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What is LLM SEO? Optimizing for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity

By AImpact Editorial Team · · 2 min read

Key takeaways

  • LLM SEO is optimizing to be found, understood and cited by AI assistants built on large language models.
  • When these assistants search the web, they use crawlers like OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, so your site must allow them.
  • Google says there are no special requirements or AI text files needed to appear in its AI features: indexing comes first.
  • Statistics, quotations and cited sources raised visibility in AI answers 30-40% in the GEO study (KDD 2024).

"LLM SEO" is one of several names (along with GEO and AEO) for the same new job: getting your business found, understood and cited by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. LLM stands for large language model, the technology those assistants are built on.

How LLMs find businesses

An AI assistant can know about your business in two ways:

  1. From what it learned in training. Models learn from large amounts of public text. You can't edit that directly, but the more consistently and credibly your business is described across the web, the better the picture.
  2. From live web search. When an assistant searches the web to answer a question, it uses search crawlers and indexes. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot is used "to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features," and Perplexity says PerplexityBot is "designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity."

Live search is where most businesses can make the quickest difference, because it depends on things you control.

LLM SEO step 1: be crawlable and indexed

Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet. It also says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup. In practice:

  • Don't block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot in robots.txt, or at your host or CDN.
  • Make sure important information is in plain text, not only inside images or videos.
  • Link important pages from your navigation and other pages.
  • Keep structured data accurate and matching what's visible on the page.

(This is why SEO still matters for AI.)

Step 2: write content an LLM can quote

The KDD 2024 study that introduced generative engine optimization tested content changes and measured how often sources appeared in AI answers. The three that worked best, each by roughly 30-40%, were adding statistics, adding quotations and citing sources. Keyword stuffing offered little to no improvement. For a business, that means:

  • Answer common customer questions directly, near the top of the page.
  • Use specific facts: prices or ranges, timelines, years in business, service areas.
  • Quote a named owner or expert.
  • Link to sources for claims you make.

Step 3: be mentioned by trusted sources

LLMs rely heavily on what independent sources say. News coverage, credible industry sites and reviews all count. A story about your business on established news sites gives AI something credible to cite. (See why AI engines read the news.)

Step 4: be consistent

Use the same business name, address, phone and service descriptions everywhere. Consistency helps an LLM connect every mention to the same business and describe you accurately.

What LLM SEO is not

  • Not a trick or a guarantee. No one can buy or force a spot in an AI's answer.
  • Not separate from SEO. It builds on it.
  • Not a one-time fix. AI answers change, so measure monthly.

AImpact handles all four steps as part of every plan: our AI search optimization foundation, press campaigns and monthly AI visibility tracking. Get a free AI visibility check.

AImpact Editorial Team

Our team plans and writes press campaigns, builds cloud stacks and runs AI visibility tracking for businesses every month. We check every claim in our articles against the sources listed below.

Sources

  1. Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (KDD 2024, arXiv 2311.09735)
  2. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
  3. OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
  4. Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers

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