Finding the right prompts

Written By Rankshift

What makes a good prompt?

Good prompts help bring up your brand and your competitors in AI-generated lists. They should sound like real questions people ask about your industry. Qualities of a good prompt:

Sounds natural

Matches how real customers ask questions
Uses everyday language your audience would use
Reflects real decisions people make when choosing products or services

Right level of detail

Broad enough that several brands could show up in the answer
Specific enough to still be clearly about your business
Should consistently give 5–10 useful results

Fits your industry

Matches your market and business category
Touches on different sides of your business (like features, audiences, or use cases)
Reflects how customers look for and compare options

💡 Don't worry about exact phrasing: AI models are great at understanding intent, so focus on the underlying question rather than getting every word exactly right.

What kind of prompts should you track?

To effectively monitor prompts for your business, here’s the breakdown of what kind of prompts you should track:

1. Prompt-triggered visibility

Track which prompts lead to your brand being:

Mentioned
Cited
Ignored

This tells you which user intents and queries surface your brand and how. It's essential for uncovering gaps in your content and opportunities for strategic positioning.

2. High-Intent commercial & navigational prompts

Prioritize prompts that mirror how users shop, compare, or ask about your space:

“Best [product/service] for [use case or budget]”
“Which [tool/software] is good for [industry]?”
“Top-rated [category] brands in 2025”

These are your conversion triggers.

3. Competitor-adjacent prompts

Include prompts where your competitors are often cited:

“[Competitor] vs [Your Brand]”
“Alternatives to [Competitor]”
“Is [Competitor] still the best in 2025?”

This helps in benchmarking and SOV (Share of Voice) comparison.

4. Informational prompts (Top-Funnel)

Capture early research questions:

“How to choose a [product]?”
“What is the best strategy for [industry pain point]?”
“Explain [concept] like I’m 5”

This expands your brand authority footprint and nudges users into your funnel.

💡 Informational prompts don’t often trigger brand mentions directly. But they’re incredibly valuable for monitoring which sources and domains are being cited or referenced in AI-generated answers.

5. Branded Prompts

Track questions that mention your brand directly:

“Is [Brand] legit?”
“How does [Brand] compare to [Competitor]?”
“What’s the pricing for [Brand]?”

These indicate user interest and trust-building moments.

💡 Sentiment tracking here gives you a real-time pulse on brand perception. Are you seen as the best option, a secondary pick, or a cautionary tale?

Negative or neutral mentions? That’s your cue to launch a PR campaign. Positive ones? Amplify them through quotes, testimonials, and link-building.

Where to find the right prompts?

❶ Google Search Console

→ Find questions in existing queries

Extract long-tail queries already driving impressions or clicks to your site - especially those starting with:

“how to…”
“what is…”
“best [X] for…”
“can you…”

Step-by-step process:

Open Google Search Console
Go to Performance > Search Results
Click Add Filter > Query
Select Regex and paste one of these:

^(who|what|where|when|why|how|was|did|do|is|are|aren't|won't|does|if)[" "]

💡 Now you’re looking at real informational searches where your site shows up on Google. These are your top-of-funnel ChatGPT prompt starters.

→ Find long-tail queries

Use Search Console to find search queries with 10 or more words. These are often detailed, conversational questions your content already ranks for.

Step-by-step process:

Open Google Search Console
Go to Performance > Search Results
Click Add Filter > Query
Select Regex and paste this in:

([^" "]*\s){10,}?

Make a separate page for each query you find. Right at the top of the page, show how your product directly solves the question, so that citations become mentions.

❷ “People Also Ask” (SERP-based prompt discovery)

→ PAA questions are extremely interesting and useful for prompt discovery and AI optimization.

Use tools like:

Google (perform a search and check the PAA questions)
AlsoAsked
SEO Minion (for scraping PAA)
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool (with “questions” filter)

💡 PAA questions show real, semantically connected queries people are making. These often map well to how users phrase prompts in ChatGPT or Perplexity.

❸ Rankshift’s prompt suggestions

Rankshift includes a built-in prompt suggestion module that surfaces commonly asked LLM queries by topic, brand, or industry. You’ll often see:

Branded vs non-branded prompts
Comparison prompts
Feature-based prompts

❹ Reddit and other forums

→ Real questions = Real prompts

Reddit and other UGC (User Generated Content) platforms are a prime source for prompt discovery in the GEO/LLM visibility playbook.

The questions people ask in posts about buying decisions, product comparisons, or complaints are the same kinds of questions they later type into tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. These posts show exactly what real buyers are thinking and asking.

Prompts like:

“Is [X] better than [Y]?”
“What’s the best [tool] for [use case]?”
“Why is everyone switching from [X]?”

❺ Customer feedback, forms, and complaints

→ The best prompts often come straight from your own customers.

Every contact form, support ticket, or complaint email is a goldmine of raw phrasing. These are real questions and concerns expressed in the exact language your audience uses. By analyzing these inputs, you can spot recurring themes that can be turned into prompts:

“Does your product work with [specific tool]?”
“Why is [feature] missing compared to [competitor]?”
“How do I fix [common pain point] with your service?”