Ranking in ChatGPT Results: Feedback From 100+ Blog Owners
Last updated: 15 October 2025
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We spent weeks digging through Reddit threads, Hacker News discussions, IndieHackers posts, and forum conversations to find what blog owners actually report about ranking in ChatGPT results.
Most advice out there is theory or guesswork, but we wanted real signals from people who've tested this stuff (similar to how we build our market clarity reports by scraping real customer feedback across the web).
What we found surprised us because the patterns that emerge in ChatGPT responses are completely different from traditional SEO.
Quick Summary
Appearing in ChatGPT results requires inverting everything you know about traditional SEO.
Low-engagement Reddit posts get cited more than viral content, niche subreddits generate 3.8X more citations per subscriber than large ones, and ChatGPT traffic converts 6X better than Google traffic despite lower volume. Structure matters more than domain authority, mentions matter more than links, and 82.5% of citations go to deep pages rather than homepages.
The blog owners who succeed focus on authentic expertise in niche communities, maintain fresh content with weekly updates, and ensure their technical setup (clean HTML, schema markup, JavaScript rendering) lets AI actually read their content.
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How to Appear in ChatGPT Results
1. Focus on low-engagement posts over viral content
What blog owners discovered:
Reddit posts that ChatGPT actually cites average just 43.1 upvotes and 36.9 comments, while the posts it ignores average 129.8 upvotes and 94.6 comments. The posts with fewer upvotes get cited more.Why this happens:
High comment volume signals debate and controversy, not definitive answers. ChatGPT interprets sprawling discussions as noise rather than authority.What to do:
Stop chasing Reddit karma. Write surgical, complete answers to specific technical questions. Aim to provide the canonical answer that doesn't need 200 people arguing in the comments.2. Build presence on answer-first platforms
What blog owners discovered:
Between July and August 2024, ChatGPT referral traffic from brand websites crashed by 52%. Meanwhile, Reddit citations surged 87% and Wikipedia jumped 62%. Together they now control 22% of all ChatGPT citations.Why this happens:
Brand websites push conversion actions like "Schedule a demo," but Reddit provides the comparative answers users actually want. ChatGPT prioritizes sources that answer questions directly over those trying to funnel users toward sales.What to do:
Stop relying solely on your owned website (this is something we see constantly when building our market clarity reports for different products). Build authentic presence on Reddit, contribute to Wikipedia articles in your domain, and create comparison content that educates rather than sells.3. Design landing pages for pre-qualified visitors
What blog owners discovered:
Traffic from ChatGPT shows 42% higher page views per session and 6X better conversion rates compared to Google Search traffic.Why this happens:
ChatGPT pre-qualifies users through conversational context. By the time someone clicks through, they've already had their specific questions answered and they understand how your solution fits their exact needs.What to do:
Stop obsessing over raw traffic volume and focus on conversion quality. Design landing pages for ChatGPT traffic differently. Assume visitors already understand the basics. Focus on implementation details, pricing transparency, and immediate next steps instead of educational top-of-funnel content.4. Build evergreen content for 18-month horizon
What blog owners discovered:
The median age of Reddit posts cited by ChatGPT is 563.5 days (approximately 1.5 years). Old posts consistently outperform fresh content.Why this happens:
Well-answered posts from years ago that have been curated and validated by communities over time signal higher authority than recent low-quality threads. Content that remains valuable after 18+ months has proven its lasting utility.What to do:
Build a library of comprehensive, canonical answers to perennial questions in your domain. Think of Reddit participation as planting trees that bear fruit 18 months later, not harvesting quick wins.5. Participate in current Reddit discussions actively
What blog owners discovered:
ChatGPT doesn't just use old training data. It actively performs real-time searches using site:reddit.com when users ask current questions. Ask about "the best git client of June 2025" and ChatGPT will search "best git client windows June 2025 site:reddit.com" live.Why this happens:
Training data becomes stale for time-sensitive queries, so ChatGPT uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation to find fresh discussions.What to do:
