Ask ChatGPT who the best company for your service is in your city.
If your business isn’t in that answer, a competitor is. That’s not a someday problem, it’s happening now.
LLM SEO, also called LLMO or LLM optimization, is how you change that answer.
Key Takeaways
LLM SEO gets you into AI answers. It's the work of getting ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to name and cite you.
Ranking alone isn't enough. BrightEdge found only 16.7% of AI Overview citations come from Google's organic top 10. Ahrefs, using a different method, puts it at 38%.
Off-site mentions matter. In Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions had the strongest correlation with AI Overview visibility (0.664).
Skip the shortcuts. Ahrefs found 97% of llms.txt files got zero requests in a month.
What Is LLM SEO (and Is LLMO the Same Thing)?
LLM SEO is optimizing your website and your brand’s presence across the web so AI platforms and AI search engines mention you, recommend you, and cite your pages.
A large language model (LLM) is the AI behind ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. It answers questions in natural language.
You’ll also hear LLMO (large language model optimization), GEO (generative engine optimization), AEO (answer engine optimization), and AI SEO. Honestly, the label matters less than the goal: getting your business into the answer.
How LLMs Work When They Answer a Query
LLMs learn about your business in two ways:
- Training data. The model learned from a large snapshot of the web: articles, reviews, Reddit threads, news. If people talked about your brand, the model already “knows” you.
- Live web search. ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews search the web in real time and summarize a handful of pages found through indexes like Google and Bing.
That second path is why technical SEO and traditional search engine rankings still matter. If crawlers can’t reach your pages, you can’t be cited.
LLM SEO vs. Traditional SEO: What Actually Changes
| Traditional SEO | LLM SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page on Google | Get named and cited in AI answers |
| Typical query | Short keyword: "plumber tampa" | Conversational prompt: "Who's a reliable plumber in Tampa for an older house?" |
| What wins | Relevance, links, technical health | Same foundation, plus mentions on trusted sites |
| How you measure it | Rankings, clicks, leads | Mentions, citations, share of voice, leads |
Look, SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving. LLM SEO builds on a solid SEO foundation. You can’t build the second floor before the first one’s solid.
What changes is what counts as a win. Pew Research found people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits to a results page with an AI summary vs. 15% without one. So track citations, not just clicks.
See What AI Says About Your Business
Most business owners have never checked how ChatGPT describes them. Our free AI Visibility Playbook walks you through it in 15 minutes.
Get the AI Visibility Playbook6 LLM Optimization Strategies That Get You Mentioned
1. Answer the Question First
AI responses pull clear, direct answers. Put the answer in the first two sentences, then the detail.
2. Get Mentioned on Sites You Don't Own
In the Ahrefs brand study, the factors most tied to AI Overview visibility were all off-site.
Source: Ahrefs, 75,000 brands, May 2025. Correlation, not causation.
Brand mentions are what we see working too: reviews, industry roundups, local press, podcasts, and Reddit threads where real people recommend you.
3. Say the Same Thing Everywhere
Your services and locations should read the same on your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, and directories. Mixed signals get you described wrong.
4. Publish What Only You Know
Original data, real price ranges, client results. LLMs have already seen the generic version. Your specifics get cited, and that’s the core of an LLM-friendly content strategy.
5. Build Topic Clusters
Start from keyword research and real customer questions, cover a topic from several angles, and connect the pages with internal links.
6. Let the AI Crawlers In
Make sure your robots.txt file isn’t blocking AI bots you want, like OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search) and PerplexityBot. Our guide on how to rank on ChatGPT explains which OpenAI crawler does what.
We skip llms.txt files, AI-only copies of pages, and turning every heading into a question. Ahrefs checked 137,000 domains: 97% of the llms.txt files it found got zero requests in a month. Schema still goes in for Google's rich results, not as an AI trick.
LLM SEO Tools: How to Track Your AI Visibility
The best LLM SEO tool is the one you’ll actually check every week.
| Tool | What it tracks | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Mentions, cited pages, AI crawler issues | Semrush users (what we use for weekly client tracking) |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Brand mentions and share of voice | Ahrefs users |
| Profound | Citations and sentiment analysis across many AI engines | Larger brands |
| Peec AI | Prompts, citation sources, competitors | Marketers who want citation detail |
| Otterly.AI | Prompt tracking | A budget-friendly start |
| ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity | Manual prompt checks | Anyone, free, today |
LLM optimization tools change pricing often, so check before you buy.
Your Monthly AI Visibility Check
Write down who gets named and which sites get cited. Those sites are your outreach list.
When to Hire an LLM SEO Agency
An LLM SEO agency makes sense when:
- Competitors show up in AI answers, and you don’t
- AI describes your business wrong
- Nobody in-house owns SEO and AI visibility
Get Your SEO and AI Visibility Built Together
We run SEO, AEO, and paid search under one roof, so your rankings and your AI answers work from one plan. No corporate nonsense, no long-term contracts.
See Our AEO ServicesYour Customers Are Already Asking AI. Be the Answer.
Run the prompt above today. If you’re missing, start with a solid SEO strategy, then earn mentions on sites you don’t own.
Find Out Where You Stand in AI Search
You'll leave with:
- What ChatGPT and Google's AI say about you today
- Where your leads are leaking
- A 90-day plan you can run with or without us
Frequently Asked Questions About LLM SEO
Yes, for practical purposes. All of them mean getting your brand into AI-generated answers.
There’s no evidence it does. Ahrefs found 97% of llms.txt files got zero requests, and Google’s own documentation says you don’t need AI text files or special markup to appear in AI Overviews.
It depends on your starting point. AI tools that search live can pick up a page once it’s indexed. Training data only changes when a model is retrained, which you don’t control.
The ones your customers use. For most businesses that’s ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity. The same work covers all of them.