Get Your Brand Mentioned by ChatGPT

The Search Landscape Has Changed. Are You Ready?

For years, the SEO playbook was simple: find a keyword, create the best piece of content for it, and fight your way to the top of Google’s blue links. But the ground is shifting. With the rise of Google’s AI Overviews and conversational tools like ChatGPT, users are no longer just getting a list of links—they’re getting direct, synthesized answers.

Imagine a potential customer asking ChatGPT, “What are the best landing page builders?” The AI doesn’t just show them a SERP. It gives them a confident, authoritative answer, often listing a few top contenders. If your brand isn’t on that list, you’ve lost a high-intent lead before you even had a chance to compete.

This is the new frontier of SEO. It’s not just about ranking; it’s about becoming a trusted source that AI models cite and recommend. The question is, how do you get your brand into that coveted Mount Rushmore of AI-generated recommendations? The answer is simpler and more direct than you might think: you go to the source.

Reverse-Engineering the AI: Finding the Fountain of Knowledge

Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT don’t pull answers out of thin air. They are trained on vast datasets and, for real-time queries, often pull from and cite recent, relevant content from across the web. These sources are frequently not massive media publications, but active communities where real people are discussing problems and solutions. Think Reddit, Quora, and niche industry forums.

Here’s a practical, step-by-step approach to discovering exactly where the AI gets its information:

Step 1: Ask the Right Questions
Start by asking the AI the exact questions you want your brand to be the answer to. Use queries like:

• “What are the best tools for X?”
• “How do I solve Y problem?”
• “Compare product A and product B for Z use case.”

For example, if you run a landing page builder, you would ask, “What are the best landing page builders for paid ads?”

Step 2: Scrutinize the Sources
This is the critical step. When ChatGPT provides an answer, it often includes citations or references to its sources. Pay close attention to these. You might find it links to a blog post, a news article, or, very commonly, a discussion thread on a platform like Reddit.

In our landing page example, you might discover the AI is referencing a specific thread from the r/PPC subreddit where users debated this exact topic just a few months ago. This is your