To get mentioned in ChatGPT and other AI assistants, you need to be findable (rank in Google and Bing, since AI search tools pull live results from them), understandable (clear, consistent information about who you are and what you do, with structured data) and corroborated (mentioned on many trusted third-party sites like reviews, directories, articles, Reddit and YouTube). That's generative engine optimization, or GEO.
A few years ago, if someone wanted a recommendation, they Googled it and clicked around. Today a growing number just ask ChatGPT: "What's the best CBD marketing agency?" "How much should a small business pay for SEO?" "Which project management tool should a 10-person team use?"
The AI gives them a shortlist of three to five names. If you're not on it, you're not in the conversation.
ChatGPT alone has 800 million weekly users, according to OpenAI (October 2025). Google's AI Overviews reach more than 2 billion users a month. Getting your brand into those answers is called generative engine optimization (GEO), and it's now one of the most valuable things a marketing team can work on.
How AI assistants decide who to mention
AI assistants build their answers from two sources:
- Training data. A huge snapshot of the public web, books and other text, frozen at a cutoff date. If your brand was widely discussed online before that cutoff, the model "knows" you.
- Live retrieval. For anything current, or when web search is switched on, the assistant searches the web in real time, reads the top results and synthesises an answer, often with citations.
For a business, live retrieval is the faster lever, because it means ranking in traditional search still matters a lot. If you don't appear in the search results an AI tool pulls from, you're unlikely to appear in its answer.
But ranking alone isn't enough. When an AI picks which brands to name, it looks for consensus: brands that multiple independent, trusted sources describe consistently. One page on your own site saying you're the best is weak evidence. Five review sites, two industry articles and a Reddit thread saying it is strong evidence.
Where AI answers get their sources
When we looked at which websites Google's AI Overviews cite for the query "cannabis marketing agency," the top sources were dominated by YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Wikipedia and Reddit, followed by specialist agencies and industry sites.
The lesson: AI leans heavily on platforms with real user content and on authoritative reference sites, not just on company websites. Your GEO plan should include all of them, not just your own website.
The 10-step GEO plan
1. Get the SEO foundations right
Crawlable pages, fast load times, clean site structure, and pages that rank for the questions your buyers ask. Make sure you aren't blocking AI crawlers like GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended in your robots.txt (unless you've decided to on purpose).
2. Define your entity clearly
Write one clear, consistent description of your business: what you do, who for, where, and what makes you different. Use it everywhere, on your homepage, About page, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, directories, author bios and press kit. Add Organization schema with sameAs links to all your official profiles. AI models get confused by inconsistency, and confused models don't recommend you.
3. Build pages that answer buying questions
AI assistants get asked comparison and recommendation questions constantly. Create content that answers them directly:
- "How much does [service] cost?" with real numbers
- "[Your category] for [specific audience]," like "SEO for CBD brands"
- "[Option A] vs [Option B]" comparisons
- "How to choose a [provider]" guides, where it's fair to include yourself
Structure them for extraction: question headings, answer-first paragraphs, tables and FAQs. (See what is AEO for the formatting playbook.)
4. Publish original data
AI models love specific, attributable facts. Case study results, survey data, pricing benchmarks and original research give AI something it can only cite you for. For example, our cannabinoid SEO case study contains numbers ($814K in organic revenue, +478% conversions) that exist nowhere else.
5. Get listed on the directories AI reads
For service businesses, that means review and directory platforms like Clutch, G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, GoodFirms, DesignRush and industry-specific directories. For local businesses: Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places and Yelp. These are exactly the sources AI tools pull "top providers" lists from.
6. Collect reviews everywhere
Reviews are third-party corroboration at scale. Ask happy customers to review you on Google and on the platforms that matter in your industry. Mention specific services in your request ("If you could mention the SEO work, that would really help") so reviews contain the terms buyers search for.
7. Show up on Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn
These platforms are some of the most cited sources in AI answers:
- Reddit: answer questions genuinely in relevant subreddits. Don't spam. Real recommendations from real users carry the most weight.
