Hi all- for the longest most of our customers came from Google search ads, we use to just bid on keywords and we were getting customers quite well. We used to spend around $5k per month on Google ads. Basically bidding on questions customers were searching that was relevant to our business.
However recently we have noticed more and more and people trying to use ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok for finding answers. Most of the time our competitors are showing up here but not us.
So how do I ensure ChatGPT and Gemini is citing my business over my competitors? Any help is much appreciated.
How do I ensure ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini is citing my business over my competitors?
byu/CraftyKick5346 inEntrepreneur
Posted by CraftyKick5346
2 Comments
Google news is that since you are already getting customers via Google search ads, it was clear customers are already searching for these keywords on Google and most likely on ChatGPT etc as well like you mentioned.
Rest is a a combination of your domain topical authority + content you have on your website for the most part. Here are some steps you could take to improve your chances
1. Publish Blogs Targeting Customer Questions: when customers ask questions to ChatGPT etc, its basically running a fan out query behind the scene where its doing a web search for these questions first. If you write blogs on your website answering these exact questions, there is a high likelihood you will show up as a top result in your area for these web searches. This then get picked up by AI. Most of this is automatable these days using good AI tools that connect with Google search console to find questions customers that are already searching for and consistently publishing blogs around these on your website on a weekly basis. The key here is consistency and good content. It might take some time to show results if you website is super low in topical authority. Google builds this over time
2. Get some backlinks: To build topical authority faster so that your blogs actually get picked up as a top result and by AI, you can try getting backlinks to your website from relevant websites like directories etc. One hack is sponsoring conferences, newsletters etc where they are willing to link back to your website. You could also publish studies etc that people might share a lot.
3. Be active on social media : Cross share your blogs on social media and keep your social media active since this is potentially a signal that helps to rank your pages higher
4. Be active on forums, reddit etc: Last but not least, be active where your customers are already active and when relevant answer questions and subtly plug your brand without a link. For AI citations to improve, just brand mentions are enough. You dont need to link it your website per se. This helps because adding urls on forums, reddit can often get your comment removed right away or banned haha
Hope this helps!
You can’t force AI tools to cite you, but you can improve your chances by building strong SEO content that answers real customer questions and getting your business mentioned on trusted websites.