How to Improve Your Visibility in AI Results: The 5 Strategies Behind a 136% Increase in AI Search Visibility

AI Overviews. ChatGPT. Perplexity.

No matter where you’re looking to improve your AI visibility, this guide provides the strategies you need to get started. Discover how these strategies work (and how they grew a client’s AI search visibility by 136%) now:

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How to improve your visibility in AI results

Learn how to improve your visibility in AI results with the same strategies we used to help Thompson Tractor not only grow its search visibility by 136% but also its leads from AI search engines by 500%:

1. Investigate the sites AI search engines use for answers

Appearing in AI search engines starts with understanding which websites (and what types of content) AI search engines use for answers, whether as a citation source or a brand mention.

Get started with this step by:

1. Using AI search experiences, like Google’s AI Mode or ChatGPT, to mimic a conversation that’s relevant to your audience and your business (for example, “What are the best value options for used heavy construction equipment?”)
2. Observe the brands AI mentions and the websites it cites in its response
3. Visit the cited websites and look for similarities between the pages, whether it’s the structure, value-add, backlinks, or something else
4. Investigate the cited brands and look for similarities, like brand search volume, backlink quantity and quality, review quantity and quality, or something else

You’ll likely find what we’ve found in our own research — AI prefers:

• Structured content, like tables, lists, and headings
• Original research, like through a survey or internal data
• New or refreshed content from the past 60 days
• Off-site brand mentions, like on third-party review sites

And if you find that your business isn’t cited or mentioned in your research, know that Thompson Tractor experienced the same challenge. In their case, they didn’t appear consistently in the initial conversations someone might have when researching heavy equipment solutions.

These findings, though, served as the backdrop for improving Thompson Tractor’s AI search visibility — and they’ll do the same for your business.

2. Develop citable content

In today’s search market, developing citable content is non-negotiable.

You need to invest in what Google describes as non-commodity content — content that “provides unique expert or experienced takes that go beyond common knowledge and the ordinary.”

Get started with citable, non-commodity content by:

1. Evaluating your target market’s pain points, needs, or top discussion points (use external sources, like community forums, or internal sources, like sales calls, to build a list)
2. Brainstorming where your business can offer unique value within the above areas (take advantage of AI to surface additional ideas or out-of-the-box angles)
3. Determining how to deliver that value (for example, does your company need to interview internal team members, run an external survey, or something else?)

Then, start the process of producing the content by:

1. Organizing the dataset, whether it’s interviews, CSV files, or something else (again, take advantage of AI, like Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex, to streamline your work)
2. Processing the data to understand the findings and surface the story (for example, based on interviews with your crew, what are the most expensive mistakes homeowners make when hiring a roofing company?)
3. Building an outline that considers heading placement and the usage of lists, tables, and images to structure content (at every stage, consider how to make the page as easy as possible for a reader to skim, but still understand)

When it came to Thompson Tractor, our team focused on what Thompson Tractor knows best — heavy equipment solutions. That’s why we developed content that provided guidance on topics like:

• Comparing value options for used construction equipment
• Understanding where to buy equipment

Through this content (which WebFX’s in-house team of more than 100+ specialized copywriters developed) Thompson Tractor earned more than 50 placements on reputable third-party sites (see our later tip for improving AI search visibility to learn more).

3. Build topical authority through qualified backlinks

While developing Thompson Tractor’s non-commodity content, our team also worked on building the company’s topical authority through qualified backlinks (or backlinks from reputable and relevant sites within the heavy equipment industry).

This strategy can appear in contrast to research findings into improving AI engine visibility. A study by Princeton University, for example, suggested that AI search engines are less dependent on backlinks than other search experiences.

The study acknowledged, though, that its research focused solely on on-page updates vs. off-site changes, like backlinks. Based on our experience (we’ve been practicing generative engine optimization since ChatGPT’s release), backlinks play a role in AI search visibility by:

• Demonstrating an organization’s authority within an industry, like heavy equipment
• Building entity signals, such as what your business does and where it operates
• Growing brand mentions and attributions (which ties into building entity signals)
• Supporting a large language model’s confidence in a brand

That’s why — to increase your AI visibility — you should invest in strengthening your backlink profile with relevant links from reputable websites. For WebFX, this translated to building more than 40 qualified backlinks for Thompson Tractor.

