TaG Makes

TaG Makes AI is already recommending local businesses. The question is which ones. Run your site. See where you stand.

AI Recommendation Optimization (ARO)
Tracking how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity decide who shows up.

I started measuring AI recommendations because clients kept asking me the same question: does any of this actually work,...
07/20/2026

I started measuring AI recommendations because clients kept asking me the same question: does any of this actually work, and can you prove it? I got tired of answering with vibes, so I built the ARO Index to answer with data, then made it free, accessible and informative and TaG Makes does the fixing when the data says a business is invisible. It is 98 degrees, my kid is bored, and I am prepping to pitch this live in Charleston tomorrow (SO SO excited)! Anyone else going? Its at Small businesses deserve a seat on the same discovery board as national brands, thats the mission.

686 Charleston businesses and 1 in 4 are invisible to AI. đź«ĄNot buried on page two, actually invisible. When someone asks...
07/03/2026

686 Charleston businesses and 1 in 4 are invisible to AI. đź«Ą
Not buried on page two, actually invisible.
When someone asks ChatGPT "who should I hire," 166 local businesses simply do not exist, and 54% of the marketing agencies? Also invisible...
The ARO Index published the full Charleston report this week. Link in bio. Free audit if you want your number. AI already decided, The Index just measures it.

Link is aroindex.com/insights -report-2026 for the full report, wondering what AI decided about your small business? Its free to check, no scammy email sign ups, and less then a min for your report, aroindex.com

LOVE being a podcast guest, and SO SO grateful for the awesome conversation and can't wait for the next one, and check o...
06/19/2026

LOVE being a podcast guest, and SO SO grateful for the awesome conversation and can't wait for the next one, and check out Pete's youTube (skillion) for more of his podcasts!

https://youtu.be/IGMpV3URTYI?si=a9Lpc4PJvjc_QJO

My first Charleston Tech Week was AWESOME!! The discussions (on and off the stages) were fantastic, thought provoking, e...
06/15/2026

My first Charleston Tech Week was AWESOME!!
The discussions (on and off the stages) were fantastic, thought provoking, engaging and educational, and I walked away with SO much inspiration and new ideas.
I can not thank the community enough for just letting me be me and being SO welcoming. I had no idea so many AMAZING minds were so close, and I can't wait to get to know you better!!
The tagging list is going to be ridiculous, but thank you DIG SOUTH and Mell Truong for putting together the event, it was beautiful and way beyond my expectations, JT White for introducing me to SO many people, Author for the pointers, Victoria (Tori) Reed, Will Horn and Doug Hamilton, Mike Astle and Lou (Lou, I didn't get to talk to you before you left, but I learned A LOT, thank you!!) for the great insight and blasts from the past with discussions at the CharlestonHacks Hacker Theater (PS, 100/10 recommend, what a wonderful, welcoming group of humans and SO SO much knowledge), thank you Jack Teitel for suggesting it and I can't wait for the next one!

Legit, great discussions all around the pitches were SO COOL, the new things we are doing with tech is amazing, and AI is... well, changing all of it. If I didn't tag you and we met, I apologize, names are NOT my forte (yet), if we didn't get to exchange socials and you want to, please reach out! I love building community and it was a lot at once. Until I see you again!

The face when Charleston’s tech scene shows up and you realize you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.Day 1 of Charl...
06/09/2026

The face when Charleston’s tech scene shows up and you realize you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Day 1 of Charleston Tech Week at with and I am not exaggerating when I say this room was electric.

Standing room only. Purple lights. Real conversations about what’s actually happening with funding, AI, local business, and where this city is headed.

I came from horses and a barn. Now I’m tracking how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity recommend local businesses in real time.

Grateful for every person who showed up tonight and for the community that keeps making this city worth betting on.

Big week ahead. What are you hitting? Drop your must-attend events below and let’s find each other.

I asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend my own business using six different buyer queries. Then I w...
06/08/2026

I asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend my own business using six different buyer queries. Then I wrote about what happened.
The range was 23 to 95. Same site. Same week. Nothing changed.
The 95 came from a query that sounded like a buyer ready to hire. The 23 came from a query that named a city I do not operate in. That gap is not a flaw in the measurement. It is the measurement telling you exactly what AI actually does with your information.

I used my own site for this because when the test subject is yours, you know exactly what is on it. No guessing about what changed between runs. Nothing changed. That is the point.

There is also a second, smaller force in the data: the same query run two days apart returned different scores. Not because the site changed and not because the question changed, but because AI models are not deterministic. Ask twice, get two shortlists. That inconsistency is not a problem to fix, it's a signal to read correctly.

The full breakdown is live at aroindex.com/insights. It explains how to tell the two forces apart, what counts as noise versus a real shift, and why a single ARO Score reading is a starting point not a verdict.
Run your audit and see what your number actually says.

aroindex.com/insights

One thing I dont think enough people are talking about yet is how much unnecessary computation AI systems are doing tryi...
06/03/2026

One thing I dont think enough people are talking about yet is how much unnecessary computation AI systems are doing trying to interpret confusing websites.
Bad structure forces AI systems to work harder to infer intent, working harder = more water, more cooling, more AI use.

What does this company actually do?
Where are they located?
Are they trustworthy?
What services do they actually offer?
Clear websites reduce friction.

Not just for humans, but for AI systems too.
Which makes me think AI Optimization is eventually going to become less about manipulation, and more about reducing confusion. Special thanks to https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/ for the research!

Hi! I just upgraded my agency console on the ARO Index to include client AND competitor tracking and I need people actua...
06/02/2026

Hi! I just upgraded my agency console on the ARO Index to include client AND competitor tracking and I need people actually using it, BEFORE Charleston Tech Week (next week).
First 5 agencies who comment get 15 days free, no card, nothing wild, just full client AND competitor tracking, and a free fix plan included. ARO Index tracks who AI actually selects when someone asks for a recommendation, not just who gets mentioned. The only ask is, feedback (but like, nice) welcome, what's missing, what's confusing, what would make you pay for it.
anyone else doing local tech weeks this month? Oh and do they let you bring your dog (Obv, I would only bring one, 2 is too many)?

Pics of my pack this weekend at James Island Co Park :)

I dont think businesses realize yet that AI systems are creating their own version of “local authority.”Not based ONLY o...
06/01/2026

I dont think businesses realize yet that AI systems are creating their own version of “local authority.”
Not based ONLY on backlinks or rankings, but on whether the business is consistently understandable across different models.
We’ve been tracking recommendation behavior across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity inside the ARO Index, and there are businesses that show up over and over and over again across all 4 systems, and that consistency is not random.

AI likes clarity, the robots want to find the answers quickly.
Clear businesses become easier to retrieve, easier to explain and easier to recommend.

Confusing businesses force AI systems to work harder to figure out what the company actually does, which honestly feels like a terrible long-term strategy considering where search is going.

The ARO Index is not tracking “AI visibility.” It's tracking (and recording AND sharing) recommendation behavior, which ...
06/01/2026

The ARO Index is not tracking “AI visibility.”
It's tracking (and recording AND sharing) recommendation behavior, which is a very different thing.
Most businesses are still asking:
“Do I show up?”
Meanwhile the better question is:
“When someone asks AI for a business like mine, who actually gets recommended? and why?!"

The ARO Index tracks recommendation consistency across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity because different AI systems interpret businesses differently, and the overlap between them is where things start getting really interesting because some businesses show up everywhere, and some businesses disappear entirely.

Most have absolutely no idea which category they fall into, you already have an ARO Score, do you know what it is?

Address

Charleston, SC

Telephone

+18436088724

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when TaG Makes posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to TaG Makes:

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category