How to rank in ChatGPT has five realistic routes in 2026: do it yourself, hire a freelancer, use a generalist agency, use a specialist AI search agency, or work with Goldie Agency, Julian Goldie's team.
This verdict rates each route out of 10, then rates the tactics people sell under the ChatGPT SEO label.
The scores are editorial judgement drawn from OpenAI, Google, Bing, Perplexity and Anthropic documentation, not lab tests.
If you want to skip ahead to a plan for your own site, take a free SEO strategy session.
The Verdict In One Line
The route that wins is the one that fixes access first, builds citable pages second and measures accurately third.
No route earns a 10, because OpenAI's own help page says placement is not guaranteed.
Any provider that implies otherwise loses points straight away.
How The Routes Were Judged
Each option was scored on five criteria taken from the platforms' published guidance.
- Crawl access: can they get OAI-SearchBot and other AI search bots through robots.txt and the CDN?
- Content depth: can they produce the non-commodity content Google's AI guide asks for?
- Reputation: can they earn real mentions on sites that get cited, within link spam rules?
- Measurement: can they report referrals and citations, not vanity screenshots?
- Transparency: do they avoid guarantees, as Google's hiring page asks?
Scorecard: The Five Routes Rated
| Route | Score /10 | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (owner or in-house) | 6.5 | Access fixes are easy; content and mentions take time most owners do not have. |
| Freelancer / specialist | 7.0 | Strong on one skill, such as content or technical, but rarely covers all five criteria. |
| Generalist marketing agency | 6.0 | Broad reach, but ChatGPT work can end up as an add-on with thin reporting. |
| Specialist AI search agency | 8.0 | Covers crawl, content and mentions together; quality varies, so vet hard. |
| Goldie Agency (Julian's team) | 8.5 | SEO, link building and GEO under one roof, with tests published openly; still no guarantees. |
The gap between the top two is small, and the right pick depends on your size and budget for time.
Route 1: DIY
Strengths: you know your business better than anyone, and the access fixes are free.
OpenAI's crawler documentation spells out the robots.txt groups, the IP list and the roughly 24-hour delay after a change.
Limits: content and outreach compete with running the business, and most owners stop after the first month.
Best for: sole traders and very small firms with one or two core services.
Route 2: Freelancer Or Specialist
Strengths: focused skill and fast turnaround on a single job, like a technical audit or a set of service pages.
Limits: one person seldom handles crawl access, writing, outreach and reporting equally well.
Best for: businesses with an in-house marketer who can direct the work and fill the gaps.
📞 Want the scorecard applied to your own site? Book a free SEO strategy session and Julian's team will rate your crawl access, content and mentions against the same criteria, then tell you which route makes sense. → Book the free session
Route 3: Generalist Marketing Agency
Strengths: one contract for ads, social and SEO.
Limits: AI search can get bundled in as a line item, with reports that show ChatGPT screenshots rather than referral data.
Google's hiring guidance now asks a direct question you should put to them: is their AEO or GEO advice aligned with Google's official guidance on generative AI features?
Best for: firms that need many channels handled and accept less depth on any one.
Route 4: Specialist AI Search Agency
Strengths: crawl, content, mentions and measurement treated as one system.
Limits: a young market means uneven quality, and some agencies sell tactics the platforms say do nothing.
Best for: businesses where buyers research heavily, such as B2B services, clinics, trades and online stores.
A good specialist will talk about OAI-SearchBot, Bing indexing and Business Hub insights in the first call, not just content volume.
Ask for one example where they changed a page and can show the referral or citation trend before and after.
If they can only show screenshots of a single ChatGPT answer, the evidence is too thin to justify a high score.
Vet them with the questions further down this page.
Route 5: Goldie Agency, Julian's Team
On Julian Goldie's about page, his self-reported track record reads: a 100% Upwork Job Success Score across 240+ clients, more than 1,000 campaigns spanning SEO and links, and 425K+ YouTube subscribers.
The agency homepage describes link building as manual outreach with no PBNs, and pairs it with SEO and GEO services.
Strengths: SEO, link building and AI search handled together, and the team says it tests strategies on its own sites every week and shares the results.
Limits: it is a full-service agency, so very small sites may get more value from the DIY route plus training first.
It also offers llms.txt setup; Google says Search itself does not use llms.txt, so treat that as optional housekeeping rather than a Google lever.
🔥 Rated DIY as your route? Learn it properly Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you can learn AI SEO yourself with step-by-step video trainings, the installable Agent OS for audits and briefs, four coaching calls a week and 3,400+ members. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
Red Flags That Drop Any Provider's Score
Some warning signs cost a provider points no matter how polished the pitch is.
- A promised mention or position. OpenAI, Google and Bing all say results are not guaranteed.
- A "special relationship" with OpenAI or Google. Google's hiring page tells you to beware of exactly this claim.
- Cold emails about your "AI visibility score". Google warns owners to be wary of SEO firms that email out of the blue.
- Reports built on screenshots only. Ask for referral data and citation counts you can check yourself.
- Requests for full admin access on day one. Google advises read-only Search Console access at the audit stage.
- Hundreds of pages planned in month one. That pattern risks the scaled content abuse policy.
