Visible in ChatGPT
How your company will be found
By Alexander Schneider, founder of OOTO — Out of the Ordinary
Your customers no longer just Google.
You ask ChatGPT. You ask Perplexity. You ask the AI assistant in your browser.
And if your company isn't listed there, you don't exist for these customers.
This is not just a pipe dream. According to a study by SparkToro from 2024, Google is already losing measurable market share in informational search queries to generative AI tools. This is particularly true for complex questions—precisely those that are asked before a purchase decision is made.
What ChatGPT actually does—and why it matters to you
ChatGPT is not a search engine. It is a large language model (LLM) that answers questions and makes recommendations based on training data.
The key difference to Google: With traditional SEO, Google presents you with a list of links—the user decides where to click. With ChatGPT, there is no list. There is one answer.
When someone types, "Which marketing agency do you recommend for an SME in Switzerland?" ChatGPT either gives specific names or doesn't give any. There is no middle ground.
This fundamentally changes the competition. Visibility is no longer a question of ranking on page 1 or 2. It is a binary decision: mentioned or not mentioned.
How does ChatGPT decide who to recommend?
LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have been trained using enormous amounts of text data from the internet. They "know" companies that are well documented online—through their own content, but above all through external mentions on trustworthy sites.
Newer models such as ChatGPT with activated web search or Perplexity also access current websites in real time. This means that newly published, well-structured content is also taken into account—not just what was available in the training data set.
In a study (2024), the research group at Columbia University investigated which factors increase the likelihood of a company being mentioned in generative search responses. The key findings:
Authority through third-party sources. Companies that are mentioned on independent, established platforms—industry media, directories, specialist portals—are classified as trustworthy by LLMs. The mechanism is similar to Google PageRank, but with even greater weighting.
Consistency of information. Name, address, range of services—the same everywhere. Contradictory information across different sources leads to uncertainty in the model. In case of doubt, the company will not be recommended.
Clarity and structure of content. LLMs understand structured content better than continuous text. Clear headings, direct answers to specific questions, no marketing jargon.
GEO – what's behind it?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. The term was coined in 2023 by researchers at Princeton University and Georgia Tech and describes the targeted optimization of content in order to be cited and recommended in generative AI responses.
GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is an extension.
Those who practice technically sound SEO—structured data, clear information architecture, E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness)—already have a good foundation. But GEO requires something more: content that is so precise and quotable that a language model can incorporate it directly into an answer.
The difference in practice: A classic SEO text is optimized for keywords. A GEO-optimized text answers questions in such a way that an AI system cites it as a reliable source.
What you can do specifically
1. Answer the questions your customers really ask
LLMs prefer content that provides direct answers to direct questions. No introductory paragraph explaining that this is an important topic. Go straight to the answer.
If your target audience asks, "How much does an SEO agency cost in Switzerland?" – then answer exactly that. With concrete figures, with context, with restrictions.
FAQ sections with schema markup are particularly valuable from a GEO perspective. They provide structured question-answer pairs that LLMs can utilize directly. Google itself recommends FAQ schema for content that is to appear in AI Overviews.
2. Appear on the right platforms
ChatGPT and Perplexity know your company better when it is consistently documented across multiple trusted platforms.
Google Business Profile, local.ch, industry-specific directories, trade associations—these are not nice-to-haves. They are trust signals that LLMs evaluate.
Particularly valuable: mentions on pages with high domain authority. From a GEO perspective, a mention in a trade magazine or on an industry platform is often more valuable than ten additional texts on your own website.
3. Systematically build up external mentions
Testimonials, case studies, guest contributions in trade media, interviews, mentions in industry association newsletters—these are external signals.
A concrete example: If you are quoted as an expert in an article on a Swiss marketing blog, ChatGPT knows that you are recognized as an expert in this field. This significantly increases the likelihood of a recommendation.
4. Structure your website for machines
LLMs read HTML. They understand structure better than unordered continuous text.
In practice, this means:
Clear heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3). Schema markup for your company (Organization, LocalBusiness, Service). An llms.txt file—similar to robots.txt—that explains to AI crawlers who you are, what you do, and what content is relevant. This is a new standard that is currently being established.
Anthropic (maker of Claude), OpenAI, and Perplexity already support llms.txt. Google has enabled AI Overviews based on structured content.
5. Write with references
LLMs give greater weight to content that backs up claims with sources. Not because this is a direct technical requirement, but because content with source references in the training data typically comes from scientific or journalistic contexts and is therefore classified as more trustworthy.
Specifically: If you cite a figure or make a market statement in a blog article, back it up with evidence. This increases the article's quotability.
A practical example from Switzerland
A dental practice in Lucerne that we work with became visible in local AI searches within three months thanks to targeted GEO optimization—even though it had hardly any organic traffic before.
The approach: FAQ pages with schema markup for the most common patient questions, entries in medical directories, structured company data on the website, and a consistent Google Business Profile.
No magic. Consistent groundwork.
What happens if you do nothing?
AI tools are not going to disappear. They will be used more—not less.
Microsoft has integrated Copilot directly into Windows and Office. Apple Intelligence runs on the iPhone. ChatGPT has over 300 million active users per week (as of early 2025, according to OpenAI).
Companies that start optimizing their online presence for generative AI now will have a structural advantage in two years that will be difficult to catch up with.
The good news is that most Swiss SMEs have not yet started. There is still time to catch up.
Conclusion
ChatGPT and other AI tools are changing how customers make decisions. They no longer ask questions—they get answers delivered.
Your job is to ensure that your company is included in these responses.
GEO is not hype. It is the logical evolution of SEO for a world where language models are becoming the first port of call for purchasing decisions.
Those who tackle this now have a real advantage.
Want to know how visible you are today?
We'll do a free SEO/GEO audit for your business. You'll see in black and white where you stand in Google and AI searches—and what to do next.
No sales pitch. No overhead. Just clarity.
Sources:
SparkToro, "Zero-Click Search & The Rise of AI Answers" (2024) – sparktoro.com
Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" Princeton / Georgia Tech (2023) – arxiv.org
Google, FAQ Schema & AI Overviews – developers.google.com
OpenAI, ChatGPT Usage Statistics (2025) – openai.com
Anthropic, llms.txt Standard – anthropic.com
