How to rank for AI? SEO strategies for AI

Nowadays, getting ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to mention your website is almost as important as ranking on Google. Because yes, AI can bring you both traffic and customers, and it’s only going to become more relevant over time. Here’s how to rank in AI results so you can gain visibility and drive traffic.
What is an LLM?
An LLM (short for Large Language Model) is a type of artificial intelligence model capable of interpreting language and data in various formats, and generating natural-language responses in text or other forms. LLMs are the foundation of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
Training LLMs requires massive amounts of data, and it’s this training that gives them the ability to understand text and other types of input and deliver meaningful, accurate responses to users.
Today, LLMs are so well-trained that they can assist with automation, content generation, web development, programming, and much more. In fact, there are now AI agencies that specialize in leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to streamline countless different tasks.
Why does ranking in AI matter?
AI might still be in its early stages, but there are many reasons why you should start working on your presence within it:
- It keeps your brand visible beyond Google: Beyond Google, your potential visitors and customers may already be searching through ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other AI tools. Ranking in AI means your website appears in their responses, giving your visibility and profitability a major boost.
- AI answers tend to influence potential customers more: Traffic that comes from AI tends to convert better. Studies by Ahrefs and Seer Interactive show that visitors coming through AI sources often deliver stronger business results.
- It attracts more qualified traffic: AI-driven traffic is usually of higher quality than most other channels. That’s because AI tools tend to filter out casual users who are just looking for general information, while the most interested and qualified users are the ones who click through to the websites mentioned in AI responses.
- It’s a growing channel: The responses provided by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overview are quickly becoming new discovery channels. While they don’t yet generate as much traffic as Google Search, it’s clear they’re on the rise, and positioning there now means staying ahead of the curve.
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO refers to the techniques you can apply to make your website appear in AI-generated responses from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Google’s AI Mode. It focuses on optimizing factors such as your site’s content quality, semantic relevance, authority, and online presence, all to increase the chances that AI systems mention your brand or website.
Although it might sound radically different from traditional SEO, AI-focused SEO is built on the same core principles and ranking factors (something Google itself has emphasized).
The key difference is that when optimizing your website, you’re not only targeting Google’s search algorithm, but also AI models, maximizing your visibility across both.
Strategies to Rank in AI and Get Your Business Mentioned
There’s more than one way to improve your visibility in AI responses and get tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to talk about your business, bringing you both traffic and potential customers. Here are some strategies you can apply to make it happen:
1. Strengthen your website’s authority and get trusted AI sources to link to you
Building your website’s authority is essential for ranking higher, and it also improves your chances of being referenced by AI systems. Mentions (when other sites talk about your brand) and backlinks both play a key role in determining how likely it is that AI tools will include your website in their responses.
However, it’s not just about getting any links or mentions, it’s about earning them from high-authority, well-established websites, since those tend to carry more weight in how AI models evaluate credibility.
Link-building platforms like Linkatomic are invaluable for this kind of strategy, as they make it relatively easy to secure backlinks and mentions in media outlets around the world.
Expert tip
While there are many ways to get backlinks and mentions from authoritative sites, few methods are truly scalable.
That’s where platforms like Linkatomic stand out. They not only let you proactively build your site’s authority, but also help you scale your efforts efficiently.
When you’re managing a growing business and every minute counts, solutions like these can be exactly what your website needs to expand its reach.

Laura García
Gestora de campañas de SEO y Link Building2. Create scannable, AI-optimized content
Not all content on the internet is equally clear to AI, but the content on your website should be.
To achieve this, pay close attention to how you structure your pages. Use heading tags properly (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize your content into well-defined, logical sections.
Simply by structuring your content clearly, you’ll increase the chances that AI tools can interpret it correctly and mention your site in their responses. Plus, you’ll naturally improve your keyword optimization and on-page SEO.
3. Answer specific questions your visitors might ask
AI tools tend to answer broad or general questions without citing or linking to external websites, since they already have that knowledge built into their training data.
However, they often include links when users ask specific or niche questions.
That’s why it’s smart to target highly specific queries and long-tail keywords, the kinds of questions your ideal customers might actually ask. Doing so increases your chances of having the AI reference or link to your site in its generated responses.

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4. Maintain strong semantic relevance across all your pages
Beyond keywords, AI models analyze the entire context and semantic relationships within your content. This means every word and term you use contributes to your page’s relevance for certain topics and search queries.
When you explore a subject in depth and create comprehensive, detailed content around a keyword or theme, you greatly increase your chances of being referenced by AI systems.
So, instead of just repeating keywords or sprinkling them throughout your text, focus on depth and clarity, cover each topic or question with enough detail to establish true topical authority.
5. Ensure your website is crawlable and free of technical SEO errors
Technical SEO is one of the most important factors for ranking in AI. If your site is disorganized, hard for search engines to crawl, or unfriendly to bots, you’ll have trouble being discovered by ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar tools.
In practical terms, these AI tools analyze and understand your website much like Google does, using crawlers or bots that visit your pages to gather and interpret data.
That’s why it’s crucial to keep your technical SEO in order, make sure your robots.txt file is properly configured and doesn’t block AI crawlers, and keep your indexation status healthy.
Running periodic SEO audits is a smart move to ensure everything is functioning as it should. This gives you confidence that your site is fully optimized and accessible to both search engines and AI.
The future of visibility no longer belongs solely to Google, AI now shares that space. Working on both fronts is the smartest way to keep your business relevant.
With the strategies shared in this post, you now have some of the key steps to boost your presence in ChatGPT and similar tools, and stay ahead in one of the fastest-growing trends in digital marketing.

Author: Otto F. González
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