For a decade, wedding vendors have focused on SEO, hoping to show up in the number-one position on Google. But in the last two years, things have shifted—and the new goal is to show up in ChatGPT search results.
The good news: the time you’ve dedicated to improving SEO will also pay off when it comes to AI search.
(A quick note: I’m referring to ChatGPT in this post because that’s the most popular tool when it comes to wedding planning, but these strategies should also apply to apps like Claude or Perplexity.)
WHAT DO CHATGPT SEARCH RESULTS LOOK LIKE?
I’ve been testing ChatGPT for the past few weeks, asking it to recommend vendors and wedding venues in the markets I know best.
ChatGPT search results look a little different based on the prompt and the vendor category. When you ask for a wedding venue, you’ll get results like this:
After showing images, a map, and contact information, it then gave me 3-4 bullet points per venue:
In many cases, the bullet points show you where they got the information (in this example, Opal Collection is the hotel group that owns the venue).
Then it gave me a table listing key information:
It’s easy to see why this appeals to couples—within seconds, they’ve got a side-by-side comparison of several venues.
But not every search is created equal. I used a similar prompt for venues in Boca Raton—same guest count, but a $35,000 total budget—and it missed the mark on at least two levels:
One, it suggested the most expensive resort in town—one where catering starts at $425/person. That’s more than the entire budget without factoring in any other expenses.
Two, it mentioned a Japanese garden venue that’s about 7 miles inland. So much for a beachy vibe, right? (To ChatGPT’s credit, it did acknowledge this—but why choose a non-beach venue when there are so many here? I have questions.)
Results for photographers were more text-based, without the map (or images):
SO WHERE DOES CHATGPT GET ITS INFO ABOUT WEDDING VENDORS?
Vendor directories
The first thing I noticed was that every single set of ChatGPT search results mentions directories like The Knot, Zola, and Here Comes the Guide.
Here’s why:
On their back end, directories organize information in a way that’s easy for ChatGPT to understand. When you sign up, you fill in a form field with your price, and when your directory page is generated, there’s an element of the code labeled “price.”
So when ChatGPT responds to a search, it can easily find pricing (or location, or other criteria) and put it into a table like the ones you can see above.
ChatGPT also knows that directories like The Knot have existed for years (or decades, even) and considers them reliable sources because they’ve been around so long, and so many other websites link to them.
Blogs & other publications
In my test searches, ChatGPT often cited blog posts. Some of these blogs were written by other vendors—for example, a Milwaukee-based DJ writing about popular wedding venues in the area.
Other searches were supported by articles from major media outlets such as Brides or People.
There are multiple ways to show up on someone else’s website. It could be a published wedding, an article you’re quoted in, or a roundup of local vendors. However, you can’t count on getting these links on your own—you’ll need to do some outreach to start showing up elsewhere.
Your website copy
Yes, ChatGPT does look at your website for accurate information.
In most of the searches I ran, Chat mentioned a vendor’s own website to describe their style and offers, and sometimes their pricing. Sometimes it just created bullet points; other times, it quoted directly from the site.
Plus, the keywords that you’ve already included in your copy are what helps ChatGPT identify what your site is about, the same way Google Search does.
In some of my searches, ChatGPT pulled in quotes from Reddit threads:
That said, here’s some advice: Don’t pretend to be a customer to promote your business on Reddit. Reddit users are really good at detecting self-promotion, and some subreddits explicitly ban it.
Adrienna from Ava and the Bee has a whole post on how to use Reddit as a wedding vendor if you want to know more.
No, All That SEO Work You Did Isn’t Wasted
Magazines love articles with headlines like “SEO Is Dead. Say Hello to GEO.”
(GEO =generative-engine optimization, which is a fancy way of saying optimizing for AI search.)
Please don’t give them a second thought.
If your website is optimized for SEO, those strategies will also benefit you when it comes to ChatGPT search results.