Your Reddit presence matters for both historical training data and real-time retrieval. When writing Reddit posts, include specific dates, version numbers, and current context. Participate in recent discussions about current trends, not just timeless topics.6. Write with distinctive quotable phrases
What blog owners discovered:
Researchers can isolate distinctive phrases from ChatGPT responses, Google search them with exact quotes, and trace answers back to specific Reddit comments. Sometimes it's word-for-word matches including formatting like "Exfoliation (2-3 times a week)".Why this happens:
Language models learn and reproduce patterns from training sources. They sometimes copy memorable phrasings verbatim with surgical precision.What to do:
Write Reddit posts with distinctive, quotable phrases and unique formatting structures that are traceable. Use this technique yourself to reverse-engineer which Reddit posts influence ChatGPT in your domain, then study those patterns.7. Dominate 3-5 niche subreddits strategically
What blog owners discovered:
When normalized by subscriber count, niche subreddits like r/snowflake and r/bigquery generate significantly more citations per 10k subscribers than massive subreddits. When users explicitly name a community, posts from that subreddit have 3.8X higher citation odds.Why this happens:
AI values hyper-relevance and topical authority over popularity. When someone asks "How do I optimize Snowflake queries?" ChatGPT naturally surfaces r/snowflake as the definitive source.What to do:
Identify 3-5 highly relevant niche subreddits (5k-50k subscribers) where you can become a recognized expert. Build relationships with moderators. Aim to dominate small specialized spaces rather than getting lost in massive general communities.8. Target posts with 3+ upvotes threshold
What blog owners discovered:
Approximately 22% of GPT-3's training data came from WebText2, which is Reddit links with 3+ upvotes. This dataset received a 2.9X weight multiplier during training.Why this happens:
OpenAI researchers identified Reddit as containing particularly valuable discussions and deliberately over-sampled it. Reddit's upvote system naturally filters for quality, so they weighted it nearly 3X higher than standard sources.What to do:
Understand that Reddit isn't just one of many sources, it's the prioritized source for conversational knowledge. Focus Reddit participation on posts that achieve 3+ upvotes to cross the threshold for training data inclusion.9. Make Reddit your priority for technical B2B
What blog owners discovered:
Analysis of 187 technical queries found ChatGPT cited Reddit in approximately 81% of answers. That's dramatically higher than Google AI Overviews at 21% and Perplexity at 6.6%.Why this happens:
Technical problems require authentic troubleshooting discussions and real-world experiences. Polished marketing content doesn't provide this. When someone asks "How do I debug Kubernetes networking?" they need Reddit war stories, not vendor whitepapers.What to do:
If you're in technical B2B, Reddit participation isn't optional. Document your technical problem-solving publicly on Reddit with detailed explanations, specific configurations, error messages, and solutions that match technical queries.10. Ensure clear brand positioning everywhere
What blog owners discovered:
Cloudflare data reveals OpenAI crawls 1,500 pages per single click sent. Google only crawls 18 pages. This creates an invisible "dark funnel" where your content exposure is massive even without clicks.Why this happens:
LLMs need vastly more information to generate answers than search engines need to rank results. ChatGPT must understand context across hundreds of sources to synthesize a single response.What to do:
Your content is being consumed at enormous scale regardless of click-through rates. Ensure your brand positioning and unique value proposition are crystal clear in every piece of content, because AI reads 1,500 pages to send you 1 visitor.11. Encourage platform-specific query phrasing
What blog owners discovered:
When users' queries explicitly mention a specific community (like "What do developers on Reddit say about..."), content from that platform has 3.8X higher citation odds.Why this happens:
User intent signals matter. Explicitly requesting Reddit perspectives tells ChatGPT to heavily weight Reddit content in its response.What to do:
Monitor how users naturally phrase questions in your category. In your own marketing, encourage customers to phrase their AI queries with platform mentions like "Ask ChatGPT what Hacker News says about..." This triggers citation of platforms where you're active.12. Audit all third-party directory listings
What blog owners discovered:
Chris Long from Go Fish Digital found ChatGPT describing his company using language appearing nowhere in official materials. He traced it to an obscure directory listing mentioning "Thryv," a name the CEO hadn't heard in 9 years.Why this happens:
ChatGPT pulls from the entire web, not just owned properties. Older directory content often ranks as "authoritative" in training data even when it's outdated.What to do:
