How to get any business recommended by ChatGPT (playbook inside)
5.00/5This week’s edition isn’t your typical story of one campaign, one client, one result. It’s the blueprint for surviving the next era of search.
A new discipline will define how brands get discovered in the age of AI.
It’s called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and it’s still early. But the four experts I spoke to are already deep in the trenches 🪖
Daniel Espejo Malagón (ex-Klarna) spotted the blind spot in traditional SEO and built Omnia, the first tool to track AI recommendations.
Olivier Filloux, one of Europe’s first GEO specialists at international SEO agency Eskimoz.
Germain Deflandre, founder of SEO agency Elocos who’s building some of the first tools to reverse-engineer visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Ayoub Rhillane, founder of international marketing agency Rhillane Digital, brings the sharp eye of a generalist and the clarity of a realist cutting through the AI hype.
Together they let me in on the data and insights driving their GEO success. This is their playbook.
Let’s dive in 👇
Is ChatGPT important? Is SEO dead?
Every day, 1 billion questions hit ChatGPT. Google’s market share just dipped below 90% for the first time.
Before you panic, SEO isn’t dead. ChatGPT has 1% of the search market (Microsoft’s Bing has 4%).
But Google is also going AI-first:
- Gemini
- AI Overviews
- AI Mode
AI features dominate Google’s search results. And that’s after featured snippets, maps, shopping results… all are designed to offer answers right in the browser without leaving Google. Just like ChatGPT.
That means only 36% of Google searches send traffic to other websites. And that number shrinks every day as Google’s AI answers grow.
Even more revealing? Almost half of these searches are branded: featuring specific brands and products.
Buyers are finding information and inspiration elsewhere: on social, in email inboxes, and through conversational queries on AI chatbots. Google is increasingly used for the last step to purchase only.
Websites and companies that just offer information online are taking a big hit, and it’s only going to get worse. – Ayoub Rhillane.
At Eskimoz, according to Olivier Filloux, they’re planning for a 25% decrease in traditional search by the end of 2026.
If you’re not generating influence on those channels that come first, you’ll struggle for success on Google too.
🔥 Want your brand recommended by ChatGPT?
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is already reshaping how customers discover, compare, and buy.
The right SEO agency won’t just help you rank on Google, they’ll help you show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and whatever comes next.
🔗 Browse vetted SEO agencies on Sortlist >
Inside the black box: how ChatGPT picks your business
ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI Overviews, Claude and other LLMs all work in the same way. Optimizing for one means optimizing for the other.
To keep it (very) simple: LLMs are a high-tech predictive text. Each has read billions of pages. And its job is to predict what word would most commonly come next.
To recommend your company, it pulls either from this huge memory (static retrieval) or fresh from the internet (RAG).
Static retrieval: ChatGPT’s digital memory
ChatGPT’s base knowledge. It’s a library of everything it read (training data) before its last update (model training).
It’s used to answer questions whose answers don’t change month-to-month – so it doesn’t matter if the information isn’t totally up to date.
Examples
- “What exactly is influencer marketing for industrial products?”
- “Why should my business use cloud accounting?”
Strategic role:
This kind of query is normally about education: top-of-funnel. Answers are hard-to-influence as the models have been trained on the majority of the written word. Adding to that is a drop in the ocean: most businesses shouldn’t focus here.
Search is being rewritten in real time. If you’re not already optimizing for how people discover brands through AI, you’re already falling behind.
Dynamic retrieval (RAG): real-time radar
Here’s where things get exciting: ChatGPT uses Bing’s real-time web results (Gemini uses Google, Claude uses Brave), providing users with the latest information from trusted sources.
That’s what’s used for pre-purchase queries like:
- “What’s the best-rated CRM right now?”
- “What’s today’s average cost-per-click on LinkedIn ads?”
Strategic role:
These are bottom-funnel queries, making them a goldmine for brands. Even better, AI chatbots use search engines (Bing, Gemini, Brave) to answer. The key is getting your company mentioned in those sources.
If I ask, ‘Help me choose the right car, I live in the city.’ ChatGPT starts with static knowledge to guide me towards hybrid cars.
Then ‘What are the best hybrid cars?’ That needs up-to-date data, so it’s pulling in live from Bing.
By the time I’ve picked a Toyota Prius, I’m on Google searching ‘Toyota Prius Brussels’ to find the nearest dealership. – Germain Deflandre
The playbook to get ChatGPT to recommend your business
Static knowledge is hard to influence. But ChatGPT’s real-time answers pull from trusted, authoritative sources you can target. This live retrieval is bottom-of-the-funnel gold, high-intent leads ready to convert.
Here’s exactly how to ensure your brand becomes ChatGPT’s go-to recommendation:
First up: SEO still matters 🚨
Most of ChatGPT’s real-time answers come from content indexed by Bing (Google in the case of Gemini).
