Lately, I’ve been getting the same question from a handful of my wedding photographer clients, and it’s this: “How can I show up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews?”

And when people ask “how to rank on ChatGPT,” what they’re usually trying to understand is how to get their content seen and referenced by AI tools.

Over the past two years, AI has completely changed the way a lot of us interact online. It’s opened up more tools, more access to information (though not always 100% accurate information), and it’s shifted the way couples search when planning their weddings.

While AI is ever-changing and keeping up may feel overwhelming (or downright impossible), the good news is that optimizing your blog posts for AI isn’t all that different from optimizing them for traditional search. If your website is clear, provides helpful information, has good domain authority, and answers real client questions, you’re already doing most of the work AI tools need.

And before we get into the post, I want to be totally honest – I’m still actively learning alongside my clients as AI search evolves. I don’t have all the answers, but in this post, I want to share what we do know so far, and why you don’t need to overhaul your entire website to stay visible.

In this post, I’ll be walking you through a few key AI-related terms and what they mean, as well as how AI and traditional search differ (and how they don’t). I’ll also cover a few helpful content tips for those who want to get found on ChatGPT and other AI-powered search platforms. 

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A Few Quick Terms Before We Get Started

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is a broad term for technology that helps computers “think” in ways that feel human. It’s a branch of science that focuses on learning from information, recognizing patterns, and generating responses. When people talk about AI in search, they’re usually referring to tools that summarize information, answer questions, or recommend content based on what someone is asking.

Large Language Models (LLMs)

LLMs are the AI tools most of us are actually interacting with. Platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity all fall into this category. They’re trained on massive amounts of written content so they can understand questions and respond using natural, conversational language.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of helping your website show up in traditional search results, like Google or Bing. This includes things like choosing the right keywords, structuring your blog posts clearly, and creating content that genuinely answers your clients’ questions.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

GEO is a newer term that’s starting to pop up alongside SEO. It simply refers to writing and organizing content in a way that makes it easier for AI tools to understand, summarize, and reference your website when answering questions. In many ways, good GEO overlaps with good SEO, as it’s less about tricks and more about clarity and usefulness.

Some of these tools may sound new, but the way they find and use content is actually rooted in processes that may already feel familiar. In this next section, we’ll look at how AI search compares to traditional search.

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How AI Search Is Different From Traditional Search 

First things first – how is AI search different from traditional search?

Traditional search primarily focuses on optimizing your blog posts using keywords. When utilized correctly within your blog—and paired with time, consistency, and a good content strategy—your site begins to show up in the top search results. (These are commonly referred to as blue links – the web pages that show up on page 1, 2, etc. of Google).

The goal in traditional search is to rank as high as possible – position 1, or page 1 at the very least.

With AI search, however, it’s a bit different. Couples today aren’t just searching on Google anymore – they’re using a wide variety of platforms, from Instagram and Pinterest to YouTube and yes, even ChatGPT.

AI Overviews now dominate the top portion of many search results. This means traditional rankings often appear lower on the page, after AI has already answered the question.

Depending on the search query, results often appear in this order:

• AI Overview
• Videos
• Discussions and Forums
• People Also Ask
• Traditional SERP results (aka the blue links)

What does this mean? If you’re relying solely on traditional search, your content may be appearing at the very bottom of the page…or not getting clicked on at all. For wedding photographers, this is huge because visibility is often the first step toward building trust, and trust is ultimately what leads couples to inquire.

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How AI Finds and Uses Content

There’s a lot of buzz right now around which strategies you should be using to rank on ChatGPT and other LLMs, but we don’t need to overcomplicate things.

At its core, AI evaluates your site the way a human reader would – just faster and on a (much) larger scale.

Crawlers scan web pages looking for things like:

• Clarity: Does your blog content match the topic?
  
• Structure: Is your blog formatted in a way that’s easy to read?
  
• Helpful content: Is the content in your blog useful, and does it have a unique perspective?

In other words, how AI pulls information isn’t all that different from traditional search crawlers. Your website’s authority and the depth of your content still matter. If your content is easy for a human to understand, it’s usually much easier for AI tools to understand as well.

Your blogs don’t need to become super technical or be completely overhauled in order to rank on ChatGPT. It simply comes down to creating content that is clear, intentional, and genuinely useful.

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What Hasn’t Changed: Helpful Content Still Wins

When it comes to showing up on ChatGPT and other AI platforms, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: helpful content still wins. 

Here are a few key ways to ensure you are creating helpful content for your readers:

Content Must Be Relevant

Write about topics your couples actually want to know about. Take notes about the questions they ask in their inquiry form or during the discovery call – these are gold mines for blog topics.

For example, this blog post exists because multiple clients have asked me the same question – “How can we rank on ChatGPT?”.

Utilize Proper SEO Strategies

Traditional search still matters. It’s just not the only form of search anymore. 

When creating new blogs, continue following SEO best practices like choosing the proper keyword(s) and incorporating them into your title, H2 and H3s, body paragraphs, URL, and meta description. 

For a complete dive into SEO blogging for wedding photographers, read this blog post where I walk you through everything you need to know. 

Write Good Content

Of course, you can’t just rely on SEO alone. The content you write has to provide real value. It can’t just be generic or something anyone could have written. 

Whenever possible, pull from your own experience. Talk about unexpected situations that came up on a wedding day and how you navigated them. Show your personality in your writing. Maybe this means sprinkling in emojis or using certain words or phrases that feel very you.  

This builds trust with your readers first, and that trust is what search engines and AI tools tend to reward over time.

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Your Website Is an Ecosystem (Not a One-Post Fix)

If I could leave you with one last thought, it would be this: 

Your brand is an entire ecosystem. 

The quality of your website matters. You can’t expect to write one blog post and suddenly appear in AI search results – just like blogging doesn’t rank you in traditional search overnight.

It’s a holistic approach that takes consistency, clarity, and following best practices over a period of time to see real, long-term benefits.

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One Last Reminder

AI search is evolving quickly, and it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’ve “figured it out” yet. None of us fully has.

If you’re already showing up consistently, answering real client questions, and creating content that’s clear and thoughtful, you, my friend, are on the right track. You don’t need to panic or chase every new trend. Simply focus on building a strong foundation and let everything else build from there.

If this topic feels overwhelming or you’re curious how your website is currently showing up in AI search, I’ll be sharing more about this as I continue learning alongside my clients. You’re also always welcome to join my newsletter, where I regularly share marketing tips and break down more topics like this in a way that’s easy to understand and implement.

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