Site selectors are now starting their research in ChatGPT and Perplexity, not Google. Here's how to make sure your community gets cited.
When a corporate site consultant is screening 25 communities for a 200-job advanced manufacturing project, they don't open 25 tabs anymore. They open one — and they ask Perplexity or ChatGPT to do the first pass for them. If your community isn't structured to be cited by those systems, you're not on the shortlist.
What changed in AI search
Large language models cite sources differently than Google ranks them. They prefer entity-rich, well-structured content with clear authorship, current data, and unambiguous facts. They penalize PDFs, slow pages, and pages without schema. Most EDO websites built before 2024 lose on every single one of those criteria.
The four pillars of AI search visibility for EDOs
First, entity consolidation. Your EDO's Organization schema must be present on every page, with a single canonical URL, a complete sameAs array linking to your LinkedIn, GBP, and primary social, and a consistent name across every directory.
Second, structured facts. Labor shed numbers, available sites, incentive values, and demographic snapshots must be presented as clean HTML — not as a PDF download. LLMs cannot reliably extract from PDFs, and they will skip your page in favor of a competitor who put the same data in a table.
Third, an llms.txt file. A simple text file at the root of your domain that lists your most important URLs and a one-line description of each. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other systems are beginning to honor it.
Fourth, citations. LLMs cite sources that other authoritative sites already cite. Press placements in Site Selection Magazine, Area Development, and your state's business journal create the citation graph that gets you into AI answers.
What to do this quarter
Audit your current Organization schema. Replace every site-selector-relevant PDF with an HTML equivalent. Publish an llms.txt file. Pitch one trade press placement per month. That's a 90-day plan that meaningfully moves your visibility in AI search.
What to measure
Track citations directly. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity questions a site consultant would ask about your industry and your region, and log whether your community is mentioned. Repeat monthly. The metric is binary — cited or not — and it's the only one that matters for AI search visibility right now.