1. AI Revolution Impact on Search and Marketing
- AI is transforming how people search for answers, products, and ideas.
- ChatGPT is gaining massive traction, accounting for about 6% of Google’s traffic, with 5 billion visits monthly.
- Google’s search market share has dropped below 90%, notably to 79% on desktop.
- Google is responding by introducing AI overviews (AI-generated answers), which push down traditional search results and reduce click-through rates.
- AI overviews appear in 15-25% of product-related searches, and Google plans to integrate ads within these AI-generated answers.

2. Introduction to GAIO (Generative AI Optimization)
- GAIO is like SEO but focused on optimizing for AI models rather than traditional search engines.
- The goal is to increase visibility and recommendations within AI tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Perplexity.
- Most AI-generated recommendations do not include links, making tracking via traditional analytics tools difficult.

3. Best Practices for GAIO
- Open your website to AI crawlers using updated robots.txt and the new LMS (Language Model Site) sitemap standard to help AI models consume your content better.
- Increase your company mentions across the web (akin to backlinks in SEO) to boost exposure in AI model recommendations.
- Focus on communities and platforms that heavily contribute to AI training data, such as Reddit and YouTube, by engaging actively and generating relevant content.
- Collaborate with authoritative sources in your industry to increase mentions and influence AI recommendations.
- Use open databases like Wikidata to provide easy-to-access company information.
- Create custom GPTs by uploading company-specific content and FAQs to optimize ChatGPT’s understanding and recommendations about your brand.
- Embed AI-powered chatbots trained on your content to enhance customer interaction and increase visibility via conversations.

4. Tools for Tracking GAIO Performance
- Traditional analytics (Google Analytics, etc.) can only track a minority of AI referrals since most AI recommendations lack clickable links.
- Use emerging GAIO tools that track key prompts (common questions users ask AI models) and your company’s positioning for these prompts.
- Examples of tools:
- Profound (San Francisco-based)
- SEMrush AI Toolkit
- Brand24’s own tool (Convenient) for tracking prompt rankings and correlating AI exposure with website traffic
- These tools allow monitoring of AI model visibility, prompt ranking, and potential to capture traffic from generative AI sources.

5. Actionable Items / Tasks
- Update your website’s robots.txt and implement LMS sitemaps to facilitate AI crawling.
- Develop a strategy to increase authentic mentions of your company online, especially in key platforms like Reddit and YouTube.
- Identify and engage with authoritative industry publications and platforms to boost AI visibility.
- Add and maintain your company data on open platforms such as Wikidata.
- Create and deploy custom GPT models embedding your company’s knowledge base and FAQs for customer support.
- Implement AI chatbots on your website to improve interactive customer service.
- Begin using GAIO tracking tools to monitor your company’s AI-related search performance and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Track relevant prompts for your industry and optimize your content to rank higher in AI model recommendations.