So your client called you up and said that they were messing around with ChatGPT and somehow it recommended a competitor business when they should clearly be outranking them, and what are you going to do about it?
How to Rank for Ai Snippets?
Ranking in Ai snippets is a lot simpler than you would expect, but it relies on already high-ranking content and a solid content strategy. Here’s how you go about it.
1. High-Ranking SEO Content
In order for this strategy to work you need high-ranked, optimized content. This means that there is no quick-fix around “just appearing” in Ai snippets, and you will still need to rely on SEO efforts to get your keyphrases ranked. First page (depending on relevance and authority of those ahead of you in the search results) is not enough – you specifically need number 1 rankings on Google.
2. Theming has never been more important
I’ve noticed that with a lot of newbies they don’t really understand the importance of content strategy and specifically the importance of theming in a website. Having sporadic number 1 ranked keyphrases is also not strong enough for this strategy to be successful. You need a strong theme across your site with your content.
3. Question Answer Style
When it comes to most queries to Ai tools like ChatGPT, it is usually in a question format. The bot then goes out and finds the answer which it delivers to you. For example: “What are the top 5 things to consider when creating content?” In it’s most basic form the algorithm queries that and finds the closest matched result. So it makes sense that if you have the closest matched content PLUS solid content theme, AND many number 1 rankings in that theme, your site will be the best matched answer to draw from.
4. Category Specific
Categories are just as important as Theming when it comes to content strategy. Think of every industry as a theme, and every theme can be broken down into multiple categories of focus. Categories could also be your specific service offering. If one is more important than the other, (How do you work this out? You look at the business bottom line!) , you focus on the one that brings in the most money to the business. Simple. Make sure that your website content strategy is solid for that one specific category and you’ll find yourself making progress.
5. Target Market
Having high-rankings are all good and well, but ranking for the sake of ranking brings nothing to a business bottomline. That is (or at least should be) the purpose of SEO – to understand the business, understand the target audience, decipher the various weighting of keyphrase to the business goals, and then create the SEO strategy, followed by the Content Strategy.
Grasping this is rather elementary IMO, but therein also lies the difference between choosing an experienced SEO vs a newbie. Newbies may be cheaper, but are frequently only focussed on rankings. Experience understands how to bring all these elements together to make a real difference to the bottomline.
*I had noticed this method working, without actually trying to, with one of my clients. To be honest, the particular client’s industry just did really well with that style of content, and the happy coincidence was that they ranked really well in Ai snippets – however, they have 85% number 1 rankings across all our tracked terms, for their industry.
High rankings by themselves do not make businesses profitable. It has to be the right keyphrase and content approach too.
If you are struggling with getting your content ranked high, or are not getting quality leads from your website. Get in touch for a website audit and consultation, and make your website work for you.