If you’re building backlinks yourself, consider the following tactics:

• Search for broken backlinks where your business’s content can fill the gap using a tool like Ahrefs
• Produce data-driven content and pitch publishers where linking to your content would improve their page’s value-add
• Build interactive experiences (bonus if it’s based on your data-driven content) and launch ads to promote the tool

Most of all, prepare to fail. Building backlinks is a challenge, especially if you’re doing it yourself. That’s why many businesses will hire a reputable search optimization company to grow their backlink profile and site reputation.

Explore Backlink Benchmarks by Industry

4. Distribute content across reputable third-party publishers

The second part to non-commodity content (see our earlier step for improving visibility in AI search) is distributing that content across the web in a strategy referred to as “LLM seeding.”

With LLM seeding, businesses distribute their content across reputable third-party publishers with the purpose of increasing the content’s chances of entering an LLM’s training dataset and web searches.

Similar to link building, LLM seeding is a challenging task. It often requires a dedicated earned media team (which WebFX has) or in-house role (which most businesses lack).

In some instances, companies will approach this tactic using LinkedIn and Medium, which can work, but fail to deliver the same impact (or trust signal) as reputable third-party publishers because they’re easy for anyone (including bad actors) to use.

That’s why we recommend building partnerships with reputable publishers, whether through outreach or guest posting, which can lead to re-distribution opportunities.

5. Maintain a strong SEO foundation

While the above strategies played a vital role in Thompson Tractor improving its AI search visibility (the company saw a 586% increase in generative AI traffic), the foundation for those gains started with search engine optimization.

For more than five years, Thompson Tractor and WebFX have partnered together on its search engine optimization efforts, from maintaining technical SEO best practices to building an effective content strategy.

That’s why it’s critical for businesses to build — and maintain — a strong SEO foundation by:

• Allowing AI and search engine crawlers to access a website
• Building a logical site architecture
• Interlinking pages together to demonstrate their relationship and purpose
• Integrating relevant queries into pages to improve their discoverability
• Producing helpful content optimized for the web experience
• Investing in a qualified link building program

With this integrated and consistent approach, Thompson Tractor was able to not only increase its generative AI traffic by 586% but also increase its SEO-generated leads by 38% year-over-year.

Bonus: Track your AI search visibility to measure your progress

When it comes to improving AI search visibility, a natural point of discussion is how to track those improvements. That’s why it’s important to decide how you’ll measure your progress now vs. later.

In Thompson Tractor’s case, WebFX includes access to OmniSEO®, an AI search visibility platform that measures a brand’s visibility and positioning across 10 AI search engines.

While we’re partial to OmniSEO (which is available as a standalone tool), there are plenty of free and paid AI search visibility tools on the market to meet the needs of startups, small businesses, and enterprises.

If you’re considering investing in a tool, our best advice is to request a free or paid trial. Getting to use the tool (vs. previewing its capabilities) is the best way to see how it’ll integrate into your workflows.

FAQs about improving visibility in AI results

Learn more about improving your visibility in AI results now:

How long does it take to improve AI search visibility?

Improving AI search visibility can happen in as little as a few days to up to eight weeks. The time it takes for a brand to see improvements depends on the content’s quality, reach (or distribution across the web), and freshness.

Which tactics for improving AI search visibility have the highest impact?

The highest-impact tactics for improving AI search visibility are:

1. Practicing search engine optimization
2. Producing helpful and citable content
3. Acquiring relevant backlinks from authoritative sites
4. Distributing content through reputable third-party publishers

How can I track my AI search visibility over time?

Track your AI search visibility over time using manual methods, like conversing with a platform and logging the result in a Google Sheet, or third-party software like OmniSEO, ZipTie, or Otterly.ai.

Increase your visibility in AI searches with WebFX

Get discovered across AI search experiences, from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Google and Bing, with WebFX. With its award-winning team and technology suite, WebFX is a trusted partner for businesses looking to increase their visibility in AI searches.

See how our AI search optimization services can grow your visibility by browsing our generative engine optimization case studies or contacting us online to speak with a strategist!