When a company asks ChatGPT to recommend a recruitment agency in your region, does your name come up? For most agencies, the answer is no. You're invisible - and that invisibility is costing you clients.

This isn't a future problem. It's happening now. Recent studies show ChatGPT handles 2.5 billion prompts daily, with roughly 30% related to professional decisions - including which recruitment agency to hire. Yet most agencies haven't adapted their digital presence for this new reality. That gap represents both a threat and an enormous opportunity for those who act quickly.

In a recent webinar hosted by Talent Business Partners, two senior SEO specialists - Raf Polus, who spent nine years leading global SEO at Stepstone, and Mathias Noyez, founder of Rankshift - revealed exactly what's happening and what recruitment agencies need to do about it.

Quick Wins: 5 Actions to Get Your Recruitment Agency Found by AI Search This Week

Companies and candidates are already using AI to find recruitment agencies. The question isn't whether this shift will continue - it's whether your agency will be found when it matters most.

Start this week with these five actions:

Ask new clients how they found you - include "AI tool like ChatGPT" as an option
Add an FAQ section to your website answering the top five questions about your services
Claim your profile on Talent Business Partners and request reviews from satisfied clients
Check whether your website is blocking AI crawlers (ask your web developer about Cloudflare settings)
Test your own visibility - search for your agency in ChatGPT and Perplexity using queries your clients would use

How ChatGPT and AI Search Engines Choose Which Recruitment Agencies to Recommend

Here's what happens when someone asks ChatGPT for a recruitment agency recommendation. Unlike Google, which returns a list of links, AI tools generate conversational answers with specific recommendations. The AI searches multiple sources in real time, synthesises the information, and names agencies it considers trustworthy.

The critical insight? AI doesn't just look at your website. It scans third-party platforms - review sites, industry forums, Reddit discussions, news articles - to see what others say about you. If your agency isn't mentioned on these platforms with positive context, AI simply doesn't know you exist.

A live demonstration during the webinar illustrated this perfectly. When searching for "best sales recruitment agency in Ghent with reviews," ChatGPT cited a mix of agency websites and third-party sources including Talent Business Partners and Reddit threads. Agencies not present in those conversations didn't appear in the answer - regardless of how good their traditional SEO might be.

Perhaps most striking was an example outside recruitment: when asked about buying an HP laptop, ChatGPT surfaced both product information and a highly-upvoted Reddit thread warning against HP purchases. The lesson? Sentiment matters as much as visibility. Being mentioned negatively can be worse than not being mentioned at all.

Why Recruitment Agencies Struggle with AI Search Visibility (B2B vs B2C Challenge)

Recruitment agencies face a unique challenge in the AI search landscape: you're competing on two fronts simultaneously. On the B2B side, companies use AI to research and compare agencies when selecting partners. On the B2C side, candidates use AI to find opportunities and research workplace reputations.

Most agencies have historically focused their digital efforts on B2C - getting job listings visible on job boards. But the B2B content strategy - answering the questions companies ask when evaluating agencies - has been largely neglected. This gap leaves agencies invisible precisely when decision-makers are researching options.

The good news? Data from Rankshift shows that smaller, specialist agencies can actually compete more effectively than large generalists in AI search. Niche specialists appear 2.5 times more often than generalists when people ask specific questions. If you specialise in finance recruitment in West Flanders, you can own that niche in AI search much faster than a large agency trying to be everything to everyone.

What Are SEO, GEO, and AEO? Understanding AI Search Optimization for Recruiters

Three acronyms matter now.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

focuses on ranking in traditional search engines like Google.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)

ensures AI tools can crawl your website, understand your content, and include your brand in generated answers.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)

positions your brand as the preferred answer - not just mentioned, but actively recommended.

The crucial question isn't whether Google or ChatGPT is bigger - Google still dominates with 14 billion daily searches versus ChatGPT's 2.5 billion prompts. The question is: is your audience shifting behaviour?

And increasingly, the answer is yes, especially among younger professionals who use AI tools daily for research and decision-making.

Creating AI-Friendly Content: Questions Companies and Candidates Actually Ask

Most recruitment agencies create content about themselves - their history, their awards, their process. But AI engines cite content that solves real problems and answers genuine questions.

