Today, SEO alone no longer guarantees visibility. Even if you rank at the top of Google, part of your audience increasingly arrives through AI. Forecasts suggest that traffic from LLM tools like ChatGPT may completely surpass traditional search by 2027.
What’s more, an average visitor coming from AI search converts several times better than one arriving through organic search.
How AI Decides Who to Show
Here’s a simple experiment: go to productrank.ai and type in a commercial query from your industry. We’re sure the results will surprise you.
We’ve already done this ourselves — here are a few observations:
- AI doesn’t see what’s closed
If your site isn’t open to GPTBot or BingBot, it simply won’t appear in results. This is easy to check — just open your domain’s robots.txt file and make sure there’s no disallow for these bots. - High-DR sites dominate the top
In our industry, most results have a Domain Rating of 68–72, though there are exceptions. Domain Rating reflects the number and quality of backlinks to your site: the higher the DR, the more likely AI is to pick you up. - AI prefers simple structure
Lists, FAQs, and Q&A formats are easier for models to parse and more likely to be included in answers. For instance, ask ChatGPT in deep research mode for the top 5 companies in your industry, and you’ll probably see a lot of listicle or FAQ content among the sources.
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- Directories matter a lot
Clutch, DesignRush, and similar resources are regularly cited by AI. Review aggregators are seen as authoritative too, so being present there is crucial. - Sometimes narrow optimization wins
Even a site with a low DR can break into the top if a page is highly optimized for a specific keyword. If you find a niche query that users mention in conversations with AI, your page has a real chance to appear.
Where to Start with AI Optimization
1. Check how people search for you in Search Console
This helps you see which phrases people already use on Google to find your site. Then you can test those same queries in AI search and check whether your company shows up there.
2. Research competitors with SimilarWeb or Ahrefs
The goal isn’t just to see other keywords, but to understand how people actually phrase their queries in your industry. Tools like SimilarWeb or Ahrefs show the real formulations that bring traffic to competitors — and those are the ones worth testing in AI.
3. Test yourself on productrank.ai
Enter a few commercial queries into productrank.ai and see which sites AI displays. Compare the results with your competitors: what do the top-ranking sites have in common?
4. Ask ChatGPT and other LLM's directly
Try typing a few commercial queries into ChatGPT or another model in online or deep search mode. Pay attention to which sources it cites, and think about how you can also become part of that circle of trust.
5. Create an AI visibility plan
Once you understand how people phrase their queries and which sources AI relies on, turn those insights into a plan. Optimize your content for those formulations, add Q&A and FAQ sections, ensure you’re present in directories, and build your site’s authority.
What You Absolutely Need to Do
Be present on aggregators
In our industry, Clutch, DesignRush, and other directories are the first places AI — and clients — look. For digital products, this also means platforms like G2 or Capterra.
Collect reviews in the format accepted in your industry
If your market lives on Google Reviews or Clutch, focus there. Reviews are a critical trust signal for AI.
Publish listicle content and FAQs
“Top 10” lists and FAQ sections are easily read by models and often show up in results. Adding an FAQ section to your pages is a great way to increase your AI visibility.
Don’t forget about SEO, especially link building
Classic SEO isn’t going anywhere. Backlinks from authoritative sites directly influence your Domain Rating, and with it, the chances AI will show you.
To cut long story short
AI is already deciding which companies people see, and it only recommends those it can crawl, verify, and easily understand. If you want to appear in those answers, treat AI like a new search engine: open your site to bots, strengthen your DR, show up in trusted directories, and structure your content for quick parsing. Start now, and you’ll have a real chance to become part of the “default list” AI shows to your next clients.
