ChatGPT SEO: Rank on SearchGPT and Perplexity (2025)

We get it, you want to rank in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and all the other SearchGPT products out there. How do you do it? Well, we’ve run a number of tests over the past 8-months. And the results seem to have some hard lines between them. Here’s how we’ve been doing “ChatGPT SEO” and how you can do it too.

Key Takeaways

• What is ChatGPT SEO? ChatGPT SEO (or Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your content to be cited by AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others. It focuses less on traditional keywords and more on unique, information-dense, brand-authoritative content.
• How do you rank in ChatGPT? You need to build external brand signals (mentions, listings, press), publish hard-to-find or proprietary information, and create expert-level pages that demonstrate authority and trust. Think in terms of helping the LLMs “learn something new.”
• What kind of content gets cited? Content that provides high information gain, includes cited research, has structured summaries (like Key Takeaways), and uses rich content elements like tables or listicles. The more helpful and unique your insights are, the better your chances of being referenced.

ChatGPT SEO Cheat Sheet

To rank higher in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any of the other SearchGPT engines, it’s really important to understand a few basics of what you’re really looking at and what the goal of these engines is and are.

Let’s go over the basics those real quick:

• It’s all about information: Since the dawn of Google, they’ve been navigating and collecting the information of the internet. But think about that, the “information” of the internet. LLMs tend to “know everything,” right? So consider this, what’s the machine really on the hunt for? It’s on the hunt for what it doesn’t know. Doesn’t matter if it’s AI Overviews or ChatGPT, they are machines hunting for information.

• Brands always win: Search something in ChatGPT, do you see any small brands mentioned? Typically, no. That means we can confidently say that brand (much like Google ranking factors have indicated for years now, since almost 2015).

• The larger your information clustering, the more likely you are to appear: Some consider this to be “topical authority.” However, take a look at the ChatGPT search results that you get, do you see any “non-expert” websites appearing? No. That’s also the same way that Google wants its search engine to work.

Okay, if you don’t believe me on the above, try it for yourself. Start to do some searching across both the platform of Google and the platform of SearchGPT, Perplexity, or others. In short, they’re working very similarly.

And that’s good news because that means that “ChatGPT SEO” is actually quite similar to regular SEO. Hence why it can be called Generative Search Optimization (GEO) and why SEO teams are still the best choice to drive demand on these platforms.

But how exactly do you do it? How do you “do” SEO on these systems? Pretty simple actually.

Step 1: Build external signals of brand authority

In order to be considered a “trusted source,” which is what both ChatGPT and Perplexity want to cite the most, you’ll need external signals for authority. That doesn’t mean getting backlinks. Those things are probably gone. However, you’re going to need more “hard mentions” of your brand in context for what you offer.

This means that the more publicity and the more coverage or “mentions” that you get as a brand, the greater the signals are going to be and the larger your brand voice is going to make its way over to these SearchGPT engines.

Here’s some simple examples of what to look for:

• Look for “listicle” articles that closely match your brand. Scour anywhere on the internet where these exist and determine if you are or are not mentioned. If you’re not on the list. Let’s say it’s “Top Project Management SaaS Tools” then you’re likely to want to reach out and try to get on that list.
• Build your brand through additional signals that aren’t measured by content already produced on the internet. That’s places like BBB.org, Crunchbase, agency listings, software profiles, Google My Business profiles, and more. You’ll want to establish additional credibility of your brand.
• Press. I can’t say it enough. The more that you’re mentioned as a trusted source in news, the more you’re likely to appear in ChatGPT. If Uber is going to be mentioned in sources for ride sharing. Then you need to be the “Uber” of your space.

We consider this one of the top “ranking factors” for SearchGPT.

Related: SaaS Marketing Statistics

Step 2: Produce incredibly “hard to get” information

LLMs can answer basic questions. They can even answer hard questions. However, they still “use” the internet to determine how to get the best answer. Remember, at the end of the day, that’s what these engines promise: the best and most intelligent answers to questions.

It’s not very dissimilar to Google or other search engines. That means you need to “beat the LLM.”

