The Gist
Large language models are changing how your audiences discover content, but you're still communicating with real humans. The key shifts: structure your content for easy extraction (Q&A formats, clear headings, bullet points), prioritize original research and unique insights, build your presence across credible sources, and create comprehensive evergreen content. Tactical wins include optimizing your Google Business Profile, engaging on Reddit, and considering Wikipedia for credibility. Bottom line: quality, intent-driven content published regularly remains king — we're just optimizing the discovery pathway.
There’s a conversation happening more and more frequently with our clients and in our own marketing and communications work at tPX around whether “AI is a new stakeholder.” While I'd push back on that framing — you're still reaching real human audiences who interact with your content — the path that these audiences take to find you is undeniably shifting. Large language models (LLMs) have become integrated into the research process for millions of users, and as communications professionals, we need to adapt.
The good news? Content is still king (or queen). However, there are concrete steps you can take to ensure your content resonates in this new LLM landscape.
Making your content LLM-friendly
Think of LLMs as researchers who prefer an extremely specific form of clarity and structure. Here’s how to speak their language:
- Structure matters. Craft content blocks in Q&A format using clear headings and schema markup. Content should be easily parsable and quotable by AI systems that are scanning for authoritative answers. Proper bullet lists, tables, and other organized data within your blogs and other pages can be heavily cited by LLMs. The easier you make it to extract and understand your key points, the more likely you are to be referenced.
- Context is the new backlink. Build your brand mentions and context across reputable sources like news outlets, forums, and authoritative domains. When LLMs look for reliable information, they weigh the credibility of their sources heavily. Your presence across trusted platforms signals authority.
- Since generic content is now a dime a dozen, original research shows your credibility more than ever. Any unique insights, proprietary data, or original research that LLMs can source and cite give you a leg up. Distinctive perspectives earn visibility in generative AI summaries and overviews.
- Here's a simple tip: Add TLDR summaries at the beginning of long-form content. These serve as perfect excerpts for LLMs to review and pull into their citations. You’re essentially doing the work of summarization for them.
Format diversity is important
LLMs don’t just read text — they’re increasingly trained on multimodal content. Deploy infographics, videos, tables, and even audio content to support AI overviews. Each format broadens your chances of being surfaced in different contexts and queries.
Consider creating evergreen pillar pages rich with variations, comparisons, and thorough coverage. AI systems gravitate toward in-depth, clustered content when they need comprehensive references for their summaries. Think of it as building a knowledge hub rather than isolated blog posts.
Beyond content: tactical wins
- Button up your Google Business Profile, even if you're not a local business. Google Business Profiles are being cited more heavily in AI responses, and this simple step can significantly boost your visibility.
- Reddit deserves a spot in your strategy. With its strengthening partnership with Google, Reddit has become a significant piece of the LLM puzzle. Consider both organic community participation and paid options to establish your presence where conversations are happening.
- Watch your paid social settings. If paid social media is part of your campaigns, be vigilant about bot and automated traffic within paid platforms. Ensure you have all the correct settings configured to minimize garbage traffic that will purely drain your budget without reaching real humans.
- Consider Wikipedia as a credibility anchor. If your organization, product, or executive meets Wikipedia’s notability guidelines, creating a well-sourced Wikipedia page can be a powerful move. LLMs frequently cite Wikipedia as a trusted, neutral source of information.
If you take away only one thing from this article, let it be this: Quality, unique, intent-driven content published on a regular basis remains the most important factor. All the optimization in the world won’t help if your content doesn’t deliver genuine value.
The LLM era doesn’t require us to abandon everything we know about good communications. Instead, it asks us to be more intentional about structure, more committed to quality, and more strategic about where and how we show up. The fundamentals remain — authentic, valuable content that serves real human needs. We’re simply optimizing the pathway for how that content gets discovered in an AI-augmented world.
