Why ChatGPT Recommends Your Competitor (And Not You) | Chandan Sharma

Your Google rankings are stable, but your traffic is down 20-25% and leads are flat. What's going on? 🤔 In this episode of the Goodfirms Podcast: Conversations that Matter, we sit down with Chandan Sharma, Founder of DoodleWeb and creator of SiteSonar, to unpack why ranking on Google no longer guarantees you show up in answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini. Chandan reveals what happened when his team audited 150+ accredited university sites for AI readiness (only about 1% passed), how a CDN setting can silently block AI crawlers even when your robots.txt says yes, and why the click is no longer the metric that matters. If you run an agency, lead marketing, or own a website, this one will change how you think about visibility. Find more on Goodfirms: https://www.goodfirms.co Key Highlights & Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro: Goodfirms Podcast - Conversations that Matter 00:49 – Meet Chandan Sharma: DoodleWeb, SiteSonar and the AI visibility problem 01:46 – The #1 misconception: "If I rank on Google, I'm fine for AI" 05:03 – We checked 150+ university sites: why only 1% were AI-ready 07:49 – No clicks, no problem? How to track ROI when AI answers the question 09:27 – Persuasive copy for humans vs extractable answers for AI 11:08 – Day-one checklist: crawlers, CDN blocks, entity consistency and llms.txt 13:04 – How to measure if ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini mention your brand 14:44 – Schema vs content: what actually gets you cited 23:28 – Why AI can make developers worse (and how to spot it) 26:32 – Bold prediction: AI visibility becomes its own budget line 27:30 – Goodfirms Rapid Fire Round: AEO vs SEO, schema and the future of homepages Connect with Chandan: LinkedIn:   / chandansharma16   DoodleWeb: https://book.doodleweb.io SiteSonar: https://sitesonar.ai About Goodfirms: Goodfirms is a leading B2B research, ratings, and reviews platform that serves as a bridge between service seekers and high-performing software and service providers. With a database of over 60,000+ reviews and thousands of verified companies, Goodfirms helps business leaders make informed, data-driven decisions in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Goodfirms Podcast: Conversations that Matter is our flagship series where we sit down with industry pioneers, CEOs, and technical experts to deconstruct the challenges of modern business. We move past the buzzwords to find actionable strategies that drive real growth. Explore our channels and find your next partner at Goodfirms: Website - https://www.goodfirms.co LinkedIn -   / goodfirms   X - https://x.com/Goodfirms Instagram -   / goodfirms_   #Goodfirms #GoodfirmsPodcast #AIVisibility #AEO #GEO #AISearch #SEO #ChatGPT #GenerativeEngineOptimization #WebDevelopment #DigitalMarketing #SiteSonar #DoodleWeb