With more and more people using ChatGPT to ask everyday questions, it’s no longer just about appearing on Google, it’s about being featured in the answers ChatGPT gives.
ChatGPT can mention/ cite brands in two ways when responding to prompts input by users.
The first way is that it can mention a brand in ‘text only’ when it generates an answer from its knowledge gained during initial training. These answers don’t include links to the brand’s website.
The second way is that ChatGPT can perform a live web search to look up information online, and this is when it includes citations (links) to relevant sources.
With 70% of consumers now using ChatGPT for searches, it’s becoming a major source of customer discovery – and that’s exactly why making sure your website appears in ChatGPT results is so important.
Keep reading to discover all about ChatGPT SEO and our tried and tested expert tips to help you gain visibility in ChatGPT search results.
What is ChatGPT SEO?
In simple terms, ChatGPT SEO, also referred to as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), is all about helping your content get noticed and cited by AI tools like ChatGPT.
It’s the process of making your website or articles easy for these systems to understand, trust, and include when people ask related questions. So, rather than focusing purely on how Google crawlers see your pages (SEO), GEO is about thinking about how generative AI models read, interpret, and extract value from your writing.
Below are a number of tried and tested key steps you can do to rank in ChatGPT search results. But if you fancy a bit of help along the way, request your free AEO audit here and one of our experts will analyse your website and provide you with a number of tailored tips to rank in AI results (including ChatGPT and AI Overviews).
How to Rank in ChatGPT Search Results: Our 5 Tips
To rank in ChatGPT search results, follow these 5 tips…
1. Structure Your Content Correctly
It’s important that you organise and structure your content into clear, self-contained sections with concise headings and short paragraphs. The ideal rule of thumb is no more than a couple of hundred words each (and often less), because this makes it easier for ChatGPT to understand and pull out the most relevant information.
Treat each heading like a question, and use the first sentence beneath it to give a straightforward answer or summary. After that, you can expand with any useful context or supporting details.
Talking of structure, it’s also important to use bullet points in your answers, as these help break complex ideas into neat, digestible bites. ChatGPT can easily recognise them as key takeaways or steps, which makes it more likely to summarise or cite your points accurately.
2. Get Brand Mentions
Being mentioned on trusted websites can make a real difference as it helps establish your brand as a credible source of information, which in turn can increase the chances of being cited in ChatGPT’s responses.
Basically, the more often your business or content is referenced by reputable outlets, the stronger the signals of authority and trustworthiness that AI models (and search engines) pick up.
With this in mind, we recommend you look for opportunities to be featured in respected industry publications, digital magazines, and active online communities.
3. Answer the Questions ChatGPT Users Are Likely to Enter
People using ChatGPT tend to ask specific, conversational questions, which it often expands into several related searches to gather the most relevant information.
For example, if someone types “What are the best leggings?”, ChatGPT might explore variations such as “best high waisted leggings,” “best flared leggings,” or “best scrunch leggings.”
This means it’s not enough to focus on one or two broad keywords anymore. Instead, you need to think about the natural, question-based language your audience is likely to use. Write content that directly answers those types of queries making sure they are clear, conversational, and helpful.
To uncover these kinds of natural, question-based search phrases, we use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.
4. Add Original Insights and Experiences
To make your content stand out (and increase its chances of being cited by ChatGPT), include original research, expert commentary, and unique data that competing pages simply can’t offer.
Recent studies into Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) show that content featuring citations, expert quotes, and credible statistics is more likely to be referenced by AI systems. These elements demonstrate authority and help AI models recognise your content as trustworthy and valuable.
5. Ensure Your Site is Crawlable
To be included in answers by tools like ChatGPT, your website must first be accessible to the bots that crawl and index web content. If these bots can’t reach or read your pages, your content won’t be visible for those AI-driven responses.
Make sure you’re not unintentionally blocking AI crawlers. If your robots.txt file or meta tags (like no index) prevent bots from accessing certain pages, those pages won’t be considered as part of the content pool that ChatGPT or similar systems draw from.
Also, by structuring your HTML with clear header tags (H1, H2’s, H3’s etc), paragraphs, lists, and by making sure essential content is part of the initial server response, you can significantly improve the chances of visibility.
If you fancy an SEO audit of your website, which specifically looks at improving your rankings on AI, we can help!
Insert a few details here for your AEO audit, and we’ll have it over to you within 48 hours. We look forward to it!
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