Conduct a comprehensive audit of all online mentions. Search your brand name across directories, review sites, archived pages, and third-party databases. Claim and update every listing you find, because your ChatGPT presence is only as accurate as your worst third-party mention.13. Mirror natural question phrasing in titles
What blog owners discovered:
Posts with titles that semantically match users' question intent show 63% higher relevance scores and 47% higher semantic similarity compared to keyword-optimized titles.Why this happens:
ChatGPT uses advanced natural language understanding. It looks for titles that capture exact intent, not keyword matches. Traditional SEO targets crawlers, AI targets meaning.What to do:
Write titles that mirror how someone would naturally phrase their question. Instead of "SEO Tips ChatGPT 2024," use "How do I get my startup mentioned in ChatGPT responses?" Test your titles by asking if they capture what someone is actually asking.14. Prioritize clean HTML structure over design
What blog owners discovered:
ChatGPT cited Flow.ninja (smaller Webflow site) over GeeksforGeeks (massive authority site) for "best no-code website builders" queries. Flow.ninja won despite having way less authority.Why this happens:
ChatGPT ranks based on structural clarity (clean H2s, markdown-style formatting) and extractable answers (bullet points over paragraphs), not PageRank or backlinks.What to do:
Audit your site structure from an AI perspective. Disable JavaScript to see what's visible (that's what AI sees). Use semantic HTML5 tags and clear H1-H6 hierarchy. Prioritize content extractability over visual design. Small sites with pristine structure can outrank giants with poor formatting.15. Create deep content pages for specific questions
What blog owners discovered:
Analysis of 8,000+ AI citations found 82.5% linked to deeply nested pages, not homepages. Official company homepages were rarely cited (under 4%) for general queries.Why this happens:
AI seeks specific answers to specific questions. Deep pages with focused content match query intent better than broad homepage content that tries to say everything.What to do:
Stop obsessing over homepage optimization. Build a library of deep, content-rich pages addressing specific questions (the same approach we use when researching for our market clarity reports to identify what customers really need). Create comprehensive guides, detailed listicles, and focused how-to pages where every important question has a dedicated URL.16. Test with actual ChatGPT interface, not APIs
What blog owners discovered:
Most AI visibility tools rely on APIs, but API responses differ significantly from what users see in the actual ChatGPT interface. Shubham from RadarKit had to build tools using 4G proxies to visit LLM interfaces directly.Why this happens:
The API serves different content priorities than the user-facing interface, likely due to different retrieval mechanisms and ranking algorithms.What to do:
Test your ChatGPT visibility by actually using ChatGPT's interface, not just API calls. Create monitoring workflows that use real browsers with real user behavior patterns. If using tracking tools, verify they test the actual interface rather than just API endpoints.17. Optimize for Bing rankings immediately
What blog owners discovered:
Research reveals approximately 87% of ChatGPT's citations match Bing's top results, not Google's. Yet most entrepreneurs still optimize exclusively for Google.Why this happens:
ChatGPT uses Bing's search infrastructure for real-time retrieval and draws heavily from Bing's index. OpenAI and Microsoft have a deep partnership.What to do:
Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools immediately if you haven't. Monitor your Bing rankings, not just Google. Optimize title tags and meta descriptions for Bing's algorithm (which differs from Google's). Recognize that dominating Google while ignoring Bing means sacrificing ChatGPT visibility.18. Start building Reddit presence now
What blog owners discovered:
Reddit citations in AI overviews jumped from 1.30% in March 2024 to 7.15% in June 2024. That's a 450% increase in three months. User-generated content now represents 21.74% of all AI citations.Why this happens:
Both Google and AI platforms recognized that UGC provides authentic, helpful information that polished brand content often doesn't. Users trust peer discussions over marketing materials when making decisions.What to do:
This trend shows Reddit is still in early-stage growth for AI visibility. Start building Reddit presence now before it becomes saturated. Focus on subreddits where your target customers seek advice. Prioritize authenticity because communities will reject obvious promotion, but genuine expertise builds compounding visibility.19. Build comprehensive comparison content strategically
What blog owners discovered:
A Profound study found 32.5% of all sources cited by LLMs were comparative listicles. Blog posts and opinion pieces followed at nearly 10%.Why this happens:
ChatGPT users frequently request comparisons, and AI platforms are optimized to deliver structured comparison tables. Decision-making queries are among the most valuable because people comparing solutions are close to purchase.What to do:
Create comprehensive comparison pages for every competitive set in your space. Structure them with a quick decision matrix upfront, pricing breakdown by team size, feature-by-feature comparison table, integrations list, and "Best for:" specific use cases. Critically, include honest limitations and real trade-offs because AI prefers balanced comparisons over promotional reviews.20. Conduct and publish original research data
What blog owners discovered:
Content featuring original statistics and research findings sees 30-40% higher visibility in LLM responses compared to generic content.Why this happens:
LLMs' built-in verification processes seek concrete data to support claims. AI models heavily favor expert commentary and verifiable data over unsupported claims.What to do:
Conduct original research even at small scale. Survey 100 customers, analyze your own usage data, or aggregate industry metrics (exactly what we do for our market clarity reports by analyzing real customer complaints and pain points across the web). Publish findings with clear methodology. Include specific numbers, percentages, and time periods. Even basic original data like "In our analysis of 500 websites..." dramatically outperforms recycled information.21. Implement server-side rendering for all content
What blog owners discovered:
Most AI crawlers can't execute JavaScript. If your content loads dynamically, you're invisible to AI. Simple test: disable JavaScript in your browser and visit key pages. If you see a blank page, ChatGPT sees nothing. Many entrepreneurs with React or Vue SPAs discovered their entire site is invisible to AI despite ranking well on Google.Why this happens:
AI crawlers are simpler than Google's renderer and don't execute client-side JavaScript because it's computationally prohibitive for millions of sites.What to do:
Implement server-side rendering (Next.js, Nuxt.js) or use static site generators (Gatsby, Hugo) for content pages. Use progressive enhancement to ensure core content works without JavaScript. This single technical change can transform your AI visibility overnight.22. Unblock ChatGPT crawlers in robots.txt
What blog owners discovered:
During ChatGPT's initial release, many websites blocked OpenAI's web crawler (OAI-SearchBot) to prevent content from being used for training. Many sites still have this block active without knowing it, completely eliminating their ChatGPT visibility.Why this happens:
The 2023 AI training controversy led to widespread crawler blocking. Site owners never revisited these decisions as ChatGPT evolved into a search platform.What to do:
Immediately check your robots.txt file for blocks on ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, and GoogleOther. Remove these blocks unless you have specific reasons to opt out. Verify in server logs that these user agents are actively crawling after unblocking.23. Build custom citation systems for API use
What blog owners discovered:
The standard Chat Completions API provides no source metadata or citations whatsoever. Only ChatGPT's web interface shows citations. The Assistants API provides citations only for RAG with uploaded files, not web sources.Why this happens:
The base API is designed for general language generation, not search or retrieval. Citations require additional infrastructure OpenAI doesn't expose.What to do:
If building ChatGPT integrations, understand you must implement citations yourself using function calling with external search APIs (Bing, Google, exa.ai, Jina.ai). For entrepreneurs, this means the citations you see in ChatGPT's interface aren't available to developers building on the API.24. Optimize for full scenario descriptions
What blog owners discovered:
The average Google search contains 4 words. The average AI prompt contains 23 words with full situational context. Users describe their specific scenario like "I'm stuck in a cycle where missed deadlines derail subsequent deadlines and throw my entire project off track."Why this happens:
ChatGPT's conversational interface encourages natural language. Users have learned they get better results with detailed context.What to do:
Stop optimizing for keyword phrases and start optimizing for "scenarios and situations." Think through 5-10 specific situations where your product or service is the perfect fit. Describe those exact scenarios in your content using language like "If you're struggling with..." and complete problem contexts.25. Implement schema markup across all key pages
What blog owners discovered:
