If you’re not getting cited by ChatGPT, your “AI SEO” strategy isn’t working, no matter what your dashboards say. Most of it is observability theater: dashboards, charts, synthetic prompts — and zero actual placement.

In this episode, we chat with Shawn Schneider, founder of Eldil AI, about what actually determines whether your company shows up in ChatGPT answers. The short answer: LLMs don’t reward more content, clever prompts, or prettier dashboards. They reward a small set of trusted third-party sources — and most brands aren’t mentioned in any of them.

Shawn breaks down why observability alone creates a false sense of progress, how to identify the specific citations that dominate your category, and how to turn that insight into real placements through outreach and negotiation. We also unpack why Google Search Console is still the best signal we have for AI-driven queries, how to prioritize the one citation that actually matters, and what the first 30–90 days can look like when you do this correctly.

Guest

Shawn Schneider — founder of Eldil AI, a GEO / AI SEO platform focused on identifying and securing the citations LLMs rely on most; helps brands and agencies win visibility in ChatGPT by targeting the power-law sources that shape AI answers.

Guest Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-schneider-61b2b5207/
Company Website: https://www.eldil.ai/

What You’ll Learn

Why most GEO / AI SEO observability tools are meaningless without actual placements
The only thing that reliably improves AI search visibility: citation placements
How to use Google Search Console to surface AI fan-out queries
Why synthetic prompt data is still unreliable (and what to trust instead)
The power law of citations: why only 1–3 sources actually matter
How Eldil turns citation discovery into outreach and negotiated placements
What 30–90 days can look like when you secure the right citation
Which industries should invest heavily — and which should ignore this for now
Why ChatGPT dominates referral traffic compared to other LLMs
What happens when ads arrive inside AI search results

Timestamps

00:00 — GEO, AI SEO, AEO: noise vs. reality
00:21 — Why observability tools don’t move the needle
03:55 — Where GEO tools get their data (and why it’s messy)
07:16 — Using Google Search Console as a prompt proxy
09:40 — The three pillars: technical, content, authority
12:07 — Citations as the dominant ranking lever
13:07 — The power law: thousands of citations, one winner
19:07 — How fast results actually show up
20:39 — When building your own citation content makes sense
30:41 — Which business models win with GEO
37:11 — ChatGPT ads and the future of AI search
41:32 — Where to find Shawn and closing thoughts

Key Topics & Ideas

1. Why dashboards feel good but don’t create outcomes.

Most tools are essentially “Google Analytics for LLMs”
ChatGPT referrals rise naturally as usage increases
Charts go up even if you do nothing
Without placements, observability is just vanity

2. The three common approaches in the market today:

Guessing prompts with LLMs
Clickstream data sourced from Chrome extensions and brokers
Synthetic prompts without transparency

Eldil uses Google Search Console + Analytics as the best available proxy for real intent.

3. How to spot AI-generated fan-out queries:

50+ character queries
High impressions
Low or zero clicks

These often represent LLMs expanding short prompts into long-form searches.

4. The three pillars: Technical, Content, Authority

Technical — can an LLM crawl and understand your site?
Content — does useful information exist?
Authority — does anyone credible back it up?

Authority is the multiplier most teams ignore.

5. What actually shapes AI answers:

Citations are not backlinks, they are semantic explanations
LLMs repeatedly return to the same trusted sources
Third-party listicles and niche blogs dominate citation share

6. The Power Law of Citations

10k–15k citations may exist
200–300 matter
1–3 actually move the needle

If you’re not in those, content volume won’t save you.

7. The real workflow:

Identify high-value customer questions
Extract dominant citations
Rank them by weight
Contact site owners
Negotiate placement
Monitor AI visibility and referral traffic

This is where most tools stop — and where Eldil focuses.

8. How many placements do you need?

Surprisingly few.

You don’t need 100 placements
You need the right one
Then expand into adjacent verticals

This is concentrated betting, not spray-and-pray SEO.

9. Why GEO feels different from traditional SEO:

You are inserting into sources that already rank
Changes can show up in weeks, not years
Meaningful referral growth often appears within ~60–90 days

10. Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Do This

Best fit:

High-ACV B2B SaaS
Long buying cycles
High-LTV e-commerce (supplements, skincare)
ICPs that already live in ChatGPT

If your customers do not use LLMs yet, start elsewhere.

11. Why ChatGPT is the main event

Based on Eldil’s data:

ChatGPT referrals dwarf Perplexity and others
For most companies, this is where focus belongs
Smaller channels still matter for high-ticket sales

12. What’s coming next

Paid placements inside LLMs
Organic plus paid becoming a one-two punch
Citation inventory getting expensive fast

The window for cheap dominance will not last.

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