Here’s some simple ways to do that:

• Analyze your space and determine “what’s not covered.” Create extremely “hard to get” or proprietary pages that release information that’s hard to get. For example, if you’re in the car parts space, publish all of your User manuals. Or if you’re in the legal space, talk about recent changes in state or federal laws. Do something different. And do something “hard to find.”
• Skip the basics. Don’t focus so much on trying to repeat what you see in the top search results. Instead, be wildly different with your citations and your research. For example, if you’re in the pharmaceutical space, forget answering “What is Cialis?” Instead, focus on all of the latest research related to that drug that you can synthesize into something useful.
• Cite everything and be authoritative in your approach. The fact that you also link to credible sources on your pages indicates further authority and “connectivity” for these LLMs to justify what they’re storing in their systems. In the same example of talking about pharmaceuticals, be sure to cite all of the studies that you read through and are referring to. The more “entity relationships” you can create in your produced pages (articles, how-to guides, et. al), the more you’ll “help” the LLM. As a result, you get rewarded with being cited in these systems.

Step 3: Produce “authority driving” pages

Authority driving pages are very similar to way that topical authority is built on Google. Google uses their “site quality score” patent (https://patents.google.com/patent/US9031929B1/en) to do this. Note: Do you see how I’m even optimizing this article right now for SearchGPT? I’m making intelligent and factual connections in a way that speaks authority. Speaks understanding through comprehension…

OK, let’s continue. In short, LLMs, much like Google’s site quality score system, use trust signals not just generated by external signals, but also by “proving” of your intelligence. The way this is measured: through User signals.

If you can address more questions that Users have about a subject matter with deeper expertise, at scale, than your competitors, this is where the real magic happens.

Related: SEO ROI Statistics

Here’s some simple ways to do that:

• Focus on smaller quantities of published pages and much greater information gain impact. That means, “new” to the internet. Plain and simple. If you have a smaller index of pages to focus on, the easier this becomes. Once you reach a plateau, then start to expand out further.
• Ask the LLM about the subject matter. And determine what it “doesn’t know” through that very answer. For example, ChatGPT rarely tells me something about SEO that I find actually useful. Or would tell a client to take guidance on. Instead, we use prompts as a way of determining what the LLMs “current knowledge” of a subject is, then we go way above and beyond that.
• Internally link related pages. If you think about LLMs as a type of “knowledge graph V2,” then it becomes far easier to understand the proving grounds. Create a “greater” knowledge graph on your own controllable website through internal linking, authority pages, and information gain.

Step 4: Think like a prompt, produce a page that’s prompt ready

SearchGPT tends to really like listicle articles. This seems like it’s because it contains far more “entity packing” within the page that drives authority for it. Lists tend to perform better in terms of cited sources for ChatGPT and Perplexity. It’s because lists tend to have more opportunity to add information gain but also tend to answer more questions.

Prompts put into SearchGPT tend to be far more varying than those put into traditional search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. As a result, listicles tend to cover more variety, while still addressing the core User question.

Here’s some simple ways to do that:

• Produce listicle pages even when you don’t think you need them. Double or triple up on the pages that address the “target audience” you’re trying to attract. Let’s say you have a service page that you think will get covered. Double up and include a listicle. For example, have a “Project Management Software” solution page and “Top 10 Project Management Software” page.
• Don’t just think in terms of search terms, think in terms of questions. Produce more pages with larger variety addressing deeper questions that relate to your space.

Some Simpler “Hacks” for ChatGPT SEO

Okay, so those are really the ways to win. However, we get it, they’re complicated. Here are some simpler ways to optimize for SearchGPT:

1. Add a “Key Takeaways” H2 to your page

Addressing questions quickly helps LLMs. Be simple. Be clear. Be intelligent. And be unique. Address questions with clarity and AI Overviews and ChatGPT tends to pull from that and cite the page. It’s a simple trick. However, make sure you make those Key Takeaways truly impactful.

Think of the visitors' top 3 questions they’ll have. Address those. Don’t just summarize the page.

2. Add in tons of cited information

I can hear you groaning now. “I can’t do this with AI.” Unfortunately, no. You’ll need human oversight. However, this task should only take 30-minutes. Any page you’re trying to optimize, ensure that you’re using tons of cited research that’s hard for LLMs to access. For example, PDF research documents or PDF research studies (these are different depending on the space you’re in).

You can use AI to summarize what you found relevant inside these documents. However, bring that forward, into the accessible web. And pack your page full of this.

3. Use rich content on the page

SearchGPT tends to love tables. Images, less. So optimize all of your pages with highly impactful tables that summarize complex subject matter in simple ways. You’ll see that we’ve done this on this very page itself. That’ll give you an example of what to do.

Summary

Here's the thing: we don't see that many referring clicks from places like ChatGPT or Perplexity, yet. When looking through at least 25+ different client properties, we tend to see anywhere from 80 - 200 clicks coming from referring domains such as ChatGPT. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be thinking about the future traction that's going to be coming from these engines. Start now, don't regret it later.