Guide

SEO for ChatGPT

More people now ask ChatGPT to recommend a product than search for it — and it names a handful of brands when it answers. SEO for ChatGPT is the work of being one of them. It’s the same discipline as classic SEO, aimed at the answer instead of the ranked link — and the same work carries across Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google’s AI answers.

How ChatGPT SEO works

1. STEP 1

   Find the prompts that matter

   Start from the questions your buyers actually type into ChatGPT — not keywords. We map which prompts trigger a recommendation in your category, and whether ChatGPT names you or a competitor.

2. STEP 2

   Be readable to the model

   ChatGPT’s browsing and its training sources have to be able to read and parse you: clean rendering, crawlable content, schema, fast pages. If the model can’t extract you, it can’t cite you.

3. STEP 3

   Write answer-first, sourced content

   The GEO research is clear: content that leads with the answer, cites sources, adds statistics and quotes credible authorities gets cited more. We build pages to be extracted, not just ranked.

4. STEP 4

   Earn third-party mentions

   ChatGPT leans on what the wider web says about you. Earned mentions and discussions on sources the model trusts move citation status more than any on-page tweak alone.

5. STEP 5

   Measure citation status, then compound

   We track whether ChatGPT names you, for which prompts, versus competitors — from a baseline — and refresh on a cadence so the gains compound.

FAQ

What is SEO for ChatGPT?

SEO for ChatGPT is the practice of getting your brand named and cited when ChatGPT answers a question in your category — instead of only ranking on Google. It’s the same discipline as classic SEO (technical health, authoritative content, earned mentions) pointed at an answer engine rather than a results page. It’s also called AI SEO, GEO or AEO.

How do I get my brand mentioned in ChatGPT?

Make yourself readable to the model, publish answer-first content backed by sources and a named author, and earn third-party mentions the model trusts — then measure whether ChatGPT actually names you and close the gaps. Salient runs that whole loop for you, with a human approving everything that ships.

Is ChatGPT SEO different from Google SEO?

The fundamentals overlap, but the target and the metric differ. Google SEO wins a ranked link; ChatGPT SEO wins a citation inside the answer. And ChatGPT isn’t the only surface — the same work carries to Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google’s AI answers, which is why we track all of them.

Can you guarantee ChatGPT will cite me?

No honest provider can guarantee a model’s output. What we can do is measure your citation status from a baseline, move the factors the research shows matter, and show you the change per prompt per engine — so progress is visible, not promised.