You've spent years figuring out what Google wants. Keywords, backlinks, page speed, mobile-friendliness. You know the checklist.
Now there's a new checklist. And it's different enough to catch you off guard.
LLM ranking isn't really ranking
First, let's clear something up. Google gives you positions 1 through 10. LLMs don't work that way.
When someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, it either mentions you or it doesn't. It might mention you first, or third, or not at all. But there's no position 7 where you're visible but not great. You're in the answer or you're invisible.
The "ranking factors" for LLMs are really the signals that influence whether you make it into the answer at all.
What LLMs actually look at
Does it know what you are?
AI needs to understand you as a distinct entity. A company, a product, a service. If your website says one thing, your LinkedIn profile says another, and industry directories have outdated descriptions, AI gets confused. And confused AI doesn't confidently recommend anything.
Consistency across the web is huge. When 10 different sources describe you the same way, AI builds a clear picture and feels confident mentioning you.
Does it trust you as an authority?
AI gravitates toward sources that seem authoritative. Comprehensive content that goes deep on topics. Coverage by respected industry publications. Being cited by experts.
Thin content doesn't build authority. A 300-word page that barely scratches the surface won't compete with a comprehensive guide that actually answers questions.
Is your content fresh?
For AI tools that search in real-time (and most do now), recently updated content has an advantage. If your best content hasn't been touched since 2022, newer sources might get cited instead.
Can AI easily extract information?
Clear headings, FAQ sections, comparison tables, structured data. These make it easy for AI to understand and cite specific information. Messy walls of text with buried insights are harder to work with.
Do you directly answer the questions people ask?
If someone asks "what's the best X for Y?", content that directly addresses that exact question format is more likely to be cited. AI looks for content that matches what the user actually wants to know.
What's different from Google SEO
Some Google factors don't matter much for LLMs. Page speed? Doesn't affect whether AI recommends you. Mobile-friendliness? Irrelevant. Meta tags and title optimization? Less important than the actual substance.
Other things matter more for LLMs. Semantic clarity and clear explanations beat keyword optimization. Entity recognition beats keyword density. Being cited by authoritative sources matters more than raw backlink counts.
What you can stop worrying about
Keyword density is meaningless here. LLMs understand meaning, not ratios of word frequency.
Meta descriptions and title tags don't directly influence LLM recommendations. They're for search engine result pages, not AI-generated answers.
Internal linking structures don't matter the way they do for Googlebot. LLMs don't crawl your site and follow links.
Page speed won't affect whether AI recommends you. Fast or slow, it doesn't factor in.
What you should focus on
The safest strategy is focusing on fundamentals that have staying power regardless of how AI evolves.
Be genuinely authoritative in your space. Comprehensive content, real expertise, depth that competitors can't easily replicate.
Communicate clearly. Write so that a smart person who doesn't know your industry could understand exactly what you do and why it matters.
Keep information consistent everywhere. Website, social profiles, directories, press mentions. Same story, same positioning.
Make it easy to extract specific information from your content. Structure helps.
Tracking what works
You can't see LLM ranking factors directly, but you can see results. Are you getting mentioned? How often? For which prompts?
Tools like Mentionable track this across AI platforms. Over time, you can correlate changes in your content and online presence with changes in your AI visibility.
