How to Influence ChatGPT & LLMs in 2026 - The SEO Playbook Nobody Is Talking About

E923: Metehan Yeşilyurt, one of the most respected AI visibility and SEO researchers in the world, joins the show! Metehan has spent the past year reverse-engineering how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI systems decide which brands get cited, recommended, and shown to users. This conversation goes far beyond surface-level AI SEO. We break down how large language models select sources, how consensus is formed across the web, and why some brands dominate AI answers while others disappear - even when they rank well on Google. If you care about visibility, traffic, and sales from AI systems, this shows what really matters. What you'll learn: - How ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI choose which brands to cite - Why ranking on Google is no longer enough to appear in AI answers - How "consensus" across the web determines AI trust - Why press releases and off-site mentions now matter more than ever - How comparison tables influence LLM parsing and citation behavior - Where to place tables and structured content for maximum AI impact - How LLMs treat the beginning, middle, and end of a page differently - Why JavaScript-heavy websites hurt AI visibility - How server-side rendering improves crawlability for AI systems - What content chunking actually does (and doesn't) do for LLMs - How YouTube, Reddit, Medium, and social platforms influence AI search - Why TikTok and YouTube are becoming AI training and discovery engines - How query fan-out works inside LLMs - How citations change every time you ask the same AI question - How AI re-ranking differs from Google's ranking system - What "rank fusion" means in AI search - How embedding models affect which pages get surfaced - Why some brands with top Google rankings get ignored by ChatGPT - How PR campaigns influence AI recommendation systems - How to use entity SEO to build brand trust inside LLMs - How to collect real user questions to drive AI-generated sales - Why content freshness inside the last 180 days is critical - Why updating publish dates changes AI ranking - How FAQ sections increase AI visibility when done correctly - How to audit a site for AI visibility - How Metehan uses Screaming Frog, embeddings, and crawlers to find gaps - How Google's Discovery Engine reveals how chunking really works - How the Universal Commerce Protocol and AI agents may change ecommerce Why this episode matters: Search is no longer just Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews are now deciding which brands people see, trust, and buy from. These systems do not rank websites the same exact way Google does. They use embeddings, citations, re-ranking systems, and consensus across the web. This episode explains what you need to know for visibility in 2026. Who is Metehan Yeşilyurt? Metehan is an AI visibility and SEO researcher with over 10 years of experience. He is followed by some of the most respected names in search and has worked directly on AI visibility experiments for ecommerce, SaaS, and global brands. His work focuses on: - AI citation systems - LLM ranking behavior - Entity SEO - Off-site consensus building - Reverse-engineering ChatGPT and Perplexity ⭐️ Metehan Yeşilyurt on 𝕏 - https://x.com/metehan777 ⭐️ Metehan Yeşilyurt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/metehanyesilyurt/ ⭐️ Metehan Yeşilyurt blog - https://metehan.ai/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Introduction and Overview 00:21 Influencing LLMs: Key Strategies 01:02 Building Consensus and Content Strategies 04:51 Context Issues and Solutions 07:22 Comparison Tables and Formatting 12:37 Experiments and Case Studies 16:23 SEO and AI Visibility 21:38 Press Releases and Offsite SEO 26:49 Content Chunking Debate 30:53 Google's Discovery Engine and Chunking 34:48 Reverse Engineering and Surprising Findings 40:22 Impact of SEO Fundamentals on Rankings 41:05 Offsite SEO and AI Citation Building 41:43 Platform Investment Strategies for AI SEO 43:17 Leveraging Social Media for SEO 46:09 Effective Use of User Questions for Conversions 51:32 Conducting AI Visibility Audits 54:38 Rapid Changes in AI Visibility Strategies 57:35 The Future of E-commerce and AI Agents 01:03:01 SEO Research Tools and Techniques 01:05:31 Content Freshness and FAQs for AI Visibility 01:11:00 Global Opportunities and Language Considerations 01:11:59 Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing