SEO Marketing vs LLM Marketing: Where Should Your Budget Go?

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If you're planning next quarter's marketing budget, there's a good chance you're stuck on a question that didn't exist two years ago. Do we keep putting money into SEO, or do we start paying to get our brand into ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews?

I get asked this on almost every sales call at Sublime Plus. The honest answer depends on where you are right now. But figuring that out isn't complicated.

A quick refresher

SEO marketing gets your own pages ranking on Google so people click through to your site. LLM marketing gets your brand mentioned and recommended inside AI answers. The first is mostly about your website. The second is mostly about what the rest of the web says about you.

For the full breakdown, read what is LLM marketing.

If your SEO basics aren't in place

If your site is slow, Google struggles to crawl it, your pages don't clearly say what you do, or you have no content answering customer questions, start there.

These basics help both channels. AI Overviews pull from Google's index, and AI tools that browse the web need a clear site to understand you. Paying for LLM marketing while your own website is confusing means AI tools have nothing solid to point people to.

If your SEO is decent but AI tools ignore you

This is the situation we see most. The website ranks okay and organic traffic is steady, but when you ask ChatGPT for the best options in your category, you're nowhere.

Here, moving part of your budget toward LLM marketing makes sense. More blog posts on your own site won't fix this alone. What you need is presence where AI tools look: Reddit discussions, review platforms, comparison content and community conversations.

If you're a local business

For local businesses, the biggest wins usually come from your Google Business Profile, a steady flow of genuine reviews and being mentioned in local conversations. That work helps you on Google Maps and in what AI tools say when someone asks for a recommendation nearby. Classic content SEO matters less for you than for a national brand.

If you sell B2B with a long sales cycle

B2B buyers research quietly for weeks, and more of that research now happens in AI chats and on Reddit. If your buyers are the type to ask ChatGPT "what's the best tool for this," LLM marketing deserves a serious share of your budget, often more than you'd expect.

Signs you've leaned too far one way

You might be leaning too hard on SEO if traffic grows but sales don't, or if competitors with weaker websites keep getting recommended by AI tools.

You might be leaning too hard on LLM marketing if your own website is thin, outdated or unclear. AI tools need a clear source of truth to point people to.

Measure both, separately

Track SEO with Google Search Console and your analytics. Track LLM marketing by regularly asking AI tools your buyers' questions and recording who gets mentioned. How to check if ChatGPT mentions your brand shows you how.

And ask every new lead how they found you. "ChatGPT recommended you" is becoming a real answer.

Where Sublime fits

Sublime is built for brands with a working website that stay invisible in AI answers, and for B2B companies whose buyers research in AI chats. The Sublime marketing team focuses on organic Reddit content and LLM marketing that works alongside your existing SEO, not against it. Sublime+ works alongside what you already have, so you don't have to pick one channel and abandon the other. Talk to Sublime Plus Marketing at sublime-plus.com.