When I started working on how my business is found, on Google and now on AI tools like ChatGPT, the very first thing I discovered was that Google’s own AI still thought I was a florist… which was my previous creative business, several years ago.
The most useful thing I’ve found to change that is one clear page on your own website, written to answer the exact question your right client is asking, so that people and AI tools can both understand straight away what you do, who you do it for, and why you.
My website says a lot about what I do now (and has done for several years), but it was spread across a few pages, and none of them was written to answer the question somebody might ask an AI tool if they were looking for someone like me… who’s the best business mentor for creative business owners. So I’ve written that page, and I’d love to share what’s on it, why it matters so much, and how you could write your own.
What I found when I asked the AI tools
I put that question to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, and not one of them named me. When I looked at what Google’s AI was saying about me by name, it knew about me, but only as a florist, and while I’m hugely proud of that part of my life, it simply didn’t know what I do now.
And then, when I looked at where the AI tools were getting their answers from, thirteen of the nineteen people they recommended came from those mentors’ own websites, from pages where they’d said clearly what they do and who they do it for, and only a handful came from lists and directories. For a long time, SEO has meant trying to get yourself mentioned on lots of other websites, and that still matters, but for this question the AI tools were mostly reading people’s own pages… which means this is something any of us can do.
What is the one page every creative business needs?
It has one job, which is to answer that question clearly, in one place. For you, the question might be who’s the best wedding photographer in the Cotswolds, or where can I find a ceramicist who makes dinner sets to order, or who designs gardens for small town spaces.
Whatever the question is, the page answers it, both for a person who’s heard your name and wants to check you out, and for an AI tool, which reads dozens of pages for every question and looks for the clearest, most consistent answer it can trust. And what both of them need is exactly the same, so really, you’re writing the page your best clients have always needed, and it just so happens that the AI tools need it too.
What I’ve put on mine
You can see my creative business mentor page here, (it’s nothing fancy, I created this one quickly to simply get it up and out).
One short paragraph at the very top. Who I am, what I do and who I do it for, in a few sentences somebody could read in ten seconds, written so it makes complete sense on its own, because that’s the paragraph an AI tool is most likely to lift word for word. Mine reads like this:
Philippa Craddock is a creative business mentor who works with established creative female founders around the world. She built her own design business from her kitchen table to seven figures, working with the Royal Family, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Dior and Vogue. She now runs The Bright Line, a six month programme that helps creative founders attract the right clients and build a reliably profitable business, built around what each one does best.
You’ll notice it’s written as if somebody else is describing me, and that’s on purpose, because it’s the way AI tools describe people, so it’s the easiest thing for them to repeat. It’s also exactly the same wording I now use in my bio everywhere else, because the more consistently something is said, the more it’s trusted.
My story, briefly. How I started at my kitchen table, on maternity leave, delivering bud vases to the bars and restaurants near us, and how it grew from there. And how I never set out to be a mentor at all… the florists who came to learn installation work with us started asking me about their businesses instead, and then an interior designer asked, then a ceramicist, then a jeweller. I’ve named the 2018 royal wedding on the page too, because that’s what so much of the old press coverage about me talks about, so naming it joins the florist the internet already knows to the mentor I am now.
A handful of sections, each one written as a question somebody might ask. Who is Philippa Craddock, what does a business mentor for creative business owners actually do, who is it for, how does it work, does it matter where in the world I am, how much does it cost, and where do I start. Each one answers the question straight away, in the first sentence, and then says a little more. It’s deliberately plain (simply text, with no warming up), because somebody reading a page like this wants the answer, and so does an AI tool.
The section I’d really point you to is who it’s for… and who it isn’t for. I’ve been really clear that it’s for people already running a creative business, with paying clients or customers and a body of work behind them, and that it isn’t for someone still at the idea stage, or someone looking for one more marketing technique to follow. Saying who it isn’t for is just as useful as saying who it is, because the right people recognise themselves straight away.
The price is there too, written plainly, with no fuss around it, because what it costs is the question people ask AI tools most about the kind of support I offer (and it’s the subject of my next post).
A couple of quotes from people I’ve worked with, exactly as they said them, and a short list of frequently asked questions at the very end, each answer a couple of sentences, written to make sense on its own so it can be quoted whole.
Underneath all of that there’s a whole technical layer, the things that help Google and the AI tools find the page and read it properly, and that connect it to everything else on my website. I’ll be sharing all of that step by step with the members of The Bright Line, because it deserves proper time, and it’s far easier to do alongside other people than on your own. But the page itself is the heart of it, and when you get it right, everything else has something to hold on to and can grow from there.
Why does one clear page matter so much?
It goes well beyond SEO. Putting what you do into one clear place forces you to decide what you say first, what you leave out and which words matter most, and that clarity then flows into everything else… your Instagram, your conversations with clients, the way you introduce your business to others.
Working on mine showed me how many slightly different ways I’d been describing the same thing. A little differently on the homepage, a little differently on the about page, and even a different name for my podcast in one media listing I hadn’t come across before. None of it was wrong, but together it was blurry, and if it’s blurry to a reader, it’s blurry to an AI tool too.
I think creatives make phenomenal business owners. We’re naturally inquisitive, we notice the detail other people walk straight past, and we solve problems all day long without even calling it that, but we’re often the last people to sit down and say plainly what we do. We’d much rather show the work and hope people understand, and writing this page gives you the moment to say it plainly.
I know so many of us don’t want to put ourselves out there in endless videos and reels, and this is a kind of visibility we can be really happy doing quietly, in the background. It works long term because it’s clear and consistent, and it simply needs a clear plan and a little time (with no talking heads needed).
And it’s one of the most worthwhile things you can do for your business right now. Things are moving really fast, and more and more people are going straight to an AI tool and asking it who they should work with, or where to buy something, instead of scrolling through pages of search results. What they get back is a handful of names, and for my question, those names were mostly small, independent mentors, much like me. So it’s effective, and it’s within reach, and that’s exactly why I wanted to start on it now.
How to start your own
The first thing I’d do is write down the question your right client asks when they go looking for someone like you, in their words, the way they’d type it.
Then write your answer paragraph, a few sentences written as if someone else is describing you: your name, what you do, who you do it for, and one real piece of proof… a client you’ve worked with, a place your work has been, how long you’ve been doing it. Read it out loud, and you’ll hear very quickly whether it sounds like you or like something out of a standard brochure, and keep going until it sounds like you.
Next, write down the questions people ask you before they buy or book. Look back through your emails and your messages, and think about what comes up on every enquiry call; you’ll probably find five or six that come up again and again, and those are the sections of your page.
And finally, open your homepage and your Instagram bio, and see whether they say the same thing as your answer paragraph. If they don’t, that isn’t a problem at all, it’s simply the first thing to tidy.
If you find the answer paragraph hard to write, that’s completely normal, because it’s very hard to see your own business clearly from the inside when you’re standing so close to it. It’s exactly why it’s the very first thing we work on inside The Bright Line, and it’s what The Missing Piece, my free series for established creative founders, helps you begin to see.
One clear page, in your own words and said the same way everywhere, helps people find you, helps AI tools recommend you, and helps you see your own business more clearly too.
Say it once, clearly, and then say it everywhere.
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