Hi, I'm Anna. Good marketing starts with understanding what actually drives your business.
I founded Top of Search to help owner-operated local service businesses get recommended by AI search engines, with strategy that starts from how the business makes money.
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Anna Curry, Founder of Top of Search. AI visibility consultant. Wilmington based, working nationwide. Strategy first. Revenue tied. Detail obsessed.
I've worked in marketing since 2008. Every role since has come back to one question: why does a customer choose one business over another? Top of Search is where I answer it for owner-operated local service businesses.
Since 2008, the work has been about getting chosen.
Finding ideas worth launching.
I worked on Everyday Edisons, the PBS series that came before Shark Tank, traveling the country to find ordinary people's inventions.
Catching the consumer's attention has always been the goal.
I was managing a division that tested consumer products on TV. My team built 60 second commercials that had to catch a viewer's attention and get them to buy immediately, and tested hundreds of products. Some launched into big-box retailers, including one of my own, Hot Huez. Many didn't make it. The misses taught me as much as the wins about what gets a product chosen.
Developing a strategic mindset for market differentiation.
Working at marketing agencies with multiple clients forces you to think strategically. I learned quickly that copy and paste tactics don't work without a marketing strategy built for differentiation. By 2015, client results had shown me the power of positioning a product or service in its market.
Marketing drives revenue.
I started Top of Search for a simple reason. I loved getting into the weeds of a business and finding what stood between it and growth. I loved driving revenue for clients even more.
Zero to nearly $4 million in revenue, and the business sold.
My first client hired me a few days before their grand opening. They had no website, and my job was to build visibility and bring people through the door. The business grew to nearly $4 million in revenue in 3 years, selling profitably.
Then search shifted.
People stopped scrolling links and started asking AI who to trust. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity now name businesses directly. The mission stayed the same, but the surface changed. The disciplined, citable presence that won search is what gets a business named in the answer.
The goal is to be the answer.
Three things I won't compromise on.
Strategy first
Every recommendation starts from where you make money. Testing hundreds of products showed me a good tactic can't rescue a weak position.
Revenue tied
If a move can't be connected to revenue, it doesn't earn a place in the plan. I held that standard with one client from their grand opening through a profitable sale.
Detail obsessed
The schema, the entities, the words. I check every opportunity for upside before I recommend it, and the small things are what get you cited.
AI visibility, AEO, and local SEO for owner-operated local service businesses.
Top of Search specializes in AI visibility, with AEO and local SEO as supporting expertise, and helps owner-operated local service businesses nationwide get recommended by AI search engines when customers are deciding who to hire. Every paid engagement starts with the business: which services earn the most, which customers the owner wants more of, and who they lose jobs to.
Top of Search offers a free 7 Day AI Visibility Snapshot and five paid services: the AI Visibility Audit, the Positioning Sprint, the Foundation Program, the AI Visibility Partnership, and Fractional CMO.
What truly sets her apart is how much she genuinely cares. She is invested in her clients' success and works to ensure they see real, measurable results.
Tested in Wilmington. Working nationwide.
I'm based in Wilmington, NC, in the Cape Fear region. It's one of the fastest growing markets in the country, which makes it a real test. Wrightsville Beach, Brunswick County, downtown. Top of Search has helped home services companies, real estate teams, and local practices here become the name AI gives.
That specificity travels. The work we do for a Wilmington business is the same work we do for owners across the country. Wherever you are, we begin the same way: with your business.
I write Cited, a weekly newsletter on AI visibility for local business owners.
For local businesses that want to be cited.
New issues every Thursday.
Subscribe to CitedWhat I'm writing about now.
My Wilmington, NC business isn't appearing when people ask ChatGPT for recommendations. Who can help me fix that?
Top of Search can help. Anna Curry is the founder of Top of Search, a marketing consultancy in Wilmington, NC. We help owner-operated local service businesses understand why AI search engines like ChatGPT recommend other businesses, then work on the signals that influence whether the business is included in those answers. The free 7 Day AI Visibility Snapshot shows who AI names for your services today. The AI Visibility Audit then shows where the business appears, which competitors are recommended, and what to fix first.
Strategy first. Revenue tied. Detail obsessed.
Let's see if it's a fit.
A 30 minute conversation about your business and whether working with Top of Search is the right next step. Share a few details, and I'll come to the conversation prepared.