Generative Engine Optimization: How to Rank on ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity

When I was in Lisbon last November, a friend of mine invited me to hike the mountains of Madeira with him. He warned me that the trails get pretty slick and that I needed good hiking shoes.

In the past I would have gone to Google and searched for best hiking boots for Madeira and I would have seen a bunch of ads and irrelevant blog content. It would have taken me some time to figure out what the best shoes are and where to buy them in Lisbon.

Today I go to either ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity, and I asked the same question. Instead of getting spammed with ads, I get a direct response to what I needed to know.

This is how search happens in the AI age. Instead of SEO, we have GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). And instead of Google Search, we have ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

They don’t just crawl your homepage. They remember mentions. They retrieve trusted content. They decide who gets featured in that golden snippet of wisdom when someone asks for “the best.”

This guide will show you exactly how to engineer those moments.

Step 1: Understand How AI Chatbots Actually Recommend Brands

Like Harvey Specter says when he plays poker, “I don’t play the odds, I play the man.” Except in this case, the “man” is an AI trained on terabytes of internet data. You need to understand how it thinks to win the game.

Language models don’t index and rank the web like Google. They’ve been trained on enormous datasets (billions of web pages, forums, reviews, help docs, and more) and they generate answers based on patterns they’ve seen in this data.

When a user asks for a product recommendation, there are two ways the model generates an answer.

The primary method pulls from its memory of how brands and products were discussed, reviewed, and mentioned in their training data. If your brand frequently appears alongside relevant phrases (e.g. “hiking shoes for wet climates”) in the data they’ve seen, it’s more likely to be suggested in a chatbot’s answer.

The second method blends in live search results from Bing or Google, especially in AI tools like ChatGPT’s search mode or Perplexity. That means if your brand is ranking high on search or frequently cited in trusted content, you’re more likely to be included in AI responses.

Let’s look at an actual example. Here is how ChatGPT answers the query “What are the best hiking shoes for Madeira”

You’ll notice sources for each answer. The interesting thing is, if you click through to those articles, none of them mention Madeira!

However, they do mention uneven and wet terrains, which is what Madeira is known for (and ChatGPT knows this because it made that association from it’s training data).

So your job is to make your brand unforgettable in the data AI consumes and visible in the sources AI retrieves.

Step 2: Strengthen Your SEO Foundation and Trust Signals

Much of “AI optimization” begins with solid SEO and content fundamentals. Chatbots, especially those using web retrieval, favour brands that search engines deem authoritative and trustworthy.

Here’s what to focus on:

Ensure Crawlable, Indexable Content: Just like Google, AI web crawlers need to read your site’s HTML content. Avoid hiding important info in JavaScript or images. All critical details (what you offer, where you are, why you’re notable) should be visible in the page text.

Demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust): Quality guidelines like E-E-A-T aren’t just for Google. They influence which sources AI considers reliable. AI search overviews favour true experts and authoritative sources. Build content that highlights your expertise: author bylines with credentials, case studies, original research, and factual accuracy.

Maintain Consistent NAP and Info: For local or brand info, consistency is key. Ensure your Name, Address, Phone, and other details are identical across your website, Google My Business, Yelp, LinkedIn, etc. AI tools aggregate data from many sources and heavily favour accuracy and consistency.

Improve Site Authority: Follow core SEO practices: optimize title tags and meta descriptions with natural-language keywords, speed up your site, and get credible sites to link to you. If search engines rank you higher, AI answers are more likely to include you. Studies show pages that rank well in organic search tend to get more visibility in LLM responses.

Practical Takeaway: By solidifying your site’s SEO and demonstrating real expertise, you make it easier for both traditional search and AI systems to recognize your brand. This foundation boosts your chances of appearing when an AI lists “top solutions” in your category.

In short, good SEO is the foundation of AI SEO.

Step 3: Optimize Content for Conversational and Semantic Search

AI chatbots handle queries in a conversational manner. Often, the questions users ask bots are longer and more natural-sounding than typical Google keywords. You’ll want to align your content with this semantic, question-and-answer style of search.

That means creating conversational, helpful content written in plain language that answers the same types of questions people ask LLMs.

Use Natural, Conversational Language: Write your content in the same way a knowledgeable person would speak. Drop the overly corporate tone. AI models are trained on human language patterns, so content that “feels” natural may resonate more. Use intent-based phrases and full questions as subheadings. Instead of a heading like “Gluten-Free Bakery Options,” have “Where can I find a good gluten-free bakery in downtown?” and then answer it conversationally.

Incorporate Q&A Format on Your Site: Add FAQ sections or Q&A pages with questions customers might ask an AI. For example: “What’s the best hiking shoe for rainy weather in Madeira?” and provide a helpful answer that mentions your brand as a solution. Structure it like an FAQ entry, and answer in a neutral, informative tone: “When it comes to Madeira’s rainy trails, XYZ Shoes are often recommended as one of the best options because…”.