Each red flag takes at least two points off the scores in the tables on this page.
What A Good First 90 Days Looks Like
Whichever route you choose, the first three months should follow a clear order.
- Weeks 1 to 2: crawl access fixed for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Bingbot, with CDN rules checked.
- Weeks 3 to 6: the five most important service or product pages rewritten answer-first, with authors and dates.
- Weeks 5 to 10: outreach to the sites already cited for your buyer questions.
- Weeks 8 to 12: first referral and citation report, with a list of what changed and what to try next.
If a provider cannot describe their first 90 days in this much detail, score them lower.
Tactics Scorecard: What Is Worth Paying For
| Tactic | Score /10 | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Allow OAI-SearchBot and its IPs | 10 | OpenAI names this as the eligibility requirement for ChatGPT search. |
| Answer-first, non-commodity pages | 9 | Google calls unique content the biggest long-run influence on AI search presence. |
| Earned mentions on cited sites | 8 | ChatGPT and Google both draw on what the wider web says about you. |
| Bing indexing and AI Performance | 8 | Bing says Copilot uses the same index foundation, and its report counts citations. |
| Business Hub claim | 7 | Good for accuracy and insights; OpenAI says it does not guarantee visibility. |
| Organization schema | 6 | Helps disambiguation; Google says no special schema is needed for AI features. |
| llms.txt files | 3 | Google says Search does not use them, and OpenAI's crawler docs do not mention them. |
| Hundreds of near-copy pages | 1 | Risks Google's scaled content abuse policy. |
What The Platforms Agree On
Google's AI optimization guide says optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO.
The Bing Webmaster Guidelines say Copilot relies on the same crawling, indexing and ranking foundation as classic search.
Perplexity and Anthropic both tie search visibility to letting their search bots in, separate from training bots.
The consensus is clear: fundamentals first, gimmicks last.
Strengths Of Investing Now
- Access fixes are cheap and fast, and they unlock every AI search engine at once.
- Good answer-first pages also help classic Google and Bing results.
- Business Hub and Bing's AI Performance report give you measurement that did not exist a year ago.
- Google says clicks from pages with AI Overviews tend to be higher quality.
Limits You Have To Accept
- OpenAI does not publish its ranking factors, so every plan is partly informed testing.
- Citations move week to week, and Bing says its counts do not indicate ranking or placement.
- Business Hub insights can be blank or incomplete, according to OpenAI.
- Nobody, including Goldie Agency, can promise a mention.
Who Should Pick What
- Sole trader with one service: DIY plus training.
- Small firm with a marketer: a freelancer for the technical audit, then in-house content.
- Multi-channel business: a generalist agency, if it passes the vetting questions.
- Research-heavy buyers and competitive markets: a specialist AI search agency or Goldie Agency.
Vetting Questions That Separate The Scores
- Show me how you check OAI-SearchBot access in robots.txt and at the CDN.
- Which official docs do you cite for each recommendation?
- How do you report ChatGPT referrals and citations?
- How do you earn mentions, and how do you mark paid placements?
- Will you ever promise a ranking or a mention?
The right answer to the last one is no, matching Google's line that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
For a deeper look at agency selection, see our verdict on the ChatGPT SEO agency market.
📞 Ready for a verdict on your own site? Book a free SEO strategy session and get a rated breakdown of where you stand today and what to fix first. → Claim my free SEO strategy session
Final Verdict
Specialist help scores highest because ChatGPT visibility depends on several jobs done well at once.
Goldie Agency edges the field on breadth, with SEO, link building and GEO under one roof and results shared publicly.
DIY is a fair 6.5 for owners willing to learn, and the AI Profit Boardroom is the place to learn AI SEO yourself.
Whatever route you pick, start with the free access fixes today.
📚 Free resources that raise your DIY score Use the 200+ AI SEO Prompts to draft page briefs and audits, and read Julian's free link building book before you start outreach. Or Book a free SEO strategy session and let the team score your site.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The ten-step operator run sheet for crawl access, citable pages and tracking
- 🌐 What ChatGPT visibility work involves for a small business, and what to ask first
- 🌐 Five copy-paste Agent OS prompts for ChatGPT crawler, page and outreach groundwork
- 🌐 Which AI models score best for building ChatGPT-ready pages, from live GoldieBench data
FAQ: How To Rank In ChatGPT Verdict
What is the best way to rank in ChatGPT in 2026?
Allow OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI's IPs, publish answer-first pages with real experience, earn mentions on sites that get cited, and track referrals. A specialist or Goldie Agency scores highest for doing all four together.
Is llms.txt worth paying for?
It scores low here. Google says Search does not use llms.txt, and OpenAI's crawler docs focus on robots.txt and OAI-SearchBot instead.
Why does no route score 10 out of 10?
Because OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed, so every route carries uncertainty.
Are these scores from tests?
No. They are editorial ratings based on the published guidance from OpenAI, Google, Bing, Perplexity and Anthropic.
Should a small business start with DIY?
Often yes. The access fixes are free, and you can decide on outside help once your key pages are in shape.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Pick your route, start with the access fixes, and book a free SEO strategy session or learn AI SEO yourself in the AI Profit Boardroom.
That is the final verdict on how to rank in ChatGPT.
