“Just Google it” was the answer to almost every question. Now, there’s a good chance someone will “just ask ChatGPT” instead.

That changes things for marketers. Ranking on page one still matters. But now you also want AI tools to mention your brand (and get the details right).

Here’s how to make your brand easier for AI search tools to find and cite.

AI search optimization is the process of making your brand and content easier for AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews to find and cite in their answers.

Traditional search hands people a list of blue links. AI search builds them an answer, with a few sources tucked underneath. The goal is to get your brand into that answer, whether it’s mentioned, recommended, or cited as a source.

Understand what matters, decide what to do next, and take action across every social workflow — all from one connected suite.

In this guide, we use “AI search optimization” as the big-picture term for getting your brand into AI answers. Here’s how it compares with SEO, AEO, and GEO:

On paper, SEO and AI search optimization look like separate jobs. In practice, they’re pretty tangled up.

As Logan Freedman, Global Head of SEO and AI Search at Manychat, puts it, “AI search optimization is the final form of SEO, not a replacement for it. You still need the fundamentals, because if a crawler can’t read your site, no model will cite it.”

So if you’ve already put work into SEO, good news: none of it goes to waste.

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