Cover Related Semantic Keywords: Ensure your content covers a broad range of terms related to your topic, not just one keyword. AI’s understanding is semantic and it will connect concepts. For a page about hiking shoes, mention related topics like “waterproof boots,” “mountain trails,” “Madeira climate,” etc., so the model fully grasps the context.

Aim for “Zero-Click” Answer Formats: As AI and search increasingly give answers without requiring a click, try to embed the answer (with your brand) in your content. This means providing concise, snippet-ready responses. For example, start a blog section with a direct definition or recommendation: “The best hiking shoe brand for wet trails is XYZ Shoes, known for its waterproof yet breathable design…”.

Practical Takeaway: Think like your customer and the AI. Write down the actual questions a user might ask a chatbot about your industry (“Which…”, “How do I…”, “What’s the best…”) and make sure your website explicitly answers those in a friendly, conversational way.

Step 4: Leverage Schema Markup and Structured Knowledge

While content is king, don’t overlook the power of structured data and official information sources. They help your brand become machine-readable. This step is about making sure AI (and the search engines feeding AI) have a clear, unambiguous understanding of your brand and offerings.

Implement Organization and Product Schema: Use schema markup to define your organization and products on your site. An Organization schema can include your name, logo, founding date, and sameAs links (to your social profiles, Wikipedia page, etc.), helping create a knowledge graph entry for your brand. Product schema can define your key products with reviews, price, etc.

Use Location and Review Schema for Local Trust: For local businesses, implement LocalBusiness schema with your address, geo-coordinates, opening hours, etc., and keep it updated. If the query is location-based (“near Madeira”), Google’s index might reference Google Maps or local pack info.

Feed Data to Official Aggregators: Ensure your brand data is correct in key public databases that AI might use. For example, Wikidata (the database behind Wikipedia’s facts) and DBpedia contain structured facts that many AIs can access. Similarly, if you’re a retailer or restaurant, make sure your information on platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or OpenTable is accurate.

Ensure Content is Machine-Accessible: As mentioned, AI bots primarily ingest HTML text. So, when using schema or other structured data, also present those facts in human-readable form on your site. For instance, if you have an FAQ about being “dog-friendly” in schema, also include a line in a visible FAQ: “Q: Can I bring my dog? A: Yes, we’re dog-friendly!”

Monitor Knowledge Panels and Correct Errors: Periodically check Google’s knowledge panel for your brand (if one appears) or Bing’s local listing info. These often aggregate data from various sources. If you see incorrect info, address it.

Practical Takeaway: Use every opportunity to make your brand’s information clear to algorithms. Schema markup and knowledge graphs ensure that when an AI or search engine “reads” about your brand, it gets the facts straight from a trusted source.

Step 5: Earn Mentions on Authoritative External Sources

Let’s go back to the ChatGPT screenshot from earlier. The brands recommended were Hoka, Adidas and Merrell. But the sources were from Gear Lab, New York Post, and Athletic Shoe Review.

Third-party validation matters more in AI SEO than it ever did in traditional SEO. You can’t just publish your own praise, you need others to do it for you.

Reddit threads. Quora answers. Review sites. “Best of” blog posts. All of these are gold mines for AI models.

And yes, they’re part of the training data.

A well-upvoted Quora answer that casually mentions your product? That’s a permanent breadcrumb. A single blog post listing your brand as one of the best in your category, on a site that ranks well? It could be cited in hundreds of AI queries.

Here’s how to increase off-site signals:

Get Featured in “Best of” Lists and Editorial Content: Identify the web pages that an AI might consider when answering a question in your domain. Often these are listicles or guides (e.g., “Top 10 Hiking Shoe Brands for Wet Climates” on a reputable outdoor blog). Then, pursue inclusion through PR outreach, pitching your product to writers, or improving your offering so it naturally gets picked up in reviews.

Leverage Industry Directories and Listings: Business directories and niche review sites often rank well in search and are commonly scraped by crawlers. Examples include Yelp, Google Maps, TripAdvisor, or B2B directories like Clutch and G2. Make sure you’re present there: claim your profile, keep it updated, and gather reviews if applicable.

Issue Press Releases and Secure News Coverage: Old-school PR is back in play. Distributing a press release about a newsworthy update (a product launch, a big hire, a charity initiative, etc.) can get your brand name published on dozens of websites. For instance, a headline like “Madeira’s XYZ Shoes Wins Award for Hiking Gear Innovation” might get reposted on local news sites and industry feeds. Each of those postings is additional training data showing “XYZ Shoes” in a positive, relevant context.

Publish Thought Leadership: Contribute guest articles or op-eds to respected publications in your niche. Being the author of an article on, say, Outdoor Magazine about “Advances in Hiking Boot Technology” not only gives you credibility, but also places your brand in the byline on a high-authority site.

Cultivate Backlinks and Citations: Continue building backlinks as you would for SEO, but target sites that an AI would consider authoritative in your field (educational sites, well-known blogs, etc.). The more your brand is cited as a source or example in others’ content, the more entrenched it becomes in the knowledge graph of your topic.

To summarize this step: Be where the trusted voices are. The goal is to have your brand mentioned by sites that AIs treat as authorities.

Step 6: Harness Q&A Communities, Reviews, and Social Proof

Your customers and community can become advocates that boost your brand in AI results. User-generated content (reviews, forum posts, social media, etc.) not only influences humans but also feeds the AI’s understanding of which brands are favourably talked about.

Here’s how to leverage this:

Engage on Q&A Platforms: Reddit and Quora are likely part of many LLM training sets, and they continue to rank well in search. Find threads related to your industry and provide valuable answers. Always be transparent and genuinely helpful, not just promotional. Even one well-upvoted Quora answer that includes your brand in context “seeds the AI” with that association.

Encourage Reviews and Testimonials: Reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, G2, Capterra, TripAdvisor (whichever suit your business) create content that AI can learn from. If many reviews mention your product’s strengths (“the grip on these XYZ hiking boots is amazing on wet rocks”), an AI might learn those attributes of your brand. Prompt your satisfied customers to leave reviews, perhaps via follow-up emails or in-store signs.

Leverage Social Media for Thought Leadership: Post informative content on public social platforms. Twitter threads, LinkedIn articles, and Medium posts can rank in search and are often publicly accessible. Social posts also add the dimension of sentiment. Lots of positive buzz about a brand teaches the AI that it’s well-regarded.

Monitor and Join Relevant Conversations: Use brand monitoring tools (Google Alerts, Talkwalker, Mention.com) to catch when your brand or keywords related to you come up in discussions or blogs. If someone on a forum is asking for a recommendation and your brand fits, have a rep step in and reply (tactfully).

Be Genuine and Helpful: Authenticity is key in user-driven communities. AIs can pick up on context. If your brand is mentioned alongside words like “spam” or in downvoted posts, that’s not good. So ensure any engagement is genuinely adding value.

Practical Takeaway: The voices of real users and community experts carry a lot of weight. They create buzz and context for your brand that no amount of on-site SEO can. By actively participating in and fostering these voices, you grow an organic web presence.

Step 7: Monitor, Measure, and Refine Your AI Visibility

Just as with traditional SEO, you need to continuously monitor your performance and adjust strategy. AI discovery is new, so we measure success in slightly different ways:

Track AI-Driven Traffic: If an AI chatbot includes a link or reference to your site (as Perplexity, ChatGPT, and others often do), you’ll want to capture that in analytics. Set up tracking in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for referrals from AI sources. For example, you might create custom channel groupings for referrals containing “openai.com” (for ChatGPT with browsing) or “perplexity.ai”.

Use AI Search Visibility Tools: New tools are emerging to grade your brand’s presence in AI results. For instance, HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is a free tool that analyzes how often and in what context your brand appears on ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Manually Test Chatbot Queries: There’s no substitute for hands-on testing. Regularly ask the AI chatbots the kind of questions where you want your brand to appear. Do this across platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and others. Note what the responses are:

• Do they mention your competitors? Which ones?
• Do they cite sources, and are those sources your website or another site mentioning you?
• How accurate is the info about your brand? Any outdated descriptions?

Analyze Citation Context: If your content is being cited or your brand mentioned, check how. Are you being listed as “one of the options” or does the AI single you out as “the best”? Does it quote a line from your blog? Understanding the context helps refine content.

Measure Changes Over Time: As you implement strategies (new FAQ page, a PR campaign, etc.), see if there’s a corresponding uptick in AI mentions or traffic in the following months. This feedback loop will tell you what’s working.

Practical Takeaway: Treat AI visibility like you would SEO rankings – track it, report on it, and optimize based on data. Over time, you’ll build an “AI report” similar to an SEO report, helping justify the effort and guiding future optimizations.

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Final Thought: You’re Training the AI to Remember You

There’s no secret hack here. No growth loop. No one weird trick. Just good strategy, consistent visibility, and value-packed content.

You’re not just optimizing for an algorithm, you’re shaping what the AI knows about your brand.

Make it easy for the AI to recommend you. Show up in its sources. Speak in its voice. Feed it the facts. And over time, your brand won’t just be findable.

It’ll be remembered.

Need help putting all this into action? You know where to find me.