Ask the SEO Wizard
Wise and Mysterious Wizard of the Machines,
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitors and never me?
— an owner of an app design studio in Portland, adapted from a question on r/smallbusiness
Asked
I asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for the best app designer in Portland. Every one named the same few competitors. We weren't mentioned once.
The Wizard answers
Well, first, you have to run an LLM hundreds of times before you start getting repeat answers, so unless you are using an AI tracking tool to measure, your data is likely suspect.
LLMs gather answers from the web and many rely on Google itself to find top answers, so ranking well in Google will almost always improve your LLM mentions.
What you need to figure out is where ChatGPT is looking to get its info. Check the sources it cites. If it uses the same website sources often to answer the question you’re asking about, then it may be that you just need to get your brand showing up on those websites like your competitors have.
- Get onto the lists. Pitch the writers of those roundup articles.
- Say clearly who you serve. Your homepage should say something like “We design and build apps for Portland startups and mid-size companies.” Models repeat clear, specific claims. “We craft digital experiences” gives them nothing to repeat.
- Publish real case studies. The client, the problem, what you built, what happened. Numbers help.
- Keep your details consistent. Same name, same description, same location everywhere.
This is slow work, but it compounds, and most of your competitors aren’t doing it on purpose yet.