Challenge
An AI product delivered as B2B SaaS. Its audience already looks for solutions not only on Google but directly in AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude, so visibility is needed in both places.
What made it hard
- A new product category. There are few non-branded queries, and the market is taking shape right now. The goal was to become the source AI systems cite when they explain the problems the product solves.
- Half the site was invisible. At the start, only 37% of pages were in Google's index: 136 out of 366.
- A technical trap in the CMS. The audit showed that the "tutorials" content type was created with noindex by default. 26 pages, about 18,000 words of useful content, were hidden from search. The team was writing guides, but Google simply could not see them.
- A priority market. Growth had to happen in the market that matters most to the business, not just in general English-language traffic.
The first month of the retainer (09/05-10/05/2026) had to show whether we could quickly unlock access to existing content and get the brand into AI answers.
What we did
Technical audit and indexing
We started with a full audit. The main finding: a CMS setting that automatically gave every new tutorial a noindex tag. We showed the team exactly where the problem was, and the setting was fixed, so new tutorials are no longer hidden from search by default. Next, we prioritized the pages that need to be indexed and tracked their appearance in Google.
GEO: content that AI systems cite
We reworked key pages and tutorials for the AI answer format: a clear product definition, step-by-step instructions, and answers to the target audience's typical questions. The goal: give Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Claude something to pull an accurate answer from, with a link to the site.
Focus on the priority market
We tracked impressions and clicks from the business's key market separately and prioritized the pages that matter for it.
Analytics
We measured results in Google Search Console and GA4, including a separate look at the AI Assistant channel and visits from ChatGPT and Claude, to see more than just classic search.
Results
First-month results from the report:
- Indexed pages: 136 → 197.
- Impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode: 818 → 3,245.
- Visits from ChatGPT and Claude: 118 → 384.
- Clicks from the priority market: 45 → 154.
- All Google clicks: 973 → 2,867, mostly from branded queries.
GA4, 28 days before launch (08/07-09/03/2026) vs. the last 28 days (09/20-10/17/2026):
- Organic sessions: 549 → 1,842 (+235%).
- Key events from organic: 110 → 596.
- AI Assistant channel sessions: 3,701 → 14,493.
An honest caveat: during the same period, the client was actively scaling paid channels, so the overall growth cannot be attributed to SEO and GEO alone. Part of the branded demand came from ads and brand awareness. Our contribution is clearest in indexing, AI impressions, and clicks from the priority market. Next stage: more non-branded queries.
What makes this project special
It is a new category where competition has not settled yet, and the winner is whoever AI systems remember first as a source. The biggest quick win came not from a new article but from a single technical finding: a hidden noindex that could have kept all the educational content out of search for years.
Monthly sessions in GA4. Our work started on September 5, 2026; during this period the client was also scaling paid channels Source: GA4, June-September 2026
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