Strategy · 16 minute read
LLM SEO: what it is and how to win it.
LLM SEO is the practice of optimizing your brand and content for the large language models that now power AI search. Here is what it is, how it differs from traditional SEO, and the playbook that works in 2026.
LLM SEO sits next to traditional SEO, not on top of it.
Traditional SEO ranks your page on a list of links. LLM SEO gets your brand cited in a generated answer that may not link to your page at all. Both matter. They share many fundamentals (technical SEO, schema, content quality), and they diverge on a few important details (entity authority, third-party citation surface, original research).
Most fundamentals carry over.
- Site speed and Core Web Vitals matter.
- Schema matters.
- Internal linking matters.
- Long-form, high-quality content beats thin content.
- Backlinks from high-authority domains help.
Three things change.
- Entity authority replaces page authority. Traditional SEO ranks pages. LLM SEO recognizes brands. The entity statement, the Wikipedia-style fact density, the named leadership credits all matter more.
- Citation surface is broader than backlink surface. Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, Wikipedia, and trade press are all heavily cited by LLMs. They may or may not be ranking signals for Google. They are absolutely signals for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude.
- Original research outperforms aggregation. If you have a named statistic with a named source, the LLMs will cite you. If you are restating somebody else's research, the LLMs will cite them.
What to do, in order.
- Days 1-15. Run a citation audit. Add entity statement. Add FAQ block with schema. Add Organization and LocalBusiness schema.
- Days 16-45. Ship the cornerstone content asset (a guide, benchmark, or named methodology). Get on Reddit and Quora as named team members. Pitch the major listicles in your category.
- Days 46-90. Distribute original research to trade press. Build out service and industry pages. Track citation share of voice weekly.
Or hire someone to do it. See the GEO Engine.
Get cited.
Not just ranked.
A 30-minute call with a Houston-based GEO strategist. We will run a live AI citation audit on your brand and walk you through what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude are saying about you today. No pressure, no pitch deck.