As a website copywriter, I’m going to give you two bullet points about what that means:
- Use the keywords your ideal clients are searching for
This doesn’t change with the rise of ChatGPT—if anything, it’s more important since users tend to type questions that match how they talk. - Write content that answers their questions (even if they don’t know those are their questions)
For years, Google has been telling us that pages need to address “user intent,” which is a tech-y way of saying people should get the answers they came for. ChatGPT is looking for the same thing.
Another important piece of SEO strategy has always been “backlinks,” or getting other trusted websites to link to yours. If you’ve already been working on this, you can see how it pays off for ChatGPT, too. If not, now is the time to start.
How to Improve Your Chances of Showing Up in ChatGPT Search Results
Update your profile in directories—and be consistent
If I were assigning homework, this is the first thing I’d tell you to do.
We know that ChatGPT loves to pull information from The Knot, WeddingWire, Hitched, Zola, and other directory platforms.
First, make sure your business name matches exactly across platforms. This also includes your Google Business Profile. What do I mean by exactly? You shouldn’t be “Jamie Lynn Photo” on WeddingWire and “Jamie Lynn Photography” on Google Business.
Two, regularly update your profiles (and again, make sure they’re consistent). For the purpose of ChatGPT search results, we’re less worried about the description of your business, and more worried about structured data.
For example, on a Knot profile, focus on these sections:
They provide clear data that ChatGPT can pull into tables or use as bullet points.
Remember: even if you don’t regularly get leads from these platforms, ChatGPT is scouring them for information.
Share your years of experience in your website copy
While writing this post, I reached out to my friend Sara Dunn of Sara Does SEO to see what she’s been finding with AI search.
She said: “One thing that seems really important to ChatGPT and AI tools is experience. When I ask why it chose one planner or photographer over another, it often cites years of experience or number of weddings. We’ve been recommending that every wedding pro add a sentence to their Home or About page with their years of experience.”
Optimize your 404 page
ChatGPT is 3x more likely than Google to send someone to a broken link, which means they’re going to see your 404 page.
There are two reasons:
- ChatGPT doesn’t always search the web in real time; sometimes, it uses outdated information, and the page it suggests could have been deleted or moved
- It hallucinates URLs that were never there in the first place
So make sure your 404 page doesn’t just say “Sorry, page not found.”
Use the opportunity to link to your best-performing blog posts or other relevant content.
You also want your 404 page to clearly show the basics: who you are, where you are, and what you do. If you have time, you can also add a short photo and bio to help new visitors connect with you.
Keep asking for reviews
Your online reviews count for a lot with ChatGPT. If you scroll back up to the first screenshot in this article, you can see that it lists the Google review score and number of reviews for each venue.
In another search, I asked it to give me a list of photographers and then tell me who has the best reviews. It cited The Knot, Zola, Weddingwire, and Birdeye (which I’d honestly never heard of).
So make sure to follow up with every happy couple to request a review after their wedding, and let them know which platform they should use to share it.
Make sure other websites are linking to yours
By now you know that ChatGPT loves to cross-reference different websites to come up with its answers.
If your website is linked from other reliable websites, it gives ChatGPT more material to work with. This article from OFD Consulting covers 5 ways to earn backlinks in the wedding industry, and how you can get started with each.
And while getting a wedding published in People or Vogue might be the dream, you can see from the search results above that smaller-scale websites count, too.
If you’re ready to start showing up ChatGPT search results, here are 3 things I’d do this week:
- Add a sentence about your years of experience to your website copy. You don’t need to spend hours making updates, but our little robot friend is looking for this information.
- Send an email to a past client asking them to review you on Google. It can be daunting to think about emailing all your clients. But it’s not all or nothing—every review helps. So ask someone you’ve enjoyed working with recently (and then think about building this type of request into your offboarding process).
- Team up with another vendor to swap backlinks. One of my favorite ways to get backlinks is by doing guest posts on someone else’s blog. Other wedding vendors are always looking for blog content, so you can offer to write for their blog, and they may be willing to do so for you as well.
Learned something? I’m thrilled to hear it.
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