How to Optimize Your Website for LLMs Like ChatGPT: The Future of SEO
Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are reshaping search behavior and how content gets discovered. Learn 10 proven strategies to optimize your site for LLM visibility and become a trusted AI-cited source.
AI is changing the conversation around ecommerce, and the strategies we use to meaningfully shift conversion rates, in profound ways, and faster than we might have thought possible.
At the top of that list: optimizing websites to be noticed by LLMs like ChatGPT. Depending on who you ask, Google Search — the tool by which websites have lived and died for decades now — is itself on the edge of extinction, or already six feet under. If Google Search is dead, vive LLM SEO, Generative Search, or GEO.
Whatever you call it, it’s here, and it’s incredibly powerful. As we study and formulate ideas for how best to exploit it, we went straight to the source, asking ChatGPT how to best optimize websites to be picked up by LLMs. Helpful as ever, ChatGPT told us how to get its attention. You’ll find its top tips, and some context, below.
How to Optimize Your Website to Be Picked Up by LLMs Like ChatGPT
As language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others become more deeply embedded in everyday search behavior, a new frontier of SEO has emerged: optimizing your content for LLMs. Traditional SEO is about ranking in Google. LLM SEO is about becoming a trusted source that these models quote, paraphrase, or cite when answering user questions.
In this guide, you'll learn how LLMs decide which websites to reference, and what steps you can take to make sure your content is among them.
How Do LLMs Decide What to Reference?
Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on vast swaths of public internet content. Once trained, they may also use retrieval systems to pull in real-time sources. The sites and pages they reference most often tend to share a few key characteristics:
1. Crawlable and Accessible
If your content is blocked by robots.txt, hidden behind a paywall, or loaded entirely through JavaScript without server-side rendering, it's likely not being ingested by LLMs.
2. Authoritative and Trustworthy
LLMs prioritize content from high-authority websites, trusted publishers, and clearly credible sources. Sites with backlinks from reputable domains are more likely to be cited.
3. Structured and Easy to Parse
Content that uses semantic HTML, proper heading hierarchy, and clear formatting (such as bullet points and tables) is more easily understood by LLMs and more likely to be referenced accurately.
4. Aligned With Common Queries
Pages that directly answer questions using simple language, clear structure, and FAQ-style formatting tend to get picked up more often. Think of how a user might phrase a question to ChatGPT and ensure your content answers it clearly.
5. Topical Depth
LLMs are more likely to reference content from websites that demonstrate deep topical authority. A single blog post on a subject is less effective than a network of interconnected pages that comprehensively cover a category.
10 Ways to Optimize Your Website for LLMs
1. Create Highly Structured, Authoritative Content
Use semantic HTML tags and build detailed pages around your area of expertise. Prioritize clarity over cleverness. Focus on depth, not just breadth.
2. Publish FAQ Pages with Schema Markup
FAQs answer the kinds of direct questions LLMs are built to handle. Adding structured data helps both Google and AI crawlers understand your content.
3. Make Sure All Content Is Crawlable
Don’t block key content in robots.txt or use noindex tags. If your site is built on platforms like Webflow, ensure important pages are server-rendered and fully indexable.
4. Build Topical Authority with Content Clusters
Create groups of related content around core topics. Use internal linking to connect pages and signal their relationship. This strategy not only boosts SEO but also helps LLMs understand your site’s expertise.
5. Earn Backlinks from High-Authority Domains
Just like in traditional SEO, backlinks matter. Try to get your best content cited on relevant blogs, media outlets, industry directories, and thought leadership pieces.
6. Participate Where LLMs Gather Training Data
Contribute meaningful responses to Reddit, Quora, StackOverflow, or Wikipedia. These platforms are often included in the training data for many language models.
7. Use Author Bylines and Source Citations
Clear attribution signals trust. Include author bios, credentials, and external references to position your content as reliable and transparent.
8. Use Clear, Direct Headings and Lists
Structure your content with questions as headings. Use bullet points, step-by-step formats, and definitions to mirror the way LLMs prefer to present answers.
9. Experiment with an LLMs.txt File
Although not yet standardized, some websites are testing an llms.txt file in the root directory to communicate permissions or preferences to AI crawlers, similar to how robots.txt works for search engines.
10. Track Where Your Content Is Referenced
Use tools like Perplexity.ai to see what sources LLMs reference in real-time. Copy key phrases from your site and search for them in ChatGPT or other AI tools to detect paraphrased citations.
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The Bottom Line
As more users turn to ChatGPT and other AI tools for information, your brand’s visibility depends on more than just Google rankings. Optimizing for LLMs means creating content that is clear, authoritative, accessible, and aligned with the types of questions people actually ask.
The brands that win in this new landscape will be the ones that position themselves as expert sources that AI wants to reference.
What You Should Do Before Publishing:
To make this article as safe and performance-ready as possible:
✅ 1. Add a Personal or Brand Voice
Even a quick edit to add tone, examples, or point-of-view will help it stand out and feel more human.
✅ 2. Use Internal Links
Link to related blog posts or service pages to build contextual authority and improve crawl paths.
✅ 3. Add a Byline and Author Bio
Showcasing a real author (even if you're using AI help) builds trust and satisfies Google’s emphasis on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
✅ 4. Include Original Visuals or Data (if possible)
Charts, screenshots, or your own case studies will help differentiate your post from generic AI-generated content.
✅ 5. Check for Duplicate Content
Although this version is custom-written for you, running it through a plagiarism checker like Copyscape or Grammarly ensures uniqueness if you repurpose sections elsewhere.
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