When you have limited resources and little to no SEO authority, the easiest first stop is to be present in UGC-led content, where your brand name can start spreading organically.
Welcome to chapter 7 of our ultimate guide on mastering AISEO, from understanding how AISEO works, to keyword research for AI chat platforms, and to finally learning strategies to build AI platform friendly citations.
It is well established that the top third-party sources LLMs usually cite to give B2B product recommendations are:
- Listicles
- UGC (Reddit, Quora, G2/Capterra reviews, YouTube)
- Other bottom-funnel content (comparison guides, review guides)
- In some cases, Wikipedia and LinkedIn.
Let’s Start With Reddit First
Reddit is the fastest and easiest way to get AI platform friendly citations that will get your brand recommended by Chatgpt, Claude, and other major AI chat platforms.
The first step is to find relevant threads or subreddits that are most likely to get cited by LLMs for any keywords and queries in your domain.
Focus threads actively asking for product recommendations. Then move to threads where people are looking for solutions to specific problems and where you can provide helpful guidance. (Read in details on how to identify these questions in Chapter 6).
You can also contribute to:
- Threads looking for alternatives to your competitor’s tools
- Review-based threads of your competitors
- “Vs” or comparison threads involving competitors
Here are some ways you can find relevant threads on Reddit:
- The fastest way to find a bunch of relevant threads is to ask Reddit’s AI search here → Reddit Answers.
Ask questions on Reddit Answers and it will pull a bunch of relevant threads along with summarised context. The great thing about it is that it provides exact citations, and you get to learn more about your customer voice.
- Another easy way to relevant threads is to use ChatGPT in Agent Mode (we tried this for a few clients in the past and it worked amazingly. Let us know if you need the prompt).
Share the list of product-relevant queries (Problem category labels, 2-3 word problem statements, feature lists, wins your product helps the audience get in 2-3 words), and ask ChatGPT to find the Reddit threads that are ranking on the first few pages of Google and Bing for each query.
Once it shares a table of relevant threads for all the queries, copy-paste it into an Excel or Google Sheet.
Then do a manual pass to validate and top-up the list with additional threads you may have missed.
- Do direct SERP analysis on Google or Bing
Start by searching for your keyword or query on Google. Although we have already done this step using Chatgpt’s agent mode. In case it doesn’t give you enough good results, you can get your hands dirty by searching for relevant threads manually.
Example: site:reddit.com project management tool for marketing agencies
Filter results to recent months to find the most relevant threads. These same threads that appear on Google or other search engines are often cited by AI platforms as well for the given query.
Note: When LLMs “cite” Reddit, they usually reference threads they discovered via search engines. If you are present in these threads, there’s a higher chance you’ll be mentioned by AI platforms as well.
Once you’ve identified relevant threads and subreddits, make a list on Excel and start contributing.
How to contribute on Reddit the right way?
You can’t just jump in and promote your brand. Before posting, keep these principles in mind:
- Give genuinely helpful answers, not answers written just for visibility.
If your comment truly adds value to the discussion, people are more likely to notice it and upvote; as a result, LLMs are more likely to pick up on it. - Anonymity drives Reddit, but since your goal is to promote your brand, the better approach is to be transparent about who you are. People tend to respect that more, and it also signals credibility (and may not get you banned immediately).
A great example of this approach is Carbide 3D, a CNC machine manufacturer. One of their team members, Will Adams, is active on the company’s subreddit as well as other relevant subreddits.
Will responds to discussions by offering genuinely helpful guidance. For example, when someone asked, “What CNC machine should I buy?”, his response provided practical advice and helpful resources. It didn’t feel salesy. He focused on helping the person make the right decision based on their needs, while being transparent about the fact that he works at Carbide 3D.
This approach led directly to a purchase.
- Be mentally prepared for friction. Posts can get blocked by mods, comments removed, or even accounts banned. It helps to have multiple accounts with healthy karma before you start.
