Guide
How B2B software companies get recommended by ChatGPT and AI search
Short answer
AI assistants recommend the software vendors they can describe with confidence. To earn that, publish a clear category point of view, make your product and use-case pages answer buyers' real questions, cover comparisons honestly, keep your docs readable, and make sure review sites, analysts, and partners tell the same story. Then measure your share of answer every month.
1. Build your prompt set
List the 30 to 50 questions that matter in your market, in your buyers' words. Include four kinds:
- Category: "What are the best tools for software supply chain security?"
- Problem: "How do I reduce alert noise in network monitoring?"
- Comparison: "[Competitor] vs [you]" and "alternatives to [competitor]."
- Fit: "Best observability tool for a 500-person company running hybrid infrastructure."
Run them across ChatGPT, Google's AI, Perplexity, and Copilot. Record who's named, how you're described, and which sources are cited. That's your baseline.
2. Publish your category point of view
AI explains the category before it names vendors. Write the definitive page on how your market is changing and what buyers should look for now. Make it specific and opinionated, and make sure your differentiators are part of the criteria.
3. Make product pages answer questions
Many product pages are written for people who already know the product. Rewrite the top of each one to say plainly what it is, who it's for, which problem it solves, and how it's different, in one or two sentences an assistant could quote.
4. Cover use cases and comparisons
Create pages for your main use cases and buyer situations. Publish fair comparison and "alternatives" pages with specifics, not slogans. Buyers ask these questions whether or not you answer them.
5. Keep docs readable and reachable
Technical buyers ask detailed questions, and AI often answers from documentation. Check that your docs aren't blocked from crawlers, that key concepts have plain-language overviews, and that integration and compatibility facts are in text.
6. Align third-party sources
Update your profiles on review sites, marketplace listings, and partner directories so they use your current positioning. Brief analysts on your category point of view. Encourage customer reviews that describe specific outcomes. These outside sources confirm what you say about yourself.
7. Measure share of answer monthly
Re-run the same prompt set each month and track three numbers: how often you're named, how accurately you're described, and which sources are cited. Expect movement over months, not days.
Common mistakes
- Treating this as an SEO project only, without fixing positioning.
- Publishing large volumes of thin AI-generated pages.
- Gating the content that best explains your product.
- Ignoring docs, review sites, and partner pages.