The simplest way to increase your visibility in ChatGPT is to add the current year to your page titles. Large language models append the year to their search queries to find recent content. By including “2025” in your H1 and meta title, you directly match these AI queries and signal freshness. Your title is the most important ranking factor for both traditional search engines and large language models, and this one adjustment can significantly improve your chances of being cited.
Why Page Titles Matter for AI Search
Your page title is the most important factor in SEO, and it’s no different with large language models.
When I say title, I mean both the meta title and the H1 (the visible heading on your page). Large language models use a heading hierarchy like a table of contents to understand your content. A clear H1 with your primary keywords signals your page’s topic immediately.
For you to be recommended by ChatGPT or Google’s AI mode, your title needs to match their search queries as closely as possible.
How Large Language Models Search Differently Than Humans
Large language models don’t search the same way humans do.
There’s a ton of data around the terms humans use in search engines. But there’s very little data around the terms large language models use. Because LLMs use different search patterns, there are new search terms being queried more often with very little competition.
Research shows ChatGPT’s search queries average 5.5 words – about 60% longer than typical Google queries. These read like conversational briefs rather than short keywords. They often include extra qualifiers like “reviews,” “comparison,” and the current year.
Right now, we’re just beginning to understand these patterns. But I want to share one specific example that’s stupid simple to implement.
The Simple Fix: Add the Year to Your Titles
Large language models are much more likely to append the year to the end of their search queries.
If you ask ChatGPT for any kind of data or recommendation, it’ll almost always put a year at the end of the query. “2025” is one of the most common modifiers in ChatGPT searches, showing a built-in recency bias.
For example, if you’re in Jacksonville, Florida, and you ask how much lawn care costs, ChatGPT will search something like “cost of lawn care in Jacksonville, Florida 2025”.
So if you want ChatGPT to find and recommend your business, you should have a blog post called “Cost of Lawn Care in Jacksonville, Florida 2025”. Then make sure you specify the cost and recommend your business in that article.
Any SEO can tell you this isn’t a new tactic. Including the year has always been good for click-through rate. It’s just much more effective in large language models.
We’ve started adding the year to posts we typically wouldn’t add years to. The results have been good.
How to Format Local Service Titles
Local pages should combine the service, location, and current year explicitly. Experts recommend titles like “Service in City – [Benefit]” under 60 characters.
For example, a plumbing company might use:
- Title: “Plumbing Services in Denver – 24/7 Emergency Support (2025)”
- H1: “Denver Plumbing Services – Fast, Emergency Repair in 2025”
This format mirrors how people and AI query. The year, combined with location and service, helps your listing stand out in AI answers and improves user trust.
Updating the Year Each Year
At the end of 2025, you’ll want to update your titles to 2026.
It’s tempting to just do a find-and-replace for all instances of “2025” with “2026”. For lower priority posts, that’s probably sufficient.
But here’s the thing: both Google and large language models reward fresh content. You don’t have to change much before search agents consider the content fresh.
For high-potential posts, I recommend updating a few data points or just one paragraph at the same time you update the year.
Fresh Content: What Actually Counts as an Update
Simply swapping the year without substantive changes isn’t enough. Google explicitly warns against republishing to a new date to fake relevancy. Updates must add value.
Effective updates can be minimal but meaningful:
- Update data points with current statistics
- Add one new paragraph with recent examples
- Refresh images if relevant
- Bump the published date
SEO research shows genuinely refreshed posts earn higher trust and click-through rates. The key is concrete new details plus the year in your title to trigger freshness signals.
A find-and-replace year job might be a quick trick, but it won’t fool AI or Google into boosting your page. Meaningful edits (20-30% new content) paired with a clear updated date work better.
What This Means for Your Business
Right now, most things that help you show up in large language models are the same tactics that work for traditional search engines. Adding the year is one of those tactics that works for both, but it’s especially effective for AI search.
As more people use ChatGPT and Google’s AI mode for recommendations, visibility in these platforms becomes more valuable. Large language models convert users to customers at about 8 times the rate of traditional search engines.
The competition for AI-optimized content is still relatively low. There’s a huge opportunity right now to increase your visibility while others are still figuring this out.
Ready to Optimize Your Content for AI Search?
At TJ Digital, we help businesses show up in AI algorithms – whether that’s ChatGPT, Google’s AI mode, or other platforms. We stay ahead of these trends so our clients can benefit before the competition catches on.
If you want help optimizing your website for AI search, schedule a free digital marketing audit. We’ll review your website and show you exactly what would be most effective at getting you more customers through AI-powered platforms.