AI visibility changes weekly, if not faster.
We’re starting to build some principles around what must be done to protect the visibility of a brand. Some of the tactics are still early. But a few durable principles are starting to emerge. Suganthan Mohanadasan’s ongoing research into how ChatGPT sources its answers illustrates that best.
As he found out, within days, ChatGPT changed how it picked sources. Apparently, OpenAI treats source selection for the LLM’s answers like a policy (not a behavior), so it can change its policy at any time.
That means, the way sources are cited in ChatGPT answers can change without public notice. So, I’d be wary of those who claim to “know ChatGPT’s source ranking factors.” Here at Penpixel Creative, we also strongly urge you to stop thinking in terms of ranking altogether.
So, the real takeaway? Stop trying to build your AI visibility strategy around fixed “ChatGPT ranking factors.” Instead, you should build it around durable mechanisms: clear official facts, crawlable pages, strong corroboration, and ongoing monitoring.
What this means for CMOs
This new evidence confirms that paying attention to policy changes, and updating your AI visibility strategy to match are now ongoing tasks requiring agility.
A few other discoveries and confirmations:
OpenAI uses ‘bing’ as a source for some accounts, but not all. So if your pages are missing from Bing’s index, you will not be discovered or seen by those users. We don’t know when OpenAI will change this, so it’s worth your while to ensure you’re indexed by Bing.
Suganthan shows proof that multiple, thin content pages (even pages on your site competing with each other) will lose to the page with the robust coverage. So build a strong page for each of your claims, not multiple weak pages.
What your team should check now:
Verify you’re indexed in Bing. You or they can do this simply by running a
site:yourdomain.comsearch query directly in Bing, or inspect specific URLs, sitemaps, domain structures, and automated API reports within Bing Webmaster Tools.Consolidate your thin content pages. Run a content audit to identify topic cannibalization, then keep your strongest URLs per topic as the master page and merge valuable insights from the thin pages into it. Then, implement 301 redirects from the URLs you’re sundowning.
Use clean HTML on your official pages. Have your team verify or revise your pricing, service, and product pages to use plain and easily scrapable HTML so that LLMs pull from your pages, instead of third parties where you can’t control your official information.
Use clear pricing and sales information. Instead of “Contact Sales,” revise your pricing and service pages to say something like “Starts at $XXX” so that a random review or Reddit post with an incorrect amount isn’t used as an “official source” instead.
Test, monitor, and date your claims. Remind them that they should use multiple accounts to test your ChatGPT results to ensure your entire target audience can see you. I would say you should assume this for all LLMs right now.
This week’s major AI search discussion topics:
Google is building interactive tools right in the UI. Google’s generated tool interface could replace your tool-page traffic by answering user prompts with calculators, quizzes, or other interactive experiences inside generated search results. So, if part of your lead gen depends on those free tools, you may need to pivot toward proprietary data, workflows, or expert interpretation.
New data details why some brands dominate Google and disappear in AI answers. New AI visibility reporting shows traditional search authority does not always translate into AI recall or recommendation. Your rankings may still look healthy while AI systems summarize, cite, or recommend competitors. Measure representation, not just position.
Your site needs rules for search, agent, and training crawlers. Cloudflare’s AI traffic controls make bot access a business decision, not just a technical setting. Your team should decide which machines can read, cite, train on, or act through your site before default infrastructure settings make that decision for you.
Quickly, I have two things to ask:
If you enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to someone you think would also enjoy it, or get help from it.
If you’d like to know more about your digital estate, and how to protect it, reach out here.
Deven Bhagwandin
Founder & Director of AI Search, Penpixel Creative
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Is your website functionally invisible to the agents now commanding the web? My Machine-First Audits provide the answer. I break down your technical structure, identity signals, and transaction readiness against the specific checks required for true agent legibility.
BTW, if you know of a business that I can help, please introduce me, or refer them to https://www.penpixelcreative.com/contact.