4 Steps to Rank #1 in ChatGPT (2026 SEO Plan)

and is the fifth most popular website on the internet.

So how do you get ChatGPT to recommend your brand?

Well, that's what I'm going to show you today.

I'll show you a proven four pillar AI SEO blueprint

to help you become the number one recommended brand

in ChatGPT for your niche.

So if you're new here, I'm Nathan Gotch,

and for over a decade,

I've led hundreds of successful SEO campaigns

in the most competitive industries,

such as legal health and SaaS.

I'm also the founder

of the number one AI SEO training program,

Gotch SEO Academy, author of the SEO Entrepreneur

and co-founder of RankAbility,

one of the fastest growing AI SEO tools.

So let's begin with pillar number one,

which is to nail the SEO fundamentals.

Start by making sure that your website is crawlable

and indexable by going to Google

and entering a site colon search.

As you see from the example,

this website is not indexing well.

So the first step is to check the robots.txt file,

and in seconds, we discover that crawlers are blocked.

As a result, this website will not perform well

in traditional search engines or AI platforms like ChatGPT.

The one second fix is to change disallow to allow.

The next SEO fundamental is to confirm

that the website is built in a language

that ChatGPT can understand, which is good old HTML.

If you're using WordPress

or popular content management systems,

this is usually the default.

However, if you're using a no-code platform

like Lovable or Repl.it,

be careful because your website

will most likely be JavaScript.

And AI platforms like ChatGPT

do not render JavaScript very well.

In other words, ChatGPT will likely ignore your website

in favor of a website that's easier to crawl and understand.

So don't risk it.

Stick to HTML-driven websites.

Next, become obsessed with loading speed

because AI crawlers are intolerant of slow pages.

Aim for page loading speed of 2.5 seconds or less

to maximize crawling and conversions.

According to one study,

a one second delay can lead

to a 7% decrease in conversions.

Now it's time for pillar number two,

which is to master topic domination.

So look at these two plumbing businesses.

One has seven webpages while the other has 500.

To no surprise, the bigger website

gets 23,000 organic visitors per month

while the tiny website gets zero.

This isn't to imply that quantity beats quality,

but sheer volume can win even if quality is average.

Let me show you a better approach that balances both.

Start by picking one product or service

like Plumbing Services in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Then you'll start at the bottom of the funnel

and build topic support.

For example, you should build dedicated service pages

for emergency plumbing, commercial plumbing,

and kitchen plumbing services

in Chesterfield, Missouri to name a few.

You can build these in minutes

by entering a keyword phrase like

Emergency Plumbing Services in Chesterfield, Missouri

into RankAbility's content optimizer,

entering Chesterfield for the location

and starting the optimizer.

Then just pick AI, select service page from the dropdown,

enter some unique selling proposition,

social proof, and details about the company

into the prompt window to start.

And in minutes, you'll have a draft

that's already optimized and ready for human edits.

If you're not sure what pages to build,

you have two options.

First, reverse engineer competitors.

Go to their navigation and build similar commercial pages

that target unique service offerings.

For example, on this plumbing businesses website,

I found basement, laundry room,

and even outdoor plumbing services.

There's also a full water heater

and sewer services clusters to build as well.

Just in this broader category of plumbing,

you'll be able to create at least 25 to 50 service pages.

Option two is to use ChatGBT to get some inspiration

by using this prompt.

Now keep in mind, you learn a lot more

about search demand when you publish more

because you can go into Google Search Console

and start seeing the queries that are popping up.

If you see a query that's performing poorly,

you should consider how to target it

either on an existing page or spinning up a dedicated page

if the intent is different.

The last content technique

is something that most businesses hate,

but it's incredibly effective

for influencing ChatGBT and AI platforms.

I call it competitor seeding.

Instead of letting the AI just come to its own conclusions,

you're going to attempt to control the narrative.

And if you're brave enough,

you'll get results like Geary,

a member of Gotch SEO Academy who used this technique.

It's simple, create the following groups of content.

