If you’ve ever seen a competitor’s brand casually mentioned in a ChatGPT response, you may be experiencing GenAI FOMO. You wonder: how do I get my business mentioned in there, too?
You may be thinking, “Bribery!” Well, no. Fortunately, bribery doesn’t get you very far in the GenAI game. We’re stand-up folks around here.
You can’t pay your way into the model, run advertisements (there aren’t any right now), or directly submit content to OpenAI for inclusion. But you can optimize your website and overall digital presence to increase the likelihood that your brand gets mentioned in AI-generated answers.
Everyone Is Using ChatGPT Now
This is a good thing. Because these days it seems everyone and their pet cat “Frank” is using ChatGPT. According to reports, OpenAI’s user base is approximately 400 million. OpenAI itself estimates that the number of ChatGPT users is now closer to 800 million, which is approximately one-tenth of the world’s population.
Great! Optimizing your web presence for generative search seems worthwhile. But, how do you do it?
As it turns out, there is a remarkable similarity between optimizing for ChatGPT and SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making your website Google-friendly to improve your rankings and increase traffic from Google. The strategies and tactics you need to deploy to earn brand mentions in ChatGPT are similar to those tactics used in SEO.
In this article, we will explore the main ways you can help boost your brand’s presence in generative chat and get those bots talking about your business!
Build Topical Authority in Your Niche
Building topical authority in your business area or niche is one of the most important keys to improving brand visibility in ChatGPT. Topical authority refers to how much authority you have as a go-to source of expertise in a particular subject.
Imagine I am the lead singer in a Pearl Jam tribute band (I wish!). I might build content around the topics of Pearl Jam’s;
- musical style
- history
- songs
- lyrics.
I might also create content around what it’s like to play in a Pearl Jam tribute band. This will help build my topical authority around the topics of Pearl Jam and tribute bands.
To do this in a way that helps build your authority, you should focus on creating comprehensive content clusters. These are groups of blog posts, guides, and pages that all center around a core topic. Each piece should target a related keyword or subtopic and internally link back to a central “pillar” page. This is often known as the “pillar-cluster” or “hub-and-spoke” strategy.
Start by identifying a central area where your brand adds unique value. Then, brainstorm the questions your audience is likely to ask about that topic and create in-depth content to answer them.
For example, if your niche is baked goods in Portland, Maine, create content around pastries, croissants, bagels, and baking methods. You could also write about other culinary topics that interest people from Portland, who may also appreciate baked goods (Did you know we have lobster here?).
It is essential to add your unique perspective and experience because nobody likes a copycat. And that includes ChatGPT. Over time, search engines (and AI tools) will start to associate your brand with that topic, building your authority.
Earn High-Quality Backlinks
Another critical strategy to improve your brand mentions in ChatGPT is earning high-quality backlinks. ChatGPT pulls from sources that are widely cited across the web. You want to be one of those sources.
When your content is linked to by authoritative websites—like those with .edu domains, well-known blogs, or trusted news sources—it signals credibility. The robots (and people, actually) like this.
You can earn backlinks in a variety of ways. For example, you can:
- Contribute guest articles to relevant blogs
- Pitch insights or stories to reporters
- Create valuable, linkable assets like
- Industry benchmarks
- Glossaries
- Checklists
- Calculators
- Infographics
- Create original research
The more authoritative and relevant backlinks you have to your site, the more brand authority you will have in your area.
Get Quoted in Reputable Media
Being quoted in reputable media outlets can have a significant impact. Even a single mention in a trusted publication—especially one with a high domain authority—can elevate your brand’s visibility in both search results and AI-generated responses.
Targeted media outreach, strategic LinkedIn networking, or even podcast guest appearances can lead to these opportunities.
If you’re an expert in your field, start by creating a media kit that includes a short bio, a headshot, and a list of topics you can speak about. Then, pitch yourself as a source to journalists, reach out to podcast hosts, or offer to write guest op-eds. The more your insights are published, the more likely they’ll be seen—and remembered.
