So you’re watching your Google traffic tank while ChatGPT is out here recommending your competitors to millions of people every single day.
Fun times, right?
Look, I’ve spent the last year reverse-engineering how brands actually show up in Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. And here’s what nobody’s telling you: 80% of this is just good SEO you should already be doing. The other 20%? That’s the stuff that separates brands getting hundreds of AI-generated recommendations per day from brands that are completely invisible.
I’m not going to sell you a course. I’m not going to make you watch a 3-hour webinar about “barely applicable fluff.”
This is a checklist I go through for my LLM SEO agency you can actually use today.
And yeah, some of this is going to sound familiar because surprise surprise, LLM SEO is still… SEO. But there are some NEW variables that matter now that didn’t matter 2 years ago. And if you’re ignoring them, you’re basically handing your competitors free traffic.
Let’s get into it.
On-Page Foundations (Or “Why Your Website Probably Sucks For AI”)
Here’s the deal with AI. It’s not magic. It’s not some completely different algorithm. Sure, LLM’s have some ranking factors that are more important.
When ChatGPT or Claude comes to crawl your website, it needs to understand THREE things very quickly: what you do, who you are, and where you’re based. If any of those things are unclear? You’re invisible.
Build Entity-First Pages
Every page on your website should clearly define one main entity and 3-5 supporting entities.
For example, let’s say you’re a boiler installation company in Manchester. Your page needs:
- Main entity: Boiler installation (service type)
- Supporting entities: Vaillant (brand), Gas Safe Register (certification), Manchester City (location)
That’s it. Three entities. Very clear.
Now here’s where most businesses mess this up. I was looking at a dentist website the other week. Roads Street Dental in Oldham. Their page title? Just “Roads Street Dental.” That’s it. No mention of “Oldham” anywhere.
So when someone searches “What are the best dentists in Manchester?” in an AI overview, Google needs to know: (a) you’re a dentist, (b) what services you provide, and (c) that you’re actually in the area.
If your page title is just your business name with no context? Good luck ranking.
Pro Tip: Go look at your top 5 most important pages right now. Do they clearly state your service + your location in the first sentence? If not, fix that today.
Use Semantic Triples (Make It Stupid-Easy For AI)
Semantic triples are just a fancy way of saying: make your sentences crystal clear.
Bad example: “Kelvin Newman helped found the Brighton SEO in 2010.”
Good example: “Kelvin Newman founded the Brighton SEO conference.”
See the difference? The second one is direct. Subject. Verb. Object. No fluff.
When LLMs crawl your site, they extract information. If your sentences are fluffy or vague, the AI struggles. And when AI struggles, it just… moves on to your competitor.
I see this all the time with AI-generated content. Someone dumps a prompt into ChatGPT, gets an article back, and publishes it without fact-checking. The sentences aren’t optimized. They’re not clear. They’re just word soup.
Don’t be that person.
Answer The Question IMMEDIATELY
This one drives me crazy.
I’ll search for “How many solar panels do I need in New York?” and some websites will give me three paragraphs about “well it depends on the size of your house, how many rooms you have, blah blah blah.”
Google doesn’t care about that.
Answer the question in the first sentence.
Here’s a good example: “The average home needs 8 to 13 solar panels.”
Boom. Done. Question answered.
You can explain the nuance AFTER you give the answer. But lead with the answer. Always.
AI overviews tend to quote the first one or two sentences on your page. Make them count.
Internal Linking That Doesn’t Suck
Most internal linking is garbage.
People use anchors like “read more” or “learn more here” or “click here.”
Stop doing that.
GreenMatch does this really well. Before they mention “installing solar panels,” they link directly to their solar panels page with that exact anchor text. “Commercial solar panels” links to their commercial page. “Garden solar panels” links to their garden page.
Everything is direct. You know exactly where you’re going.
Also, don’t just randomly link things. Think about contextual bridges. If you’ve got a page about boiler maintenance, link to your page about carbon monoxide leaks. Why? Because if someone’s getting their boiler maintained, they’re probably trying to AVOID a carbon monoxide leak.
That’s a natural connection.
Pro Tip: Use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to audit your internal links. Find all the “click here” anchors and replace them with descriptive text.
Define Key Terms Like You’re Teaching A Child
Here’s something most people miss: LLMs are kind of dumb sometimes.
