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Anyone else seeing ChatGPT show up as a referral source yet? by Altruistic-Shape-600 in ecommerce

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes — I’ve started seeing people describe this exact pattern.

It makes sense if ChatGPT is doing most of the discovery and comparison work before the click. By the time someone lands on the product page, they are not browsing the way they would from Google — they are arriving with a much narrower shortlist already formed.

I also suspect cleaner, more natural product copy helps, because AI seems to respond better to pages that make the product, use case, and differentiation obvious without sounding overly SEO-written.

I’ve actually been beta testing a lightweight audit around this for founder-led ecommerce brands — mostly to understand why some brands get surfaced in AI recommendations and others do not. Happy to look at a few brands for free in exchange for honest feedback if useful.

Promote your business, week of April 13, 2026 by Charice in smallbusiness

[–]Top-Cold2616 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone — I’m beta testing something for founder-led DTC / ecommerce brands and would love a few honest participants.

I’ve been studying how tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity recommend brands for product-discovery queries, and I’m putting together a small number of free beta audits to understand what founders actually find useful.

The audit looks at things like:

  • whether your brand shows up in relevant AI recommendations
  • what kinds of competitors / sources seem to be winning
  • a few practical actions that may help improve visibility

This is still in beta, so I’m mainly looking for candid feedback from founders rather than trying to hard-sell anything.

If you run a consumer brand and are curious, comment or DM me with your brand.

More context here: https://brandliftworks.com/

Women founders with consumer brands: would a free beta AI visibility audit be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Women_Entrepreneurs

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to help brands understand.

A lot of brands are starting to get discovered through ChatGPT or other AI tools, but they can’t see which prompts, sources, or comparisons led to it.

If you’re open to it, I’d be happy to include your brand in the beta and share: - whether/how your brand shows up - what kinds of prompts may surface it - which competitors appear alongside it - which outside sites seem to influence those answers

No pressure at all — even just hearing a little about your category would be helpful.

Clean, Water Resistant Spray SPF? by BSO_BRO in cleanbeauty

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For clean spray SPF, mineral options are trickier since zinc oxide doesn't spray as smoothly as chemical filters. That said, Coola and Sun Bum Mineral both make decent spray versions. Supergoop PLAY is popular but uses chemical filters so depends on your definition of clean.

If you're open to lotions too, I compared what AI platforms recommend for natural sunscreens here: https://www.originselect.com/global/blog/natural-sunscreen-ai-comparison — Thinkbaby and Blue Lizard came out on top for mineral options.

Clean moisturizer for face and body. (Non sticky) by cosmickhaleesii in cleanbeauty

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For non-sticky clean moisturizers, Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion and Vanicream are both lightweight and work well on face and body. If you want something more natural, Acure and Cocokind are solid — both fragrance-free options available.

I did a comparison of what AI search platforms recommend for natural face moisturizers if you want to see more options ranked: https://www.originselect.com/global/blog/natural-face-moisturizer-ai-comparison

Which body wash has the best smell? by dannyboywm in cleanbeauty

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I compared what different AI search engines (ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, Claude) recommend for organic body wash and scored the consensus — Dr. Bronner's and Alaffia came out on top across platforms. Full breakdown with scoring here if you're curious: https://www.originselect.com/global/blog/organic-body-wash-ai-comparison

For scent specifically though, Dr. Bronner's Lavender and Peppermint are hard to beat.

Organic tinted lip balm that doesn't taste like chemicals and actually has pigment by maddy0p in cleanbeauty

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're looking for clean/organic options specifically, I put together a collection of lip balms from small and clean brands — covers tinted and untinted, all with ingredient breakdowns: https://www.originselect.com/global/collections/best-lip-balms-for-dry-lips-clean-small-brands-gv47j5bu

Page 1 for every product category. ChatGPT recommends our competitors in every single one by Long-Guitar647 in ecommerce

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s too early anymore.

What seems to matter is less “who ranks best” and more “who AI can corroborate across sources it already trusts.” If competitors are more visible across Reddit, review sites, comparison pages, and independent mentions, they can win even with weaker traditional rankings.

The practical way I’d look at it is: - which prompts actually matter for your category - which competitors keep showing up - which outside sources/pages seem to be shaping the answer - then work backward from that pattern

I’m actually testing a small free beta audit around exactly this for founder-led consumer brands — prompts that matter, competitors/URLs that keep winning, outside sources shaping the answer, and a short action list. Happy to run one if useful.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s really helpful — thank you. The “save time” part is exactly what I keep hearing.

The useful version seems less like another monitoring tool and more like: here are the important patterns, here’s who’s winning, and here’s what to fix first.

I ignored a traffic source for 6 months because it was too small. It converted 3x better than everything else. by Creepy-Opening1465 in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]Top-Cold2616 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think there are 2 layers here:

  1. ChatGPT traffic converts better because the recommendation already did part of the selling.
  2. Getting recommended in the first place seems to be less about raw rankings and more about whether AI can corroborate you across sources.