Listicle content like top 10 best plumbing companies

in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Alternatives content like top five

best Roto-Rooter alternatives in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Comparison content like Roto-Rooter

versus Bright House Co. in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Then rinse and repeat for every competitor.

These are often low competition topics,

but are exactly what ChatGBT is looking for

when it uses retrieval.

Retrieval is fancy AI technobabble

that simply means that when ChatGBT doesn't know an answer

or it can't give an accurate response,

based on its training,

it relies on third-party sources to prevent hallucination

and to generate more accurate responses.

The number one third-party source it relies upon

is none other than public search engines like Bing

and maybe even some evidence that it uses Google as well.

Either way, this confirms that ranking well

in traditional search is a critical part

of influencing ChatGBT to recommend your brand.

But we're just getting started.

You could stop here and get decent results,

but the next two pillars

are what will help you dominate your competitors,

bringing me to pillar number three,

which is blanketing the SERPs.

You already know that ChatGBT uses search engines

as a primary source of retrieval,

and this means you need to plant your brand

on as many pages as possible

that are ranking for your most important keywords.

Start by creating at least 10 commercial prompts

using ChatGBT with this template.

Then create a dedicated testing account in ChatGBT.

Now run each of these prompts in separate chats.

Next, go to this tool and create a simple bookmarklet

using this code and drag it into your bookmarks bar.

I'll have the code below the video.

Then go back to each chat and export the citations.

At this point, you'll have at least 50 to 100 citations

to filter through.

Exclude homepages and competitors

and prioritize listicles above all else.

Now you're left with your outreach targets.

Just send this simple outreach template

to every opportunity.

Then send at least three follow-ups

using this simple sequence on screen.

Once again, I'll have all of this below the video.

Next, open up ChatGBT's agent tool

and use the following prompt

to find more listicle opportunities.

Once that's done, I recommend using the agent again

to find your dream 100 in any niche you're targeting

with this prompt.

Your dream 100 is your best marketing

and link opportunities in your industry.

These are typically the most popular sites in any industry,

which means they're likely ranking well

in traditional SERPs

and may possibly be a direct source of retrieval

for ChatGBT.

Treat these opportunities like gold.

You can also just invest in sponsored content

on these websites because ChatGBT doesn't discriminate

between organic or paid brand mentions.

They both count the same.

Even if the link is tagged as nofollow or sponsored,

it still works.

Now you're going to use ChatGBT's agent one more time

to find YouTube influencers in your target niche

with this prompt.

YouTube ranks incredibly well in Google

because they own it and it's a common source of retrieval

in ChatGBT and perplexity.

It's simple, pay YouTubers to promote your brand.

Go to their channel, click on more

and click view email address.

Repeat for your entire prospect list,

but be careful because YouTube will block you

if you do too many in one day.

Cap it at 20 per day.

Once you have the list,

send this template to every prospective YouTuber.

Then use a simple calculation

for prioritizing the opportunities

based on their proposed brand integration pricing.

Then just work through the list with this simple template.

All right, so now moving on to pillar number four,

which is forcing ChatGBT to trust your brand.

It's simple, for ChatGBT to recommend your brand,

it needs enough signals to prove you're legit.

And the first step is to make it stupidly easy

for ChatGBT to know what your brand is all about.

First, use a tool like Whitespark

to analyze your business citations

to ensure that your NAP, name, address,

and phone is 100% accurate.

Next, open ChatGBT's agent,

use the following prompt to find all of your own properties

and to identify entity association issues.

To keep it simple, it needs to be clear

what your business offers in one to two sentences.

Then you need to repeat this consistent relevance

across all your owned assets.

Next, become obsessed with generating reviews.

If you're local, prioritize the Google Business profile.

However, in the context of ChatGBT,

it doesn't use Google Business profiles.

Instead, it relies on third-party review platforms

and it varies based on the local niche.

For example, AVO and Justia are prime targets for lawyers

while Angie is great for home services.

Just use this ChatGBT prompt,

select the thinking model to find the best review platforms.

Then watch the next video to see my 18-step SEO audit process

for building a perfectly optimized website

for ChatGBT and Google.