Since our first post how to get into AIOverview, it has become clearer what it takes to rank. We have ranked multiple of our clients in the AIO, and we want to share our learnings.
Ranking a local service business #1 in ChatGPT
While the number of visitors is still very low (compared to organic visitors), the leads are often highly engaged and tend to convert at a much higher rate than organic visitors who have read a top-of-the-funnel content piece.
To construct an answer, LLMs query multiple times and create a pool of articles (40-60) from which they construct an answer to your LLM query.
The fundamental difference with SEO is that your brand needs to appear in the top 40 search results as often as possible.
Let’s unpack this:
The top 40 results matter, not just the top 10 results
Being cited often is important
1.) The top 40 search results matter, not just the top 10 results
There are multiple ways to get into the Top 40. These tactics do not work for highly competitive niches (e.g., B2B SaaS in the US), where competitors have spent millions on SEO. In this article, we assume that most of our readers are local service businesses.
1.) Press releases
Your offer a service (XYZ) in a city (CITY). (e.g. business incorporation in Dallas)
Writing a press release about “Best XYZ service in CITY“ can help you in two ways.
If there is not a lot of competition, you might immediately rank number 1 for the search “service XYZ in CITY”. (and get leads!)
If the competition is strong, your press release will not rank in a top position. However, it will likely appear in the top 40 search results, and it will increase the number of mentions. This makes it more likely that you will be mentioned in the AIOverview.
2.) Blog post publishing
Writing blog posts is not about being in the Top 3 anymore. We are thinking about blog posts more about "providing context for your brand”. We see that the following types of blog posts work well:
Listicles:
“Top 10 XYZ services in CITY”. For most of our clients, we frequently write listicles (blog posts about the top10 service providers in that city). Well-researched articles are frequently picked up by AIO and help to rank the brand (i.e. “Top 10 Business Incorporation providers in Dallas”).
Alternatives:
For your main competitors, it helps to build “YOUR COMPETITOR alternative“ pages. If you have 30 competitors, it helps to build these articles and pages for the top 5. It always depends, but if nobody knows your competitor, there’s no point to write an article about them.
Top-of-the-funnel:
Long-form Top of the funnel content (in our example: What is needed to incorporate a company in Dallas?) can be used as a source for LLMs. Even if it doesn’t rank on the first page (due to competition), it might still be worth it to write it.
3.) Buy your way in
For each AI search result, you can find the sources they use. Find the contact details of the author, compliment them on the great article and ask to be included and what it takes to be included (i.e. how much?).
To get into ChatGPT, you need to be listed in the sources
If you cannot contact the author, just google the name of the site + “guest post”.
For example, the top post is from vocal media, you then google “vocal.media guest post price“. Likely, you will find freelancers who offer to get you a blog post on that site for a reasonable price.
4.) Reddit Marketing
More often than not, Reddit threads rank in the search results. LLMs scrape them to construct the answer. It is important to get your brand mentioned.
Make sure not to be too aggressive in your promotion. What works best is to write a helpful comment. Wait 2 weeks, then edit the comment and mention your brand. This usually prevents the comment from being deleted.
We have recently launched rranktracker.com. A tool that helps with finding reddit comments that rank in your niche. You can also order comments that stick.
2.) Being cited often is important
The more often your brand appears the top 40 search results, the more likely you will be included in the search results.
Anecdotally, we see local service businesses that are mentioned in 3-5 articles (the less competitive the niche, the less brand mentions you need) in the top 40 be extremely likely to be included.