For companies evaluating agencies, create content like:

What should I ask a recruitment agency before signing a contract?
How much does IT recruitment actually cost in Belgium?
What's the difference between contingent and retained recruitment?

For candidates researching opportunities, provide answers to:

What salary should I expect as a senior accountant in Ghent?
How do I negotiate a better contractor rate?
Which recruitment agencies respond within 24 hours?

Format matters enormously. Agencies using FAQs with concise answers, step-by-step guides, comparison articles, and data-driven insights get cited three times more often than those with generic marketing pages, according to Rankshift data.

The easiest way to identify what content to create? Ask your sales team what questions clients ask most often. Survey your recruiters about candidate concerns. Ask existing clients how they found you. This free market research can inform your entire content strategy.

One technical enhancement can make an immediate difference: schema markup. This is code that helps AI engines understand your content structure. For recruitment agencies, use JobPosting schema for listings, and Organization schema for company profiles. Your web developer can implement this in an afternoon.

Third-Party Citations: How Reviews and Mentions Boost AI Search Rankings

Raf Polus explained third-party citations using a simple analogy. Imagine asking friends whether to buy a laptop. You'd trust someone who actually bought one over vague second-hand reports, and you'd especially trust an IT specialist's opinion. AI engines work the same way - they trust user-generated content and expert sources over brand self-promotion.

Agencies with strong third-party presence appear in AI answers at four to five times the rate of those relying only on their own content.

Take G2, the business software review site. When your brand appears on G2 with genuine reviews, you benefit twice: potential clients can read detailed reviews, and your brand becomes more likely to appear in AI-generated recommendations because G2 is a source AI tools frequently cite.

A Belgian example illustrates this perfectly. Housematch, a real estate platform, dominates AI search results for property-related queries because it's mentioned everywhere - in local news articles, on agent websites, in consumer discussions. They didn't manipulate the system; they simply became the platform everyone references.

For recruitment agencies specifically, this means:

Claiming and optimising profiles on Google, LinkedIn, and industry directories
Getting verified on sector-specific platforms like Talent Business Partners
Actively encouraging satisfied clients to leave reviews
Participating genuinely in industry discussions on LinkedIn groups and relevant forums
Earning mentions in local business news and industry blogs

A word of caution: whilst Reddit threads currently influence AI recommendations, spamming platforms will backfire. Focus on genuine, long-term engagement rather than quick wins.

AI Search Metrics and KPIs: Tracking Your Recruitment Agency's Visibility

Traditional metrics - organic traffic, keyword rankings, conversion rates - remain useful but incomplete. New KPIs for AI visibility include:

Brand visibility rate: The percentage of relevant AI-generated answers where your agency appears. Tools like Rankshift can track this across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Citation frequency: How often you're mentioned compared to competitors - your share of voice in AI conversations.
Source analysis: Which platforms AI tools pull from when generating answers about your niche. If Clutch and Talent Business Partners are frequently cited but you're not present on those platforms, you know where to focus.
Sentiment analysis: Whether mentions of your brand are positive, neutral, or negative.

A live demonstration of Rankshift during the webinar showed one agency with a 21% visibility rate - appearing in roughly one in five relevant AI-generated answers. For agencies just starting, that number is often zero.

One technical note: check whether your website is blocking AI crawlers. Sites hosted on Cloudflare may have AI search bots blocked by default. This single issue can make you invisible regardless of content quality.

The First-Mover Advantage: Why Recruitment Agencies Must Optimize for AI Search Now

This is a frontrunner moment. Most European recruitment agencies aren't yet optimising for AI search. Those who experiment now - testing content, building citations, tracking visibility - can own this space before competitors understand what's happening.

The timeline is encouraging. Whilst traditional SEO takes three to six months for meaningful results, agencies can appear in AI citations within three to four weeks of creating quality content and building third-party presence.

You don't need to abandon your existing strategy. Good SEO foundations - technical hygiene, quality content, strong brand positioning - provide a solid base. The key is building on those foundations with AI-specific tactics.

Perhaps most importantly, this isn't just about traffic volume. Data suggests conversion rates from AI search, particularly on the B2B side, are surprisingly strong. People use AI tools not just to search but to research and compare options deeply. When your agency appears in those research sessions, you're reaching highly qualified prospects.

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