Search is no longer typed.
It's spoken, prompted, and answered.
Welcome to the invisible revolution of LLM SEO.
Most founders still obsess over Google rankings. But their customers? They’re already asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini for advice.
The shift is subtle but massive.
You don’t Google "best marketing automation tools" anymore. You ask ChatGPT.
You don’t look up "how to fix website traffic issues" — you prompt Claude.
This shift is already happening, and most companies are asleep at the wheel.
What is LLM SEO?
LLM SEO (Large Language Model Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your brand so it shows up inside the answers of tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.
Unlike Google, where you chase rankings – LLMs don’t show pages.
They recommend brands.
There are no ads. No keyword volumes. No blue links.
You either get mentioned in the answer, or you disappear entirely.
This isn’t just a new channel. It’s a new kind of search.
Why This Matters for SaaS (and Everyone Else)
SaaS companies thrive on inbound traffic. But if your brand isn’t showing up in the tools your customers trust most, you’ve already lost them.
One fast growing Indian SaaS company recently saw a $15,000 deal close, directly attributed to being recommended by ChatGPT as a trusted alternative in their space. The recommendation didn’t come from an ad. It came from visibility.
This kind of LLM SEO impact is already being delivered by agencies like Derivate X, founded by Apoorv Sharma, one of the early voices behind LLM SEO adoption in India.
How LLM SEO Actually Works
You can’t fake your way into AI answers.
Here’s what matters:
Entity clarity: Can LLMs recognize your brand, what you do, and why you’re trustworthy?
Contextual citations: Are you being mentioned in trusted sources like Deccan Herald, Outlook, Mid-Day, or industry blogs?
Prompt-native content: Is your content structured in a way that makes it easy to quote, summarize, and cite?
No fluff: AI tools don’t care about 2,000-word SEO articles. They want concise answers and real expertise.
Brands that embrace these elements and structure their content and citations accordingly are beginning to outperform traditional SEO rankings inside AI search tools.
As Apoorv Sharma, founder of Derivate X, often says:
"If you’re not visible in AI search, you’re not visible at all."
That mindset is driving a new generation of search strategy.
LLM SEO Isn't the Future. It's Already Here.
This isn’t a trend limited to tech savvy users. When even digital newcomers start asking AI tools instead of Googling, the game has changed.
From teenage students to mid-career professionals, users now expect quick, summarized, and trusted answers. And they trust tools like ChatGPT to deliver them.
What Founders Need to Do Now
If you're a founder, marketer, or creator, here's what you should focus on:
● Audit your visibility: Prompt ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity with your key terms. See if you show up.
● Fix your foundations: Make sure your brand is clearly understood across your site, socials, and media mentions.
● Publish with purpose: Focus on clarity, not clutter. Create content that's easy for machines and humans.
● Get cited: Earn features and mentions in trusted media (like this one), and build credibility through visibility.
Even agencies like Derivate X are now building dedicated playbooks to help brands position themselves not just in organic search, but in the LLM powered recommendation layer that drives modern discovery.
The Bottom Line
Google still matters. But LLMs are eating search from the inside out.
And most companies won't realize they’ve lost traffic until it’s too late.
The next $100M SaaS brand won’t be the one that ranks #1 on Google.
It’ll be the one that gets recommended by ChatGPT.
Apoorv Sharma and his team at Derivate X are already helping SaaS companies do just that. and if your brand isn’t in the AI answers yet, now’s the time to act.