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Our Niche SEO Content Strategy Earned Us Top LLM Visibility as a Firearms Industry Agency
Marketing to AI: The New Visibility Challenge
As AI answer engines take a larger role in influencing buying decisions, being visible in those platforms has become a new frontier in search. But here’s the problem: there’s no proven roadmap. The practice of GEO or AEO (whatever you want to call it) is entirely new, so we need to test and learn what works.
At Uproer, we decided to experiment. With deep experience in the firearms space, we used our own agency as a test case to answer a big question:
Can we get our agency recommended by ChatGPT and other LLMs for a competitive, regulated niche?
We focused on a very specific niche—firearms SEO—where we previously had zero visibility in LLMs. The result?
Uproer is now a top-3 recommended firearms SEO agency in both ChatGPT and Perplexity.
And that visibility is driving real business for us. Since launching our effort in February 2025, we've earned 655 Google organic clicks, 56,662 impressions, and 7 inbound leads from firearms companies. One of those prospects explicitly mentioned finding us through ChatGPT.
The Visibility Problem in AI-Powered Search
The new frontier of AI answer engines is putting pressure on marketers to crack the code for their companies. That’s especially true when:
- Your competitors are getting surfaced by ChatGPT and Perplexity—and you’re not
- You rank in Google but still don’t show up in AI recommendations
- You’re unsure how to tailor your SEO strategy for answer engines powered by large language models (LLMs)
With no established playbook to follow, we turned to what we know best: content-driven SEO. Here's how we earned visibility in LLMs for the prompt, "Can you recommend an SEO agency that specializes in the firearms industry?"
1. Start With a Niche (and Stick to It)
When it comes to LLM visibility, we learned that specificity wins. Rather than trying to get recommended for general SEO agency queries, we focused our efforts on a niche we know extremely well: SEO for firearms companies.
Why? Because we believed that owning a niche through both topical depth and domain relevance would increase our chances of being picked up by AI answer engines, like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Our goal wasn’t just to rank organically; it was to be recommended by AI.
2. Build the Foundation: A Dedicated Industry Page
Next, we created a Firearms SEO service page on our site. This wasn’t a general overview. Rather, it was a focused, keyword-targeted page that made a strong case for why Uproer is uniquely positioned to help firearms companies grow through SEO.
The page served three strategic goals:
- Relevance: Establish topical authority for firearms SEO
- Clarity: Make it easy for both users and AI to understand our niche expertise
- Indexability: Give Google and other AI systems a clear signals to associate us with the topic
3. Add Depth: Targeted Blog Content & Case Studies
To reinforce our authority and expand topical coverage, we published:
- Three blog articles on firearms-specific SEO challenges and tactics
- Two case studies highlighting successful engagements with firearms brands
This cluster of content, connected using strategically placed internal links, sent a clear signal to both Google and LLMs: Uproer is an authority in providing firearms companies with SEO services.
We optimized this content the same way we would for any high-impact SEO campaign:
- Reciprocal internal linking
- Relevant schema markup
- Keyword-rich headings and well-structured content
4. Monitor & Measure AI Visibility
With content published and indexed, we began monitoring results using a single, straightforward prompt:
“Can you recommend an SEO agency that specializes in the firearms industry?”
Within weeks, we earned valuable keyword rankings in Google's organic search results - including visibility in the AI overview for "firearms seo agency".
Shortly after that, Uproer began appearing in the top 3 recommended agencies in both ChatGPT and Perplexity.
That visibility translated to real performance:
- 655 clicks and 56,662 impressions from Google organic search since publishing the content
- 7 inbound leads from firearms companies
- 1 lead who mentioned ChatGPT directly in their outreach
Interestingly, Gemini still doesn’t recommend us unless the prompt specifies we’re in Minnesota. This suggests that Gemini’s algorithm may rely less on Google’s organic rankings than ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Lessons Learned & What’s Next
The biggest takeaway? SEO best practices still matter—even in the age of AI.
By creating highly relevant, niche-focused content, we earned LLM visibility without chasing speculative tactics. This case study suggests that:
- LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity do reference Google’s organic rankings to some extent
- Topical authority in a niche can drive both AI visibility and traditional SEO results
- LLM visibility may follow from the same strategic content investments you’re already making
We’re now replicating this playbook across other niche industries to validate and scale what we’ve learned.
Want to Earn Visibility in AI Answer Engines?
If you're a firearms brand—or any niche industry—struggling to break through the noise, you’re not alone.
Want to learn more about how we use content and SEO to earn LLM visibility? Book an intro with Uproer today.
