Getting your brand cited in ChatGPT and other AI answers

The SEO work group on buyer prompts, citations versus brand mentions, and the outside sources AI answers draw on.

Updated October 13, 2026

Track the questions buyers ask before choosing a product, answer each one on a page with evidence they can check, and earn mentions on the outside sites AI answers draw from.

Start with buying questions. Eli Schwartz and Nate Turner list the questions that lead to a shortlist and check which brands the assistants name. Nate often finds the cited pages are a company’s existing top posts or homepage.
A citation is not a brand mention. In Kevin Indig’s analysis, ChatGPT cited a page in 87.0% of appearances but named the brand in 20.7%. He tracks both for the same prompts, split by engine.
Make the answer easy to extract. Kevin found pages with headlines closely matching the question were cited more often. Alex Halliday puts key facts in the page’s HTML with a concise answer to each buyer question.
Outside sources carry weight. Ethan Smith saw Webflow named for a designer query through TechRadar and Reddit mentions, and counts YouTube among the most cited domains. Eli shares original findings with publications instead of seeding Reddit.

Group chat with Kevin, Eli, Ethan, Nate, Alex — the SEO work group

Question:

How do you get your brand cited in ChatGPT and other AI answers?

Eli SchwartzAuthor of Product-Led SEO. Former Director of Growth at SurveyMonkey

A citation has value only if it reaches a buyer during a decision. Start by listing the questions customers ask before they choose a product, then check whether ChatGPT and other assistants mention your brand in those answers. A B2B software buyer asking for tools can sign up the same day; a mattress shopper may spend weeks researching. Those two mentions deserve different budgets and different revenue expectations.

productledseo

Then assign the work to the teams that can actually change the answer. Brand and product marketing should make your product category and use cases consistent across the site, social profiles, press coverage, and partnerships. SEO can make useful pages accessible and clear, but PR and customer conversations create the outside evidence that gives those pages credibility. Track the baseline manually if needed, and revisit the same buying questions over time.

productledseo

Skip the vibe-coded Reddit seeding campaign. Have identifiable employees answer real questions in communities where customers already talk. Fake praise can get removed and leave a public record of the attempt.

productledseo

Nate TurnerCo-founder and CEO of Ten Speed. Former VP Demand Generation at Sprout Social

I’d start with the buyer questions that lead to a shortlist, then check which brands and pages ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI answers cite for each one. Prompt tracking is directional because the same buying question can be asked many ways. Kevin King and I have seen those appearances often map to a company’s existing top-traffic posts or homepage, so I’d audit those pages before commissioning a new content program.

YouTube

Then I’d build around the gaps: clear comparison and use-case pages, original evidence buyers can verify, and related guides linked together around the category. Give each page a descriptive heading and a self-contained answer to a specific buyer question. Keep the product description consistent across the site and third-party profiles, and check that crawlers can reach the pages. We’ve seen clients go from zero AI citations to consistent mentions within two to three months after launching a topic cluster, although that is an observed result, not a timeline to promise.

YouTube

Track citation and mention rate for the shortlist prompts alongside qualified pipeline. A citation on a broad definition query has a different business value than one on a vendor comparison.

Kevin IndigWrites Growth Memo. Former Director of SEO at Shopify and VP SEO and Content at G2

I’d build the playbook around two separate outcomes: a source link and a brand name in the answer. In my analysis of 3,981 domains across 115 prompts and four AI engines, 61.7% of citations came without a brand mention. ChatGPT cited in 87.0% of appearances but named the brand in 20.7%, so a citation dashboard alone can overstate brand visibility. Track both for the same prompts, split by engine.

growth-memo

For ChatGPT citations, start with retrieval. In our analysis of 815,000 query-page pairs, the first URL returned by ChatGPT’s web search had a 58% citation rate; the URL at position 10 had 14%. Among pages with headlines closely matching the user’s question, 41% were cited, versus 29% for loosely related headlines. Pick buyer questions where you already appear in search, give each page a headline and section that answer one question directly, and make its evidence easy to verify. Then rerun the same prompt set and inspect which URLs were retrieved, cited, and named.

growth-memo

Alex HallidayFounder and CEO of AirOps. Former Head of Product at MasterClass

The strongest citation candidate is information your business can actually source. We worked with a wine business whose tasting notes and internal material could become specific public pages. The same exercise works with product usage data or an expert interview: ask the questions buyers ask, get a named expert to answer them, and publish the underlying facts where readers and crawlers can find them.

Apple Podcasts

Then check whether the answer engine can extract the relevant passage. Put key facts in the page's HTML, make product descriptions precise, and give each buyer question a concise answer. A page can rank for the topic and still miss the citation because its useful facts are buried in vague copy. The mechanisms keep changing, so test that change against the same prompt set before scaling it across the site.

