Before someone visits your website, they’re asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Mode for a recommendation.
The brands showing up in those answers aren’t always the ones with the best SEO.
They’re the ones with the strongest presence across the sources AI pulls from: Reddit threads, review profiles, cited listicles, YouTube videos, and licensed publications.
LLM seeding is how you build that presence deliberately. Here are 11 tactics to get started.
TL;DR: LLM Seeding Tips
- Secure placements in listicles that LLMs already cite
- Create optimized profiles on review sites like TrustPilot and G2
- Get listed on relevant business directories & listings
- Build a strong LinkedIn presence (both company page and founder profile)
- Provide expert insights to journalists and content marketers
- Publish content on blogging platforms like Medium, Substack, and LinkedIn Articles
- Comment on relevant Reddit threads
- Get featured on LLM partner sites
- Appear as a guest in podcasts
- Partner with YouTube creators
- Audit brand mentions for consistency
What is LLM Seeding?
LLM seeding is the practice of strategically placing brand mentions in places that large language models frequently pull content from.
The goal is to repeat detailed, consistent information about your brand across enough trusted sources until AI systems begin to develop familiarity and trust in you, and start recommending you in their answers.
Tip 1: Secure Placements in Cited Listicles
Listicles are the single most-cited content format in AI search, taking 21.9% of all citations across AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
For commercial queries, the pull is even stronger: roughly 41% cite a listicle.
That makes a “best X” roundup the highest-leverage placement you can earn.
An inclusion in multiple listicles that AI already cites will drop your brand into the pool of sources AI draws from every time a buyer asks for a recommendation.
How to do that:
- Use ListBrew to discover “best” and “top” listicles that already rank in Google and AI answers for your target keyword.
- Find the contact information of the listicle’s author or editor.
- Send a personalized pitch to each prospect.
Check out our listicle outreach guide for the complete steps.
Tip 2: Create Optimized Profiles on Review Sites
A study by Seer Interactive found that review sites are the #2 citation source in AI search.
Brands with no Trustpilot profile have a median AI citation rate of 1%. Brands with 1–13 reviews jump to 53.5%.
Having a well-optimized profile on platforms like Trustpilot can really boost your AI visibility.
And you don’t even have to gather hundreds of reviews. Just one or two is enough to make a difference.
How to do that:
- Create a profile on relevant review sites in your niche, like Trustpilot, G2, and Clutch.
- Complete every field: company name, category, product description, and website URL.
- Encourage existing customers to leave a review. Offer something in return like a discount or an extended subscription duration.
Tip 3: Get Listed on Business Directories
Business directories give models structured, consistent data about your brand, which makes you easier to cite correctly.
Listings on Crunchbase, industry association directories, and respected niche catalogs reinforce who you are and what category you compete in.
Here are some platforms you should prioritize:
- Google Knowledge Panel. Claiming your knowledge panel helps Google and AI systems better understand your brand entity, including your company description, website, social profiles, founders, and category associations.
- Google Business Profile. Helps your business appear in Google’s local search results, Google Maps, and Gemini citations.
- Bing Places for Business. Helps validate your business information across Microsoft’s search ecosystem and can strengthen visibility in AI products connected to Bing search data.
Depending on your industry, you also need to create profiles on niche-specific listings:
- Travel & hospitality — Yelp, TripAdvisor
- Tech & SaaS — Crunchbase, Capterra, Product Hunt
- B2B services & agencies — Clutch, DesignRush
- Ecommerce brands — Amazon, Shopify Shop
- Healthcare — Healthgrades, Zocdoc
- Restaurants — OpenTable, Zomato
- Real estate — Zillow, Realtor.com
Tip 4: Build a Strong LinkedIn Presence
LinkedIn is the most-cited domain for professional and B2B queries across all six major AI platforms (Profound).
For B2B SaaS, a strong LinkedIn presence is now core seeding infrastructure.
Here are a few tips to get started:
- Optimize your company page. Fill in the About section, tagline, specialties, location, and website URL. Make sure the information is aligned with the details on your site.
- Post consistently. AI engines cite both LinkedIn posts (feed) and long-form articles, so mix your content between the two formats.
- Have founders and senior team members post from their personal profiles on topics your buyers care about. Personal profiles are cited by AI too, not just company pages.
- Use compelling visuals in every post. Images, carousels, and short videos are powerful tools to stop people on their track while scrolling through LinkedIn feed.
- Tag customers, partners, and industry voices when you mention their work or results. When they like, share, or comment on your post, it will appear on their feed as well.
- Spark conversations. Leave thoughtful comments on other people’s content and always reply to comments on your own posts.
Here’s an example of how I usually post on LinkedIn:
Tip 5: Provide Expert Commentary
Journalists and content marketers are constantly looking for expert insights for two reasons:
- E-E-A-T. Google’s quality guidelines reward content that demonstrates real experience and expertise. A named expert quote is one of the strongest signals you can add to a page.
- AI visibility. According to Wellows, including expert quotes with credentials can increase AI Overview visibility by 78%. SE Ranking also found that pages with expert quotes earn 4.1 citations on ChatGPT versus 2.4 for pages without them.
This is your opportunity to seed your profile and brand name into the content AI tools pull from when answering questions.
With this tactic, I managed to get featured in leading marketing blogs like Ahrefs, HubSpot, and Surfer SEO.
How to do that:
- Sign up to journalist outreach platforms like Qwoted, MentionMatch, Featured, Help a B2B Writer, and Source of Sources.
- Respond fast and lead with a specific insight, data point, or concrete opinion. Generic quotes don’t get published.
- Provide your full name, job title, company name, and headshot. Make it as easy as possible for the author to feature you.
