ChatGPT has taken the world by storm and is changing the game on how people search and access information. To give an example of the sheer usage, as of November, 2024, 67.7 million people in the US use ChatGPT (According to Backlinko). That is a massive usage from a platform that has been public for just a few years.
Additionally, OpenAI just launched their search engine called SearchGPT, which is geared to take some search share from Google. This is a massive move, and is likely one of the largest threats to Google in years.
Given that people are now turning to ChatGPT and SearchGPT, this provides an amazing opportunity for businesses to be visible for AI.
Leads from ChatGPT
At Rise Marketing Group, we work with dozens of clients, and we’re starting to see websites getting referral traffic from ChatGPT. Not only referral traffic, but leads as well. For example, our agency recently received a lead from a company prompting ChatGPT for the best advertising agency for their product launch. ChatGPT referred him to us, and now he’s a client of ours.
Given ChatGPT is driving referral traffic and now leads to websites, it’s super important to help your site build visibility to the AI to earn that reference.
How to get the attention from ChatGPT
Below is a list of techniques we’re aware of thus far that will garner the attention of ChatGPT, putting your website in a better position to be referenced to people searching for your brand.
1. Index all of your pages via Bing Webmaster Tools
As reported through Search Engine Land, ChatGPT uses Microsoft Bing’s index of websites to crawl and access information. This means, if your website is not on the index, you can’t expect to be featured in ChatGPT. Traditionally markers would focus on making sure all pages are on Google Search Console, and didn’t focus as much on Bing. However, it’s not a must to make sure all URLs are indexed. To do so is simple, go to Bing Webmaster Tools, create an account and upload your site URLs to be indexed. Over time, follow up to ensure all pages are indexed, and as you create new content, make sure to request indexation.
2. Build Authority and PR across the Web
When ChatGPT scours recommendations for services, products, etc., it does its due diligence by checking multiple sources. It won’t simply recommend a company just based on the content on the website, it will look at third party sources. For example, take a look at this search for “Best Plumbers in Dedham Massachusetts”.
ChatGPT lists recommended plumbers and shares the sources to why it considers these the top plumbers nearby. In this example, it looks at all relevant sites, such as Angi, BestProsInTown, Houzz, Today’sHomeowner, and Better Business Bureau.
Additionally, the sources vary per industry. For example, if you’re looking for the best agencies in our town, the sources are different.
The sources are specific towards:
- Digital marketing with citations, such as SEMRush, Agency Spotter.
- Local businesses to Dedham, with citations such as Dedham Square Circle and the Chamber of commerce.
With that, it’s important to be cited on industry sites and engage in some level of digital PR, as ChatGPT mines these sources when creating a recommendation. To boost your PR and online presence, we recommend the following:
- Build out directory listings
Every industry has directory sites. Make sure you’re present on these. Further if you’re a local business, there are other local directories to be present on.
- Engage in Digital PR
Identify top websites your target audience goes to for information. Of these sites, see if any allow contributions. For example, Rise Marketing Group is a featured contributor to Search Engine Land.
3. Update your Robots.txt file to allow OpenAi to crawl your website.
Openai has a helpful document on how to update your robots.txt file to allow OpenAI to crawl your website, which can help ChatGPT leverage this information. Send this to your web developer, as there are three categories to update, based on your need.
In particular there are three “user agents” to consider on your robots.txt file
User agents:
- OAI-SearchBot: This is used to index and display sites used within OpenAI’s SearchGPT. This is big, as SearchGPT just launched and I believe Microsoft is using this to earn market share from Google.
- ChatGPT-User: This helps ChatGPT reference specific pages on your website, which may drive referral traffic.
GPTBot: This is used if you want your content to help train OpenAI’s generative models. If you disallow it, it will ensure that the content is not used for AI training.
4. Make sure your site is SEO optimized from a technical perspective
Having a website that is technically sound with a solid URL structure and optimized content, should help ChatGPT best understand the website and content on your website. For example, we would recommend:
- All technical elements are optimized, such as:
• Meta descriptions, headers, image alt text, internal linking, URL structure, schema, etc.
- Content that’s optimized for search, such as:
- Appropriate headers.
- Unique, value-driven content.
If you do the above, you’ll drastically increase your chances of earning referral traffic and references from ChatGPT. As a test, you can even do searches on ChatGPT prompting it to find your company based on different searches.
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Bonus of optimizing SEO strategist for AI
Most of the concepts above are very similar to optimizing for search on Google and other search engines. The bonus of doing the above is not only earning references from ChatGPT, but getting more organic traffic, especially if you hit all three components (Request indexation from Bing, Digital PR, SEO best practices).
If you’re interested in optimizing your website for Chat and SearchGPT (and the other search engines), contact Rise Marketing Group for a free consultation.
