In 2025, optimizing for AI-driven search engines—such as ChatGPT, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), and other emerging platforms like Perplexity and Claude—has started to gain traction among marketers. In this article, we share our approach to AI search optimization strategy and best practices for companies seeking to improve their chances of getting their company or products recommended by generative AI tools. We base our approach on the relative importance of each factor in the recommendation algorithms of the most popular generative AI engines:
AI Search Optimization: Ranking Factors for Each AI Tool
| Factor | Description | Impact/Weight | |||
| ChatGPT | Google AI Overviews & Gemini | Perplexity | Claude | ||
| Authoritative List Mentions | As AI search recommendations rely primarily on existing content, the most impactful AIO activity is securing high placement in authoritative comparison lists. | 41% | 49% | 64% | 38% |
| Awards, Accreditations, & Affiliations | AI search engines are more likely to suggest companies or products that have notable awards or accreditations | 18% | 15% | 5% | 19% |
| Online Reviews | AI search engines are increasingly including online reviews when generating recommendations | 16% | 13% | 31% | N/A |
| Customer Examples & Usage Data | Third-party data about product usage is considered to be an indicator of authority by ChatGPT and Claude. The online-connected ChatGPT’s data is generally more up-to-date than Claude (which draws information entirely from training data). | 14% | N/A | N/A | 13% |
| Traditional Databases & Directories | Claude draws primarily from traditional resources such as the Encyclopedia Britannica and news websites like the New York Time when making business recommendations. | N/A | N/A | N/A | 68% |
| Google Website Authority | Website authority is used only by Google AI overviews and Gemini recommendations, but it is a significant factor for both. | N/A | 23% | N/A | N/A |
| Social Sentiment | A minor but growing factor. Currently, only ChatGPT takes social sentiment into account. | 11% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Certain trends are immediately visible. For example, securing placement in authoritative lists are your best investment across the board, significantly impacting recommendations by all the AI search engines we looked at.
The following article catalogs these trends and turns them into actionable AI search optimization strategies and best practices to improve the odds of them recommending your company..
Create Articles that Rank Highly on Traditional Search Engines
Although AI search engines may not rank articles directly, they will process the top-ranking articles to answer keyword-related queries. Our testing found that this is true whether a generative AI search tool is answering a query from training (recalling training information prior to its training data’s cutoff date) or if it is using live search (actively scanning the most up-to-date search results to provide more timely information). The following table shares the impact of search engine rankings on AI search:
Traditional Search Engine Ranking Significance for AI Search
| Source | If Answering From Training | If Using Live Search |
| Top 3-5 Ranked Pages | 🔥 Very likely to be included in training data unless pages are recently published | 🔥🔥 Almost always read first |
| Pages Ranking #6–20 | ✅ Impacts recommendations to a smaller extent than higher-ranking pages | ✅ Read if top pages lack detail about the specific query |
| Hidden Gems (Low SEO visibility but great info) | ❓ Depends on prior exposure | ⚠️ Read only if linked/referenced or the user explicitly asks |
| Unindexed/New Pages | ❌ Not known at all | ❌ Only read up if directly linked or surfaced through search intent tools |
Notably, in both cases, pages that ranked higher were more likely to be included in ChatGPT’s recommendations. We also know from our initial examination of AI search engines that mentions in authoritative lists were one of the most important ranking factors for all the platforms we evaluated.
There are two ways to capitalize on this evaluation factor:
- Create Your Own High-Ranking List Article: Creating a high-ranking article involves a great deal of research, however the format can be standardized to some extent depending on what you are evaluating. Include a table with your entries at the top, ranking them according to relevant criteria within the industry, after which you need to detail each entry, providing high-level analysis to make your page stand out.
- Submit Your Company to an Existing Article: Use relevant keywords to identify the current top-ranking articles and message the company to request that they include your company. Be sure to include information pertaining to your unique specialization within the industry, as well as any awards your company has received.
Optimize Content for AI Search
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other AI search tools heavily favor clear, concise, and organized content when making their recommendations. To make it easier for AI search tools to process your pages—and therefore recommend your products and services—use the following guidelines when creating your content:
- Focus on Page Structure. AI search tools rely on headers, tables, and other page structure elements to determine whether content is relevant to a user’s query. Carefully organizing your pages, maintaining short paragraphs, and including bullet points and tables where possible make it more likely that AI tools will be able to parse your content and extract key insights about how your products or services are the best fit for a user’s needs.
