If you care about brand visibility and organic reach, then you’ve most likely invested a lot of time and effort in search engine optimization. You’ve done research with tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, established backlinks, and tracked results with Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
The good news is your investment in SEO most likely paid off. Recent statistics show that 49 percent of marketers report organic search delivers the best ROI of any marketing channel. The bad news, however, is that ranking on Google and other search engines is no longer the holy grail of visibility.
Statistics also show that huge numbers of consumers are shifting away from Google and other traditional search engines and embracing AI-driven search platforms. If you want to rank in organic search moving forward, you need to look beyond traditional search engines and embrace digital marketing strategies that tell you how to rank on ChatGPT.
The rise of AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.) and AI overviews
ChatGPT, which launched in late 2022, introduced the world to the concept of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or GPT. A GPT allows users to search for information in a more intuitive way, using natural-language prompts and context-rich conversations to get the information they are seeking. Whereas search engines like Google use a query based on keywords like “PR firms in my area,” AI engines use prompts like, “I’m a small business in the Tampa, Florida, area looking for an affordable PR firm with proven results that can help me build my brand authority.”
Consumers quickly embraced AI search tools, making them the “new front door to the internet.” Today, ChatGPT alone has over 2 billion registered users and approximately 800 million weekly active users. And other tools like ChatGPT, including Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity, account for at least another 1 billion users.
In addition, AI search is also now playing a key role in traditional search engine results. Google’s users, for example, are given AI overviews at the top of search results pages approximately 50 percent of the time.
Why AI search is changing SEO forever
With traditional SEO, keywords were the key to ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Optimize for a specific word and you have a good chance of being visible in searches targeting that word. With AI-powered search, it’s not that easy to drive visibility.
ChatGPT search isn’t scouring the internet for sites that rank highly for a given keyword and providing links to those pages, but rather answering the question posed to it based on the knowledge it has learned from the Large Language Model (LLM) used to train it. The approach is changing SEO forever because it provides answers that are based on factors like brand experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, rather than solely on the presence of certain words.
What LLM optimization means for brands and marketers
Because LLMs are now the primary influencers of search results, brands that want to see themselves included in generative AI results must adopt new content strategies. The new goal is to create content that answers the questions users are asking ChatGPT. Content that provides direct, concise answers will have a higher likelihood of becoming part of the responses AI models generate.
Still, providing an answer isn’t enough to improve AI rankings. ChatGPT doesn’t just give a list of options. It provides a focused, reliable AI-generated response.
Before an AI search result will recommend your brand, it must decide that the content you provide is reliable. To prove that, brands need to learn not only how to rank on ChatGPT but also how to structure and present their content in ways that build trust.
Do an AI search on how to get included in ChatGPT’s search results, and you’ll get a long list of strategic steps, from big-picture goals like “build authority” to detailed action steps like leveraging schema markup, understanding search intent, and structuring your content in ways that models like. While each element has merit, finding the specific formula for getting your particular brand in ChatGPT responses can be complicated.
The following explores the specific steps Otter PR recommends for developing the type of content AI systems prioritize.
How to rank on ChatGPT and earn brand mentions: Otter PR’s unique approach
Otter PR has been able to achieve impressive AI search rankings by focusing on a two-part strategy for providing content to LLMs, which has led to valuable traffic from ChatGPT and other AI search platforms. The first part involves creating content that highlights our strengths; the second involves ensuring there is strong third-party support for the claims we make.
We are one of the best PR firms in the world, but we are not one of the biggest. Consequently, we know that striving to appear in AI-generated answers for “top PR firm” is not a realistic goal. (At least not, yet.)
Alternatively, we work hard to improve rankings by sharing content that highlights our strengths. This includes, for example, preparing content that shows how we are a top PR firm in Florida, a top PR firm for the technology industry, one of the best-reviewed PR firms, and one of the fastest-growing PR firms in the world. Ask ChatGPT for recommendations in any of those categories, and you’ll see Otter PR as one of the recommendations.
When sharing content about our brand, we make sure to share it across as many channels as possible. Every website or platform that echoes your message adds weight to it. Digital marketing guru Neil Patel recommends this type of promotion as a way to improve your SEO, or “Search Everywhere Optimization.”
To ensure your brand benefits from the work you are doing to promote your strengths, you also need to ensure you have third-party verification of the claims you make in your original content. Remember, ChatGPT looks for content that is trustworthy. Third-party support for your claims makes your brand a trustworthy source of content.
Using traditional search queries to optimize your appeal to LLMs
Traditional search makes it easy to find analytics on the amount of third-party support you have. When you search for “Otter PR top PR firm,” for example, you get results from news sources, awards companies, social media platforms, and our own website. If the only results you get for your brand are your own media, then you will have a difficult time convincing ChatGPT that your content is trustworthy.
We’ve learned that a brand’s blog posts can be an excellent way to improve AI search appeal, especially when they include citations with links to authoritative sites. Press releases are another excellent way to build authority, as they can often be promoted by news sites.
One additional step you can take to learn how to rank on ChatGPT and in AI search results is to reverse engineer your content marketing by looking at the justification AI search results provide. By learning why certain brands were included in results, you can adjust your strategy to provide the same type of content in the categories where you desire to rank, as well as identify areas for improvement that can help you expand your search visibility.
How to get started with AI SEO through Otter PR
The steps outlined above are proven strategies for boosting your visibility, but they are not easy to implement. That is where a top PR firm can help.
Otter PR knows how to get brands third-party support for their claims, as well as help them secure the awards that boost authority (and the great reviews that drive those awards). We do it for clients in every industry every day. When you partner with us, we help you to get not only the Google rankings you are looking for, but also the AI search rankings you’ll need to avoid losing visibility as search activity shifts to AI-driven platforms.
