Enhancing Your Website’s Visibility in Large Language Models: Our Experience with Perplexity
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing and search engine optimization, understanding how your website’s content is recognized and utilized by advanced AI systems like Perplexity and ChatGPT has become increasingly important. Recently, our team at [Your Company Name], a specialized digital agency, embarked on a journey to discover how to make our clients’ brands more visible in AI-generated answers. I’d like to share our experiences and insights, which may prove valuable to others seeking to navigate this new frontier.
Background and Challenge
Our client, an online education platform offering courses across various subjects, noticed their brand rarely appeared in AI-powered search results generated by platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT. Despite thorough internal testing—running approximately fifty different prompts—they found their brand was absent from these AI responses.
Initially, we believed that visibility in AI outputs was beyond direct influence, akin to traditional organic search rankings. However, this perception shifted as we delved deeper into AI data sourcing and response mechanisms.
Strategy and Tactics
Our approach evolved from hypothesis to implementation through a combination of content optimization, structural adjustments, and proactive data management:
- Refining Content for AI Comprehension
We restructured key website pages to adopt a more conversational tone aligned with how users ask questions to AI systems. Instead of dry, keyword-stuffed titles like “Best SMM Course for Beginners,” we used natural language queries such as “What’s the best social media marketing course for beginners?”
- Building Credibility and Data Signals
To enhance trustworthiness, we incorporated real author names, verified user reviews, and relevant data points within our content. These elements serve as trust signals that large language models (LLMs) can recognize and reference when selecting authoritative sources.
- Securing Quality Backlinks
Recognizing that AI systems often reference reputable data sources, we cultivated high-quality backlinks from educational directories, industry media outlets, and authoritative websites. These backlinks help establish content credibility, increasing the likelihood of inclusion in AI-driven responses.
Monitoring and Results
To track our progress, we utilized a specialized Perplexity monitoring tool, which allowed us to analyze whether our content was appearing in AI-generated answers over time. Weekly reviews revealed a gradual but consistent increase in brand mentions within AI responses. After roughly six weeks, we observed a remarkable shift: our brand was cited in 8 out of 50 tracked prompts on Per
