Search engine optimization has shifted from traditional organic rankings in AI-generated mentions, citations, and recommendations.
Success with AI optimization boils down to two questions:
- What does the training data of large language models contain about a company?
- What can the LLMs learn about the business when performing live searches?
LLM training data is fundamental to optimizing AI answers, even if the platform runs real-time searches, because the fan-out components stem from what the model already knows.
For example, if the training data indicates that a business is an organic skincare brand, the fan-out component might search for certifications.
Citations
AI answers often include citations (URLs of sources), which come from live searches, not training data. LLMs do not store URLs.
Citations (i) are branded responses that may influence buying decisions and (ii) likely impact the training data containing info on a brand. Thus citations are key to AI optimization.
A consumer considering a skincare brand may prompt Google’s AI Mode for reviews and certifications. The response will likely contain sources.
Here’s an example prompt addressing The Ordinary, a skincare brand:
Is The Ordinary skincare good and certified?
AI Mode’s answer included an advisory warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as links to a magazine article and influencer posts that questioned the ingredients.
A brand cannot control the sentiments of others, but it’s critical to address these concerns on-site to increase the chances of being cited.
Clicking each link in the AI Mode will usually highlight the relevant, sourced paragraph. Then address the question or concern on an FAQ page or a separate article.
For example, the screenshot below is what a competitor stated about The Ordinary’s ingredients. In response, The Ordinary could create a page answering “Is The Ordinary clean beauty?”
Article from TNK Beauty criticizing the ingredients of The Ordinary, a competitor.
Better Content
Hence content marketing has changed. Only a year or so ago, consumers had to research to find answers about brands and products, such as:
- Certifications,
- Alternative pricing or additional rates,
- Countries where products are manufactured or shipped from.
LLMs can reveal these answers in seconds. Brands that remain silent lose control over that sentiment and fail to contribute to the answers.
Moreover, by creating more brand and product knowledge content, companies increase their chances of being surfaced in answers to non-branded, generic prompts.
SEO for AI
Here’s what to do:
- Prompt LLM platforms such as AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude about your business. (“What do you know about NAME?”)
- Note the fan-out directions to signal your brand’s associations in training data.
- Identify third-party citations and their contributions to the answer.
- Ensure your site provides better answers than the third parties.
- Address frequent confusion or irritation about your brand on social media channels.
- Prompt LLMs for your direct competitors and compare the answers to yours.
A few solution providers can track citations for prompts containing your brand.
I use Peec AI, which monitors citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. I can view a report in Peec AI to see the most-cited domains in answers to prompts that include my company.
According to Peec AI’s report, answers to prompts containing Smarty Marketing rarely include our own site! I need to create more content about my brand and products.