More and more customers start their search by asking an AI assistant. Instead of typing “plumber Sydney” into Google and clicking through ten links, they ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews which plumber to call. They get one written answer that names a few businesses.
If your business is in that answer, you win attention without paying for a click. If it isn’t, you may never get the chance to compete. Getting into that answer is called answer engine optimisation (AEO), or generative engine optimisation (GEO). It’s the next stage of organic growth.
At Somantra, an AI search analytics platform, we’ve studied how AI search works at scale, mostly in the Australian insurance market, one of the most competitive categories there is. Here’s what our research shows and how you can use it.
Why ads can’t buy you a place in the answer
ChatGPT now shows ads beneath many of its answers. It’s tempting to think you can just pay to appear. Our study of 34,279 ChatGPT questions suggests otherwise.
- 71% of answers carried an ad, so ads are common.
- In 85% of the responses carrying the top advertiser’s ad, the answer itself didn’t mention that advertiser.
- Across more than 10,000 responses carrying an insurance ad, the advertiser was the first brand named in just 1.5%.
The answer and the ad are separate. An ad can put your name on the page, but it can’t make the AI recommend you. That has to be earned, and that’s where organic growth comes in.
Lesson 1: AI trusts what others say about you
When AI builds an answer, it relies on sources it considers credible. In our analysis of 2.4 million AI search citations from 28,725 websites, most of what ChatGPT cited came from third parties:
- Comparison sites: 18.4%
- Government sources: 7.1%
- Forums such as Reddit: 3.9%
- Businesses’ own websites: 15.6%
The rest came from a long tail of niche sites. In other words, your own website is only part of the picture. What others say about you, in comparisons, directories, forums and reviews, shapes what AI says about you.
What to do: Get listed on the comparison sites and directories in your industry. Encourage genuine reviews. Take part in the forums and communities where your customers ask questions.
Lesson 2: Earning trust changes how AI describes you
Being mentioned isn’t the same as being recommended. AI might name your business but describe a competitor as the better choice. At Somantra, we measure this with a Brand Consideration Score, which looks at whether an answer frames a brand as the leading choice, a contender or an unlikely option.
Wording matters too. When we changed a single word in insurance questions, adding “most trusted” produced the largest positive shift in how brands were described of any word we tested. When customers ask about trust, AI looks for evidence of trust.
What to do: Make your credibility easy to find. Show reviews, awards, certifications and real customer results clearly on your site and profiles, and keep them consistent everywhere.
Lesson 3: Answer the questions nobody else answers
AI likes clear, direct answers to specific questions. In our citation study, pages answering “Does X cover Y?” earned 2.9% of ChatGPT citations, even though only 1.8% of published content used that format. That’s a gap any business can fill.
What to do: List the specific questions your customers ask, such as “Does a service include X?”, “How long does Y take?” or “What’s the difference between A and B?”, and answer each one on its own page or in its own section.
Lesson 4: Consistency beats one-off campaigns
AI visibility doesn’t last on its own. Over seven months, 57% of the websites cited by AI in our study appeared in only one month. Just 2.7% were cited every month.
What to do: Keep publishing and updating content regularly, and keep collecting fresh reviews. A steady stream of signals works better than a big push followed by silence.
Lesson 5: Shortcuts don’t last
AI search is young, and some low-quality sites manage to game it for a while. We found spam and low-quality domains made up 1.97% of ChatGPT citations, compared with 0.10% in Google. But it doesn’t last. One such site went from 2,830 citations in a single month to just 9 a few months later.
What to do: Avoid link schemes, fake reviews and mass-produced content. Build things that would still stand up if AI got stricter tomorrow.
Lesson 6: Each AI engine is different
Don’t assume that doing well on Google means doing well on ChatGPT. In our August study, the insurer that led Google’s AI Overviews didn’t lead ChatGPT. Google showed a brand before the user scrolled in 85.6% of answers, while ChatGPT did in only 34%.
What to do: Check your visibility on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity separately.
AEO/GEO best practices checklist
- Check where you stand. Ask ChatGPT and Google the questions your customers ask. Note whether you’re mentioned, and whether you’re recommended.
- Earn third-party mentions. Get listed on comparison sites, directories and review platforms in your field.
- Collect genuine reviews continuously. Fresh, detailed reviews build lasting trust signals.
- Answer specific questions directly. Create clear pages for the exact questions customers ask.
- Show your credibility. Make awards, certifications and results easy to find.
- Stay consistent. Update content and collect feedback regularly, not in bursts.
- Use ads to fill gaps, not to replace trust. If you advertise in ChatGPT, target the questions where the answer leaves you out, and link each ad to a matching page.
- Avoid shortcuts. Spam may work briefly, then disappear.
- Track each AI engine separately. What works on one may not work on another.
Final thoughts
Organic growth hasn’t gone away; it has moved into the answer. The businesses AI recommends are the ones that others trust, that answer real questions clearly, and that keep showing up over time. Paid ads can add visibility, but they can’t buy the recommendation. That’s still earned the organic way.
Somantra’s full research, including methods and limitations, is available on https://somantra.ai/blog
