llm seo: getting recommended by large language models
LLM SEO is optimising so large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI recommend you when someone asks them for the best tool in your category. You can’t submit or buy your way in. The models learn from and retrieve the open web, and Reddit is one of the sources they lean on most, so a lot of LLM SEO is being genuinely helpful in the right Reddit threads, early.
The short version
- LLM SEO is earning a mention inside the answers assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI write, not a ranked page in the blue links.
- There’s no form to submit and no slot to buy. The models read and retrieve the open web, so you earn it or you don’t appear.
- Reddit carries a lot of the weight, because it’s one of the most-cited sources these models read for recommendation questions.
- The durable route is being genuinely helpful, under your own name, in the right threads, and catching them while they’re still live.
- subding sits at the noticing end: it flags a relevant thread as it appears so someone on your team can step in. It never posts for you, and no tool can guarantee a mention.
What LLM SEO actually means
When people ask an assistant for the best option in a category, they get a short, opinionated answer with a few names in it. LLM SEO, sometimes written large-language-model SEO, is the work of becoming one of those names. It spans every assistant people actually ask: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI all draw on the same open web, so the job is broadly the same across them.
The mental shift is the important bit. You’re no longer only optimising a page you own; you’re trying to earn a recommendation the model can find and repeat. That recommendation lives out in public, mostly in places where real people compare tools and say what they use.
For the broader picture of how these answers get built, and where Google’s AI overviews sit, read our companion piece on AI visibility. This page stays on the practical question: how do you actually become a name a model repeats.
How LLM SEO differs from classic SEO
Classic SEO gives you levers you can pull directly. You publish pages, tidy up your tags, earn links, and watch a ranking respond over weeks. LLM SEO takes most of those direct levers away and hands you a slower, more indirect one instead.
You can’t submit your way into a model’s answer. You earn your way into it, the same way a friend earns a recommendation.
Here’s the split, laid out plainly so you can see where the effort actually goes.
| Aspect | Classic SEO | LLM SEO |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | Rank a page of yours in the blue links. | Get your name into the answer the model writes. |
| How you get in | Submit sitemaps, earn backlinks, tune on-page tags. | No form and no submission. Models read the open web and retrieve from it live. |
| What you optimise | Your own pages and their structure. | Where you get talked about, and Reddit threads carry a lot of that weight. |
| The currency | Keywords, links and crawlable content. | Genuine recommendations from real people who have used you. |
| How fast it moves | Weeks to a few months once pages are indexed. | Slow. Presence compounds across many threads over time. |
| How much control you have | A fair amount, over your own site. | Very little. You influence the consensus, you don’t set it. |
The two disciplines overlap, and good pages still help. But the row that decides an LLM mention is who’s recommending you in public.
Why Reddit does the heavy lifting
Of all the places the open web keeps opinions, Reddit is unusually valuable to a model. It’s candid, it’s organised by topic, and it’s full of people asking each other what to actually buy or use. That combination is exactly what a model wants when it fields a recommendation question.
This isn’t guesswork. Reddit is one of the most-cited domains in AI answers, and its 2024 content-licensing deals with Google and OpenAI put its threads straight into the pipeline that shapes what assistants suggest. Win a genuine mention in a live thread and you tend to influence several assistants at once.
The threads that matter are the recommendation ones. Somebody weighing options asks the room what people rate, and the replies become the raw material a model can later read back.
"sorting out our stack this month and would love a steer, what’s the best analytics tool for a small team? happy to hear what people genuinely use day to day."
→ A human joins it while it’s live
Timing is the quiet catch. Those replies land in the first day or so, then the thread settles and gets indexed with its recommendations fixed. Find it late and the advice is already written, and your name isn’t in it. So the unglamorous half of LLM SEO is simply hearing about the right thread early, which is the one part a Reddit monitoring tool can genuinely handle for you.
How to do LLM SEO, step by step
Stripped of the jargon, LLM SEO is being genuinely useful in the right Reddit threads, early and often, under your own name. Here’s the order we’d run it in.
- 1
Map the questions people ask about your category
Write down the ‘best X for Y’, ‘anyone recommend’ and ‘alternative to’ questions that get asked about a tool like yours. Those questions are where a recommendation can happen at all, and where an LLM later goes looking for one.
- 2
Find the Reddit threads where those answers get written
Track down the subreddits and recurring threads where people compare options and name what they use. That short list of communities is the ground LLM SEO is actually fought on.
- 3
Catch new threads while they are still live
A recommendation thread collects its answers in the first day, then settles and gets indexed. Watch your category, your brand and your rivals so you hear about a fresh thread quickly, not after the advice is already written.
- 4
Reply as a human, genuinely and openly
Answer the real question and mention your product only where it honestly fits. Say you work on it. A useful, disclosed comment earns its place; a disguised advert gets removed and remembered.