- Keywords are still relevant. Keyword targeting remains essential for effective generative engine optimization (GEO) because it helps align content with the specific language and intent of user queries. Generative engines rely on patterns in language to deliver relevant and accurate responses, and well-targeted keywords increase the likelihood that content will be surfaced and cited in AI-generated outputs.
- Be Concise: Being concise is crucial when creating content for generative engine optimization (GEO) because generative engines prioritize content that directly answers queries with minimal fluff. Concise writing improves the chances that key information is accurately interpreted and repurposed by these models, increasing the content’s visibility and influence across generative outputs.
| If you’d like more information on creating excellent content, we’ve written several deep dives into the subject: How to Write Thought Leadership ContentHow to Write the Best SEO ContentContent Repurposing: The Modular Approach to Marketing |
Reach Out to Databases & Directories
In addition to high-ranking articles, AI searches across the board also consider databases and directories when crafting their recommendations. In some cases, like Claude, this is a direct reference (i.e., the AI scans the database and pulls information straight from the source), while all others we evaluated use an indirect reference, in which database information is included in online search queries.
When considering submitting your own information to online databases and directories, understand that these engines do not see all databases the same way; rather, that information is tiered according to the site’s perceived trustworthiness. Although different engines include different layers in their analysis, our team identified three core tiers of databases that run parallel across all of them.
AI Search Factors: Database Tiers
| Tier 1: High Authority |
| McKinsey, Statista, Encyclopedia Britannica, Pew Research Center |
| Tier 2: General Information Resources |
| Wikipedia, Hoovers, Bloomberg, Clutch, Glassdoor |
| Tier 3: Industry-Specific Resources |
| Contingent on industry |
The chatbot leaning the heaviest on database information is Claude (68%), which notably has no ability to actively scan live websites and instead relies entirely on training data or user-provided documents. These engines do, however, weigh each tier differently in their analysis:
Submitting your company’s information to these databases is less simple; in some cases, such as Wikipedia, users can actually create their own page, which goes live following an editorial process. Most tier 1 sources, however, do not have this ability, nor do they allow for entry submission, leaving inclusion entirely up to their editorial team. For this reason, it’s important to look at a few other factors affecting a company’s online presence, both in the eyes of these teams and in the AI search engines themselves.
Additional Considerations: Minor Ranking Factors
We don’t want to give the wrong impression here; good content and list/database mentions are critical elements that factor into a generative engine’s decision to recommend a company or not. There are, however, other factors at play that weigh more heavily depending on your choice of platform:
Additional AI Search Optimization Strategies
| Factor | Description | Most Important For… | Least Important For… |
| Company Achievements | Awards, accreditations, or milestones accomplished by the company or a prominent employee. | Claude | Perplexity |
| Online Reviews/ Social Sentiment | Both direct reviews of the company on established review sites as well as indirect discussions on popular chat forums like Reddit, Quora, etc. | Perplexity | Claude |
| Google Website Authority | A 1-100 ranking placed by Google based on how reliable a source of information they believe a website to be. Connotes trust & authority based on the quality of content, publishing schedule, and overall reputation | Gemini | N/A |
These actions have a far-reaching effect beyond AI search optimization as well. As mentioned in the previous section, editorial teams for high-level research databases decide to include (or exclude) companies based on their perceived reputation. Listing achievements, positive reviews, and a site’s trustworthiness (as represented by its Google domain) can all help improve your company’s standing in their eyes as well.
Implementing AI Search Optimization Strategy & Best Practices
Fundamentally, earning a recommendation from a chatbot is the next step in the ongoing pursuit of quality; AI search engines are exceptionally talented at identifying that quality through a more holistic analysis. This makes it that much more important to have a team on hand that can successfully implement AI search optimization strategy and best practices while tailoring them to your brand.
It’s an exceptionally hard goal to achieve, all the more so as the technology around GEO continues to evolve. That’s why business owners often call in specialists like our agency to manage their online growth. If you would like to discuss implementing your AI search strategy with one of our teams, reach out using the contact information at the bottom of this page or via our contact page.
