Composition Analysis

Emotion Expression

Color Strategy

Text Strategy

Authority is the New Ranking Factor

Video Content is Mandatory for SEO

Freshness & Citation Velocity

Sentiment-Based Ranking

Package Content for AI Scrapers

ChatGPT isn't just answering your questions anymore. It's learning who you are, what you care about, what you need before you even ask for it. And in 2026, the algorithm behind ChatGPT is about to shift in ways most marketers don't see coming. I'm Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital. And my team analyzes behavior patterns across hundreds of brands every single day. And what we're seeing tells us one thing: the rules are changing fast. Today, I'm walking you through exactly how ChatGPT's algorithm is evolving, what signals it's prioritizing, and how you can position your brand to get cited, recommended, and trusted inside the world's fastest growing discovery engine. Because once you understand how the algorithm works, you stop guessing and you start winning. Let's dive in.

Right now, you can publish a listicle on your own site dozens of times and ChatGPT might actually reference you, and it works for a lot of brands, but that window is closing. ChatGPT is building its own version of domain authority, similar to how Google has PageRank or how they even leverage the EEAT framework, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. And just like how Google rewards expert-driven content over keyword-stuffed garbage, ChatGPT is starting to weigh industry-relevant sources more heavily than self-published spam. Here's what's happening: The algorithm is shifting away from pure citation volume and towards citation quality. It's not just about how many times your brand gets mentioned. It's about who's mentioning you and where. Here's the right strategy: Build real authority in your niche. Get featured on industry publications. Contribute expert insights to recognized platforms. Get cited by credible sources, not just your own blog. Create human-driven, expert-level content. ChatGPT's goal is to reduce hallucinations. The best way to do that: pull from people who actually know what they're talking about. You shouldn't rely on gaming the system. Self-citations will eventually get filtered out.

Real expertise will rise to the top. The brands that win in 2026 are the ones that build genuine authority, not manufactured visibility.

ChatGPT pulls a lot of data from Reddit, Quora, and other community platforms. But here's a problem: Anyone can post anything on Reddit. The quality is inconsistent. Spamming is rising, and ChatGPT knows it. Expect the algorithm to reduce its reliance on generic community sites and start prioritizing verified, industry-specific sources instead. This means two things: Low-quality forums will matter less. High-quality expert platforms will matter more. If your brand is only showing up in Reddit threads, your visibility inside ChatGPT is at risk. Here's what to do: Focus on getting mentioned in industry publications, case studies, and expert roundups. Contribute to high-authority platforms where your insights get attributed to you by name. Build a reputation outside of open forums because ChatGPT is moving away from them. The algorithm is getting smarter about filtering noise. Make sure your brand isn't part of the noise.

Text-based answers won't dominate ChatGPT forever. The algorithm is starting to integrate video into its responses, just like how Google does with video carousels. Why? Because that's what people actually consume. More people watch videos than read articles. And ChatGPT is responding to that behavior. In 2026, when someone asks ChatGPT a question, the answer might include a run summary, a link to a YouTube video, a TikTok, or Instagram clip. This is a massive shift. Here's how to prepare: Create video content around your core topics. ChatGPT will start pulling from YouTube, TikTok, and social platforms more frequently. Optimize your videos for search. Use clear titles, detailed descriptions, and natural keywords integrated into your scripts. Transcribe everything. AI reads your captions, your descriptions, your on-screen text. Make sure your video content is machine readable.

Video isn't optional anymore. It's how you show up in AI-driven discovery.

Right now, ChatGPT is reactive. You ask a question, it gives you an answer. But that's changing. In 2026, ChatGPT won't just respond to what you ask. It'll predict what you need before you even know it. Here's how it works: ChatGPT tracks your full search history. It knows what you care about, what problems you're solving, what your goals you're working towards, and instead of waiting for you to ask, it'll start offering insights proactively. Imagine this: You've been searching about fitness, nutrition, and weight loss for weeks. The next time you open ChatGPT, it doesn't wait for your question. It says, "Hi, Neil. Based on your recent searches, here's a new bio hack that could help you put on five more pounds of muscle or lose five more pounds of weight. " That's not reactive search. That's predictive discovery. And it's similar to what Perplexity is doing with its discover tab, but more personalized and automated. And here's what this means for your brand: Topical consistency matters.

The more you publish on a specific topic, the more ChatGPT associates your brand with that category. First-party data becomes critical. If you're running ads inside ChatGPT, your customer data trains algorithms to understand who your best customers are. You're not just competing for keywords anymore. You're competing for associations. The brands that define their category early will become the default recommendation.

