(without the truncation): How to actually get your product cited by AI

I'm building a directory that gets products cited by AI. Here's what I learned about what actually makes ChatGPT recommend you (and what doesn't).

A few months ago I noticed something that bugged me: people don't "Google" the way they used to. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. And when they ask "what's the best tool for X?", the AI recommends a handful of products and completely ignores the rest.

I kept asking myself: why those and not the others? The answer sent me down a rabbit hole, and it turned into the product I'm building now (CitableHub a directory built specifically for AI engines to find and cite products). But forget the product for a second the real lesson is about how AI decides who to recommend. Here's what I've learned so far.

1. A profile/page that just "exists" gets you nothing
   My first assumption was wrong. I thought being listed somewhere was enough. It isn't. AI engines don't cite pages that just say "we're the best innovative leading solution." That's filler, and filler is invisible to a model looking for a quotable answer.

2. Answer-first copy is everything
   The pages that actually get cited answer "what is this?" in one clean sentence, in a format the model can lift word-for-word. Something like: "[Name] is [what it is] where [who it's for] achieves [result] with [how]." Boring? Maybe. But that's the exact shape a model quotes. The clearer the sentence, the more likely you are the one it picks.

3. You have to answer the real questions people ask
   This was the biggest unlock. Instead of writing marketing copy, I started mapping the actual questions someone types into an AI right before they'd need the product and answering each one in 2-3 concrete sentences. Every well-answered question is another doorway the AI can walk through to reach you. More questions covered = more conversations you show up in.

4. Proof is what turns "mentioned" into "recommended"
   Models favor sources they can verify. Saying "we're great" does nothing; showing third-party listings, testimonials, real numbers, links — that's what earns trust. Proof is the difference between an AI mentioning you exist and an AI recommending you.

5. Freshness is a ranking signal, not a vanity metric
   A page that never changes reads as abandoned. The ones that keep shipping small updates a feature, a milestone, a case study — keep signaling they're alive, and they climb over the ones that went quiet. Consistency beats intensity here.

The pattern I keep seeing: be findable (answer the real questions) → be trustworthy (show proof) → stay fresh (keep shipping). It's basically SEO, but for a reader that's a language model instead of a human skimming a results page. People are calling it GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) now, and honestly I think it's going to matter as much as SEO did.

Still early, still figuring it out, building in public.

My question for you all: are you doing anything to optimize your product for AI citation yet? Have you noticed ChatGPT/Perplexity sending you traffic or recommending a competitor over you? I'd love to hear what's working (or not) for other founders here.