Artificial intelligence influences how people search and what results they receive. Whether AI is answering questions directly on search result pages or replacing search engines altogether, financial advisors need to adjust their strategies to remain visible in this changing landscape.
Often referred to as AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) by marketers, or LLM SEO (Large Language Model SEO) by ChatGPT, optimization for AI platforms still revolves around creating strong signals of relevancy and authority. Many traditional SEO strategies still apply, but advisors can take additional steps to improve their visibility in ChatGPT specifically.
What Does It Mean to “Rank” in ChatGPT?
Most people are familiar with ranking in Google, where being #1 means your website appears at the top of a search results page. ChatGPT works differently. Instead of ranking websites, it generates direct answers to questions.
To “rank” in ChatGPT, your goal isn’t to earn a blue link—it’s to be included or paraphrased in the generated answer. That means ChatGPT must understand who you are, what you do, and associate you with a specific area of expertise.
You “rank” by being part of ChatGPT’s internal understanding—its language model.
See the example below, which shows how search results appear in ChatGPT:
How ChatGPT Determines Authority
ChatGPT doesn’t use backlinks or technical SEO metrics to determine authority. Instead, it learns from patterns across the content it was trained on. Key factors include:
- Repetition of your name + niche (e.g., “Brent Carnduff, SEO expert for financial advisors”)
- Mentions in trusted, public content (blogs, directories, Reddit, Quora, etc.)
- Clear, structured writing that’s easy to paraphrase
- Being quoted or referenced by others
Schema markup (explained later) can also reinforce these associations.
The Importance of Entities and Semantic Relationships
ChatGPT understands people, businesses, and services as “entities” and builds connections between those entities and specific topics. The more consistently you associate your name, firm, niche, and service areas across platforms, the more likely you will be included in relevant responses.
Where ChatGPT Pulls Information From
One of the biggest misconceptions is thinking ChatGPT “searches the internet” like Google. It doesn’t—at least not by default.
Instead, ChatGPT generates answers based on what it has already learned from a huge set of public information sources that were collected and “trained into” the model. Think of it as a giant library of knowledge that was frozen in time during the model’s last update — and your content can only be included if it was already in that library.
So, if you want to show up in ChatGPT’s responses, your content must live in places from which language models learn.
To be included, make sure your content exists on publicly accessible sources, including:
- Blogs and websites
- Reddit (e.g., r/financialplanning, r/entrepreneur)
- Quora
- LinkedIn articles – not just posts — the long form articles
- Medium, Substack
- Podcasts with transcripts
- Public white papers and PDFs
- Advisor Directories like XYPN, NAPFA, Fee-Only Network, Wealthtender
- These aren’t just for SEO or leads — if they’re public-facing, they help reinforce your entity + niche for language models.
- Pro Tip: Make sure to clearly state your full name, specialty, and location in these profiles. LLMs pick up on structured patterns.
ChatGPT does not learn from:
- Private or gated content
- Social media stories or private posts
- Client portals or member-only areas
- Content blocked by robots.txt or noindex
Content Strategy for ChatGPT Optimization
The good news is that you don’t need to be a professional writer, tech guru, or influencer. You just need to create clear, useful, consistent content that helps the LLM associate your name (or business) with the topics you want to be known for.
Let’s walk through this strategy:
Imagine someone asks ChatGPT: “Do I need a financial advisor if I’m already retired?” Your blog post should:
- Begin by directly answering the question
- Use short paragraphs and topic sentences
- Use clear headings (H2s and H3s)
- Break up longer explanations into bullet points or short paragraphs
- Include real-world examples or use cases
- Add a simple FAQ section using common questions and answers
- Avoid jargon or generic phrasing like “integrated financial solutions”
- Reinforce your entity (e.g., “As a Boise-based advisor focused on retirement income…”)
This structure makes it easy for both people and AI to grasp your core message quickly and accurately.
You don’t need one viral article — you just need a body of content that consistently reinforces the following:
- Who you are
- What you do
- Who you serve
- What topics you’re an expert on
That repetition — across your blog, LinkedIn, directories, and guest appearances — is what builds your reputation inside the model.
