No one can promise a position, because ChatGPT writes an answer instead of showing a ranked list.
How to rank in ChatGPT is a question B2B marketing heads now ask weekly. This guide gives you seven steps, a method to test your own visibility, and the evidence behind each step, including where the evidence is thin.
It is written for B2B teams in India, the UK and the Netherlands, and it includes the findings of our own small test of the questions B2B buyers ask.
How does ChatGPT decide which brands to recommend?
We could not find a published formula from OpenAI, so nobody outside the company can say exactly. What we can verify is narrower. OpenAI says a site that blocks its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though it may still appear as a navigational link.
Buyers do use these tools. In G2's survey of 1,076 B2B decision-makers in March 2026, 54% said AI chatbots were a source influencing their vendor shortlists, the top source they named. The survey is about software buying, so treat it as a direction for other industries, not a forecast.
Beyond that, the rest is observation, including ours below.
Is ranking in ChatGPT the same as ranking in Google?
No. Google shows a list with positions, and you can see yours. ChatGPT writes an answer, and it may name some brands, cite some pages, or do neither.
| Google results | ChatGPT answers | |
|---|---|---|
| What the buyer sees | A list of links in order | A written answer, sometimes with sources |
| What you aim for | A high position | A mention, a citation, or both |
| How you measure it | Rank trackers, Search Console | Repeated test questions, referral data, a form field |
| Is it stable? | Mostly, day to day | Answers can differ between runs |
So ranking, being mentioned and being cited are three different outcomes. Keep them apart in your reports. A page can be cited without your brand being named, and a brand can be named without any link.
What is AI SEO, and how does it differ from GEO?
AI SEO is the work of making your brand findable and nameable in AI answers, in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features. Generative engine optimization (GEO) means the same thing, and we use AI SEO because it is the phrase people search.
It builds on ordinary SEO. Pages still need to be crawlable, clear and useful. The added work is about being named elsewhere, and about testing answers that change.
What did we find when we asked AI the questions B2B buyers ask?
On 18 October 2026 we put seven buyer-style questions about B2B marketing agencies to Gemini in a temporary chat. It was a small test, run by one person on one day, mostly one run per question. It is not a study, and it was Gemini, not ChatGPT.
Four things stood out:
- The agencies named differed between runs of the same question.
- The agencies named were mostly small ones.
- The answers cited guides written by agencies.
- Pure problem questions returned advice and no agency names.
In our view, this suggests two routes into an answer: being named when a buyer asks "which agency", and being the source when a buyer asks about a problem. It also shows why one test proves nothing. Repeat yours.
How do you do SEO for ChatGPT? The seven steps
Work through them in this order. We cannot prove each step lifts mentions, and we say where the evidence ends.
- Let the right crawler in. Check robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says GPTBot is separate and relates to training, and that changes can take about 24 hours. Allowing access is a condition for appearing in ChatGPT search, not a guarantee.
- Answer the buyer's question in the first lines. Put a direct answer of 40 to 60 words at the top, then the detail. Use headings phrased as the questions buyers ask.
- Cover the topic in connected pages. Build depth on the problems you solve, with pages that link to each other. This is topical authority, and it helps readers too.
- Get named where buyers read. Reviews, directories, trade publications, partner pages and expert comments all count as mentions. G2 advises collecting reviews continuously and keeping profiles accurate, since these shape what chatbots say.
- State plain facts, the same everywhere. Say who you serve, in which markets, and what you do, identically on your site and your profiles.
- Add structured data and clear headings. Use Organization, Article and FAQ markup so machines read the page correctly. We have no verified evidence that markup raises citations, so treat it as hygiene.
- Test and track every month. Use the method below, and add a "how did you hear about us?" field to your forms.
Which pages and formats get cited?
Our small test pointed to guides written by agencies, which answer a question in plain language. G2's advice points to review and profile pages. Neither is proof of a rule.
In our view, three things make a page easy to quote: a direct answer at the top, a table or list a machine can lift, and a named author with a clear role. Original material helps too, such as a checklist or a method nobody else offers.
Pages that only repeat what ten other pages say give an AI tool no reason to choose yours.
Do brand mentions matter more than backlinks?
In one large study they correlated more strongly. Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands and published it in May 2025. It found that branded web mentions had a Spearman correlation of 0.664 with brand mentions in Google AI Overviews, against 0.218 for backlinks.
Read it carefully. It is a correlation, and Ahrefs itself says correlation is not causation. It covers Google AI Overviews, not ChatGPT. The sample was filtered to domains with a Domain Rating above 40, so it is not representative of all brands.
In our view, the sensible reading is to be named in places your buyers trust, and not to chase a trick.
How can you check whether ChatGPT mentions you?
Run a test you can repeat. It takes a few hours the first time.
- Write 12 to 15 questions your buyers would ask. Split them into problem questions, "which supplier or agency" questions, and questions that name you.
- Run each one three times, on different days, in a temporary or logged-out chat.
- Record every run in a sheet like the one below.
- Repeat monthly and compare.
| Question | Date | Run | Brands named | Sources shown | Were we named? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (your question) | 1 |
Also check your analytics. In GA4, open the traffic acquisition report and look for sources such as chatgpt.com. Naming can change and some visits carry no referrer, so add a "how did you hear about us?" field to forms with the option "ChatGPT or another AI assistant".
What mistakes do B2B brands make?
These are the ones we would check first:
- Blocking OAI-SearchBot by accident in robots.txt
- Treating one test answer as the truth, when answers vary between runs
- Mixing up a mention, a citation and a ranking
- Publishing only on the company's own site and never being named elsewhere
- Writing for the phrase and not for the buyer who asks it
- Stopping after the first month
None of these needs a tool. They need a monthly habit.
What changes by market: India, the UK and the Netherlands?
Do not assume the answer set is the same everywhere. Run your test in each market and check:
- Which language do your buyers type in, and does your test cover it?
- Which review sites, directories and trade publications do buyers in that market read?
- Do the AI tools your buyers use differ by market or by company policy?
- Is a partner or distributor named in answers instead of you?
For an MNC subsidiary in India or a European HQ team entering a new market, local mentions can matter more than global ones.
