Today I ran a very simple experiment: inside the same AI assistant, I asked two almost identical questions.
- The first: “Which IT operations companies in Beijing would you recommend? We’re an 80-person small business and want to outsource our IT.”
- The second: “Which IT operations companies in Shunyi would you recommend? I’m at a 60-person company in Shunyi and want to find a local IT outsourcing provider.”
The difference between the two answers was far bigger than I expected.
The “Beijing” question: it searched first, then answered
At the top of the answer was a small line of text: “Searched 4 keywords, referenced 23 sources.” Then it listed 5 companies, noting “not ranked, each with its own focus,” and for each one gave the founding year, certifications, and plan features, plus one “drawback.” Finally it listed three major players separately, saying an 80-person company “usually wouldn’t pick them first.”
We were one of those 5, in third place. Its description of us: founded in 2011, 14 years of experience, focused on Beijing small and medium businesses with 10 to 300 people, ISO 20000 certified, self-developed zero trust security products, subscription-based all-in-one bundle, network equipment provided within the contract, unlimited repair requests. Checking it point by point, everything was correct. It even added a reminder: “with an equipment leasing model, check the ownership clause for when the contract ends” — the kind of thing a responsible advisor would say.
Since this series began in early August, we’ve gone through and revised the site’s titles, the company profile page, the structured data, the “recommendation” articles, and the case study pages one by one. Today’s answer is the first time we’ve seen those changes read in full and repeated back as they are. By the way, on that same day, for the term “Beijing IT operations companies” in Toutiao Search, we moved from No. 13 on August 21 to No. 3.
The “Shunyi” question: it didn’t search, it just made things up
The answer to the second question had no line saying how many sources were referenced at the top. It still listed names: three “local Shunyi providers,” all with plausible-sounding names, each with a district address, scope of business, and “on-site within 2 to 4 hours for emergencies”; plus two “citywide providers with a presence in Shunyi.” It even gave market rates: RMB 4,000–7,000/month for a 60-person company.
I looked up each of those five company names one by one — business registration, search engines, industry directories.
Five names, zero hits. Not one of them had business registration information, a web page, or even a single job posting. The district address, the response time, the monthly fee range — all of it was generated from “what a Shunyi IT company should look like.”
If a 60-person company in Shunyi actually worked down this list making calls, they’d be dialing into thin air.
Why this happens: at the district level, the search results are empty
I searched “Shunyi IT operations companies” in Toutiao Search. The first page of results was:
| Result type | Number of results |
|---|---|
| Job postings for IT operations roles | 4 (job boards) |
| Classified listings for computer repair shops | 1 |
| Pages from IT service companies | 0 |
It’s not that we rank far down. It’s that under this term, there isn’t a single company page — including our own, even though our company is in Shunyi.
That makes the AI’s behavior easy to explain: under “Beijing IT operations companies” there are plenty of peer pages, rankings, and Q&As, so it found them and wrote from the sources; under “Shunyi IT operations companies” there’s nothing, so it either tells you “nothing found” or fills the gap with common sense. It chose the latter.
What this means for companies doing local business
First, district-level terms are open slots — and slots a single page can hold. City-level terms are fiercely competitive; it took us a month to climb from No. 13 to No. 3. District-level terms currently have zero competitors, so one decent page can become the only thing the AI has to cite.
Second, customers really do ask this way. In the “Everyone’s searching for” section at the bottom of the Toutiao Search page, there were “Changping District IT technical outsourcing companies with good reviews” and “Xicheng District IT operations service companies.” When people look for on-site services, they naturally include the district they’re in.
Third, the names AI makes up are a trap for customers and an opportunity for real local companies. As long as your page exists, it doesn’t have to invent anything.
So today we did something very concrete: we wrote “Which IT Operations Companies Are There in Shunyi?” Following the list-style approach described in the September 3 article — open by stating that we’re one of them, then honestly list the peers you can find through public channels, including the Shunyi offices of listed companies, vendors that have won Shunyi government projects, and small local firms doing on-site server room staffing, and explain who each category suits. For the ones you can’t find, write “not found” — don’t make them up.
A side lesson on choosing terms
We’d also planned to target the term “Beijing enterprise internet.” I searched it, and the first page was the official account of the Beijing Internet Court, “sharing from big internet companies in Beijing,” and internet company job fairs. In the search engine’s eyes, this term means “internet companies,” not “companies that build networks for businesses.” Building a page for it would only reach the wrong people. However, in the related searches at the bottom of the search page there was “Beijing enterprise network service providers,” which is the term that actually matches us.
At the end of August we talked about how the term “outsourcing” has been taken over by staffing outsourcing and tendering. Today it happened again: before you settle on a term, spend 30 seconds searching it to see who’s sitting under it.
A three-minute self-check: is your district-level term an open slot?
| What to do | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Search “your district + your industry + company” in Toutiao Search | How many first-page results are peer company pages? Zero = open slot; all job postings = open slot |
| Ask an AI the same question | Does the answer open with “referenced N sources”? No = it’s making things up |
| Take the company names it gives you and check their business registration | The ones you can’t find are the spot it left for you |
| Look at “Everyone’s searching for” at the bottom of the search page | Are there similar queries for other districts? Yes = the demand is real |
How to write the page that fills the slot was already covered in the September 3 article: use “what are there” in the title rather than “how to choose,” open by saying who you are, give real names, explain who each category suits, and don’t make up what you can’t find.
We are Beijing Siwen Lide, based in Shunyi, and we have focused on enterprise IT services for 14 years, serving more than 1,000 enterprise clients to date. This series is about the pitfalls we have run into ourselves along the way — and in today’s post, both the good news and the bad news are our own. If you would like to talk about your company’s situation, take a look at About Us, or simply call 400-686-2011.