Voice-Friendly Formatting Helps With AI Paraphrasing
Even if you’re not targeting voice search, writing in a voice-friendly format improves your chances of showing up in ChatGPT. Why?
- Short, conversational responses are easier to paraphrase
- Clear Q&A-style formatting mimics spoken interaction
Format your blog as if you’re having a conversation with the reader. Keep things clear, specific, and structured.
Repurposing Content Across AI-Friendly Platforms
Creating helpful content is step one — but if you stop there, you’re only reaching a fraction of your potential audience.
To increase your visibility inside ChatGPT’s training data (and in other AI-powered tools), your content needs to live in more than one place. The good news? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can take a single blog post and repurpose it across platforms that LLMs are known to crawl and learn from.
Repetition in multiple trusted places makes ChatGPT and other AI tools more likely to remember and paraphrase your answers — even if your blog itself doesn’t get quoted.
And unlike Google, ChatGPT doesn’t penalize you for duplication. In fact, repetition across the web helps reinforce your authority.
More visibility across more platforms = more training data for the model to learn from.
How To Repurpose Your Content (without upsetting Google)
Don’t just copy and paste. Adjust tone, intro, or formatting to fit each platform. Here’s how to do it effectively:
- LinkedIn Articles: Republish a shortened version of your blog post with a fresh headline and intro. Make it more conversational, and include a personal hook (e.g., “I’ve helped dozens of business owners exit tax-smart…”).
- Reddit: Join relevant subreddits like r/FinancialPlanning. Either answer a real user question with insights from your blog or post something like, “What I tell clients before they sell their business.”
- Quora: Find 2–3 relevant questions that your blog already answers. Copy and paste a trimmed-down version of your answer and include your name/title at the end to reinforce your expertise.
- Medium/Substack: These platforms are widely scraped by AI tools and are ideal for re-posting lightly edited versions of your original blog. Always link back to your main site as the source.
- LinkedIn Posts (not articles): Pull one compelling story, tip, or statistic from your blog and post it as a short, standalone update. End with a call to action or insight to prompt engagement.
- Twitter/X Threads: Break your article into 5–7 tweets that each share a specific insight. Use plain language and consider using emojis or visual breaks to boost engagement.
- Directory Profiles: Take a key insight or line from your article and add it to your bio. For example: “Helps business owners reduce capital gains taxes before exit.”
By republishing and reformatting your insights across these platforms, you create multiple “entry points” for connecting your name and niche in the model’s memory.
Citation Building (Guest Posts, Interviews, Mentions)
Beyond publishing on your own channels, being cited on third-party sites strengthens your authority.
ChatGPT recognizes patterns across the public web. Repeated mentions of your name, location, and specialty on reputable sources help build your identity.
Try:
- Guest posts on niche blogs
- Podcast interviews with transcripts
- Quotes in articles via HARO or industry publications
- Business directory citations
Example: “Jane Smith is a retirement income planner based in Raleigh, NC.”
These references build your presence in language models and human search alike.
What is Schema and Why Does It Matter
If you’ve ever heard the term “schema markup” (structured data) and thought, “That sounds too technical,” you’re not alone. It sounds more complicated than it is.
But here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a developer to understand how it works — or why it’s useful.
Schema markup helps search engines and LLMs understand your content. It doesn’t change how your site looks. Rather, it labels content behind the scenes.
It’s like putting clear labels on items in a store: “This is a blog post,” “This is a service page,” “This page is about John, a financial advisor in Boise.”
Key Schemas for Financial Advisors:
- Person: Links your name to credentials and bios
- LocalBusiness: Identifies your firm and location
- Service: Clarifies your service offerings
- FAQPage: Highlights Q&A content
- BlogPosting: Connects blog content to authorship
- Author (as part of BlogPosting) links the content back to you as a recognized expert
WordPress plugins like Yoast or RankMath make this easier, but some schemas (like multi-advisor Person schema) generally require manual entry or dedicated schema plugins.
