Before you dive too deep into AI search, ensure that you have the basics right.
These elements are non-negotiable:
Make sure it loads quickly, works on phones, and has a valid SSL certificate.
Publish monthly at a minimum. You can use AI to ideate but make sure a human is involved somewhere for clarity and real value
Claim all social profiles and try to actually use them. Link socials in your footer and in all press releases. Use consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across all platforms.
Reviews serve as powerful trust signals for AI systems. This is why new brands struggle to rankâthey lack the social proof that AI models weight heavily.
Automate review collection: Send emails after transactions asking for feedback. Route 4-5 star ratings to review platforms. Route 3 stars or below to customer service.
Incentivize strategically: Especially when starting, offer discounts, freebies, or gifts to reach 20+ reviews quickly. Follow platform rules but get creative.
Register everywhere: For software: G2, Capterra, TrustPilot, Gartner For services: Yelp, Google Business Profile, industry-specific platforms Cycle through platforms to build reviews on more than just one site.
News flash: ChatGPT, Copilot, and several other AI systems rely heavily on Bing's search index.
This is excellent news because Bing is 3-5x easier to rank on than Google.
Submit your website to Bing Webmaster Tools and set up IndexNow. This takes less than 10 minutes and substantially improves your ChatGPT and Copilot rankings.
Here are the key things you should be tracking:
AI Citation Frequency: You can manually search your target queries monthly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, etc or use a tracking tool like Otterly to make it easier and much more predictable.