Best practices to safely leverage Reddit’s influence on AI platforms:
- Use simple language that a 14-year-old (no offence Redditors :p ) can understand.
Avoid jargon. Keep it short and BS-free. This makes it easier for readers to skim and easier for AI systems to parse. - Mention your brand only when it is relevant and genuinely helpful. Avoid repeating your brand name unnecessarily (spammy behavior).
- Always review community rules and guidelines before commenting.
Spammy or promotional behavior can quickly lead to restrictions and harms long-term brand perception. - Avoid pasting direct links or mentioning your website in the comments.
It generally gets flagged by auto-mods (bots) as promotional and might get you banned. - Build your karma on the subreddits that have a minimum karma threshold before you can comment or leave links on the ones that you are targeting.
- Avoid commenting on “old links”.
Although most older threads get archived and are no longer commentable, if you randomly comment on an active but older thread, you have more chances of getting flagged as a spammer and possibly getting banned. - Always maintain a balance of genuine contribution vs self-promotion.
If you’re not helping the community, you can forget that the community will help you. You cannot win Reddit with selfish intentions. Do it in a 1:10 ratio as it works best with most subreddit’s guidelines (1 promotional contribution out of 10 contributions). - Set a clear operational goal, such as how many comments you plan to make per week. This consistency is how your digital footprint compounds over time.
Once you’ve built sufficient brand presence, you can create your own subreddit or community.Follow a similar approach on Quora. While Quora is cited less frequently than Reddit, it still contributes to overall visibility. If your product is developer-focused, GitHub Discussions should also be part of your strategy.
Other important UGC-led channels that you should consider once you have built an active client base are review sites like G2 and Captera (for Saas).
Review Sites (G2 / Capterra)
AI platforms prefer sites like G2, Capterra, and Product Hunt because they provide real user context.
If you don’t yet have an active customer base, skip this step. Fake or manufactured reviews will get flagged and removed, and simply won’t work in your favour.
But if you already do have customers, here’s how you should start:
G2 and Capterra are “software marketplaces.” Buyers filter by category, compare vendors, and read reviews. LLM bots go after all the products and review ranking on their keywords.
Here’s how you can start:
- Claim your listing and get your category placement right:
First, pick the category where you actually win. This is where it is easy to get lost, so you need to pick that one category that best suits your product, instead of trying to be anywhere and everywhere.
Fill all core fields so a buyer can understand you in 30 seconds: what you do, who it’s for, top use cases, integrations, pricing model, security/compliance, screenshots.
Keep the wording consistent with how buyers describe the category you chose and its use cases (the more unambiguous your language is, the easier it is for both buyers and LLMs to classify you correctly).
Treat your listing like a reference page: tight, specific, and consistent across sections so the same facts appear repeatedly (product category, ICP, top workflows, integrations, and differentiators). That reduces ambiguity and increases “citation confidence.”
- The right way to ask for reviews:
The best way to get reviews is to ask for one right after a value moment.
Pick 3-5 triggers you can reliably detect, such as:
- “Integration connected”
- “First campaign/workflow launched”
- “First measurable outcome/report delivered”
- “Support ticket resolved with a win”
- “Renewal/QBR completed”=
You can either:
A) directly ask the user within 24-72 hours of the trigger, as they can actually describe the value, which leads to better reviews, or
B) You can also set in-app prompts based on the above triggers, and if they click, redirect them to G2/Capterra page.
This is how one vendor saw an increase in conversion rate using in-app prompts:
DO NOT only ask for positive reviews. G2’s guidelines explicitly say that vendors should not “segment out potentially negative reviews or exclusively target positive reviews”.
If G2 finds evidence of a seller soliciting ONLY positive reviews, they will remove the reviews (source).
Also avoid anything that looks manufactured or inauthentic: G2 rejects AI-generated reviews, and anything indicative of inauthenticity can be rejected/removed.
Similar policies for Capterra.
Incentivised Reviews: You can do incentivised reviews on both G2 and Capterra.
