Getting cited by ChatGPT and Claude: AI search visibility for B2B companies

Buyers increasingly ask an assistant before they ask a search engine. Being cited in that answer is a distribution channel, and it rewards different work than classic SEO.

How generative engines pick sources

They favour pages that answer a specific question directly, state facts in extractable sentences, show who is speaking and why they are credible, and are structurally clean enough to parse. Vague thought-leadership prose is unquotable; a clear paragraph with a concrete number is not.

Write answers, not essays

Lead each section with the answer, then explain. One idea per heading, headings phrased the way buyers actually ask ("how much does a CRM implementation cost in the UAE"), and self-contained paragraphs that make sense when quoted alone.

Make facts extractable

Specific numbers, ranges, timelines, checklists and comparison tables. "Six to eight weeks for a focused SMB rollout" is citable. "Timelines vary by project" is not.

Show entity and expertise signals

Name the company, the role of the author, certifications, jurisdictions and sectors served. Consistent naming across your site, structured data (Organization, ProfessionalService, Article, FAQ where genuinely applicable) and matching details on third-party profiles help an assistant identify you as one entity.

Cover the questions assistants actually get

Cost, timeline, comparison, prerequisites, risks, local specifics. Each deserves its own page or clearly delimited section — not a paragraph buried in a service page.

Serve machines as well as browsers

Server-rendered HTML, fast responses, a clean sitemap, a robots policy that permits the crawlers you want, and an llms.txt describing your site's purpose and main pages. If content only appears after client-side rendering, assume some crawlers never see it.

Publish real evidence

Case studies with named context and measured outcomes are the highest-value asset for both search and AI answers. Generic claims have no citation value; a documented result in a named sector does.

Measure it

Track referral traffic from AI assistants, branded search volume and direct enquiries mentioning that an assistant recommended you. Then ask the assistants your own buying questions monthly and record whether you appear.