 7 October: 0 of 8 then, 0 of 8 now. The Google count is from 5 October; it uses a paid service, so we haven't run it again.
What we did
We published five articles, at least one a week, each built on our study of how AI assistants recommend local businesses, in English and Chinese. One answers a question from our own AI check: how a dental clinic finds out what ChatGPT says about it.
We connected Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and started a weekly check of every page on our sites. We emailed local businesses about what AI says about them, and pitched our findings to the press.
What worked
Google now has our English articles. In mid-October several of them sat at "discovered, not indexed", meaning Google knew the page existed but hadn't added it. By 2 November every English journal article was in Google's index. Most of the Chinese versions are still waiting.
The weekly rhythm held. Every article went out on schedule, and each one passed the same checks before it went live.
What didn't, and why we think so
Cold email didn't work. 41 first emails, each with one follow-up, brought no replies, so we ended the trial on 27 October, earlier than planned. Our reading is that an unasked-for email about AI search, from a studio nobody has heard of, is easy to ignore, however useful the finding inside it.
The press pitches have brought no mentions so far.
AI still doesn't name us, and Claude's answers point to why. In most of the eight, it cited a page where someone else had already sorted the field for it: an agency directory, a software directory, or another agency's list of agencies. The question about dental clinics, the one we wrote an article for, was answered from other pages. We have no directory listings yet, so those pages don't know we exist.
The names also moved. Almost none of the agencies Claude named in November were ones it named in October. The shortlist isn't fixed, which is good news for anyone not on it yet, but it also means one check tells you little on its own.
Search Console shows that people still find sbw.studio almost only by searching our name. The first Chinese searches for Melbourne SEO have appeared, far down the results.
What we change in November
- Put our studio on the agency directories that answers like these cite, starting with GoodFirms, which Claude cited on 2 November.
- Ask Google to index the Chinese versions of our articles.
- Keep one article a week, each answering a question people ask, and link the new ones to the older ones.
- Ask the eight questions again on the first Monday of December, and report the result here, zero or not.
We also set ourselves five real reviews by the end of November (why reviews may not come first for us). We have none yet, and we'll say in December's log whether we got there.
How we measured
The numbers come from our own tracker, which records every email, pitch, article and post. The AI check is eight fixed questions asked of Claude with web search on, recording whether it named or cited us and who it named instead; eight answers is a small sample, so read it as a direction, not a score. Our study of 733 AI answers about 12 local businesses is on our findings page.
To run the same check on your own business, the steps in what ChatGPT says about your dental clinic work for any trade, or get the report.