When someone asks ChatGPT which product to use in your category, one brand gets recommended first. That brand gets the click, the trial, the sale. The others are invisible.

AI search is now a primary research channel for buyers. Genlook, a virtual try-on platform, went from invisible in ChatGPT to the #1 recommended brand in its category in two months. 30% of all their new signups now come from ChatGPT — more than Google. This guide explains exactly how they did it, and how to use Airefs to execute the same playbook.

Why AI recommendations work differently

Traditional SEO rewards pages that rank well in Google. AI search rewards brands that appear in the sources AI models trust. The mechanism is different: ChatGPT doesn't rank pages — it reads them, extracts information, and synthesises an answer. The brands that end up recommended are the ones whose names appear repeatedly across the content ChatGPT read while forming that answer.

Those sources aren't random. They're specific articles, Reddit threads, comparison posts, and community discussions that ChatGPT has indexed and assigned credibility to. Getting your brand into those sources — or creating new ones that become cited — is how you move from invisible to recommended.

This is why the playbook works across channels. The same Reddit thread that ChatGPT cites also ranks in Google. The same article that earns a citation in Perplexity also drives organic traffic. AI visibility and traditional SEO reinforce each other.

Step 1 — Find out where you stand

Before you can improve your AI visibility, you need to know where you are. Set up Airefs with your domain, your key competitors, and the prompts people use to find products like yours.

Start with 10–20 prompts across two categories:

• Category winner prompts — buying-intent queries like "best [your category] tool", "[your category] for small businesses", "alternative to [competitor]". These are the prompts where being #1 means a direct lead.
• Industry questions — informational queries your buyers ask, like "how do I…" or "what is…". These drive citations even when you're not directly mentioned.

Once your first prompts run, the Overview will show your current mention rate against competitors. Most teams are surprised by how low it is — that gap is the opportunity.

Step 2 — Understand what's driving results for competitors

The Sources page shows every URL ChatGPT cited across your tracked prompts. This is your competitive intelligence layer. You're looking for two things:

• Content formats that dominate. If "15 Best [Category] Tools" listicles appear repeatedly, that's the format to target. If review roundups dominate, those are your targets. The format that gets cited is the format that works.
• Openings in the existing sources. If the top-cited article is three years old and outdated, or thin on detail, it's vulnerable. A fresher, more comprehensive piece can displace it.

Use the Competitive gap smart filter to surface content owned by competitors. These are the specific URLs helping them outrank you — read them, understand why they're cited, and plan to create something better.

Step 3 — Create content AI wants to cite

This is the highest-leverage long-term action. A single well-written article that becomes a top citation can drive mentions across dozens of prompts for months. Genlook published comparison-style blog posts answering the exact prompts buyers use in their category, and those articles began appearing as citations across multiple queries within weeks.

What makes content get cited:

• Explicit headings that clearly signal content structure — AI models extract information by heading, so structure matters
• Structured comparisons that are easy to parse — tables, numbered lists, clear pros/cons
• Neutral, credible tone — AI models cite content that reads like an authoritative reference, not a sales page
• Current information — outdated content loses citations over time; fresh content gains them
• No unnecessary fluff — dense, useful content gets cited; padding doesn't

Include your brand naturally where it genuinely fits. Don't just list competitors — position yourself clearly in the comparison. The goal is to be genuinely the best answer to the question, not to game anything.

Use the Articles page to find specific content gaps — formats ChatGPT is repeatedly citing in your category where you don't yet have a competing piece.

Step 4 — Join the conversations AI already trusts

Reddit is disproportionately influential in AI answers. A single well-upvoted thread on r/marketing, r/entrepreneur, or a niche subreddit can become a persistent citation in ChatGPT answers for months. ChatGPT doesn't just read articles — it reads community discussions, and those discussions carry real weight in product recommendations.

