Have you optimized your website for ChatGPT yet?

Written By Meri Harli

If you haven’t optimized for LLMs such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, etc., you’d better get a wriggle on. Seriously.

Google’s AI Overviews and LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are already reshaping how people find, summarize, and act when searching for products and services like yours. It’s no longer just about ranking #1 in Google — it’s about showing up in the AI answers your [ideal] customers trust because your competitors are about to outrank you where it counts.

Most B2B sites are still stuck in an SEO playbook written for 2019 — but the companies that adapt now will win mindshare and market share tomorrow. The good news is that now, more than ever before, you control the narrative of your business.

This short, three-part guide will walk you through the basics of optimizing your small-to-medium business website for the new era of AI-driven search.

Top LLMs Where Small Businesses Should Optimize Brand Visibility

While traditional SEO focused solely on Google, the new game includes LLM-driven AI assistants and AI search platforms. These tools are being trained on public web content, documentation, and user behavior, so visibility in these contexts is strategic. So, which platforms do you need to focus on? The following are the top 5 platforms, why they matter, and how to optimize for each platform*.

*Note, these AI platforms are evolving ridiculously rapidly, so please use what follows as a guide only, and reach out to me if you have any questions.

1. The OG: ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Open AI’s ChatGPT was the first AI bot to take the world by storm. Now, with over 180M+ users, it’s used for all sorts of things including research, recommendations, and summaries. ChatGPT plugins and browsing mode can surface your branded content, so write your content as if it’s going to show up in ChatGPT because it will.

Optimization strategy:

  • Clear, structured content

  • Schema markup (FAQ, Product, Organization)

  • Publish expert content on high-authority domains (e.g., LinkedIn, Medium)

  • Consider integrating with OpenAI tools if API exposure fits your use case

2. Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode)

If you’ve already optimized your website with best practice “traditional” SEO, your brand should be fine with Google’s new AI features. Their AI ‘bot’ Gemini powers Google’s AI Overviews and new AI Mode, which are heavily integrated into organic search.

Optimization strategy:

  • Traditional SEO (E-E-A-T)

  • Answer-style content

  • High-authority backlinks

  • Publish on forums and platforms Gemini scrapes (Reddit, Quora)

3. Perplexity.ai

Perplexity is a fast-growing AI search engine with citations.

Optimization strategy:

  • Ensure your site is crawlable

  • Create Q&A content

  • Be cited on already-indexed domains (e.g., Medium, Substack, GitHub)

4. Claude.ai (Anthropic Claude)

Increasing use in enterprise and tools like Notion AI, Slack AI, Claude is known as “the writer’s tool” due to its excellence in adapting to your brand voice and helping you write so you don’t sound like your writing is produced by a bot.

Optimization strategy:

  • Syndicate branded expert content to platforms Claude is exposed to (e.g., public docs, blog articles with proper metadata)

5. Microsoft Copilot / Bing Chat (GPT-4)

ChatGPT and Bing Chat (now often integrated as Microsoft Copilot) are not the same, although they share a common technological foundation in AI language models like OpenAI's GPT series, and Microsoft is a significant investor in OpenAI. While both are AI chatbots designed for conversational interactions, they differ in their integration, capabilities, and specific purposes.

Optimization strategy:

  • Bing Webmaster Tools SEO

  • Schema & structured data

  • Use FAQ & How-To content relevant to your niche

💡 Pro Tip: LLMs don't "index" in the same way Google does. You’re optimizing to increase your brand’s presence in the content they train on or retrieve from, including third-party platforms and trusted sources, making the text you write on your website (AKA “SEO copywriting) more critical than ever.

Next up, read part 2 of this series: “How to Make Your Website Friendly to LLMs Like ChatGPT”

Meri Harli