Multiple agencies identified structured data (Schema markup) as the single most impactful technical change for AI visibility. HawkSEM's CEO stated: "If there's one thing you could do differently, we'd say it would be to focus more on structured data."Why this happens:
LLMs need clear, parseable information. Structured data provides explicit context about entities, relationships, and content types that AI can easily understand.What to do:
Immediately implement Schema markup for FAQs (FAQPage schema), how-to content (HowTo schema), products (Product schema), articles (Article schema), and breadcrumbs (BreadcrumbList). Use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool to verify implementation. This is low-hanging fruit that many competitors haven't addressed, so first movers see disproportionate results.26. Update top pages weekly with fresh data
What blog owners discovered:
Content from the past 2-3 months dominates AI citations. Freshness is a key ranking factor. GEO experts recommend weekly refreshes for top 10 pages: add 2-3 new statistics, include recent case study, update "Last Modified" date, add one new FAQ, and change title to "(Updated [Current Month] 2025)".Why this happens:
AI aggressively filters for recency, especially for queries implying current information. Content falling out of the 90-day freshness window loses citations rapidly.What to do:
Create a content maintenance calendar. Tag pages by importance (Tier 1: weekly updates, Tier 2: bi-weekly, Tier 3: monthly). Focus updates on adding new data points and case studies rather than rewriting everything. Use timestamps prominently.27. Cultivate positive social media sentiment
What blog owners discovered:
Social sentiment ranks as the least important algorithmic factor in ChatGPT's recommendation algorithm (behind authoritative lists, awards, reviews, and customer examples). But it acts as the "kingmaker" in competitive spaces with no clear leader.Why this happens:
When quantitative factors are equal, ChatGPT defaults to qualitative signals about brand perception.What to do:
Monitor and cultivate positive social sentiment on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Reddit. Encourage satisfied customers to share experiences publicly. Respond thoughtfully to discussions mentioning your brand. In competitive markets, invest in community building and thought leadership that generates positive mentions rather than just reviews on formal platforms.28. Track brand mentions, not just citations
What blog owners discovered:
BrightEdge analysis found ChatGPT mentions brands 3.2X more than it cites them with links. Nearly half of prompts contain zero brand mentions. But commercial intent language (like "deals," "where to buy") drives 4-8x higher mentions than informational queries.Why this happens:
ChatGPT often recommends brands conversationally without providing links, especially when synthesizing options.What to do:
Shift tracking from "citations" (links) to "mentions" (any brand reference). Test commercial-intent prompts like "best affordable X," "where to buy Y," "deals on Z" rather than just informational queries. Optimize for recommendation language because mentions without links still drive enormous brand awareness and establish you as a category leader.29. Optimize Amazon listings for commerce queries
What blog owners discovered:
For general queries, Wikipedia dominates with 43% of citations and Amazon is nearly absent. For commerce-specific queries, Wikipedia drops to 22% while Amazon surges to 19%. Reddit increases to 15% and YouTube falls from 5% to 2%.Why this happens:
ChatGPT recognizes query intent and selects sources accordingly. Shopping queries surface shopping platforms.What to do:
If you're in e-commerce, optimize Amazon listings with detailed descriptions, Q&As, and reviews. These feed both Amazon's Rufus AI and ChatGPT citations (when building our market clarity reports for e-commerce products, we consistently see Amazon reviews as a goldmine of customer insights). For commerce queries, Reddit participation discussing product comparisons matters more than YouTube reviews.30. Set up ChatGPT traffic tracking immediately
What blog owners discovered:
After implementing GEO optimization, Stellar Content reported ChatGPT became client Galileo-FT.com's #7 traffic source with measurable, converting traffic. Marcel Digital observed "noticeable increase in referral traffic from ChatGPT...not only driving higher website visits but also generating qualified leads." Multiple businesses report 5-15% of total traffic now comes from ChatGPT.Why this happens:
ChatGPT has evolved from a novelty to a genuine acquisition channel with ROI.What to do:
Set up ChatGPT traffic tracking in GA4 immediately (filter for 'Session Source' matching "chatgpt|openai"). Track not just traffic volume but conversion rates and lead quality from this source. Allocate budget to AI SEO based on actual performance data. Treat ChatGPT as a tier-1 acquisition channel deserving dedicated optimization resources, not an experimental side project.
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