Do note that Capterra requires vendors offering incentives to use the incentive link in the vendor portal (or disclose incentivised-review intake to their compliance team if the link isn’t available, source), whereas G2 will label incentivised reviews.
- Who to ask for reviews in G2/Capterra:
- Active users in the last 30-60 days
- People who reached a clear value moment (integration completed, first result delivered, support resolved a real issue, etc.)
- Mix roles (admin + end user + decision maker) so reviews don’t look one-dimensional
- What to ask:
The platforms come with a generic review form but you have the option to customize them.
Make sure to ask questions that force concrete context, like: “what you replaced,” “primary use case,” “integrations used,” and “limitations.”
Specificity makes reviews far more extractable by AI platforms and less “generic praise.”
The important thing here is to get your review links in place. Use in-app prompts or trigger detection and ask them directly with polite follow-ups and NO nagging. The easier the process is, the better.
- Add these reviews to your website, but the right way:
If you’re planning to add these reviews to your website, make sure to use G2’s official badges/widgets and do not create your own versions, as per their policy.
In case of Capterra, follow their content policy and include the required disclaimer language (they explicitly provide it).
Once you’ve built some initial brand presence, you can move to channels that take more time and effort but offer higher leverage such as:
Backlinks/Brand Mentions in BOFU Articles
After building initial visibility, you can pursue backlinks or brand mentions in bottom-funnel articles appearing in the first few pages of Google and Bing. These are among the most cited sources by LLMs.
Getting backlinks is quite easy if you have money to pay for these links. Otherwise, it can be difficult and painfully slow.
An easier way to do this is to start by targeting articles that rank on later SERP pages.
You can explore barter-style collaborations with the companies behind those articles (they are generally early-stage as well), where you mention each other in bottom-funnel content. Even if these articles don’t rank immediately, they may gain visibility over time and further expand your digital footprint.
In this case, you can follow ABC link building strategy (3-way link exchanges) with early-stage companies. This is where:
- Company A links to Company B
- Company B links to Company C
- Company C links back to Company A
This helps you avoid obvious “you link to me, I link to you” patterns that Google can flag, while still building legitimate, contextual brand mentions.
LinkedIn posts and articles
LinkedIn content is increasingly getting cited by LLMs like ChatGPT because it is easy to scan and tied to real people and real user experiences, which adds credibility.
It’s also easier to secure mentions here since the content is personally-owned rather than company-owned.
Start by reaching out to creators for contextual brand mentions whose posts/articles are appearing on SERPs (similar to getting backlinks.
Why This Citation Strategy Works?
This strategy works particularly well for early-stage companies or companies that are just starting out with limited resources because:
- Does not require monetary investment or domain authority upfront
- Scales with effort and consistency, not budget
- Builds trust signals that AI platforms already rely on
- Allows small teams to appear alongside larger competitors
- Rewards real-world experience over marketing polish
This reassures early-stage founders that they are not behind. They are simply starting where recommendations are actually formed.
This is not an overnight strategy, but it also does not take months to show signs of progress.
In some cases, early mentions in AI responses start appearing even within a few weeks, especially for niche or problem-specific queries.
Teams that treat this as a repeatable weekly motion see results. But teams that stop too early usually miss the compounding effect.
Conclusion
AI platforms recommend what they can confidently “see” across the web. So for new companies, the fastest way to get in the game is to show up where people are already asking questions, comparing tools, and sharing real experiences.
That’s why this chapter is focused on building your digital footprint through UGC and third-party sources first.
But don’t stop there.
Over time, you’ll notice a simple pattern: if your brand wants to show up consistently in AI answers, you need to have most of the important questions in your category covered somewhere, in some form.
That’s where long-term dominance comes from.
Have a proper content plan ready for the major situations buyers care about: use case pages, alternatives pages, pricing pages, industry pages, and other relevant content. Refer to Chapter 4 to understand how to write content that gets picked up by AI.
Do the short-term work to earn mentions and trust outside your site, and build your own content engine in parallel.
That combo is what keeps you showing up again and again.