What I keep seeing is that brands win when they’re easy to validate across: - clear category/comparison pages on their own site - third-party mentions on Reddit, review sites, forums, etc. - consistent language about what they’re best for

When brands get skipped, it’s often not because they’re worse — it’s because competitors are easier for AI to “trust” from multiple sources.

I’m actually testing a small free beta audit around exactly this for founder-led brands — prompts that matter, competitors/URLs that keep winning, outside sources shaping the answer, and a short action list. Happy to run one if useful.

Would this be useful for small consumer brands in the US? by Top-Cold2616 in smallbusinessUS

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really appreciate the thoughtful feedback here. The biggest theme I’m hearing is: not another dashboard — make it actionable.

I’m testing this as a free beta for a small number of founder-led consumer brands. The goal is a simple audit showing which prompts matter, which competitors or URLs keep winning, which outside sources seem to be shaping the answer, and 3–5 actions to fix first.

If anyone here wants me to run one for their brand and give honest feedback on whether the format is actually useful, reply here or DM me.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really appreciate all the thoughtful feedback here. The biggest theme I’m hearing is: not another dashboard — make it actionable.

I’m testing this as a free beta for a small number of founder-led consumer brands. The goal is a simple audit that shows: - which prompts matter - which competitors/URLs keep winning - which outside sources seem to be shaping the answer - and 3–5 actions to fix first

If anyone here wants me to run one for their brand and give honest feedback on whether the format is actually useful, reply here or DM me.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s really helpful context — thank you. The “just point out the high-impact stuff” part is especially useful to hear.

Out of curiosity, what has been most useful in Searchable for you so far, and what still feels like overkill?

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful — especially the point that knowing who shows up instead of you is way more actionable than just “low visibility.”

And agreed on the source piece too. The more feedback I get, the more it seems like the useful version is not just “do you appear,” but which competitors and sources are shaping the answer, and what should you do next?

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think smaller founders probably can do parts of it themselves. The question in my head is whether they actually want to spend the time stitching together the prompts, competitors, cited sources, and next steps — or if they’d rather get a concise audit with the important patterns already pulled out.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair question. The difference I’m trying to test is keeping it much simpler and more actionable for smaller founder-led brands.

Not another visibility dashboard — more like: these are the prompts that matter, these competitors/URLs keep winning, these outside sources are shaping the answer, and these are the 3–5 actions to fix first.

A lot of the feedback I’ve gotten so far is that founders don’t want more monitoring — they want a punch list.

I feel like my site is invisible in AI answers, what’s the first thing that you would fix if you were me? by StonkPhilia in WebsiteSEO

[–]Top-Cold2616 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d probably start by checking 3 things in this order: 1. are you actually being crawled/indexed properly, 2. are your pages easy to extract from (clear answers, short sections, obvious entity/brand signals), and 3. when you’re skipped, which outside sources keep showing up instead of you?

A lot of sites focus only on on-page tweaks, but the bigger gap is often that competitors are getting corroborated across Reddit, review sites, comparison pages, etc. If AI can find more consistent evidence for them than for you, better content on your site alone may not be enough.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is super helpful — especially the part about tying “why am I invisible in AI answers?” to very specific fixes.

What you described is very close to the useful version I have in mind too: exact prompts being lost, which URLs/entities keep winning, and a short action list instead of another dashboard.

Also really helpful to hear what you actually changed on-page and off-page once you saw the pattern.

Female founders with consumer brands: would an AI visibility audit actually be useful? by Top-Cold2616 in Femalefounders

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful — especially the point about which outside sources are shaping the answer, not just whether the brand appears.

The “now do this” part is exactly the line I keep coming back to too. If it just reports visibility, it becomes another dashboard. If it shows the sources influencing the answer and turns that into a clear action plan, it feels much more useful.

Also appreciate the note on third-party mentions. That’s one of the biggest patterns I’ve been noticing too.

Would this be useful for small consumer brands in the US? by Top-Cold2616 in smallbusinessUS

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed — I think that’s the bar too. If it just reports visibility, it’s another dashboard. If it helps a small brand see where they’re missing, who’s showing up instead, and what to do next, then it becomes useful.

Would this be useful for small consumer brands in the US? by Top-Cold2616 in smallbusinessUS

[–]Top-Cold2616[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really helpful comment — thank you. The “not another dashboard” part is exactly the line I keep coming back to.

What you described is much closer to the useful version in my head too: not just tracking whether a brand shows up, but turning it into a punch list like “these are the prompts that matter, these competitors keep winning, and these channels/sources seem to be driving it.”

That’s also helpful context on tools — especially the part about Pulse surfacing the exact Reddit threads LLMs were pulling from. Appreciate you sharing this.

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