Tip 6: Publish Content Beyond Your Domain
If you run a new site with a low domain authority, don’t just publish articles on your own site.
Instead, distribute your content on high-authority platforms and publications that AI models learn from.
Here’s how it works:
- Decide on a topic that’s relevant to your business offerings.
- Publish a cornerstone blog post about it on your own website.
- Publish the same topic with a different angle on blogging platforms like Medium, Substack, and LinkedIn Articles.
- Pitch guest post ideas (still with the same theme) to relevant publications in your niche.
- Link back to your original content from those third-party articles.
We call this strategy GP Engine.
In one of our campaigns, we created a “content refresh” guide on our site, and then published a variation of that article on Surfer SEO, Sitebulb, Linkody, and thruuu.
Tip 7: Comment on Relevant Reddit Threads
Reddit is one of the largest sources of LLM training data.
According to an analysis of 4 billion AI citations and 300 million answer engine responses by Profound, Reddit is the number one cited domain in AI search.
During an interview with Fast Company, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman even said that Reddit has played a major role in LLM development:
LLMs would not exist as we know them without Reddit. Reddit is one of the single largest sources of training data for the LLMs and Reddit continues to be one of the primary sources of both training data and we’re also the most cited, the most cited platform across all models.
Steve Huffman, CEO at Reddit
Here’s how to start your Reddit marketing campaign:
- Use tools like Ahrefs to surface Reddit threads that are ranking in Google for your target keywords.
- Contribute unique insights to 3-5 threads per week. Avoid AI-generated content, as Redditors can smell it from a mile.
- Mention your product only when it directly solves the problem being discussed, and be upfront about your affiliation.
Another tactic to host an AMA (ask me anything) session. It’s a great way to gather user feedback and spark conversation around your product or service.
Tip 8: Get Featured on LLM Partner Sites
LLM companies have licensing deals with certain publications, allowing AI models to train on their data.
For example, OpenAI has licensing agreements with Reddit, Apple, and major publishers like Dotdash Meredith, Vox Media, and TIME Magazine.
If you can build a presence on these partner sites, you’ll have a great chance to be included in ChatGPT’s training data.
Here’s how:
- Map the licensed and partner platforms in your category. Here’s the complete partner list for ChatGPT.
- Identify which of those partners publish content relevant to your niche and accept guest posts and expert contributions.
- Pitch with something worth publishing: original data, a strong point of view, or a case study their readers can’t get elsewhere.
We managed to secure a mention on The Telegraph (one of OpenAI’s partners) for our client Oriel Partners by providing salary data based on our own survey.
Tip 9: Appear as a Guest in Podcasts
While there’s currently no study suggesting that LLMs cite podcasts, appearing in one can be beneficial for you:
- Exposure. Each appearance positions you as a credible voice in your niche. Repeated exposure across multiple shows builds recognition in a way that written content alone doesn’t.
- Human connection. Video podcasts let buyers see and hear you before they ever visit your site. That familiarity builds trust faster than a blog post.
- Multi-format distribution. Every podcast appearance generates a trail of indexed content: transcripts, show notes, social clips, and sometimes third-party commentary from sites like Search Engine Journal. One single podcast appearance can result in dozens of web mentions.
Follow these tips:
- Start small. Don’t target popular shows with millions of subscribers. Identify small podcasts in your niche with an audience that matches your target buyers.
- Pitch an interesting topic. The best content comes from interesting things you do in real life. Talk about experiments you’ve run, client results that surprised you, and lessons only someone in your position could share.
- Prepare the content. Once your pitch is accepted, ask the host what the questions will be and prepare your answers beforehand.
- Repurpose the episode. After the episode is live, share the transcript on your own site, clip key moments for social, and link to the episode from relevant blog posts.
Here’s a snippet of my appearance in the Paid Forward Podcast.
Tip 10: Partner With YouTube Creators
According to an Ahrefs study, YouTube mentions are the top brand visibility factor in ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews, even higher than branded web mentions.
The more YouTube videos that talk about your brand, the more likely you are to be recommended by AI answers.
Here’s how to get started:
- Find YouTube channels in your niche who already produce “best X” and comparison videos. Those are the formats AI cites most.
- Reach out to those creators. Ask them to review your product, create a tutorial on how to use it, or include it in an upcoming “best X” video.
- Offer a clear value exchange: a free account, early access, or a sponsored partnership.
Here’s an example of a YouTube video that compares our client Resource Guru with Monday.com.
Tip 11: Audit Brand Mentions for Consistency
Securing third-party mentions is important. But ensuring those mentions are accurate and consistent is equally critical.
If your LinkedIn page describes your company one way, but a review article or directory lists you differently, LLMs receive conflicting signals about:
- Who you are
- What category you belong to
- What problems you solve
- When your brand should be recommended
This can weaken entity recognition and reduce the likelihood of your brand appearing in AI-generated answers.
Audit every place your brand appears: your own site, social profiles, review sites, directories, and third-party articles.
Check that your name, category, core description, and headline claims line up everywhere.
Start Building Brand Visibility Where AI Looks
AI systems don’t build answers just from your website. They scan Reddit threads, review profiles, listicles, YouTube videos, and the publications your buyers already trust.
The 11 tactics above are how you get into those sources systematically.
But you don’t need to run all of them at once. Start with the highest-leverage moves for your stage: listicle placements and review profiles for commercial query coverage, LinkedIn and Reddit for brand awareness.
If you’d rather hand off the outreach work, partner with Position Digital.
Our digital PR services are designed to find the sources that AI cites in your category and earn you a place in them.
Get in touch today to see what’s possible for your brand!
