AI SEO · PRACTICAL GUIDE
ChatGPT SEO: getting recommended, not just mentioned
"ChatGPT SEO" refers to all the actions that help a business appear in the answers of ChatGPT and other AI assistants. It is also called AI SEO. The real goal is not to be mentioned once, but to be recommended when a customer asks what to buy. Here is what actually matters.
How ChatGPT finds businesses
ChatGPT combines two sources: what the model learned during training, and web searches when a question calls for recent or specific information. When it searches the web, it reads pages, summarizes them and displays links. Buying questions, with a budget, a city or a use case, often trigger such a search.
OpenAI distinguishes between its crawlers: OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search results, while GPTBot relates to model training. If your robots.txt file blocks OAI-SearchBot, your pages may not be used in answers that rely on search. Check this setting with your web provider.
Classic SEO and AI SEO: where they overlap
Much of the work remains the same: accessible pages, an offer described in clear text, up-to-date and consistent information, reviews and mentions on well-known sites. Assistants rely on web sources; a site that is hard to read or contradictory makes it harder for them to recommend you.
The difference lies in how the request is phrased. In ChatGPT, customers describe their situation in several sentences and expect advice. Pages that answer "who is it for," "in which case," "how much" and "what are the alternatives" are therefore more useful than a page that repeats keywords. AI SEO rewards precision more than repetition.
Mentioned or recommended: the difference that matters
Many tools count how often a brand is mentioned across a list of questions. That is a useful indicator, but it does not tell you whether ChatGPT advises customers to pick you when they make up their minds. A brand can be mentioned in 70% of general answers and rarely chosen when the buyer asks: "If you had to keep only one?"
Valooo.IA goes beyond counting mentions: we simulate real buying conversations for each of your customer profiles, all the way to the decision. You see at which step ChatGPT drops you, which competitors it prefers and with which arguments. That is the information you need to choose the right actions.
ChatGPT search and shopping
In ChatGPT, answers that use search display sources and, for some buying requests, product cards with images, prices and reviews. OpenAI states that these product results are not ads and rely on structured data from third-party providers and merchants. Conditions and eligible countries change over time: check OpenAI's documentation for your market.
For an online retailer, this makes complete product pages even more important: specifications, dimensions, materials, price, availability, shipping and return terms. Missing or wrong information in an AI answer is often a sign of an incomplete page or an outdated third-party source.
Where to start
Start by observing before acting. Ask ChatGPT your customers' questions, with their constraints, several times and over several days: answers vary. Note who is recommended, with which arguments, and any errors about your offer. Then compare with Gemini, Claude and Google, which do not always recommend the same businesses.
This manual work quickly becomes time-consuming. Valooo.IA automates it across your customer profiles and competitors, then delivers a prioritized, quantified action plan: pages to create, information to correct, proof to publish. Each action is linked to the conversations observed, so you know why it is being proposed.
From observation to your next action.
A platform to understand where your brand is recommended, where it disappears, and what needs correcting.
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