Apple Podcasts

Eli SchwartzAuthor of Product-Led SEO. Former Director of Growth at SurveyMonkey

Nate’s two-to-three-month citation result is useful, but I would separate early appearances from a durable recommendation. A new comparison page can give an assistant text to cite. Whether buyers and independent sources back up its claims is a separate test.

For each priority use case, ask product and customer teams for one claim buyers care about, plus evidence they can check: product data, an original finding, or a customer account with permission to publish. Put the evidence on an accessible page, then share the finding with relevant publications and communities where people can challenge it. My advice on AI citations has been to build relationships with respected industry publications and present original findings, because independent references carry more weight than a network of pages you control.

productledseo

Ethan SmithCEO of Graphite. Teaches SEO at Reforge and IE Business School

The source mix changes as the buyer gets specific. For “best website builder for designers,” Webflow appeared in an answer because TechRadar and a Reddit thread mentioned it, even though Webflow’s own URL wasn’t first. For “which meeting transcription tools integrate with Zoom,” Otter’s Zoom product page, article, and help-center content provide direct evidence that it fits. I’d map both the broad shortlist question and its feature or integration follow-ups, then decide where outside mentions or owned pages can actually change the answer.

YouTube

YouTube deserves a dedicated slot in that plan. Webflow has roughly 800 videos about tasks people accomplish with its product. In my analysis, YouTube was among the most cited domains in ChatGPT and even more prominent in Perplexity. For a small B2B team, I’d start with videos showing how to complete high-value tasks with the product, plus matching use-case pages and help docs. Webflow reported roughly 8% of signups coming from AI in the case study I shared, so I’d check signups alongside citation and mention rates.

YouTube

Kevin IndigWrites Growth Memo. Former Director of SEO at Shopify and VP SEO and Content at G2

The next question is where to invest across a category. In an analysis of 21,482 ChatGPT citations across 127 prompts, the top 30 domains took 67% of citations per topic, yet concentration varied sharply: the top 10% of domains took 59.5% in education and 16.1% in CRM/SaaS. A small brand in a crowded citation category should choose a narrow buyer subtopic; in a more open category, a set of focused pages can cover more distinct questions. Measure how many distinct prompts cite your domain alongside total citations, since repeat citations on one prompt can hide a narrow reach.

growth-memo

There is also a diagnostic step between retrieval and citation. Across 548,534 pages retrieved for 15,000 prompts, 85% were never cited. If your page is retrieved and skipped, inspect the pages that did get cited for a clearer answer, stronger evidence, or a more useful format before publishing another page.

growth-memo

Ask a follow-up

SEO

3M+ insights

SEO leaders from Shopify, TripAdvisor, SurveyMonkey & 1 more

by Casey Winters

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?
On a narrow set of searches close to a buying decision, with use-case, comparison and integration pages built from what buyers ask sales and support. Scale once a small batch ranks and brings qualified demand.
How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?
Start from the problems buyers describe, size whole topics rather than single keywords, and skip searches incumbents already own. A low-volume query can still earn a page if one deal pays for it.
Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?
When each page answers a distinct buyer question with data the company has. Pilot one page pattern, check quality and indexing, and judge it on qualified pipeline.
When does early content marketing pay off?
Search traffic can appear three to six months after launch. Eli Schwartz budgets 12 to 18 months for SEO to become a dependable channel, while Kevin Indig and Nate Turner expect several quarters. Track sign-ups and sales conversations alongside rankings.

All seo and ai search questions →

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?

On a narrow set of searches close to a buying decision, with use-case, comparison and integration pages built from what buyers ask sales and support. Scale once a small batch ranks and brings qualified demand.

How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?

Start from the problems buyers describe, size whole topics rather than single keywords, and skip searches incumbents already own. A low-volume query can still earn a page if one deal pays for it.

Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?

When each page answers a distinct buyer question with data the company has. Pilot one page pattern, check quality and indexing, and judge it on qualified pipeline.

When does early content marketing pay off?

Search traffic can appear three to six months after launch. Eli Schwartz budgets 12 to 18 months for SEO to become a dependable channel, while Kevin Indig and Nate Turner expect several quarters. Track sign-ups and sales conversations alongside rankings.

Getting your brand cited in ChatGPT and other AI answers

SEO

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?

How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?

Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?

When does early content marketing pay off?

Your ideas, super powered.

Getting your brand cited in ChatGPT and other AI answers

SEO

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?

How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?

Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?

When does early content marketing pay off?

Your ideas, super powered.