Have you ever opened up ChatGPT, fed it a number of somewhat leading prompts (e.g. “tell me about social media training companies in Glasgow…”, and discovered you apparently don’t exist?
You’re not alone. Many businesses are struggling with a lack of visibility in AI search – and while you’ll still get most of your web traffic from Google at this stage, AI engines will claim a greater share of search over the next few years. Getting a strategy in place now to make it easier for AI engines to discover, mention and cite your brand is a smart move.
Brand mentions vs. website citations: what’s the difference?
When an AI tool like ChatGPT or Perplexity responds to a query, it can interact with your business in two distinct ways – and most people don’t realise they’re different things.
A brand mention is when the AI references your business by name in a response. It might say “Glasgow-based agency NSDesign offers social media training” without including a website link. Your name is associated with the solution to the searcher’s problem (and there’s huge value in that) but there’s no clickable trail leading back to you.
A website citation is when the AI actively lists your website as a source because it has identified your content as the most relevant answer to what someone has asked. It may do this alongside or independently of a brand mention.
Why you might get one, both, or neither
LLMs are trained on enormous datasets that include news sites, Reddit threads, Wikipedia, review platforms, industry publications and more. That means your brand can accumulate a presence in AI outputs entirely from third-party sources. (That doesn’t mean ignore your website, by the way: LLMs increasingly retrieve your website to solidify their understanding of your business).
Reasons why you might get mentioned without a citation include: people are talking about you on social media, you’ve featured in press coverage, or you’ve accumulated reviews on TrustPilot or Google. The AI has absorbed all of that and built up a picture of your brand.
On the other hand, you might get cited without a brand mention if you’ve published genuinely useful, well-structured content that directly answers specific questions, whether you have or haven’t done the work to build a broader online presence beyond your own site.
It comes down to brand building: you stand a much better chance of mentions AND citations if you have a strong website and a solid presence outside of it. And, conversely, a much lower chance of either if your website content is thin, your wider online footprint is minimal, or you’re in a sector where AI simply pulls from a handful of well-established sources that already dominate the landscape.
Building a brand AI loves to cite
Now we come to the “what to do about it” part. Third party sites are the place to start, because AI is more interested in what other people say about you than what you say about yourself.
Ask happy customers to leave a Google or TrustPilot review. Share content on LinkedIn and other social platforms and encourage people to engage with it. Think about whether there are local or industry directories where you should have a presence.
Combining strong on-site content with a consistent brand footprint across the web is what gives you the best chance of being both mentioned and cited – not just existing somewhere in the background of an AI’s training data. Check out our recent blog about AI search for more tips.
Want to go deeper into AI search? Get in touch and let us design a bespoke AI Training session for you and your team.