- YouTube: short explainers answering common questions in your niche. Transcripts are text AI can read.
- LinkedIn: articles and posts from your founders and team, plus a complete company page.
8. Earn mentions in "best of" lists and industry media
When someone asks "best X," AI often summarises existing listicles. Find the roundups that rank for your category and pitch to be included. Write guest articles for industry publications. Go on podcasts. Each mention is another vote for your brand.
9. Keep your information fresh
Update prices, services and key facts across your site and profiles whenever they change. Outdated or contradictory information is one of the main reasons AI describes businesses incorrectly.
10. Track your AI share of voice
Every month, ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode the 20 most important questions in your category. Record whether you're mentioned, in what position, how you're described and which sources are cited. Those cited sources are your outreach list for step 8.
We'll run your top 20 buying questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews and show you exactly who's being recommended instead of you.
Book a Free CallWhat about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed standard: a plain-text file at your site root that gives AI systems a summary of your business and links to your key pages. We've added one to our own site. It takes ten minutes, but no major AI company has confirmed it affects what they recommend. Do it, then spend your real effort on steps 1 to 10.
GEO mistakes to avoid
- Blocking AI crawlers by accident. Some security plugins and CDN settings block them by default. Check your robots.txt and firewall rules.
- Keyword-stuffing for AI. Hidden text or prompt-injection tricks aimed at AI crawlers are spam, and platforms are actively detecting them.
- Fake reviews and astroturfed Reddit posts. They violate platform rules and the FTC's rules on fake reviews in the US. They also tend to get discovered.
- Inconsistent business information. Different service lists, prices or descriptions across platforms confuse models.
- Ignoring traditional SEO. If you don't rank, live AI search can't find you.
GEO is SEO plus reputation
Strip away the acronyms and GEO comes down to this: be easy to find, easy to understand, and widely recommended by others. That's what good marketing has always been. AI just checks your work more thoroughly.
At Hello Bleu, AEO and GEO are built into every SEO package, so you rank on Google and get named when buyers ask AI. If you want help, book a free call.
Usage figures: OpenAI DevDay, October 2025; Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings call. AI Overview citation sources for "cannabis marketing agency" based on Hello Bleu's analysis of Google AI Overview citations (US, October 2026).
Frequently asked questions
Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. There's no paid placement inside ChatGPT's organic answers. The way to appear is to build the signals AI systems rely on, which are strong search rankings, clear entity information and widespread third-party mentions. Be wary of anyone selling "guaranteed ChatGPT placement."
Where does ChatGPT get its information about businesses?
From two places. The first is its training data, a large snapshot of the public web. The second is live web search, which it uses when a question needs current information. Live search results draw heavily on traditional search indexes, which is why ranking in search engines still matters for AI visibility.
How long does it take to show up in AI answers?
When ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Overviews use live search, you can appear soon after your pages rank for relevant queries, often within weeks. Showing up in answers drawn from a model's training data takes much longer, because it depends on the next model update and on how widely your brand is discussed online.
Does Reddit help with AI visibility?
Reddit is one of the most-cited sources in AI answers for product and service recommendations. Genuine participation helps, like answering questions in relevant communities and being recommended by real users. Spamming threads with self-promotion gets you banned and can hurt your reputation.
What is llms.txt and do I need one?
llms.txt is a proposed standard. It's a plain-text file at the root of your website that summarises who you are and links to your most important pages, in a format designed for AI systems to read. It's cheap to add and may help some AI tools understand your site, but no major AI company has confirmed it uses llms.txt for ranking. Treat it as a nice-to-have, not a strategy.
How do I check if ChatGPT mentions my brand?
Ask it the questions your customers ask, such as "best CBD marketing agency" or "how much does SEO cost," with web search on and off, and record whether you're mentioned, how you're described and which sources it cites. Repeat across Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode. AI visibility tools can automate this at scale.