Below is the Schema that Yoast automatically adds:
| Schema Category | Yoast Coverage | Recommendation |
| Basic SEO schema (WebPage, BlogPosting, author) | ✅ Full | No action needed |
| Business identity (Organization or Person) | ✅ Partial | Make sure your settings are accurate |
| Local business details (LocalBusiness) | ❌ Missing | Add with plugin or custom code |
| Service offerings (Service) | ❌ Missing | Add manually to service pages |
| Team/Advisor bios (Person, multi-entity) | ❌ Limited (1 advisor) | Consider custom schema for each advisor |
| Enhanced entity linking (sameAs with directories, social) | ⚠️ Basic | Expand manually if important to your strategy |
How Your Google Business Profile Can Reinforce ChatGPT Visibility
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) isn’t just for local SEO — parts of it may contribute to your ChatGPT presence, too. While ChatGPT doesn’t crawl Google Business Profiles directly, your linked website, FAQs, and public reviews may appear in training datasets like Common Crawl.
To maximize this:
- Link your GBP to optimized, public blog or FAQ pages
- Add real, structured Q&A in your GBP profile
- Encourage client reviews that mention your niche + location
This adds more signals connecting your name and expertise to your location and services.
Ranking for Local Searches in ChatGPT
ChatGPT doesn’t use GPS like Google Maps, but it can still return local recommendations — if your content clearly links you to a city or region.
Example: If someone asks, “Who are some fee-only advisors in Colorado Springs?” ChatGPT might suggest names if that location is consistently connected to your content.
How to improve local visibility:
- Mention your city/state in blogs, bios, and schema
- Use LocalBusiness + Service schema with “areas served”
- Publish location-specific content (e.g., “estate planning in Massachusetts”)
- Appear in crawlable directories like NAPFA, Fee-Only Network, or Wealthtender.
What About “Near Me” Searches?
ChatGPT can’t access your real-time location, but users still search with phrases like “best advisor near me in Denver.”
To be included in these answers, make sure your name, firm, and location appear together in your blog bios, directory listings, schema markup, and public content. ChatGPT builds associations based on structure and repetition, not real-time location — so the more consistently you connect your brand to your geography, the more likely you are to be included in local-style results.
Why Traditional SEO Still Matters
With all the buzz around ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI search, you might be wondering:
“If AI generates answers on the spot, does traditional SEO matter anymore?”
The short answer is — absolutely! It just plays a slightly different role than it used to.
Here are some of the reasons why SEO is more important than ever:
- ChatGPT’s browsing tool uses Bing: If you rank well in Bing, ChatGPT is more likely to find and summarize your content when browsing is turned on (available to Pro users)
- AI tools: Tools like Perplexity, Copilot, and You.com learn from existing search engine results and blend traditional SEO rankings with AI-generated summaries
- Content that ranks well in Google is often included in training datasets: Models like ChatGPT learn patterns from high-performing, public content
- Citations from other optimized sites strengthen your online authority: This reinforces your reputation as a trusted source, both to search engines and AI models
Many of the tools that combine AI with search, such as Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat), Perplexity, You.com, and Google’s own AI search, still rely on traditional SEO signals to decide which content to summarize and cite.
With that being said, continue writing optimized, structured content. Use keywords. Build links. Improve site speed. It still works.
How Google Rankings Specifically Influence ChatGPT
Many people assume that because ChatGPT doesn’t show a list of search results, your Google rankings don’t matter. But in reality, they do – just in a different way.
Google content often appears in Common Crawl (used in model training)
- Content that ranks well in Google is more likely to be included in large public web datasets, like Common Crawl, that are used to train language models.
- High-ranking content is more likely to be cited or quoted by other blogs, directories, and forums – sources that are often part of ChatGPT’s training data
- Hybrid AI tools (like Perplexity and Copilot) rely on existing rankings to decide which content to summarize and cite.
Having high-ranking, publicly visible content on Google increases your odds of being remembered and included in AI-generated responses.
How Google’s AI Overviews (SGE) Relate to ChatGPT
While Google’s AI Overviews (SGE) aren’t part of ChatGPT’s training data, they offer valuable clues about the type of content that performs well in AI-driven environments. That’s because both systems prioritize:
- Clear structure (H2s, summaries, FAQs)
- Direct, helpful answers to user questions
- Strong topical focus and niche authority
SGE and ChatGPT are powered by different technologies, but they share a common goal: to deliver fast, accurate, human-readable answers. Because ChatGPT is trained on public web content (such as Common Crawl), the kind of content that ranks well in SGE today is often the same kind that gets cited or paraphrased in language model responses.