So SEO fundamentals are still essential: clean site architecture, strong internal linking, keyword-rich headings, and crawlable content.
If Bing or Google can’t find and understand your content, neither can the AI tools built on top of them. Before you chase hacks and AI tricks, make sure your basics are rock solid.
GEO is really an enhanced SEO, with some specific tactics. When you’re optimizing for SEO you’re optimizing for AI.– Olivier Filloux
The one big hack to appear in ChatGPT
Let’s cut straight to the chase: if you want your brand recommended by ChatGPT, the biggest hack is getting featured on third-party comparison sites. directories, and affiliate “best-of” lists.
When someone asks “What’s the best CRM software?” ChatGPT uses Bing, and checks trusted sites like G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and Forbes. Appearing on these lists puts your brand directly into the conversation.
🥷 Practical steps to hack ChatGPT visibility:
- Dominate third-party comparison sites: get reviewed, ranked, and prominently featured on popular “best of lists” (think directories like G2, Forbes’ “best-of” lists, and affiliate directories). Check what ChatGPT recommends for your category, and get into those pages.
- Create your own ‘Top X’ lists: don’t wait for others to publish: make clear, detailed comparison lists yourself. ChatGPT loves structured content so use numbered lists, tables, and clearly organized comparisons.
Data from Omnia shows that many sources that are used come from directory platforms like G2, Capterra, etc. – Daniel Espejo Malagón
Build authority beyond Domain Authority (DA)
As a system that understands the relationship between words, AI values mentions from authoritative sources, not just links. So less focus on domain authority, more on brands spoken about in respected outlets.
🥇 How to become an AI-endorsed authority:
- Get featured in top media: think Wikipedia, major news outlets like Forbes, BBC, The Guardian, and niche industry publications. You can often pay for features.
- Invest in real Digital PR: publish original research, industry analyses, and thought-leadership content that credible sites are eager to cite.
Website content: conversational is the new SEO
Keyword-heavy phrases are gone. People ask AI conversational, detailed questions.
“Best running shoes achilles pain” ❌
“Which are the best running shoes for over 30s with achilles pain” ✅
Optimize for them.
How to write for AI visibility:
- Conversational pages: make pages mirroring real-life customer questions (like the examples above).
- Structured formats: LLMs prefer easily digestible formats: bullet points, numbered lists, FAQ sections, and clearly structured headings that mirror natural queries.
6 AI SEO hacks (that marketers miss)
And now that we’ve got the basics down, here are some hidden tricks almost nobody knows…
A shortcut to reverse-engineering AI logic? Ask it.
Prompt ChatGPT with:
“Why did you recommend [brand] in this list?”
Or even:
“What criteria did you use to choose these brands?”
“It won’t always be perfect but it will often reveal which sources it pulled from, what attributes it prioritized, and how it’s interpreting your positioning. Use that intel to shape your content and PR strategy” – Ayoub Rhillane.
LLM.txt (the Robots.txt of the AI era)
LLM.txt is a fast-developing way to tell language models which parts of your site to crawl and recommend. Think of it as SEO meta-data but for LLMs – likely to grow in importance in the future. – Olivier Filloux
Know what each LLM pulls from
Not all LLMs pull from the same sources. Perplexity uses its own index and frequently surfaces YouTube videos and Reddit threads. For Perplexity you can:
- Create explainer videos, walkthroughs, or product reviews, especially if you’re in a visual or complex industry.
- Reddit mentions: participate authentically in subreddits where your customers hang out.
– Daniel Espejo
Bing Places = local ChatGPT visibility
ChatGPT pulls its live data through Bing. So, if you’re not optimized for Bing Places, you’re invisible in many local AI queries. This is your Google Business Profile but for AI-driven conversations – Olivier Filloux
Avoid SEO tricks that feel like 2005
Don’t try to “game” the AI with keyword stuffing or thin content. LLMs are smarter than that and getting smarter by the day. Manipulative patterns will eventually be spotted and de-prioritized. – Daniel Espejo
Use the IndexNow API for fast content discovery
ChatGPT’s live retrieval works in real-time but only if Bing has your content. For time-sensitive campaigns (seasonal products, flash sales), use IndexNow to instantly push content to Bing’s index. – Olivier Filloux
The future of AI search (according to the experts)
LLM-powered sessions still make up less than 1% of search traffic, but as Olivier puts it, “the curve is vertical.”
Once it takes off, the old rules break.
Discovery, comparison, and decision collapse into a single chat. “You’ll say, ‘Plan my trip to Greece,’ and your AI books the flights, finds the hotels, syncs your calendar: done.”
Daniel Espejo sees it already happening. “Business owners are asking ChatGPT and Perplexity more and more. If your brand’s not in those answers, that’s a massive problem.”
Search isn’t about clicks anymore. It’s about being the answer.
And if your SEO agency isn’t ready for that, it’s time to find one that is.
