James Dooley: AI search visibility in the SEO community. Everybody is talking about how do you get more visibility in the LLMs. This could be ChatGPT. It could be Claude. It could be Perplexity. It could be Gemini AI Overviews. I've managed to get Dawood Khan. I've had him previously on the podcast with regards to Reddit marketing and Reddit SEO. Now, anyone that's not doing Reddit needs to jump on it now quickly because it's one of the most cited sources for the LLMs.

However, Dawood Khan is always two steps ahead of the game. He's an innovator in the industry and he understands the importance of being omnichannel and omnipresent and doing holistic marketing.

So, Dawood, I don't want to sing your praises anymore. I want to jump straight into it. Can you explain to people what is coming soon with regards to your SaaS products, not just Reddit SEO and Reddit marketing, because a lot of people know you for that SaaS tool, but for AI search visibility now, how you're going to take your SaaS to a new level?

Dawood Khan: Yeah. Thank you for having me on the podcast. So right now, Crowd Reply is mainly focused on Reddit marketing and you can basically use our platform to generate traffic and leads from Reddit. You can do brand reputation. You can rank on these LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude.

Reddit is one of the most cited platforms. So let’s say we search for anything on ChatGPT. What it does is it has its own knowledge base, but then it also uses internet sources. It might pull up information from Wikipedia. It might pull up information from a YouTube video or from a Reddit thread. Based on all these different sources, it will then provide an answer for whatever you typed in. That’s basically what you can use Crowd Reply for, but right now it’s very Reddit-centric.

In the next couple of months, we’ll be adding the LLM visibility and tracking component inside the platform so it will be super easy to rank on these LLMs.

James Dooley: With regards to AI search visibility then, anyone who wants to know more about Reddit can check the link in the description. There’s a whole episode with me and Dawood talking about Reddit SEO and Reddit marketing.

Away from Reddit and looking at AI search visibility, what other platforms are you going to try to integrate into Crowd Reply on top of Reddit that might be able to get cited by the LLMs?

Dawood Khan: The most demand that we’ve had besides Reddit is Quora. Quora is the second most cited platform by these LLMs. Then we have Facebook. Facebook is actually climbing a lot higher in the past couple of months and we’re seeing it grow even more. Then we’re seeing YouTube as well.

For now, we’ll focus on Reddit, Quora and Facebook. Down the line, maybe we’ll add Wikipedia mentions, YouTube mentions and just cover as many social platforms as we can. There’s a lot that goes into LLM ranking, but a key factor is getting cited on as many sources as possible that are being picked up by these LLMs. The more everyone is talking about you across different channels, the better reference it gives these platforms that this brand is being talked about a lot, so let’s rank it for a specific keyword or prompt.

James Dooley: Anyone who is doing searches nowadays sees forums and discussions popping up all the time. It’s usually Facebook, Quora and Reddit getting cited. Have you got an example you can show with regards to ranking in the LLMs and getting cited?

Dawood Khan: Yeah, definitely. So let’s say we search what’s a good roofing company in Manchester. What happens is ChatGPT checks for these websites. These are the sources or citations. Then it sees which companies are being mentioned across these websites.

So if Manchester Roofs Limited is mentioned across, let’s say, 10 out of 20 different sources, ChatGPT will present it at the top and say it’s highly recommended across different websites. Then the second company might be mentioned in seven places, so it ranks second.

That’s generally how it works. The more citations you cover and the more your brand is mentioned on different sources, the better your ranking will be on these LLMs.

If we look at Google AI Overviews for the same search, you’ll see a different ranking. Google has its own set of sources. ChatGPT might cite one group of sources and Google might cite another. But the principle is the same. It doesn’t have its own brain. It’s citing from websites that are talking about these companies.

So the more you engage on these sources, the more you engage on platforms like Facebook and Reddit, the more it increases your visibility across these platforms.

James Dooley: When they do query fan out terms like who is the best roofing company in Manchester with the cheapest prices and fast call outs, they might return Reddit or Facebook multiple times. Then it starts citing those sources. The more citations you show, the higher you rank within the LLMs, whether that’s Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT or Gemini.

Dawood Khan: Exactly. It has other facets to it, but the main one is covering these sources. If you look at it, it’s similar to backlinking on these websites. You can reach out to these sites and get your brand mentioned in an article. Out of 20 or 30 sources, maybe five or six are happy to cite you. You can even pay them because the long-term benefits are massive.

James Dooley: A lot of people are still buying backlinks. Backlinks still matter. But what separates a good link building agency from a great one is understanding semantic SEO and consensus building on third-party sources that explain who you are, what you do and why you are the best.

If you can get yourself added into existing listicles that are already being cited, those are some of the best links you can get. I’m not too bothered whether it’s nofollow or dofollow. I’m more bothered about the semantic triple explaining who I am, what I do and why I’m the best. When you get cited in Gemini AI Overviews, you often get a dotted line under your brand. Users click it, it becomes a brand search and a brand click.

Branded search and clicks are probably one of the biggest ranking factors now. As you build those up, it makes a huge difference. Being cited in the LLMs to generate branded searches and clicks is massive.

Dawood Khan: Absolutely. It’s traditional SEO but the workflows are slightly different. Brand building is one of the biggest things being overlooked. Even with Google, one of the main ranking factors now is brand visibility. Are branded searches going up or down?

ChatGPT looks for your brand name across the internet. It looks at sentiment. Is it positive or negative? What keywords are associated with you?

For example, if a roofing business is known for great value and cheap prices, and that’s consistently mentioned across websites, then that’s what will get reflected in AI answers.

An example is a VPN app we worked on. We only used Reddit. We didn’t use links. We just used branded mentions like I’m using BambooVPN and the speeds are really good. People saw the brand name, searched it on Google and installed the app. The conversion rates were super high. The app was brand new with only App Store links, but it generated traffic from Reddit and branded searches.

That’s why it’s important to have people searching for your brand name. It helps with rankings on Google and ChatGPT.

James Dooley: A lot of people worry about zero clicks. But if AI search visibility increases brand visibility, AI becomes part of your digital salesforce. I don’t just want AI to mention me. I want it to recommend me. That drives branded search and branded clicks.

That’s the difference between affiliate sites that got hit by updates and brands that survived. Building the brand is crucial.

Dawood, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Anyone can Google Dawood Khan. You own Crowdscale and CrowdReply.io. They’re mainly Reddit SEO and marketing tools at present, but evolving into AI search visibility tools.

How can people stay updated?

Dawood Khan: It will take a few months. We’re adding Reddit, Quora, Facebook and maybe other platforms. We’ll add AI search visibility tracking so people can see citations and which platforms are being cited, all in one place.

People can reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I’m always happy to answer questions.

James Dooley: Anyone watching this about AI search visibility, it’s very important in 2026 to get your brand mentioned in all the LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Leave a comment if there’s something we’ve missed.

Dawood, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’ll see you again soon.

Dawood Khan: It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.