Okay, they’re not dumb. But they don’t know your industry jargon.
Let’s say you’re writing about “topical authority.” Most people watching this probably know what that means. But an LLM? It needs to be trained.
So add a definition block or a quote section on your page:
Topical authority is a measure of how comprehensively a site covers a subject.
That’s it. One sentence. Now the AI understands.
I do this on my own website. I’ll have a block quote that says: “Use tools like Screaming Frog to identify thin pages and expand them with rich, detailed content incorporating multimedia and outbound links where necessary.”
Is that for my readers? Maybe. But it’s also feeding information directly to the LLMs crawling my site.
Technical Stuff (That Actually Matters)
Look, I’m not going to bore you with 47 technical SEO tips.
But there are a few things that will absolutely kill your AI visibility if you ignore them.
Crawl Your Site With Screaming Frog
If you haven’t run a Screaming Frog audit in the last 6 months, do it today.
Why? Because if Screaming Frog finds issues, AI bots will find them too.
Broken links. Slow load times. Pages that aren’t being crawled. Duplicate content.
All of that matters.
I was looking at a law firm website recently. They had 26 duplicate pages because both the www version and the non-www version of their domain were being indexed.
That’s a disaster.
Pick one preferred version (usually the www version) and 301 redirect everything else to it. Problem solved.
Pro Tip: If you don’t know how to use Screaming Frog, YouTube it. Takes 10 minutes to learn the basics.
Check Your Sitemap and Robots.txt
When an AI bot like ChatGPT’s crawler comes to your site, the first thing it looks at is your robots.txt file.
Go to your website right now and type: yoursite.com/robots.txt
You should see your sitemap listed at the bottom.
Why does this matter? Because if your sitemap isn’t accessible, AI bots might not crawl your entire site. They might hit a few pages and leave.
And if your important pages aren’t in the sitemap? They’re invisible.
Use HTML5 Semantic Structure
Okay, this one’s a bit technical. But if you’re not a developer, just send this to your dev team:
Use proper HTML5 tags. <article>, <aside>, <main>, <section>, etc.
If you’re on WordPress with page templates, this should take your dev 5-10 minutes to fix across your whole site.
It just makes your content easier for AI to parse.
Schema: Use It Anyway
Hot take: I don’t care what OpenAI says about schema.
Yes, they’ve said “we don’t look at schema, we just look at the content.”
Cool story. Use schema anyway.
Why? Because if you’re trying to rank in Google’s AI overviews AND be seen as a major entity in your niche, schema helps with entity SEO recognition.
Plus, it’s not hard to implement. And worst case? It does nothing. Best case? It helps.
Risk-reward is in your favor here.
Authority Signals (The Sexy 20% Everyone Wants)
Alright, here’s where things get interesting.
This is the stuff that’s actually NEW. The variables that didn’t matter for traditional SEO but matter a LOT for AI visibility.
Get On Listicles (The Consensus Effect)
Let me show you something.
When you search for “best SEO tools” in an AI overview, you’ll see Reddit, Zapier, YouTube, All-in-One SEO, Surfer SEO, Elementor… all getting mentioned.
You know what those websites have in common?
They’re all on listicles.
If I launched an SEO tool tomorrow and wanted to show up in that AI overview, I’d make a list of every website that’s currently ranking. Then I’d reach out to them and ask to be added.
It’s called building consensus.
And here’s the crazy part: you don’t even need a backlink for this to work.
Just getting your brand mentioned on a trusted listicle can influence AI platforms.
Obviously, get the link if you can. But even just a brand mention works.
Pro Tip: Find 10 listicles in your industry that mention your competitors but not you. Reach out. Ask to be included. Provide unique value they can’t get from your competitors.
Brand Mentions WITH Context
This is critical.
It’s not enough to just plaster your brand name everywhere.
You need context.
Bad brand mention: “Brandon Leuangpaseuth is great.”
Good brand mention: “Brandon Leuangpaseuth is an SEO strategist and the founder of the Masterminders conference.”
See the difference? The second one tells AI exactly what I do and what I’m associated with.
When I audit brands, I’ll ask ChatGPT: “What is [Brand X] known for?”
If it comes back saying you’re a plumbing company when you’re actually a bakery? You’ve got problems.
