Here’s What It Really Takes to Win in the Age of AI Search

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are changing how people search for information. Questions that once went to Google are now being answered directly in AI chatboxes. For entrepreneurs, that shift sparks a new worry: If customers are finding answers in LLMs, how do I make sure my business is part of them?

That worry has fueled a fast-growing market for “AI SEO.” It’s pitched as the next evolution of search optimization, promising to make your brand more visible in generative AI responses. But here’s the truth: LLM visibility isn’t just SEO with new tricks. It’s closer to public relations — or at best a combination of PR and SEO. And just as in the early days of search, the space is already crowded with exaggerated claims, shortcuts and black-hat operators.

Related: How AI Is Transforming the SEO Playbook — and What Businesses Must Do to Ensure Long-Term Relevance and Visibility

The llms.txt example

Consider llms.txt, a proposal launched in 2024 as a way to make websites more machine-readable for language models. The idea is simple: Place a markdown file at the root of your domain that points to your most authoritative content. In theory, it’s a curated guide that helps LLMs prioritize your best material when generating answers.

In practice, adoption has been minimal. Audits through 2025 show that major AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are not requesting or honoring llms.txt. That doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Adding the file is harmless, and if adoption comes later, early movers might benefit. The problem is how it’s being sold. Too many agencies pitch llms.txt as a guaranteed lever for visibility today. It isn’t.

A familiar species in a new habitat

This isn’t the first time business owners have faced inflated promises. SEO itself has long had two sides. On one, ethical practitioners help companies earn visibility with useful content, technical clarity and authentic authority. On the other hand, black-hat operators promise gimmicks: link farms, keyword stuffing, “guaranteed rankings.”

That species hasn’t gone extinct. It has migrated into the world of AI SEO. Instead of link schemes, today’s quick fixes are llms.txt sold as a magic bullet, “knowledge graph submissions” that don’t exist or fabricated dashboards showing AI referrals. The vocabulary has changed, but the pattern is the same: Prey on uncertainty, offer shortcuts, and collect fees before reality catches up.

The bigger promises

Beyond llms.txt, the boldest claims in the AI SEO space revolve around guaranteed placement in LLMs. Some consultants tell entrepreneurs they can “submit” a site directly to an LLM’s knowledge graph. Others suggest they can guarantee your brand will be cited in ChatGPT’s responses. These claims are fiction. There is no submission pipeline and no way to hard-code your company into AI outputs.

Tools are also part of the hype machine. Some advertise complete audits for “LLM readiness” or guarantee inclusion in generative results. A few are helpful: They monitor citations, highlight entity confusion or suggest ways to clarify content. But none can force your material into an LLM answer. The best vendors are transparent about that fact. The rest hide behind buzzwords.

Related: How to Get Your Business Recommended by AI Tools Like ChatGPT — and Win More Clients

The analytics mirage

Measurement is where hype can tip into outright deception. Because AI referrals are hard to track, some agencies resort to tricks. One of these is tagging links with utm_source=chatgpt so that Google Analytics reports “ChatGPT traffic” even if the visit came from elsewhere.

Even when the data isn’t fabricated, it’s often framed in misleading ways. Reports have claimed ChatGPT now accounts for a significant portion of search activity. But those numbers include every prompt — writing code, drafting poems or playing games — not just queries that send people to websites. The real referral traffic is far smaller, usually under 1%.

Still, marketers celebrate “triple-digit growth” in AI traffic. On closer look, those surges often come from tiny bases: Going from 10 visits to 40 is technically a 300% increase, but it doesn’t change your business.

Why the hype works

Why do entrepreneurs fall for these pitches? Because uncertainty creates opportunity for exploitation. Leaders know AI is reshaping discovery, but no one knows how fast. When an agency arrives promising to “future-proof” your brand in ChatGPT, it feels like insurance.

The psychology is identical to the early 2000s, when black-hat SEO firms promised overnight rankings and clients paid for link farms. Back then, it was the fear of being invisible in Google. Today, it’s the fear of being invisible in generative AI.

What actually works

The fundamentals of LLM visibility look less like gaming an algorithm and more like building credibility. That’s why it feels more like PR than pure SEO.

Authority comes first. LLMs are more likely to cite sources that are trusted and widely referenced. That means earning coverage in respected media, being mentioned in industry publications and cultivating signals of trust.

Clarity comes next. LLMs are prone to confusion and hallucination. Clean “About” pages, consistent naming and schema markup help them interpret your brand correctly. This is where SEO discipline reinforces PR credibility.

Finally, focus on evidence-rich content. Generative models prefer material grounded in facts, statistics and quotes. Thin copy gets ignored; substantive content is more likely to make it into answers.

llms.txt may still be worth adding, but treat it as optional documentation, not a lever. Until platforms adopt it, it won’t change your visibility.

Related: Is Your SEO Strategy Ready for the AI Search Engine Takeover? Act Now — or Risk Getting Left Behind.

The takeaway

The AI SEO hype machine is loud, and llms.txt is the perfect example of how quickly an unproven idea can be marketed as a must-have. Black-hat SEO operators have simply found a new playground. Instead of link schemes and keyword tricks, the gimmicks now come wrapped in “AI.”

Entrepreneurs should be skeptical of any pitch that guarantees citations, inflates analytics or hides behind jargon. Real visibility in the LLM era doesn’t come from gimmicks. It comes from the same mix of trust and clarity that has always worked: PR to build authority, SEO to make your signals unambiguous and content that is genuinely worth citing.

LLM visibility is real. But it can’t be hacked. As with every other shift in digital marketing, the winners won’t be those who buy shortcuts. They’ll be the businesses that earn trust, one credible mention at a time.

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are changing how people search for information. Questions that once went to Google are now being answered directly in AI chatboxes. For entrepreneurs, that shift sparks a new worry: If customers are finding answers in LLMs, how do I make sure my business is part of them?

That worry has fueled a fast-growing market for “AI SEO.” It’s pitched as the next evolution of search optimization, promising to make your brand more visible in generative AI responses. But here’s the truth: LLM visibility isn’t just SEO with new tricks. It’s closer to public relations — or at best a combination of PR and SEO. And just as in the early days of search, the space is already crowded with exaggerated claims, shortcuts and black-hat operators.

Related: How AI Is Transforming the SEO Playbook — and What Businesses Must Do to Ensure Long-Term Relevance and Visibility