Takeaway:
If your content is already optimized for SGE, then it likely aligns with the patterns ChatGPT favors, too. Think of SGE as a visible benchmark for content quality that applies across AI tools.
Why Bing SEO Deserves More Attention
Bing accounts for only a small percentage of search volume, and many SEO best practices apply to both Google and Bing, so SEOs typically don’t optimize specifically for Bing. However, in the new search world, Bing powers:
- ChatGPT’s browsing tool (Pro)
- Microsoft Copilot (Office and Windows)
And while Bing and Google optimization do overlap in most ways, Bing does use some slightly different SEO signals:
- Exact-match keywords matter more
- Meta descriptions are used more literally and should still include a keyword
- Social media signals may play a bigger role
- Bing pulls signals from Bing-related tools rather than Google:
- Register your business with Bing Places (Bing’s version of Google Business Profile)
- Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools
If you’re not ranking in Bing, you’re likely missing key AI visibility opportunities.
Hybrid AI Search Tools (Perplexity, You.com, Brave AI)
These tools combine AI-generated answers with traditional search engine results. They’re becoming popular because they summarize answers and cite their sources. That means your website or blog post can appear directly below an AI summary — if the content is strong enough.
To increase your chances of showing up:
- Rank in Google and Bing
- Write FAQ-style or how-to content that addresses specific queries
- Make your expertise obvious and structured – AI tools are trying to match expertise to intent. They cite sources and reward high-quality, optimized content
How to Track Your Visibility in AI
While there’s no Google Search Console or Google Analytics equivalent (yet) for LLMs, here are structured approaches you can use to track your visibility:
- Saved Prompts – Track sample questions like “advisors in Boise who help with RMDs”
- Platform Monitoring – Search Reddit, Quora, Substack, and Medium for your name
- AI Tools Search – Use Perplexity and You.com to search your name, firm, and blog titles
- Google Alerts – Set alerts for your name and common blog phrases
- Visibility Dashboard – Use a spreadsheet or Notion board to monitor what’s showing up
What You Can Control (and What You Can’t)
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by how unpredictable AI systems seem. But a surprising amount is within your control – and that’s where you should focus your energy.
You can control:
- Publishing frequency
- Name + niche consistency
- Schema, content structure
- Public-facing citations and directory listings
One helpful way to think about it is to focus on the actions that make you more visible to humans and machines. The more useful, clear, and consistent you are, the easier it is for AI to remember you when it’s time to answer a relevant question.
You can’t control:
- What data ChatGPT was trained on
- ChatGPT phrasing
- When or how updates happen
Focus on what you can influence — clarity, consistency, and usefulness.
The Future of AI Search and SEO
AI search is evolving rapidly, and it’s no longer just about keyword rankings or backlinks. The shift is toward more intelligent systems that understand topics, relationships, and intent.
Here are some key SEO trends shaping the future:
- Entity-first search: Instead of ranking by pages, AI tools identify and reference entities such as people, businesses, and services that are most relevant to a query. You’re more likely to be included if your online presence clearly defines who you are, what you do, and where you operate.
- Answer-focused results: AI tools are designed to provide complete answers, not a list of blue links. That means they reward clear, structured, educational content. Formatting your content like a well-organized Q&A or how-to guide makes it easier for AI to quote or paraphrase.
- Fewer links and more summaries: Rather than sending users to external sites, AI tools often summarize and paraphrase helpful content. This changes how visibility works – your content doesn’t need to be clicked on, it just needs to be used.
- Multi-modal and voice interfaces: AI will increasingly be used via voice assistants (like Copilot or Siri) and in smart interfaces, meaning people may hear your expertise read aloud rather than visit your site.
- Personalized answers: As AI tools improve, they’ll tailor answers based on context (e.g., location, history, preferences).
The bottom line is if you consistently publish useful, structured content that reinforces who you are and what you do, you increase your odds of being part of the answer — not just in search engines, but in the conversations AI tools are having with your future clients. Start now. It’s a new frontier…
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