You probably don’t have enough brand mentions WITH context.
Exercise: Go ask ChatGPT right now: “What is [your brand] known for?”
Is it accurate? If not, you need more contextual brand mentions across the web.
Press Releases (For Entity Association, Not Links)
Here’s where people get confused about press releases.
The link from a press release? Pretty much worthless.
But the press release itself? Pure gold for entity association.
Let me explain.
When you put out a press release saying “Brandon Leuangpaseuth recognized as top SEO expert for 2026,” that gets syndicated across AP News, Reuters, and a bunch of other outlets.
Now when AI platforms crawl the web, they see: “Brandon Leuangpaseuth” + “SEO expert” + “2026” all connected.
That’s entity association.
You’re training the AI to understand what you do.
You can use EIN Presswire or BrandPush.co.
Yes, they cost money. But if you’re serious about AI visibility, it’s worth it.
Reviews Across Multiple Platforms (Not Just Google)
Here’s something wild: reviews matter for AI visibility now.
Not just for local pack rankings. For AI-generated responses.
I was analyzing a Law Firm client. They dominate ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini… all of them.
One of the reasons? 487 Google reviews. That’s double or triple their next best competitor.
But here’s the kicker: AI platforms don’t just look at Google reviews.
They look at Yelp reviews. Trustpilot reviews. Justia reviews. Super Lawyers reviews.
Review diversity matters.
So if you’re only focusing on Google reviews, you’re missing out.
Pro Tip: Pick 3 review platforms in your industry (besides Google) and start driving reviews there. For lawyers, that’s Justia and Super Lawyers. For restaurants, that’s Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Wikipedia, Crunchbase, and Structured Profiles
If you’ve got a Wikipedia page, Crunchbase profile, or even just really solid social media profiles (YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram), you’re ahead of the game.
Why? Because these create a knowledge graph for your brand.
When AI platforms see your brand mentioned on Wikipedia, linked to your Crunchbase, connected to your YouTube channel, all with consistent information… they trust you more.
It’s like having multiple sources confirming the same thing.
Build these out. Keep them updated. Make sure your information is consistent across all of them.
Content Optimization (Or “How To Write So AI Actually Quotes You”)
Alright, let’s talk content.
Some of this is going to sound familiar. That’s because good content optimization for AI is… mostly just good content optimization.
But there are a few nuances.
Content Freshness (The Last 6 Months Boost)
LLMs have a recency bias.
Content published or updated in the last 6 months gets prioritized.
So here’s a quick win you can do today: update your top 10 pages with fresh information and republish them.
You don’t need to rewrite the whole thing. Just add new stats, update the date, maybe add a new section.
Then republish.
Metahan tested this and saw positive results within 24 hours in some cases.
Pro Tip: Focus on pages that are already ranking well but could use a refresh. Low-hanging fruit.
FAQs With H3s and H4s (Not Schema)
Everyone’s obsessed with FAQ schema.
And sure, it can help. But here’s what actually works better for AI: FAQ-style questions formatted as H3s or H4s in plain text.
Not in an accordion. Not hidden behind JavaScript.
Just regular H3/H4 headings with clear answers underneath.
Why? Because AI crawlers can parse plain text HTML way easier than JavaScript-heavy elements.
Write your questions like real people ask them. Not like a robot.
Bad: “What is the cost of solar panel installation?”
Good: “How much does it cost to install solar panels in my home?”
See? The second one sounds like an actual human question.
Comparison Tables In The Middle of Content
This one’s interesting.
LLMs have what’s called the “lost in the middle” problem. They pay the most attention to the beginning and end of your content. The middle? They kinda zone out.
So if you’ve got important information like comparison tables or product specs, stick them in the middle of your content.
Use proper HTML tables. Not images. Not JavaScript. Actual <table> tags.
Why does this work? I don’t know the exact technical reason. But Metahan’s been testing this for a year and he sees better citation rates when comparison tables are in the middle.
Pro Tip: If you’ve got pricing, product comparisons, or feature breakdowns, format them as HTML tables and place them mid-content.
Chunking (For Humans, Not LLMs)
Okay, let’s clear something up: chunking is just good copywriting.
People love saying “chunk your content for AI!” like it’s some magical SEO hack.
