I recently watched a fascinating segment from Marketing Against the Grain featuring Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan that completely changed how I think about AI search optimization. Their insights revealed something critical that most marketers are missing about large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Unlike traditional search engines, these AI systems don’t just rank websites based on backlinks and keywords. They’re building associations between brands and concepts through what the hosts called “co-citations” – and this changes everything about how we should approach marketing in the AI era.
Co-Citations: The New SEO Currency
The concept is brilliantly simple yet profound. For your product to be recommended by AI, it needs to be frequently mentioned alongside the key attributes your potential customers are searching for.
As Bodnar and Flanagan explained, “How many times did our CRM get mentioned alongside ‘great for small businesses’? Or how many times did our CRM get mentioned along ‘great enterprise features for large companies’?”
This is a fundamental shift in how we need to think about digital presence. It’s no longer just about ranking for keywords – it’s about creating strong associations between your brand and the solutions you provide.
AI Search Engines Play Favorites
The most eye-opening revelation was that these AI systems aren’t neutral in how they evaluate information sources. As the hosts pointed out, “These LLMs like OpenAI, Gemini, Claude actually have certain preferences for which sites they trust more than others. It’s not like Google.”
This is huge. While Google attempts to rank all websites using the same algorithm, AI search tools have built-in preferences for certain information sources. Some publications and websites carry more weight than others when these systems form their responses.
This means your PR and content strategy needs to target the right publications – not just any high-authority site.
What This Means For Your Marketing Strategy
Based on these insights, I believe marketers need to adapt their strategies in several key ways:
- Identify which information sources your target AI platform trusts most
- Focus PR efforts on getting mentioned in those specific publications
- Ensure your brand is consistently associated with your key value propositions
- Track co-citations rather than just backlinks or mentions
The traditional approach of building backlinks from any high-authority site won’t be as effective in this new landscape. You need to be strategic about where your brand appears and what attributes it’s associated with.
How to Determine Trusted Sources
So how do you figure out which sources an AI system trusts? My approach would be:
- Ask the AI directly about your industry or product category
- Note which publications or websites it cites in its responses
- Look for patterns in the sources it references most frequently
- Test different queries to confirm consistent source preferences
This research should inform your content distribution and PR strategy. Getting featured in these trusted sources will dramatically increase your chances of being recommended by AI systems.
The Bottom Line
As AI search continues to grow in popularity, understanding these new dynamics will separate successful marketers from those left behind. The rules have changed, and many haven’t caught up yet.
I’m adjusting my own strategies based on this insight, focusing less on broad link building and more on targeted placements that create the right associations for my brand. The goal isn’t just visibility – it’s about shaping how AI systems understand and recommend your products.
Remember what Flanagan emphasized: “Whatever LLM you are trying to appear in, you should really find out what are their most trusted sources to understand if your product or service should appear.”
This is the new frontier of digital marketing. Those who understand and adapt to these AI preferences will gain a significant advantage as these platforms increasingly mediate consumer discovery and decision-making.
