For a long time, online PR was mainly about building reach, earning backlinks, and placing your name in relevant media. Now another important job is added: good PR increasingly decides whether your brand shows up at all in the answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI systems.
The reason is simple: for their recommendations, AI assistants don’t rely only on what you write about your company on your own website. They lean heavily on independent third-party sources — such as trade media, comparison portals, best-of lists, studies, reviews, or editorial pieces.
For you, that means optimizing your own website alone is no longer enough. If you want to be visible in AI-powered search, your brand also has to show up credibly and in the right context beyond your own domain.
These four online PR tactics are especially relevant here. They’re also the current best practices that our co-founder René Reinisch has implemented and observed in client projects. How long they keep working depends on how the AI models evolve. The foundation for the future should always be a sustainable, high-quality approach. Shortcuts are rarely worth recommending for the long run.
1. Show up in relevant best-of lists
Best-of lists and listicles are among the most direct ways to become visible in commercial AI search. When someone asks, say, for the best accounting tools for freelancers, reliable heat-pump providers, or good agencies for B2B PR, AI systems often fall back on existing comparison and recommendation pages.
You shouldn’t focus on just one big list, though. Of course it can be valuable to appear in the best-known industry overview. But it’s even more important that your brand gets named regularly across several relevant sources.
AI systems compare information from different publications. When your company shows up repeatedly in fitting best-of lists, a consistent signal emerges: your brand is one of the relevant providers in this field.
So start with an inventory. Which lists appear for your target audience’s important queries? Which of them do AI assistants use as a source? And where are your competitors already represented?
You can then reach out specifically to editorial teams and publishers, provide up-to-date information, or suggest your company for upcoming updates.
One caveat, though: a mention at any cost does little for you. The list should fit your offering topically, be credible, and actually be used by your target audience. Ten random mentions on weak websites aren’t automatically better than one well-founded recommendation in a recognized industry outlet.
2. Create comparative content with real arguments
Comparative content plays a big role too. This means not just classic best-of lists but, for example, alternatives pages, product comparisons, market overviews, or pieces like “Solution A or solution B: which fits which company?”
Such content gives AI systems exactly what they need for a recommendation: a clear rationale. After all, an AI shouldn’t just mention that your brand exists. It needs to be able to explain why your offering is right for a particular person, industry, or situation.
This is where so-called justification assets come in. These are pieces of content that deliver clear arguments for or against a solution. Instead of presenting your offering as the perfect solution for everyone, you should get specific.
Who is your offering especially suited to? Which problem do you solve better than others? Where are your greatest strengths? And in which situations might another provider even be the better choice?
This openness may feel unusual at first, but it makes your content more credible and more useful. Interchangeable claims like “high quality,” “custom solutions,” or “best service” barely cut it anymore.
Good comparative content needs clear criteria, tangible differences, and solid evidence. The easier it is to derive a clear recommendation for a specific situation from it, the more helpful your content is — both for your potential customers and for AI systems.
So don’t compulsively try to be the right choice for everyone. Instead, clearly show who your offering is especially well suited to, and why.
3. Publish expert contributions in trade media
Can’t or don’t necessarily want to appear in direct product comparisons or big best-of lists? Then expert contributions, guest posts, and editorial commentary are a strong alternative.
But this isn’t about slipping an obvious advertising piece into a trade outlet. You contribute your knowledge to a relevant topic and, at the same time, make sure your brand appears in the desired context.
If you run a company in the energy sector, for example, you could publish a piece on new requirements for industrial energy systems. As a software provider, you can explain which mistakes businesses should avoid when automating certain processes. If you offer consulting services, you can put current developments into context and give useful, actionable advice.
What’s decisive is your strategic positioning. Before you pitch, think about which topic your company should stand for and how your brand should be described by people and AI systems. That message should come through as clearly as possible in the piece.
Ideally, the article doesn’t just name your brand and your expertise but also includes a backlink. That can strengthen your domain’s authority and, at the same time, lead interested readers straight to your website.
The mention itself is valuable too, though — especially when it appears in a recognized and topically fitting outlet.
So with your online PR, don’t just ask yourself, “Do I get a link?” Also consider, “In what context is my brand named?” and “Which attributes get associated with my company?“
4. Use your own data and studies as PR assets
Your own data is among the most demanding but also most effective online PR tactics. You can use anonymized company data, industry analyses, surveys, market studies, or regularly updated reports for this.
A good data asset serves several purposes at once. You can publish it on your website, weave individual findings into other content, and pitch the most exciting results to media in a targeted way.
That gives journalists concrete numbers and new stories, while AI systems get a citable original source. From a single study, you can develop different pieces of content: an in-depth report, several expert articles, infographics, social media posts, or commentary on current developments.
For this to work, three things have to line up: your data should be interesting to your target audience, hold real news value for media, and fit your positioning at the same time.
If you run a random survey with no connection to your core business, you might get short-term attention from it. But you won’t necessarily strengthen the image you want for your brand.
It’s also true that good data rarely spreads fully on its own. Even a strong report you have to actively promote.
Prepare different angles for different outlets, approach the right journalists deliberately, and make the key results quick to grasp. Clear graphics, short summaries, and precise statements increase your chances that the data gets picked up and cited.
What your online PR also has to deliver
The best placement helps you little if AI systems can’t retrieve the source in question. So check whether relevant publications are technically accessible and not blocked for AI bots.
Just as important is the context of your mention. Your brand name alone isn’t enough. Ideally, it’s clearly described what you offer, who your offering is meant for, and what distinguishes you.
Rather than building media contacts at random, it also pays to create a kind of source map. Test important questions along your customer journey across different AI systems.
Which sources get named? Which outlets keep coming up? Where are your competitors recommended? Which attributes get associated with each provider? And where is your brand still completely missing?
That’s how you spot which third-party sites actually hold influence in your industry. Since the preferred sources can differ by AI system, language, and market, you shouldn’t rely on a single test.
You get the strongest result with a combination of three elements: a mention of your brand, the right topical context, and a high-quality backlink.
Conclusion: online PR becomes a visibility factor for humans and machines
Online PR is far more than classic press work. Best-of lists, comparative content, expert contributions, and your own data don’t just help you reach people. They give AI systems independent evidence of how your brand should be classified and when your offering should be recommended.
You don’t have to be present everywhere right away for that. Start with the sources that are already visible and trustworthy in your industry. Analyze your target audience’s most important AI questions, develop clear arguments for your positioning, and build up credible mentions step by step.
With a good online PR strategy, you reach more people and, at the same time, ensure your brand plays a role in AI search and recommendations too.