It’s not.
Look, huge blocks of text suck. They’re hard to read. People bounce.
So break up your paragraphs. Use short sentences. Add bullet points when appropriate.
But don’t do it FOR the AI. Do it for your readers.
Because here’s the truth: ChatGPT can parse a giant wall of text just fine. It doesn’t need you to chunk it.
But humans? We need that white space. We need those breaks.
So chunk your content. But do it because it makes your content better for people. The AI will follow.
Cite Credible Sources (For YMYL Topics)
If you’re in health, finance, or any “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL) topic, you NEED to cite credible sources.
Let’s say you write: “Smoking 15 cigarettes a day can cause X disease.”
Okay, cool. Maybe that’s true. But if you’re not linking to a .gov site or a medical journal backing that up, LLMs will struggle to cite you.
Why? Because they’ve built systems to prevent false information from spreading.
So if you’re making bold claims, back them up with high-authority sources.
Link to government sites. Medical journals. University research.
Pro Tip: If you’re just a local plumber in California, you probably don’t need to worry about this. But if you’re in health or finance? Cite EVERYTHING.
Question-Based Content Strategy
Here’s what the pros do: they collect hundreds or thousands of real user questions from their audience.
Not keyword research. Actual questions people are asking.
Where do you find these? Reddit. Quora. YouTube comments. Your customer support emails.
Then you organize them into topic clusters. You create supporting content. You build out an entire ecosystem of content answering these questions.
And here’s the magic: when someone asks ChatGPT one of those questions, YOUR content is the one that comes up.
Because you’re the only one answering it comprehensively.
Exercise: Spend 1 hour this week finding 50 questions your audience is actually asking. Don’t overthink it. Just compile the list.
The Omnichannel Play (Or “Be Everywhere, Peasant”)
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: you can’t hack AI visibility with just your website.
You need to be everywhere.
And I mean everywhere.
YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Medium, TikTok
When I audit brands that rank well in AI overviews, they all have one thing in common: they’re omnichannel.
They’ve got:
- YouTube videos
- LinkedIn posts
- Reddit threads
- Medium articles
- Podcast appearances
- Twitter/X presence
- Instagram content
Why? Because AI platforms look at ALL of this.
When ChatGPT sees your name mentioned on YouTube, referenced in a podcast, discussed on Reddit, and cited in a Medium article… it builds confidence that you’re legit.
It’s consensus across platforms.
Look at my own presence. I’ve got my YouTube ranking, my Instagram, my LinkedIn, my Twitter, Facebook posts, blog articles, videos, shorts…
I’m basically being as omnichannel as humanly possible.
Is it more work? Yeah. But that’s how you rank for “best SEO experts 2026.”
You can’t shortcut this.
Reddit and Quora Strategy
Reddit was one of the hottest platforms for AI visibility last year.
Unfortunately, it also got spammed to death. So now you need to be more strategic.
But here’s what still works: genuine participation.
Find subreddits in your industry. Answer questions. Provide value. Build karma.
Then occasionally drop your brand name when it’s relevant.
Same with Quora.
Don’t spam. Don’t self-promote in every answer. Just be helpful and let people discover you naturally.
Pro Tip: Spend 30 minutes a week in 2-3 subreddits answering questions. That’s it. Low effort, high return.
The Google Knowledge Panel Effect
If you can get a Google Knowledge Panel for your brand or your personal name, you’re golden.
It means Google (and by extension, AI platforms) have enough consensus about who you are to create a dedicated panel.
I’ve got one for my name. It shows my YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, blog posts, videos…
All in one place.
How do you get one? Be consistent across platforms. Have a Wikipedia page if possible. Get mentioned in news articles. Build that omnichannel presence.
It takes time. But it’s worth it.
Testing & Monitoring (Know If This Crap Is Working)
Alright, so you’re doing all this work. How do you know if it’s actually helping?
Here’s how to test.
Ask ChatGPT What Your Brand Is Known For
Easiest test ever.
Open ChatGPT and type: “What is [your brand name] known for?”
See what comes back.
Is it accurate? Is it what you WANT to be known for?
If ChatGPT says you’re a plumbing company when you’re actually a bakery, you’ve got major problems.
Pro Tip: Don’t just test in ChatGPT. Test in Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity too. They often give different answers.
