I saw it coming. When I first interacted with ChatGPT, my product marketing instincts kicked in immediately. I knew AI-driven search was coming, and I said it out loud: Soon enough, we will have to optimize our content for traditional search engines and AI engines, or our website won’t get listed.
When you have over a decade of SEO experience, you know to take action. Fast forward to today, and PortXchange is consistently cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity AI. We’ve even seen a traffic boost from these sources in our Google Analytics. But let me tell you, this didn’t happen by accident. It was a calculated, strategic effort that involved deep SEO expertise, smart content structuring, and an obsessive focus on credibility.
Understanding How AI Search Engines Cite Sources
The first step was understanding how AI tools select and reference sources. Unlike traditional search engines, which rely on ranking signals like backlinks and keyword optimization, AI search tools prioritize credibility, structured content, and authoritative references.
What I did:
- Asked ChatGPT and Perplexity questions about our niche (Scope 3 emissions at ports).
- Analyzed how they quoted sources. Was it based on backlinks, domain authority, or structured data.
- Experiment with phrasing questions differently to see if the responses changed.
To crack the algorithm, I asked ChatGPT and Perplexity AI questions like:
- How do you determine which sources to cite?
- What makes a source authoritative for you?
- Can you give me an example of a trusted source on [relevant topic]?
- If you don’t reference my website, what criteria would I need to meet for you to start referencing it?
What I found was clear: AI tools prioritize highly structured, authoritative, and frequently referenced content. If we wanted PortXchange to be cited, we had to build undeniable credibility.
Creating Author Pages for Every Content Contributor
One major factor AI search tools consider is the author’s credibility behind the content. To build this credibility, I:
✔ Created detailed author pages on our website for each long-form content contributor.
✔ Included biographies, industry experience, links to other published work, and awards.
✔ Highlighted contributions to authoritative platforms like media mentions, reports, and conferences.
This boosts credibility for human readers and signals to AI engines that our content is produced by real experts, making it more likely to be referenced.
Prioritizing Author Citations in Every Article
Next, I went a step further and made sure every blog post had a dedicated section about the author, reinforcing their expertise on the topic. This simple addition strengthened our trust factor with AI search engines.
AI engines, like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), favor content from verifiable experts. Anonymous writers don’t do the trick anymore. By highlighting our authors, I was feeding AI precisely what it wanted.
Mapping External Links to High-Authority Sources
AI tools love content that plays well with others. I made it a rule that every long-form article comes with:
✔ External linking: I always reference highly authoritative sources like government reports, research studies, and industry leaders. AI tools recognize when a website cites reliable sources and treat it as a credible reference.
✔ Internal linking: I created a map of interlinked content within our website, ensuring that AI models and traditional search engines could easily navigate between related pages. This increased the likelihood of AI search engines considering our site well-structured and comprehensive.
Building a Clear Internal Linking Strategy
I didn’t just focus on external credibility. I also:
- Created a structured internal linking system to ensure AI tools could easily navigate our content.
- Interconnected related blog posts, FAQs, and case studies.
- Ensured topic clusters (like Scope 3 Emissions) were tightly interwoven.
- This made our site more AI-friendly, helping these tools see PortXchange as an interconnected knowledge hub.
Creating a Media Mentions Hub
AI search engines favor sources that are frequently referenced by other authoritative entities. To signal this, we:
✔ Created a dedicated media news page showcasing when and where we were mentioned.
✔ Regularly updated it with press coverage, interviews, and industry quotes.
✔ Ensured that AI tools could crawl and recognize our consistent presence in authoritative discussions.
AI models prioritize sources that have established media credibility. So, the more we got mentioned in industry discussions, the stronger our authority became.
Putting together SEO-Optimized FAQ Pages
AI models prioritize clear, structured, and concise content formats like FAQs. To leverage this:
✔ I created comprehensive FAQ pages covering Scope 3 emissions at ports.
✔ Used structured data to help AI tools quickly extract relevant answers.
✔ Ensured these pages were easily accessible and interlinked with other content.
Result? AI search engines started pulling our answers directly into responses.
Increasing Third-Party Media Mentions with Full Names & Quotes
To further build our authority, I made sure we were consistently quoted in industry discussions by:
✔ Proactively commenting on industry topics to get cited in articles.
✔ Ensuring that quotes included full names, roles, and company names—making it easier for AI engines to associate them with our expertise.
✔ Strategically pitching thought leadership insights to journalists and analysts.
This tactic paid off big time. AI tools love referencing sources that appear frequently in expert discussions.
Leveraging LinkedIn for AI Credibility
I’ve always said that LinkedIn is a highly trusted source for search engines, so why not for AI models? So I doubled down on the following:
✔ I published native articles on our company page and personal profiles.
✔ Actively engaged in LinkedIn discussions, ensuring our insights were referenced.
✔ Made sure our LinkedIn activity aligned with our website content for consistency.
This expanded our AI search footprint, making it more likely for tools like ChatGPT to reference us.
Implementing Structured Data & AI-Friendly Quotes
Structured data helps AI tools quickly interpret content. To optimize for GenAI search, I::
✔ Implemented schema markup for articles, authors, and FAQs.
✔ Used structured quotes and citations to highlight key insights.
✔ Ensured our content was machine-readable and easily extractable.
This helped AI tools detect our content as highly researched and reliable, making citations more likely.
Becoming a Niche Authority: Scope 3 Emissions at Ports
Instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, I narrowed our focus to a specific niche—Scope 3 emissions in ports, which is what we know best anyway.
This allowed us to:
✔ Dominate a specific knowledge area, making AI engines more likely to cite us.
✔ Consistently produce high-quality, research-backed content.
✔ Build relationships with key players in the industry, reinforcing our credibility.
By dominating this niche, AI tools naturally turned to us as the go-to source for this subject.
The Payoff: Being a Top-Quoted Source by ChatGPT & Perplexity AI
All of this hard work paid off. When we check our Google Analytics, we now see traffic from AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity AI.
Our content is being referenced alongside industry giants.
This didn’t happen overnight. It takes a deep understanding of SEO, AI search behavior, and content credibility. Also, it takes passion for this stuff, and have plenty of that. I love cracking SEO codes.
Closing Thoughts: A Big Thank You to David Kirkdorffer
I wouldn’t be writing this article if it weren’t for David Kirkdorffer. His encouragement, insights, and openness pushed me to put all my learnings out there. He reminded me that claiming success isn’t about bragging; it’s about showing the work behind the results so others can learn, adapt, and improve.
This article is Part 1 of a two-part collaborative series with David. While I shared my journey of making PortXchange an authoritative source for GenAI search, Part 2 will dive into David’s playbook—his strategies, experiments, and lessons in conquering AI search. You won’t want to miss it!
David, thanks for the push. Now, let’s keep building the future of AI-driven search together!
If you want to talk some more, we’re waiting for your DM on Instagram.
With care for your brand,
Stefana Sopco.
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