Why isn’t your brand showing up in ChatGPT and Perplexity? 10 potential reasons and how to fix them

How does AI learn about brands? In addition to the information it gets from users, it primarily searches for them on the web. It checks search results for your brand phrases, visits websites, and then quickly scans them for information about your business. If you have little to no information about yourself, lack social media profiles, and are indifferent to mentions of your business, unfortunately, you do not exist for AI.

How can you check if this situation applies to you? Enter your company name in a search engine and check what appears in the results, how many mentions there are, and on which websites. Then do the same for 2-3 competitors. If there is significantly more information about competing brands online, they will also win in the responses generated by AI models.

Do you regularly create quality content that you think is AI-friendly, yet you don’t see your company in the responses generated by LLM models? The reason may be strong competition. Your competitors may have more extensive content, it is better structured, or there is simply more of it.

How to fix it? Build your presence in search results step by step, create expert content, and remember to implement structured data (see why this is so important in the context of AI: Structured Data and AI Search). It is also worth ensuring that you obtain citations and mentions in credible places, such as well-known industry portals.

Currently, there is a lot of talk in the industry about changes in purchasing funnels – customers are increasingly looking for information about products and services in AI models. They seek help in selecting the best running shoes or comparing the advantages and disadvantages of service packages offered by different providers. These shifts are already happening, but there is no guarantee they’ll apply to your industry and business.

How can you verify this? Ensure you have accurate analytics, track how customers find your website, and examine the individual stages of the sales funnel. Don’t hesitate to try the simplest methods – talk to your customers, e.g., ask them to fill out a short survey in exchange for a small discount on your services. This way, you will learn about the real user journey of your customers.

Simply allowing AI bots onto your website does not guarantee that they will effectively process and digest your content. You also need to take care of other aspects of your website’s accessibility for AI models. What should you keep in mind?

• Your content should be public and accessible. If you hide text behind a paywall or put your company description in a closed PDF file, AI models may not see this content, and as a result, will not use it to generate their responses to users.
• Content should have the right structure. Ensure you have H2 headings and concise, specific paragraphs that directly address the issues outlined in the headings.
• Create AI-friendly formats. This includes creating step-by-step guides, rankings, or adding FAQ sections to expert articles. More on this topic: Content types preferred by AI.

Consider whether you are communicating what your company does appropriately. It may be evident to you, but not necessarily to AI models. If your brand shares a name with other companies, this can be problematic; similarly, if your brand is simply a popular, commonly used word/set of words.

How to solve this problem? Strengthen your brand context by publishing content that connects your company name with your industry, service, and phrases unique to your business. In some cases, it may also be worth considering rebranding.

AI models use a variety of sources to generate their responses. To obtain data about your company, they will look not only at your company website, but also at social media, directories, review platforms, and Wikipedia, which, like Google, they also consider to be an extremely reliable source.

What can you do about this? Make sure your description is consistent and that your company is present in the specified channels. If you run or work for a larger company, you can also prepare an article about your company.

Source: Wikipedia

Wikipedia is not the only source that AI treats as trustworthy. LLM models, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, readily cite content from the media, industry reports, and large portals. If your company is not mentioned there, it will negatively impact your visibility in AI.

How to solve this? Focus on PR activities and getting citations in valuable sources. If you need help in this area, we encourage you to contact our Content Team, which provides ePR services.

To appear in AI responses, you need to take action. The standard SEO process alone is not enough, as AI models operate differently from Google. Therefore, in addition to positioning for Google, you also need to make room for AISO in your marketing strategy.

What will be helpful in positioning with AI in mind? Create natural content in the form of answers to the most frequently asked questions in the context of your services/products. Publish case studies, showcase your projects, and remember the FAQs mentioned earlier. Think of AISO as a process that combines the SEO you know with the optimization of conversational queries in AI tools.

Our server log tests revealed that OpenAI bots, such as ChatGPT, frequently access and utilize the sitemap.xml file and feeds (RSS/Atom). If they are missing from your website or if they are incorrectly prepared, your content may not be downloaded and processed by AI models at all.

How to solve this? Make sure that the sitemap.xml file contains all the necessary elements and that the feed is complete, up-to-date, and publicly available. Need help with this? Our Senior Web Developer, Robert Smalarz, will be happy to help! Contact him at: [email protected]

Example of a sitemap.xml file

As you can see, there can be many reasons behind your brand’s lack of visibility in AI models. The key is to diagnose the problem, solve it, and work on positioning your website for AI models.

If you are interested in AI positioning services, please contact us! 😀