I tested this with my own conference. ChatGPT said we’re an exclusive SEO conference created by me and James Dooley. Pretty accurate.
Claude said we’re the UK’s leading SEO conference with 250+ attendees from 25+ countries. Also accurate.
If all the LLMs are saying the same thing? You’ve built good consensus.
Track Your Brand Mentions With Google Alerts
Set up Google Alerts for:
- Your brand name
- Your personal name
- Your product names
- Key phrases you want to rank for
This way, every time someone mentions you, you get notified.
Why does this matter? Because you want to monitor what’s being said.
If there’s a false narrative spreading, you can quickly put out a press release or article correcting it.
Also, it’s just good to know when you’re being mentioned.
Check Citation Sources in Perplexity
When you see a brand crushing it in AI overviews, reverse engineer them.
Search for them in Perplexity. Look at the citation sources Perplexity is using.
Are they on Justia? Super Lawyers? Yelp? Industry-specific directories?
Make a list of those sites. Then get YOUR brand on those exact same sites.
80% of those citations are platforms you can also get listed on.
Pro Tip: Treat citations like a roadmap. AI is literally showing you where to get mentioned.
Use The GEO Brand Audit Tool
One of the guys I’ve been learning from built a free ChatGPT tool called “GEO Brand Audit.”
You just type your brand name into ChatGPT and it measures:
- Overall brand knowledge
- Core focus
- Entity associations
- Accuracy
It runs about 25 questions to generate results.
It’s completely free. And it gives you a baseline for how well ChatGPT understands your brand.
Pro Tip: Run this audit every 3 months to track improvement.
Quick Wins (Do These Today)
Alright, enough theory. Here’s what you can knock out this afternoon.
First, update your most important 5-10 pages with fresh content and republish them. Change the date. Add new stats. Maybe add a new paragraph. LLMs have a recency bias so the last 6 months matter more than anything.
Second, add 3-5 FAQ-style questions at the end of your top pages using H3s or H4s. Write them like real people ask questions, not like a robot. Answer them directly underneath. No schema needed, just clean HTML.
Third, check if your brand is mentioned on any listicles in your industry. Google “[your industry] + best tools” or “[your industry] + top companies.” If you’re not on those listicles but your competitors are, reach out to those sites and ask to be added. Provide unique value they can’t get elsewhere.
Fourth, run your site through Screaming Frog and fix any broken links, duplicate content, or crawlability issues. If AI bots can’t crawl your site properly, nothing else matters. This is foundational.
Fifth, Google your brand name plus words like “best” or “top” and see what comes up. If you’re not showing up in any AI overviews or traditional results, that’s your first content gap to fill. Start creating content around those searches.
These aren’t magic bullets. But you can do all five in a single afternoon and you’ll be ahead of 90% of your competitors.
What Actually Matters (Real Talk)
Look, I’m not going to lie to you and say LLM SEO is some completely different game.
It’s not.
Most of this is just doing good SEO properly, being everywhere you can be, and making it dead simple for AI to understand who you are and what you do.
The brands winning in AI overviews aren’t using secret hacks. They’re doing the boring work consistently.
They’re:
- Updating content regularly
- Getting mentioned in the right places with context
- Building reviews across multiple platforms
- Showing up on social media
- Not having garbage technical SEO
Is it more work than traditional SEO? A little bit. The omnichannel stuff is definitely more effort.
But is it worth it?
Depends.
If your competitors are getting mentioned by ChatGPT to millions of people every day and you’re not, then yeah, it’s probably worth it.
If you’re in a niche where AI isn’t really being used yet, maybe hold off.
But here’s what I know: AI search isn’t going away. ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of users. Google’s pushing AI Overviews hard. Perplexity is growing.
This is the direction everything’s moving.
So you can either get ahead of it now while it’s still relatively easy, or you can wait until everyone’s doing it and it’s 10x harder.
Your call.
Do the checklist. Track your results. Adjust as needed.
Now go get to work.
— Brandon (The Guy Who Doesn’t Gatekeep)
P.S. – If you want to connect with me or see what I’m working on, head over to brandonleuangpaseuth.com. And if you found this helpful, share it with someone who needs to read it. No opt-in required. Just helping people rank in AI.
