LLM SEO best practices and hacks?
For the last year, the most frequent question I have received from every prospective client has been how do to do SEO for LLM’s.
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For the last year, the most frequent question I have received from prospective clients has been how they can do SEO for LLMs. If you Google this term (“LLM SEO”), you will find multiple agencies and software tools advertising this service, but most are probably not offering anything that satisfies this query intent. There are too many unknowns; for the most part, LLM SEO of today is just SEO.
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Understanding LLM’s
Before discussing recommendations for LLM SEO, it’s essential to understand what LLM responses are and how they differ from what you might be used to from a typical search result.
The fear surrounding LLMs often stems from a misconception that they represent a technological leap rather than just a step change, rendering traditional SEO obsolete. In truth, these models are designed to emulate humans, processing queries with an emphasis on natural language comprehension and contextual relevance, much the same as search engines of today would like to do, but are limited functionally.
Unlike conventional search engines, which are centered on keywords, because keywords are the query that drives a response from the database (of all crawled websites), LLMs focus on discerning user intent and delivering precise, authoritative responses. When an individual inquires about the best resources to repair a leaking sink, LLMs seek resources that align seamlessly with those needs, favoring clarity and utility over algorithmic manipulation.
Feedback is a core feature
A critical aspect of LLMs is their capacity for self-improvement through human feedback. Whether a user engages further with a follow-up or not, each interaction serves as a data point. This iterative process allows LLMs to refine their understanding of what constitutes a valuable answer, much like an organization might adjust its offerings based on customer insights. (Many human workers also underpin current AI efforts.)
Many SEOs seem to think posting on Reddit is an easy way to get into LLM responses. (Reach out if you are testing this or want to try.) It might work, and that depends on the category, but if a site does not belong in an AI response, expect that loophole to close due to the self-reinforcing cycle that continuously improves the quality of the responses. The feedback loop will close spam loopholes without needing an algorithm update like traditional search engines.
In reality, this isn’t a total paradigm shift; it is just a step change in how search functions. (It's a big step, though.) LLMs better understand queries to serve more precise results, and the answers are given in paragraph form rather than just links to other websites.
Succeeding in an LLM search relies on the same best practices that have always existed: make your website accessible and focus on meeting the user’s intent.
Intent
The most significant change from LLMs is evident in user intent. Traditional search engines are limited in understanding a user’s query and are forced to fall back on string matching results to the words the user typed. (SEO a decade ago still meant optimizing for synonyms, plurals, and slang.)
Instead, LLMs use natural language processing to interpret user intent and find content that best answers the underlying question. This allows SEO to become the ideal effort of optimizing for the user rather than what the user will type in a search engine, and the search engine will rank.
Indexation best practices
Traditional SEO relied heavily on search engine crawlers systematically indexing the web. The same is true of LLM crawlers. You are invisible if your content or website isn’t visible, whether because of how it's rendered or because it is behind login walls. You might appear in a recommendation list, but the LLM won’t have anywhere to send those users.
As an essential LLM SEO best practice, follow all technical SEO best practices to ensure accessibility to crawlers, discovery, and avoid duplication.
The step change in LLMs is that not just your website has to be visible because LLMs, by contrast, operate from a comprehensive, continuously updated repository of content, industry publications, and social media conversations. You need to be visible everywhere. This brings us to the second area of LLM SEO.
Links
The topic of links and authority has an entire deep dive newsletter, but I will briefly touch on it here. Links as a vote of authority was a novel idea when Google invented it because it allowed search engines to go beyond just relevance of a page to a query as a ranking metric. Naturally, marketers figured out how to manufacture this by creating marketplaces of links. Algorithm-based search engines were susceptible to this manipulation, and the results are as you see them today.
LLMs on the other hand don’t use typical linear algorithms; instead they reason like humans do. In that context, a high domain authority link can be discounted if the LLM reasons that it is artificial and a low domain authority link from a high authority person can be evaluated as an extreme vote of confidence.
This brings the concept of linking back to its original intention of authority. In this paradigm, links don’t need to be hyperlinked (LLMs read content) or restricted to traditional websites. Mentions in credible publications or discussions sparked on professional networks (hello, knowledge bases and forums) all enhance visibility within this framework.
Authority does not require industry dominance but rather demonstrable expertise evidenced through case studies, client testimonials, or measurable outcomes. The emphasis on user value further aligns with customer-centric principles; articulating how products or services address specific pain points resonates more than feature-heavy descriptions. (This is the real EEAT.)
Backlinks retain relevance albeit in a refined capacity. This is not a race to amass links but a deliberate effort to earn actual authority.
Note: The guidelines and best practices will continuously change, so I plan to return to update this post as more suggestions become available. As I update, I will add dates to the update, so if you are reading this at any time in the future, you will know the latest suggestions.
Oversimplified: How rankings work in an LLM
The process by which LLMs select recommendations is rigorous but intuitive as it is rooted in principles that align with how a human curator might answer a question. Relevance to the query is paramount; a request for the “best SEO tools” prompts a focus solely on pertinent solutions, ignoring content that doesn’t really answer this question. Clarity and substance are equally critical; (AKA helpful content) a well-structured, insightful resource surpasses superficial or overly technical alternatives, a standard achievable when content is natural and not excessively bloated with SEO.
LLMs derive their insights from a broad spectrum of authoritative sources, not simply from what is the most linked or has the most “domain authority” pointed at it.
Linking means focusing on real authority outlets with PR. Securing coverage in publications that would convince a human of your brand's authority will also persuade the LLM.
Other factors
Much like traditional SEO, where "freshness” is a metric by which search engines rank content, LLMs supplement their responses with a real-time assessment of facts, so stale and incorrect content will be deprioritized.
Duplicate content is an issue with every index in the world, whether it’s search or an accounting database, but when it comes to LLM, it’s an even bigger factor. In traditional search, a duplicate URL may be visible, but then the user can decide as to the accuracy of the content. In an LLM, near duplicate content like pricing matrices, product offerings, agendas or step-by-step guides can be outputted as facts by the LLM engine. Removing any duplication will minimize users being shown incorrect information.
It’s debatable how much schema markup matters today in traditional SEO, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The same likely applies to LLMs; content marked up by accepted schema potentially helps LLMs categorize and understand entities.
On that note, the content format is even more critical for LLMs than for traditional search. Whereas conventional search crawlers were heavily biased towards keyword-rich walls of text, LLMs don’t need heavy word count, and well-formatted tables that provide the best answer are a better way to go.
Next steps
While the rise of LLMs introduces an evolution in SEO, the core principles remain the same. SEO efforts should deliver accessible, intent-focused, and authoritative content. Follow today’s SEO best practices and stay flexible.
By prioritizing genuine expertise, maintaining technical visibility, and earning credible recognition, you can effectively align with the human-like reasoning LLMs use to curate responses.
As these models refine their capabilities through feedback and real-time data, staying adaptable and committed to quality will ensure lasting relevance for the actual user: the human.
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