Why domain strategy matters in the age of AI

A client asked me a very interesting question related to AI: Should an organization’s media site be hosted under its own domain, or even as a completely separate site that would function as a neutral information producer, if the goal is to gain visibility in large language models’ (LLMs) responses? 

I dug into the topic and ended up reflecting on the differences between traditional search engine optimization and optimization for AI, as well as on how to measure LLM visibility. In addition to visibility, the question also involves aspects related to brand building and available resources – an excellent question indeed!

How to maximize visibility for your online media content 

If you’re currently building a media site or knowledge hub for your organization, you need to consider not only traditional search engine optimization but also the discoverability of your content in large language models.  

One of the main questions at this point is: How can you stand out from the ever-growing mass of online content and become a trusted source of information? 

LLMs are changing how people find and trust information: they don’t rely solely on page indexing and keywords but utilize broad models, contextual knowledge, and signals related to source credibility. 

That’s why the question of whether your new content site should be located at company.com/media, media.company.com, or even myownmedia.com is not merely a technical detail. This decision affects how both people and large language models perceive your brand. 

From website to broader online visibility 

The difference between traditional SEO and LLM optimization (or GEO – Generative Engine Optimization) can be summarized as a question of information discoverability. SEO aims for clicks, while GEO aims for citations, and from the perspective of a content-optimizing company, preferably with a brand mention attached. 

Of course, both are about creating and optimizing your content to make it discoverable, but in LLM optimization, the importance of context (topic, author, organization) and information credibility is emphasized. 

Improving the credibility of content is, in itself, a fascinating question. At present, we know that brand visibility on the web – beyond your own site – is extremely important in the age of AI. In addition to your website, LLMs gather information from your social media channels, directories, media outlets, and other forums where people talk about your brand. 

And so, when someone asks an AI, “How to create a story for a B2B brand?”, the system does not list search results like Google, it looks for credible sources, reads their content, and builds an answer based on them. For this reason, for example, list-style articles easily appear in AI-generated answers. 

The key here is credibility (in addition to technically optimizable factors (such as clear content structure and schema markup, including FAQPage, HowTo, and Organization and Person types). 

In short, the domain your content lives on is one of the strongest credibility signals. LLMs do not evaluate domain-level authority in the same way search engines do, but they take into account the credibility and context of the source – that is, where the information originates and how it connects to other reliable sources. 

Why company.com/media is usually the better option 

Publishing under your main domain, for example company.com/media, can, according to SEO best practices, leverage the main domain’s existing authority and help content get indexed faster than on a separate subdomain. 

This can also support better visibility in search engines – and logically, at the same time, improve the likelihood of being recognized as a reliable source when AI or LLM systems form their source networks. 

Thus, faster visibility is likely both in Google search results and in large language model responses. 

As an additional benefit, if an AI refers to your content, it will do so correctly when the content “lives” under your main domain. If the answer cites a source, it will read “According to Company…” instead of “According to media.company.com.” 

Mentions and citations – the new visibility metric 

Now, like everything else you do, GEO only makes sense if you can measure it.  

Visibility or lack thereof in LLMs can be measured with tools such as Peec.ai that track, for example: 

• Brand mentions in LLM responses 

• Content citations, meaning the use of your content as background material for an answer, even if your brand name is not explicitly mentioned 

If you are quoted but not mentioned, your content is useful, but your brand does not yet have sufficient credibility for the LLM. If you are mentioned but not quoted, the AI recognizes your brand but does not consider your site a reliable source. 

The ideal situation, of course, is both: you are mentioned and quoted. The domain decision directly affects this. When media content is hosted under the main domain, the AI can more easily link your name and site content into a single entity. 

When a subdomain or separate domain may be the better choice 

It’s never fully black or white. Sometimes, media.company.com or a completely separate domain is justified.  

If the publication clearly functions as a separate brand, separating it from the main domain gives more freedom for visual identity and tone of voice. The publication can appear as an entity distinct from the company, which may be desirable, for example, for research published by the organization. 

However, this freedom often comes at a cost. A subdomain needs its own (quality) content, authority, and visibility built separately from the main domain, which will likely require more time and effort than placing the content in the most logical place, i.e., company.com/media. 

Of course, Generative SEO will evolve with time and how we users interact with it. And so, what we see as best practices today may be subject to change in the near future. However, for now, the classic SEO rules seem to apply to GEO. 

In any case, keep asking great questions related to AI and marketing!