If AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode don’t understand your brand, they won’t recommend it.
Search has changed profoundly. People no longer rely only on Google’s search results. Many now use tools like ChatGPT to find answers and understand topics. As Google’s AI Overviews become more common, traditional search is changing too. Instead of just listing pages, Google now summarises information from across the web.
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What is the difference between AI search and regular search?
Many people think that to rank or get recommended by AI search tools, you only need regular SEO. This is not fully true. In regular search, web pages are ranked by an algorithm. This algorithm looks at many factors. These include relevance, website authority, links and the experience of the person who wrote the content.
But AI search tools have an extra layer of complexity because they rely on artificial intelligence to create answers. These tools use language models to understand questions and generate responses. For example, Google uses a language model called Gemini. Language models have their own built-in knowledge, which they combine with information from web search results. They read, analyse and compare different sources before producing an answer.
This may sound simple, but it is very important. If you understand this difference, you can understand how AI search tools work. You can also learn how to get them to recommend your business, products or services.
What are language models and how do they work?
All of these AI search tools are powered by large language models, or LLMs. Basically, these tools, like ChatGPT, are prediction engines. They learn patterns and use them to guess what comes next in a sentence.
For example, if you type “I’m loving it…” into ChatGPT, it will finish it with “McDonald’s.” How does it do that? The LLM behind ChatGPT has been fed a huge amount of information from the internet. It reads all this information and starts linking different concepts, words, and patterns together. These connections are stored in what are called embeddings.
Now, imagine the model as a giant brain. Inside this brain, you have got all these concepts dotted around. Concepts that are often seen together in the training data have stronger links. So “I’m loving it” and “McDonald’s” are really closely connected. The model also understands that this is a tagline, because I’m loving it, McDonald’s and tagline are all connected too.
The cool part is, ChatGPT doesn’t need to go online to find this. It already has this information in its training data, so it can give you the answer right away. So what has this got to do with your brand?
How AI decides which brands to mention
AI search tools don’t recognise brands in a human sense. Instead, they pick up on patterns: how often a brand is mentioned online, the context it appears in and which topics it is consistently associated with.
Ahrefs analysed 75,000 brands to see which factors influence brand mentions in AI-generated summaries. The main takeaway? AI search tools care a lot about brand recognition. They don’t just look at classic SEO metrics like links or page authority. AI tools are more likely to recommend brands that are consistently mentioned in connection with a specific topic across multiple trusted sources. And you don’t need to be huge brand in order to do this.
So when thinking about AI search optimisation, you need to focus on both SEO for visibility and building your brand presence. Creating quality content, being mentioned in your niche and consistently showing up online all help AI tools see your brand as trustworthy and worth recommending.
Practical takeaway
Be super clear about the concept you want people to link to your brand, product or service. There are basically two ways to do this:
- Link yourself to a particular type of audience – for example healthy snacks for kids with allergies or online coding courses for busy parents
- Define your position in the market – maybe you are the lowest cost, or your software is trusted by top Fortune 500 companies. Maybe you offer the fastest delivery service in your city, have great technical expertise or your products are used by celebrities
The next step is to make sure your positioning is visible across the internet. AI tools “ingest” all of that information and the more they see your brand linked to these concepts, the more likely it is to show up when someone asks for something like “most reliable cloud storage for small businesses”.
How do you do that? Digital PR. By getting your brand mentioned in relevant articles, blogs, news and social posts, you reinforce your branding and the connections AI tools see between your brand and your market positioning. The more consistent these links and mentions are, the more AI is likely to recognise and recommend your brand.
How to help AI find and understand your content
Now let’s take it a step further. These practical tips will help AI search tools find, understand and make sense of your content, so your pages are more likely to be included in answers and recommendations
1. AI loves Q&A
Add a FAQ section or answer questions in your text. Keep answers short and simple.
Example for cloud storage:
- How can I share files safely with my team? → Give clear steps.
- What’s the best cloud storage for small businesses? → Explain why your product is good.
2. Become the Go-To Resource
Create full guides that show you know your topic. AI likes pages that are complete and helpful.
- The complete guide to allergy-friendly snacks for kids
- The only comparison of online coding courses busy parents need
AI prefers pages that clearly know their stuff. Another tip: citations and stats make it trust you even more.
3. Speak AI’s language with structured data
Structured data helps AI understand your pages. You can use it for:
- Products
- Reviews
- How-to guides
- Events
The easier it is for AI to read your page, the more likely it is to show it in answers. Additionally, use schema markup so AI can spot it instantly. You can learn how to use schema markup in this simple guide from Moz.
4. Cluster content around your topic
Don’t just write one-off posts. Write several pages about the same topic. Link them together. For example:
- Top 10 healthy snacks for kids
- Snacks for kids with allergies
- School lunch snack ideas
AI sees these repeated connections and thinks: this brand gets this topic.
5. Give AI a short summary
AI likes short summaries at the top or bottom of a page. For example:
- Key takeaway: Our file-sharing software is the fastest, safest option for small businesses, trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
6. Get your brand mentioned online
As we mentioned above, AI loves patterns. The more your brand appears in relevant articles, blogs and social posts, the more AI notices.
- Guest posts, features, mentions social shares, all add up.
7. Make multimedia work for you
Videos, images and podcasts can boost AI visibility too.
- Add transcripts to videos or webinars
- Include descriptive alt text on images
- Turn video content into blog posts with clear headings
8. Link your pages together
Internal links show AI how your pages connect:
- Link related pages to a main topic page
- Use clear anchor text that matches your topic
9. Keep an eye on AI mentions
Check which of your pages AI is using in answers. Use tools like Ahrefs, Bing Webmaster Tools or Google Search Console.
- Fix pages that are unclear
- Add more info to pages that are missing key points
Conclusion
The more clear signals you give (good content, repeated topic mentions, links and helpful answers) the more AI will notice and recommend your brand. This wont happen overnight. AI visibility doesn’t take a week and there is no quick fix. It takes time for AI systems to see patterns, connect your brand to the right topics and start trusting it as a reliable source. That is why consistency matters.
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