The way people search has changed dramatically over the last few years, but particularly with the rise of AI bots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Co-pilot emerging as discovery channels. So how do online businesses keep up with the times? Is traditional SEO enough to get your website seen in these spaces? How exactly do you get your brand mentioned by ChatGPT?
We delve into how ChatGPT decides what to mention in searches, what content to create and how you should create it, and also how to measure any successes.
So, how does ChatGPT decide what brands to mention?
Keyword rankings or paid ads just don’t cut it when it comes to being mentioned in ChatGPT. It uses machine learning to follow patterns of behaviour and determine which brands to show in its answers. It simply follows what the wider internet has deemed relevant, credible and useful in response to the question(s) asked by the user.
It’s not a case of ChatGPT searching a database of brands to highlight, or showing those brands who have paid to be there like in traditional search engine results pages. Brands need to be easy to understand, show off their expertise and be portrayed as being experts in their industry on other trustworthy websites, and be able to clearly answer the questions being asked or give a solution to the problem being searched.
The information on the brand’s website needs to be consistent and trusted by others in order for ChatGPT to deem it worthy of showing in its results, and the brand should be publicly visible as a reliable source or retailer.
For example, a brand could be mentioned as a solution to a specific problem on a number of different websites, either by experts in that particular field or users of the brand on user-generated websites like TikTok, Reddit or Mumsnet, for instance, and this would lead ChatGPT to ‘learn’ that the particular brand can help when that problem is searched. It’s about solid foundations rather than small optimisations when it comes to getting your brand mentioned in relevant results.
How to increase ChatGPT brand mentions
Let’s break down the signals to focus on to help your brand be mentioned by ChatGPT and other AI discovery channels.
Authority
Showcasing your expertise on your specific products, services or industry, on your own website as well as providing expert commentary for other relevant sites if possible.
Providing original insights that won’t be found anywhere else – make your site stand out from the crowd with individual experiences and commentary.
Creating thought leadership pieces on your site, including new research, videos and insights for your industry that others may refer (and link) to.
Visibility
Listing your business on relevant directories
Being mentioned on other relevant websites across your industry, e.g. partners you work with
Having a strong brand presence across social media platforms, your Google Business Profile and within the SERPs (search engine results pages)
Providing expert commentary for articles and blogs on other sites.
Consistency
Brand name and branding
Contact details
Your brand values and messaging
Relevancy
Ensure your content matches the real user questions being asked, as well as using the correct search intent behind the questions. For example, AI systems will mention brands in the results more often where the intent is commercial, with around 65% of purchase-oriented prompts (e.g. ‘best X product for X) including brand mentions, so it’s important to understand your audience.
Content examples to help your brand be mentioned by AI
In order to appear in ChatGPT responses, you need your content to include clear explanations in Plain English where possible, without marketing jargon or fluff, so it’s easy to understand and obvious what question you’re trying to answer with your words.
The types of content that work well for AI search optimisation include:
How-to content – This type of content teaches the reader a specific skill using clear step-by-step instructions, maybe even video content. It relies on expertise and knowing your audience’s pain points to add value other blog posts might not include.
FAQs – This kind of ‘question and answer’ content feeds really well into ChatGPT responses as it’s super easy to understand the question being asked and answered.
Definitions – Again, definitions of key terms for your industry directly feed into ChatGPT answers as it’s really clear what the question and answer is.
Comparisons – This type of landing page or blog post compares two products or services so can help answer any ‘which is better’ type question being asked of ChatGPT.
It’s really important to make evergreen content if possible, which means it will never go out of date (or at least not for a long time). It’s also key to ensure your content is structured well to make it easy for AI to read and understand, with the main SEO points covered (keyword targeting, headings, meta data, and internal and external linking).
Align with the questions people ask ChatGPT
It’s key to align your content with real user prompts and pain points, so start your research there. You should write your content to directly answer common prompt patterns, such as ‘how do I…’, ‘best…’ or ‘what is…’ and position your brand as the solution where possible.
Where does AI look for signals?
To get your brand mentioned by ChatGPT, it’s crucial to look outside of your own website and push your brand name out into your wider industry to build a great brand reputation online, as well as getting your own house in order for AI to trust your content.
Here’s some examples of where you could target for your brand:
Industry publications
By providing your expert commentary or insights for publications within your industry through Digital PR, or by creating ‘linkable’ content on your own website, such as interesting research or unique observations or experiences, your brand will be mentioned on relevant, trustworthy sites that ChatGPT will see as a signal of your site’s authority. Ideally these mentions would include a link to your site as well to help give your own website a boost.
High-quality blogs and knowledge bases
On your own website, it’s key to create high-quality blog posts that serve your audience. These would be structured, SEO-optimised pieces that clearly give the answers to the questions being asked online.
Knowledge bases provide an organised ‘library’ of information to help users, crawlers and AI bots find and read the information they need quickly and efficiently.
Podcasts, interviews and expert quotes
Demonstrating real experience and insights on relevant industry podcasts and in interviews can be a great way to give your brand more visibility online. Expert quotes provided to journalists writing relevant stories can also have the same impact.
Community platforms and user-generated content
Having your brand mentioned in a positive way on platforms such as TikTok or Reddit can also be an excellent way to boost your brand’s visibility. Users recommending your products or services can, of course, have an impact on sales if mentioned in a viral post, for example, but this is a great signal to ChatGPT that your brand can be trusted.
What not to do
As much as the above provides a helping hand when it comes to building your brand’s trust and authority for AI search, there are no quick fixes or shortcuts as such. It takes real time and effort to build these signals up and should be a long-term brand strategy.
You should avoid keyword stuffing to try and get your content both ranking well and pulling into AI search results – Google and ChatGPT can see through this tactic. Instead, provide clear, concise answers to the actual questions your audience is asking and build up your website’s authority and online brand presence to give off the correct trust signals.
Avoid fake authority signals like spammy backlinks from irrelevant online directories or ‘paid-for’ links, as again, search engines and AI channels can easily detect them.
Measuring your progress
As we’ve mentioned, this is likely to be a slow process, but it should be part of your brand’s long-term strategy to build up authority and trust and gain AI brand visibility.
Signs your brand is becoming more visible online could include:
Higher search volume for your brand name
More inbound mentions from external websites
More links from articles citing your work or brand as a credible source
You can also use tools like Ahrefs to track your ChatGPT brand mentions, as well as other AI sources, as shown below.
Let’s get your brand mentioned in ChatGPT
ChatGPT essentially reflects the public internet’s perception of your brand; it’s used to decide whether to include your brand in its search results, so it’s key to improve your online visibility and website authority to give off the correct trust signals, as well as provide the most useful content you can for your audience.
Getting your brand mentioned by ChatGPT can be a lengthy process if your website doesn’t hold much authority or give off many of those all-important signals currently, or if you haven’t got the credible content there to back it up, but there are ways to improve this, and there’s no better time to make a start than now.
The team at Embryo can help you audit your brand presence using our SEO Supertools and make a start on building that authority, usefulness and trust across your website and the wider online community. Get in touch with the team today for a chat.