Right now, ChatGPT tends to cite older legacy brands, companies that have been around for decades and have massive citation volume. But that's changing. In 2026, the algorithm will start weighing freshness and citation velocity, not just total citations. Here's what that means: If a new brand gets mentioned constantly in the last 30 days, ChatGPT will start citing them over older brands that haven't been discussed recently. It's not about who has the most mentions ever. It's about who has the most momentum right now. Here's a strategy: Publish consistently. Fresh, updated content signals to ChatGPT that your brand is active and relevant. You also want to get mentioned frequently: Press coverage, podcast appearances, guest posts. These create citation velocity. You also want to do digital PR. And if you're struggling with digital PR and you just want someone to do it for you, check out our ad agency, NP Digital, where we have over a hundred people globally that specialize in digital PR. This gets your brand mentioned out there, especially on industry-relevant websites, so that way, LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini and Perplexity mention you more often than the competition. Now, you also want to update your existing content. Add last updated dates to your pages.

ChatGPT favors current information versus old, outdated information. The algorithm is moving away from legacy bias and towards real-time relevance.

Right now, ChatGPT will mention brands both in positive and negative contexts. But in 2026, the algorithm is going to start filtering based on sentiment. Here's what's happening: ChatGPT analyzes brand sentiment across web reviews, social mentions, forum discussions, and over time it's going to prioritize brands with positive sentiment and filter out brands with negative reputations, just like you see in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. This means platforms like G2, Trustpilot, Amazon Reviews, and Yelp are going to become ranking signals inside ChatGPT. And here's what you need to do: Manage your reputation aggressively. If you have negative reviews, respond to them. Fix issues. Build positive sentiment. You want to encourage happy customers to leave reviews. The more positive mentions you have across credible platforms, the better you'll rank inside ChatGPT. Monitor your brand sentiment. Use tools like Ubersuggest to track your brand and how it's doing across the web and what people are saying versus how your competition is getting mentioned across the web. Is your brand more positive than theirs or negative? Ubersuggest will show you. And reputation management isn't optional anymore.

It's a core part of AI visibility.

A lot of companies are stopping their blogs because traffic is declining. But here's the thing: ChatGPT needs content to learn from. The more you blog, the more likely you are to get cited, even if you don't get the traffic you once did. Brands that blog regularly see better traffic retention, more conversions, higher authority recognition within AI platforms. Here's the approach: Keep publishing fresh new information that isn't just regurgitated that everyone else is talking about. And when you publish content, make sure it's structured. You use schema markup. And even if you have a lot of content that already exists on the web with your blog, update it. Keep it up to date because these LLMs like ChatGPT prefer citing new fresh information versus old outdated information. So there's nothing wrong with updating your old content and then having that last updated date refresh on that blog post. You also want to optimize for AI readability. Use clear headers, bullet points, and schema markup so ChatGPT can easily extract and summarize your content. Think of your blog as a data source, not just a traffic driver.

Here's a new rule: Your content needs to serve two audiences, humans and algorithms. Humans want quick answers, engaging storytelling, and depth when they want it. ChatGPT wants structured data it can scrape, parse, and summarize instantly. Here's how to do both: Use clear headings and subheadings. This makes it easy for AI to understand your content structure and for people to skim if they want. Add structured schema markup. This tells AI engines exactly what your content is about. Write concise summaries. AI pulls from sections that are easy to extract and cite. You also want to cite the main key points at the top of your articles, similar to what CNBC does, because this allows both the user and AI to know what the main points of the article are about. If a user wants more, they can keep reading. But this also makes it easy for AI to summarize the main points and show it to humans when they're using ChatGPT or any other LLM. You also want to balance depth with scannability. Give humans the details they want, but package it in a way AI can process. Similar to using tables of you versus your competition and outlining the differences between your products and their products or your services and their services.

Here's the biggest thing that you need to take away from all of this: ChatGPT's algorithm isn't static. It's evolving fast, and the brands that understand how to adapt quickly will dominate visibility, citations, and trust inside the world's fastest growing discovery engine. Authority matters more than volume. Freshness beats legacy. Sentiment drives recommendations. And if you're not packaging your content for AI, you're behind. The question isn't whether ChatGPT will change how people discover brands. It's whether your brand will be the one they discover. If you want to go deeper into how AI search really works and how to dominate every major platform, watch my next video. This will show you exactly how to position a brand for maximum visibility in 2026 and beyond.