ChatGPT Browse Mode Rewrites Product Recommendations
If you are not in the first three results, ChatGPT will not find you. Here is the fix founders are shipping this week.
ChatGPT's updated Browse Mode changed product discovery dramatically. In our testing, ChatGPT now pulls from the top three organic results for 87% of product recommendation queries. Position four and beyond might as well not exist.
The top-three rule
When you ask ChatGPT "what is the best alternative to X", it browses, reads the first three results on Google, synthesizes, and responds. Position four will not save you. Position five is invisible.
This is brutal for startups competing against incumbents. It is also the simplest AEO target ever handed to operators.
How to become a default recommendation
Three moves, in order of impact:
- Rank for "alternatives to [competitor]". These pages have the highest ChatGPT pull-through rate we have measured.
- Build the entity graph. ChatGPT weights entity signals when deciding which brand to mention by name. The
aeo-entity-builderskill ships with SEOABLE. - Get mentioned in the top-three pages you do not own. If a listicle ranks #1 for "best X tools" and includes you, ChatGPT will mention you. Outreach to those listicles is high-leverage.
The data
We tested 100 product recommendation queries across five SaaS categories. Of the products ChatGPT recommended, 91% were mentioned in one of the top three organic results. Of the 9% that were not, all had significant Wikipedia presence or Reddit momentum.
If you own position 1-3 or get mentioned in those pages, you exist. If not, you do not.
What to ship this week
Write one "alternatives to [competitor]" page targeting your biggest rival. Run the schema skill. Submit to the three listicles ranking #1-3 for your category. That is the minimum viable AEO play for founders.
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