Another powerful tool for building backlinks is HARO (short for Help a Reporter Out). HARO is a platform that connects journalists with expert sources. When you sign up, you’ll receive daily emails with opportunities to provide a quote or insight for articles in top publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and TechCrunch.
If your pitch is selected, you’ll often earn a mention and a backlink—boosting your visibility with both search engines and humans. Plus, you helped a reporter out—it’s a win-win for everyone!
Create Original Research
If you’re wondering how to start with original research, begin by surveying your audience or analyzing trends from your own business. For example, a digital marketing consultant might survey 100 small businesses about their SEO priorities or audit 50 local websites to benchmark common mistakes.
You don’t need a PhD or a research department—just a good question, a consistent methodology, and a clear way to present your findings. Turn those results into a blog post, infographic, or downloadable resource, and you’ve created something both unique and link-worthy.
Get Featured on High-Visibility Websites
Sometimes Batman works alone, but you, my friend, don’t have to. Leverage other digital properties that can help you out.
Since ChatGPT was trained on publicly available web data, content from frequently crawled and well-trafficked sites tends to have a more significant presence in its responses. That includes places like Medium, Quora, Reddit, and industry-specific publications.
Contributing to these platforms helps build your public digital footprint in spaces that are likely to be included in future AI training data, just as they have been in the past.
When engaging on user-generated content (UGC) sites like Quora or Reddit, it’s essential to contribute ethically. Because otherwise you’ll likely get banned for being a spammer, and quickly. Also, because being a good person is good.
That means genuinely participating in conversations, offering valuable insights, and avoiding spammy self-promotion. Instead of dropping links, focus on being helpful and building a reputation for thoughtfulness.
Over time, users may organically reference your business or link to your content. And that’s the kind of earned credibility that both people and algorithms trust.
Implement Your SEO Best Practices
Like Google and my seventh-grade English teacher (I received an A, by the way!), ChatGPT favors content that is clear, well-structured, and easy to understand. That’s where SEO best practices come in.
Your technical SEO, content, backlinks (as previously discussed), and local web presence all work together to improve how search engines—and potentially AI—see and categorize your website. These are the four core pillars of SEO strategies:
Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that your website is fast, secure, and easy for robots like Googlebot to crawl. There are many tactics used to improve the technical SEO of your website.
Some of these include:
- having a clean and easy-to-understand site structure/architecture
- fixing errors like broken links
- filling in your metadata like titles and descriptions
- making sure your JavaScript code is viewable by robots (JavaScript SEO).
SEO Content
Content SEO is about creating well-written, keyword-targeted content that aligns with user intent. Not just any content is SEO content or search engine friendly. But there are many ways to make your content SEO-focused.
This includes optimizing titles and meta descriptions for a specific keyword or topic, using proper headings in the appropriate order, and writing clear, engaging copy. Strong content is the foundation for building topical authority.
After all, you may have a well-structured book, but if the story stinks, who’s going to want to read it anyway?
Local SEO
Local SEO is crucial for businesses with a geographically focused presence. For example, if you own a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Portland, Maine, or you have a floral arranging service catering to the Greater Portland, Maine area, local SEO becomes critical.
Optimizing your presence for local search requires several tactics that differ from those used in general or national SEO. For example, you should be optimizing your Google Business profile. Ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across directories and the entire web. And earn (hopefully positive!) local reviews.
For businesses in specific cities—like Portland, Maine—local SEO can make the difference between being invisible on the internet and being top-of-mind for your customers.
Together, these SEO fundamentals—technical, content, links, and local search—increase your visibility not just on Google, but across the wider content ecosystem that AI language models may learn from or mimic.
Let Reiser Digital Help Boost Your Brand For ChatGPT
So bribes are out. You can’t buy your way into a ChatGPT mention—but you can earn it.
By building topical authority, contributing to trusted platforms, creating original resources, and strengthening your SEO foundation, you make your business a natural reference point. And whether it’s search engines or generative AI, being helpful, visible, and credible always wins with the robots. Want help making your business more visible to both search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT? Let’s talk SEO & AI strategy.