Client Requirements
Buyers no longer just search Google for an ecommerce agency. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini who to hire, and the answer names three or four firms. The agency had no way to see whether AI tools mentioned it, or which competitors they recommended instead.
Industry: Digital marketing agency. The client is not named.
1Digital® Solution
A national ecommerce agency went from page five of Google to the firm AI tools name most when buyers ask who to hire.
- Tracked the questions real buyers ask, across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, every week with Found in AI.
- Found the answers where competitors were named and the agency was not, then published pages built to close each gap.
- Kept the SEO program running alongside it: technical fixes, internal links and content refreshes, on a site run on WorkspaceCMS.
The results
68% of buyer questions answered by AI name this agency, more than any of 8 tracked competitors.
- 2x cited as a source more than the nearest competitor (19 vs 9 answers)
- 43 → 20 average Google position, Jun-Aug 2025 vs Sep-Nov 2026
- +28% more clicks in the first 9 days of Nov 2026 than in all of Nov 2025
- #1 of 9 agencies tracked across 5 AI tools
AI tools now name the agency in 68% of tracked buyer questions and cite its pages twice as often as the closest competitor. Average Google position climbed from about 43 to about 20 over 18 months, and November 2026 clicks passed all of November 2025 in nine days.
Timeline
- Mid 2025: Average Google position around 43: page five for most searches.
- Oct 2025: Average position under 27 for the first time.
- Sep 2026: Best month on record: average position 18.9.
- Oct 2026: Found in AI tracking begins. Named in 70% of buyer questions in the first week.
- Nov 2026: 1,301 clicks in nine days, more than all of November 2025.
AI tools, one by one (week of Oct 26, 2026)
- ChatGPT: named in 27%, cited in 27%
- Claude: named in 36%, cited in 5%
- Perplexity: named in 27%, cited in 32%
- Gemini: named in 27%, cited in 9%
- Google AI Overviews: named in 35%, cited in 30%
- All five tools: named in 68%, cited in 50%
Google figures: Search Console, May 2025 to Nov 2026. AI figures: Found in AI tracking since Oct 19, 2026. All figures are real and rounded, never adjusted. Measured with Found in AI by 1Digital.
SEO, AEO and GEO together
Three ways to be found, one strategy
SEO earns rankings in search results. AEO shapes content so it becomes the direct answer. GEO gets you cited when AI assistants write their own replies. They build on each other, and the same strong pages tend to win in all three.
- ›SEO builds the rankings and authority
- ›AEO turns pages into direct answers
- ›GEO earns citations in AI replies