- 5
Keep showing up over months
One good comment won’t change what an assistant says. A steady, honest presence across the threads that matter is what slowly builds your name into the consensus the models read back to people.
Notice that only step three is a job for software. The rest is human work: knowing your category, writing an honest reply, and being patient. subding handles the catching; the genuine, disclosed comment is always yours to write. If your first question is about ChatGPT specifically, our guide on getting mentioned in ChatGPT walks the same ground in more detail.
What not to do
Every shortcut in LLM SEO works against you, because the source you’re trying to influence is a community that’s very good at spotting manufactured praise. Getting caught doesn’t just waste the effort; it burns the reputation you were building, and it breaks Reddit’s rules.
Don’t, seriously
- No spam. Pasting the same pitch across threads reads as spam because it is, and moderators remove it.
- No astroturfing. Faking grassroots enthusiasm for your own product is deceptive and rarely survives scrutiny.
- No fake accounts or sockpuppets. Running several accounts to praise yourself is bannable, and communities actively look for it.
- No bots or auto-replies. Automating comments into threads is precisely the behaviour that got reply-automation tools hunted off Reddit.
- No undisclosed promotion. If you’re recommending your own product, say who you are, every time.
- No bought upvotes or reviews. A purchased consensus is hollow, and it collapses in public the moment someone notices.
- No promises of a guaranteed ranking. Nobody can guarantee a spot in a model’s answer, so don’t buy the claim or make it.
To be plain, subding won’t do any of the above for you, because it can’t and it shouldn’t. It spots the relevant thread and lets you know it exists, nothing more. There is no posting, replying, upvoting or agent acting in your name, and we will never dress up a mention as something we can promise. The noticing is our half; the honest, human reply is yours.
The honest limits
LLM SEO is worth doing, but it’s worth doing with clear eyes. A few things are simply true, and pretending otherwise leads to wasted budget and bad decisions.
- No one controls what a model says. You can shift the odds; you cannot set the outcome.
- It’s slow by nature. Presence compounds across many threads over months, not in a single afternoon.
- A good product still does most of the work. If people don’t genuinely rate you, no amount of thread-watching invents a recommendation.
- Any tool, subding included, can only surface the moment. A person still has to show up and say something worth quoting.
- Guaranteed placements aren’t real. The honest promise is better odds through early, genuine presence.
Set against those limits, the upside is still large, and most of your competitors won’t do the patient version of this at all. Being genuinely present and early, again and again, is a modest edge that quietly compounds.
Questions, answered straight
What is LLM SEO?
LLM SEO is optimising so large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI recommend you when someone asks them for the best tool in your category. You can’t submit or buy your way in. The models learn from and retrieve the open web, and Reddit is one of the sources they lean on most, so a lot of LLM SEO is being genuinely helpful in the right Reddit threads, early.
How is LLM SEO different from classic SEO, AEO and GEO?
Classic SEO wins a ranked page in the search results. LLM SEO earns a mention inside the answer a model writes, and there’s no page to submit and no position to buy. AEO and GEO are close cousins that overlap heavily with LLM SEO. We untangle the terms in our guides to what AEO is, AEO versus SEO, and how GEO, SEO and AEO relate.
Can I pay to appear in ChatGPT or Claude?
No, and treat anyone who claims otherwise with suspicion. There is no advertising slot, no submission form and no dashboard where you buy a spot in an assistant’s answer. What you can do is become the kind of genuinely recommended option that shows up when the model reads the open web.
Why does Reddit matter so much for LLM SEO?
Reddit is one of the most-cited sources in AI answers, and its 2024 content-licensing deals with Google and OpenAI wired real threads into the systems that shape recommendations. For ‘best tool for X’ questions especially, a lot of the signal traces back to what actual people said on Reddit.
Can subding do LLM SEO for me or get me mentioned?
No. subding is read-and-notify. The moment a relevant Reddit thread appears we ping you in Slack, Discord, email or a webhook, and a person on your team decides whether and how to reply. We never post, comment, upvote or message on your behalf, and we would never claim to guarantee a mention in any model’s answer.
Can any tool guarantee an LLM ranking?
No. Model answers shift constantly and nobody controls them, so a guaranteed placement in ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity isn’t a thing anyone can honestly sell. A good tool improves your odds by helping you show up early and consistently, which is a very different promise.
How long does LLM SEO take?
Think in months rather than days. A single Reddit comment rarely moves what an assistant says. Consistent, genuinely useful participation across the handful of threads that matter is what gradually builds your brand into the consensus these models read.
Be in the thread before the model reads it
You can’t instruct an assistant to recommend you. What you can do is turn up honestly in the Reddit discussions it learns from, and reach them before they settle. Spotting those discussions early is the job subding does.
See what you get on every plan on the pricing page.