How 360 Rodent Control Became the Most Cited Source on ChatGPT

About

For their category, discovery is increasingly happening inside AI answer engines, not just traditional search, because buyers ask for shortlists and recommendations. Google AI Overviews present AI-generated snapshots with links to sources, and ChatGPT search experiences commonly include source citations. That made AI visibility commercially important for them, especially as they started seeing commercial and institutional buyers use AI tools during vendor research.

The Challenge

In the baseline window, 360 Rodent Control was effectively invisible in tracked AI responses. The issue was not ranking in a classic SEO sense - it was AI discovery:

• When prospects asked AI tools for recommendations, the brand was not being named.
• When AI tools did provide citations, 360's owned pages were not being used.
• This created a risk: the brand was absent from the recommended set that users often accept as a shortlist.

ChatGPT Visibility was 0%, while competitors were dominating.

The Approach

We approached this as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), not traditional SEO. The strategy centered on a simple loop:

1. Monitor: How AI engines answer exact transactional and educational questions.
2. Diagnose: Why the brand was excluded by comparing AI outputs and signals.
3. Execute: Changes AI systems can use: tighten entity clarity, publish answer-ready pages, and build authority signals so the brand becomes citable.

The Outcome

In just 5 months, 360 Rodent Control gained 68.5% Visibility on ChatGPT, becoming the 2nd Most Recommended brand.

On Google AI Overview, visibility hit 60.6%.

360 Rodent Control is now the most cited website on ChatGPT (21.7% share) and #3 on Google AI Overview (16.3% share).

Why It Matters

For local services, AI visibility directly affects who gets considered. Once a brand becomes consistently citable:

1. AI shortlists stabilize. The brand becomes part of the default recommendation set.
2. B2B discovery becomes possible without massive enterprise marketing budgets.