Why it matters: Brands are eager to show up in AI-generated answers. Optimizing for large language models (LLMs) — also known as generative engine optimization — is a fresh challenge that differs from traditional SEO. But, since both search engines and answer engines aim to deliver quality responses, the good news is that if you’re producing high-quality, relevant content, your brand might get noticed in both.
The findings: According to Seer Interactive’s latest study, authored by Christina Blake and Nick Haigler, Google rankings are crucial for brand mentions in LLMs, but backlinks and content variety didn’t make the impact expected. Here’s what they discovered:
- Brands ranking on page 1 of Google had a strong correlation (~0.65) with mentions in LLMs like ChatGPT. Bing had a weaker correlation (~0.5–0.6).
- Backlinks didn’t have the impact they anticipated — in fact, their effect was either weak or neutral.
- Multi-modal content didn’t seem to matter as much as expected.
About the study: The team ran 10,000 questions in finance and SaaS sectors through OpenAI’s GPT-4 API to see which questions triggered brand mentions. A reminder: correlation doesn’t equal causation.
What’s next: According to the authors, “Search rankings appear to influence LLM mentions, but they’re not the only factor. We’ll be diving into PR, partnerships, and on-page strategies next.”
The bigger picture: This study isn’t the first to show a link between high rankings and visibility in AI-generated responses. A recent analysis by Botify and DemandSphere found that 75% of links in Google AI Overviews come from the top 12 organic search results.
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