The way overseas shoppers buy is changing. They used to search Google, click a few links and read reviews. Now more and more of them simply ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Meta AI: “Recommend a few good X brands.”
AI usually gives three to five names. If you are not one of them, you never even get compared.
The good news: who AI recommends is not random. It mostly draws on two things — the information it can read about you, and what other people say about you. Both can be improved step by step. These are the seven steps we use.
Step 1: Ask first — what does AI say about you today?
Before changing anything, find out where you stand. In your target market’s language, write about ten questions real customers would ask, in three groups:
- Category: “What are the best travel sock brands?”
- Comparison: “Brand A vs Brand B — which is better?”
- Reputation: “Is Brand A worth it?”
Put them to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Meta AI, Grok and Copilot, and record four things: whether you are mentioned, in what position, how you are described, and which sites are cited.
That table is your baseline. Re-ask the same questions every month to see what moved. See the AI visibility self-check for the exact method.
Step 2: Make sure AI can read your site
Many brands lose here without knowing it.
- Check robots.txt for blocked AI crawlers. The common ones are GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. Some CDN and firewall services block AI crawlers by default, so check those settings too.
- Confirm Google and Bing both index you. Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap. Gemini and Google AI Overviews rely on Google’s index; Copilot relies on Bing, and ChatGPT search also draws on third-party search results.
- Don’t rely on JavaScript alone for key content. Many crawlers do not run JavaScript. View your page source: if you cannot see the product name and description text there, AI may not either.
Step 3: Make your brand one clear entity
AI needs to be confident about who you are, what you do and where you are before it recommends you. If your site, marketplace store, social profiles and directories all say different things, AI hesitates.
- Keep your brand name, one-line description, founding year, location and website link identical everywhere.
- Add Organization and Product structured data to your site, with price, rating and brand stated clearly.
- Build profiles on the platforms your market uses — LinkedIn, Crunchbase, industry directories, local review and comparison sites.
Step 4: Write content AI can quote directly
When AI answers a question, it looks for the clearest, most direct answer to cite. So content should read like an answer, not an advert.
- Give each important question its own page, with the conclusion in the first two or three sentences.
- Write honest comparison pages: how you differ from key competitors on materials, price and use cases.
- Include specific numbers: sizes, weights, test results, warranty length. Vague words like “premium” or “leading” give AI nothing to use.
- End each page with FAQs written in customers’ own words.
Step 5: Get other people talking about you
This takes the longest and matters the most. AI trusts what third parties say about you more than what you say about yourself.
- Review sites: send samples to reviewers and creators in your target market.
- Trade media: share useful data or opinions, and aim for quotes or bylined articles.
- Communities: Reddit, Quora, YouTube and local forums in your market — take part genuinely, never spam.
- Customer reviews: encourage real buyers to review you on your site, Amazon, Trustpilot and similar.
Step 6: Use the market’s language, not just machine translation
Selling into Germany? Answer German customers’ questions in German. Japan? In Japanese. AI can recommend completely different brands in different languages — being named in English does not mean you are named in German.
Machine translation is fine for a first draft, but have a native speaker review your important pages. Stiff translation hurts trust and makes content less likely to be cited.
Step 7: Re-check monthly and adjust
GEO is not a one-off. Each month, re-ask the questions from Step 1 and track:
- whether more AI assistants mention you;
- whether your position in the answers is improving;
- whether AI describes you correctly;
- whether new sites appear among the cited sources.
Whatever is not moving, go back and strengthen that step. Technical fixes usually show within weeks; appearing in AI recommendations typically takes two to six months.
The three most common mistakes
- Only working on your own website. Your site is the foundation, but who AI recommends depends heavily on third-party reviews and coverage.
- Fake reviews and bought links. Search engines and AI platforms are actively fighting these. Once detected, you can end up worse off than doing nothing.
- Blocking AI crawlers without knowing it. Check Step 2 before anything else.
Common questions
Can a small brand be recommended by AI? Yes. AI recommends based on how clear your information is and how strong your reputation is, not just size. Small brands with clear profiles and solid reviews in a niche are often named.
How long until I see results? After technical fixes, indexing usually improves within weeks. Appearing in AI answers typically takes two to six months, depending on how competitive the category is and how quickly third-party reviews build up.
Can I do this myself? Most of Steps 1 to 3 you can do yourself. Steps 4 to 6 need ongoing content and outreach, so decide how much to outsource based on your team.
Want to know what AI says about your brand today? We will ask the major AI assistants for you, using your product and target market, and send a one-page result — free. Get a free AI visibility check →