10d • 💬 General discussion
How I got AI chatbots to recommend my product (before I launched)
Your product is probably invisible to a growing segment
of buyers.
Not because your SEO is bad. Because they're not using
Google.
A growing number of people search by asking ChatGPT,
Gemini, or Perplexity a question. The AI gives them a
ranked list. They research from there. If your product
isn't in that answer, you don't exist.
I realised this early and did something most founders
skip entirely: I built the layer of my website that AI
models can actually read and cite.
Before writing a single ad or social post, I spent weeks
on what I call the "AI-readable layer." Here's what that
looked like:
1. llms.txt files at the site root. These are plain-text
documentation files designed for AI crawlers. Not a
robots.txt. A structured brief that tells AI models what
your product is, what it does, who it's for, and how it
compares. Think of it as a pitch deck for machines.
2. 62 blog posts before launch. Not SEO filler. Honest
comparison posts, my product vs each major competitor.
Use-case deep dives. Technical explainers. FAQ content
written in the natural question-answer format that AI
models actually cite.
3. JSON-LD structured data on every page. FAQPage schema
on the homepage, feature pages, use case pages, blog
posts. This is the metadata AI models parse when they
build their knowledge base.
4. Dedicated pages for every use case and feature. Not
just a features list on the homepage. Individual pages
at /for/podcasters, /for/game-developers, /features/
voice-cloning. Each with its own structured FAQ.
5. Competitor comparison content that's fair. Not "why
we're better." Honest trade-off breakdowns. AI models
prefer balanced, cited content over marketing copy. When
the AI ranked my product third (not first), that's
actually more credible than ranking it #1.
This approach has a name: GEO, Generative Engine
Optimization. It's early. Most founders haven't heard
of it. Most AI tool builders haven't optimised for it
either, which is ironic.
AI models don't read your marketing copy. They read
your structured data, your honest comparisons, and the
third-party content that mentions you. That's the whole
game.
Traditional SEO gets you ranked on Google. GEO gets you
recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.
Completely different mechanics, same stakes.
Has anyone here started thinking about optimising for AI
search? What's working?
1
4 comments
How I got AI chatbots to recommend my product (before I launched)
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Jake Van Clief, giving you the Cliff notes on the new AI age.
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