The Discussions page shows commentable sources that ChatGPT is already citing across your prompts — the threads you should be in right now. The playbook:

1. Open the thread and read the full conversation
2. Add a genuinely helpful comment — answer the question, clarify a misconception, share a specific experience
3. Include your brand name or URL naturally where it fits

This approach works because it reinforces your presence in places AI systems already trust. It doesn't require publishing anything new, and results can show up in prompt data within days. Genlook used this exact approach — joining existing discussions carefully, answering questions, adding context — to build presence in threads ChatGPT was already using as sources.

Quality matters more than volume. Helpful, specific comments get upvoted and stay influential. Promotional comments get removed or downvoted into irrelevance.

Step 5 — Get into new conversations early

The best time to join a thread is the day it's posted. A thread that's still forming is easy to shape — an early, helpful comment rises to the top. A thread with 500 comments and an established dynamic is much harder to influence.

Reddit Alerts monitors new threads mentioning your keywords the day they're posted. Set up alerts for your category terms, your brand name, and your top competitors. Check the daily digest and act on the highest-signal threads immediately.

Airefs also suggests keywords worth adding based on what's appearing in your category — so your coverage expands over time without manual research.

Step 6 — Use Impressions to find what AI is reading

Your mention rate in the Overview is your north star metric. But Impressions is the leading indicator — AI crawler visits to your pages increase before your mention rate does. This is where you catch signals early.

Look at which pages are getting crawler visits and which aren't. A page with heavy AI crawler activity is being actively read and considered by the models — that's content worth investing in. A page with no impressions isn't on their radar at all, regardless of how much effort went into writing it.

Use this data to make active decisions:

• High impressions, not yet cited — the content is being read but hasn't earned a citation yet. Improve it: sharpen the structure, add more specific comparisons, make the information denser and more extractable.
• High impressions and cited — this is your best-performing content. Update it regularly to keep it fresh and extend its citation life. Add internal links from other pages to reinforce it.
• Low or no impressions — AI isn't finding this content. Consider whether it's discoverable, whether it matches the format of cited content in your category, or whether it's worth redirecting effort elsewhere.

Use the Brand mentioned smart filter on the Prompts page to see where your efforts are paying off first. These are the prompts where your mention rate is rising — the template for what's working that you can replicate across other prompts.

Step 7 — Measure the business impact

Mention rate and impressions tell you how your AI visibility is growing. But the metric that matters most for the business is leads — and AI search doesn't show up cleanly in Google Analytics or most attribution tools.

The most reliable way to measure it is the simplest: add a "How did you hear about us?" question to your signup or onboarding flow. Free-text or a dropdown with options including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google, Reddit, and word of mouth.

This works because users who found you through an AI answer know it. They'll tell you "ChatGPT recommended you" or "I asked Perplexity and your name came up." No tracking script catches that. A direct question does.

Genlook discovered that 30% of their signups were attributing their discovery to ChatGPT — a channel that wouldn't have appeared anywhere in their analytics. Without asking, that signal is invisible. With it, you know exactly which channel is producing and can invest accordingly.

Cross-reference your HDYHAU data with the Airefs Clicks data for the same period. Clicks tracks human visits from AI answers server-side — together, these two signals give you a complete picture of how AI visibility is converting to real business outcomes.

What the results look like

Genlook followed this playbook consistently for two months. The results:

• Went from invisible to the #1 recommended brand in their category on ChatGPT
• ~50% share of voice — the closest competitor was in single digits
• 30% of all new signups now come from ChatGPT — more than Google
• 324% increase in AI crawler impressions in the last 30 days alone
• Ranked #2 marketing channel overall, ahead of Google, social, and word of mouth

The impact extended beyond ChatGPT. The same content that earned AI citations strengthened their presence in Google search. The same Reddit threads that influenced AI answers also drove organic community traffic. One coordinated effort across channels, compounding over time.

The compounding effect

AI visibility compounds in a way traditional SEO doesn't. Once your brand appears in a top-cited article, that citation drives more crawler visits, which increases your chance of appearing in future answers, which earns more citations. The same dynamic applies to Reddit — a thread you participated in two months ago is still being cited today.

Teams that start early build a durable advantage. The sources shaping AI answers in your category are being established right now. Getting into them — or displacing them — is significantly easier today than it will be in 12 months when more brands are running the same playbook.