How hard is it to show up in ChatGPT answers?
Authored by Simon Andrew for Saint Clair’s, Germany. Simon is director of strategy, copy and clarity at Saint Clair’s. His professional interests include brand strategy, messaging and storytelling - and how these interface with AI Visibility Strategy, GEO and generative content creation.
How visible your brand is within large language models (LLMs) is a question that matters more every day.
Because LLMs are fast becoming the front door to the digital shopping experience.
Increasingly people are asking the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to find, compare and decide on products and services.
The numbers don’t lie.
About 66% of shoppers who purchase more than once a week regularly use AI assistants such as ChatGPT to inform and guide their purchases, with 34% specifically using ChatGPT for initial product discovery. yotpo, July 2025
Nearly two-thirds of consumers are familiar with AI shopping tools, and nearly 60% have used an AI shopping assistant in the past months 6 to 9 months. customerexperiencedive, June 2025
Retail and e-commerce make up the largest segment (27.5%) of LLM market adoption, demonstrating heavy investment and application in this sector. The market for LLM-powered solutions in e-commerce is poised to grow from billions in 2023 to tens of billions annually by 2030. hostinger, July 2025
If your brand doesn't appear in relevant AI queries, you're invisible at the exact moment the shopping journey begins.
And if you’re not there at the beginning of the shopping journey, it’s unlikely you’ll be there at the end of it.
Can you always guarantee your brand will appear in an LLM’s answers?
No.
However, there is A LOT you can do to help your brand show up in the right place at the right time.
And I do mean A LOT.
To be blunt, it can entail a huge amount of work.
But fear not, there are AI tools and good people that can help make it a pleasure.
Before we get to those, let’s begin at the beginning.
You will want to start the process with an…
AI Visibility Audit
Knowing where your brand is right now in terms of generative engine optimisation or GEO entails:
Mapping where and how your brand currently appears in AI-generated answers, and where it’s missing
Assessing fit with your target audiences and the LLMs they actually use
Analysing the sources those LLMs draw on (and whether they cite you)
Checking brand identity fit: is your messaging and brand vibe coming through?
Reviewing competitor presence in audience-relevant LLMs
The above should reveal clear gaps and potential gains you can use to inform…
Your AI Visibility Strategy
Your visibility strategy should include:
An entity map – to help machines understand your company, products, people
An answer cluster plan: questions your audiences want answered
Keyword clusters: human language first, machine-readable second
Citation gaps: sources that mention competitors but not your brand
Content gaps: content areas not addressed by competitors
A content platform: based on your brand conviction and purpose
Content frameworks
Editorial calendar
Compliance considerations
And don’t forget to integrate your GEO with your SEO strategy, because they are complementary.
You bring your GEO strategy to life in your…
GEO + SEO content
Aim for people-first content structured so that it’s easy for LLMs to trust and cite it.
Use expert human SEO copywriters who work with brand-trained AI content assistants
Align tone of voice with your brand
Ensure well-chunked, data-rich structure with clear headings and summaries
Use schema.org markup (e.g. Organization, Person, Product, FAQ) and JSON-LD where relevant
Apply internal linking to related entities and proofs
Localise content in all languages needed for market relevance. Don’t fall into trap of simply translating. Use skilled GEO + SEO mother-tongue writers in each language
And you’re off to the races. But to sharpen your game, you will need to…
Monitor and optimise GEO + SEO
The goal is to stay visible in the continually shifting landscape of LLM models, sources and competitors. To do this you will need:
Ongoing citation monitoring to check your brand keeps showing up in AI answers and citations, correctly
Crawl stats and index health checks
Regular refreshes of cornerstone content
Quarterly review of changes in AI answers
You will also need a technical GEO hygiene checklist
Visibility is achieved through attention to detail so, don’t forget to address:
Access and crawl factors
Make sure bots can access, crawl and index your site
Submit XML sitemaps and verify in Bing Webmaster Tools
Keep site architecture logical, shallow and crawlable; minimise broken links
Entity and knowledge graph hygiene
Define your brand clearly across your site (About, People, Products, Locations)
Use comprehensive, structured data, especially on your About page
Keep NAP (name, address, phone) consistent across directories
Verify and optimise your Bing Entity Search API presence
Aim for citations in trusted graphs (Wikipedia/Wikidata) where appropriate
Content quality & EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority & Trust)
Show clear authorship and contributor info
Publish original research, stats, case studies and expert quotes
Write with semantic depth; avoid keyword stuffing
Prefer long-form, high-value answers that fully satisfy intent
Add transcripts with your video/audio content
Include contextual internal links to related entities and topics
Performance & UX
Ensure pages are fast loading and mobile-friendly
Keep it secure with HTTPS to avoid security warnings
Keep crawl errors low, and sitemaps clean
Use Open Graph and Twitter Cards for rich previews
Make sure canonical tags are used correctly
Authority & distribution
Earn mentions and links from reputable, context-relevant sources
Appear in curated content (industry lists, product roundups)
Keep social profiles active and consistently tagged
Show and connect authorship
Syndicate smartly to avoid duplication issues
Participate in industry events and communities that generate real mentions
Governance & compliance
Maintain transparent policies and trust signals (EEAT)
Meet relevant standards (e.g., SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA where applicable)
Avoid spammy tactics, humans and LLMs both penalise them
And you’re good to GEO!
Do all the above and you’re already way ahead of most brands.
Do it consistently and, more often than not, you’ll be the source LLMs cite and link to.
But, again, it does require a fair bit of work to get the job done, not to mention skill, expertise and capacity.
AI tools like Writesonic and Profound can help.
And if you have limited internal resources, you will also need to get some expert humans in the loop to support you.
If you want a GEO solution that goes hard, give Saint Clair’s, Germany a call.
Or book a FREE GEO MINI-AUDIT.
FAQ
-
The best-performing content types for LLM visibility include:
Structured list posts (listicles): These break information into easy-to-digest chunks and are often picked for direct answers.
Step-by-step guides and tutorials: Clear, process-oriented content helps LLMs provide problem-solving answers.
Comparative content: Content comparing competitors (e.g. "Brand A vs Brand B") helps target ready-to-buy customers.
Use case content: Shows how your product solves specific pain points, helping LLMs connect queries with your brand.
Definition and "What is" pages: Clear explanations and in-depth elaborations attract diverse queries.
Product-led blogs with schema markup: Structured data improves machine readability and citation chances.
Using schema markup like JSON-LD and organizing content in a well-structured, human and machine-readable format significantly boosts visibility in LLM answers. Source: misaias, August 2025
-
SEO and GEO strategies should be monitored and updated regularly, ideally every 3 to 6 months to respond to keyword trends, algorithm changes, and market shifts.
Core elements like keyword research, content optimization, and technical audits require ongoing attention.
Regular refreshes of cornerstone content and quarterly reviews of AI answer changes help maintain visibility.
If targeting high-intent and high-volume keywords, updates should align with performance data and changing search behaviors.
Frequent reassessment helps capitalize on new keyword opportunities and adjust strategies as competition evolves.
This should ensure your brand stays visible in the dynamic landscape of LLM-powered search and e-commerce discovery. Source: seoclarity 2025
-
While measurable visibility in AI search is an obvious measure of success, we should assume that , for privacy-related reasons, there will be huge gaps in data.
For this reason it is advised to look more at business outcomes and human signals.
Business outcomes examples include leads, conversions, sales, and revenue.
Human signals include social shares and traffic, ratings and reviews, and other quantified subjective actions.
Other human signals, such as brand searches and citations, may need a layer of sentiment analysis to determine the degree of success.