Ahrefs vs OtterlyAI

AI Chatbot Search Visibility: GEO and Website Check Insights

This analysis explores how AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity source information, revealing that only 12% of cited URLs overlap with Google's top 10 results. The article breaks down the process into four stages: query expansion into multiple sub-searches, indexing by different search engines (Google, Bing, Brave), technical accessibility for AI crawlers, and final citation criteria. Key insights highlight the importance of covering sub-questions, using appropriate page types (lists, guides), maintaining freshness, and being present on external platforms. Practical advice includes using Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report and tracking ChatGPT referral traffic via UTM parameters.

• According to an Ahrefs analysis of 15,000 search queries, only 12% of URLs cited by AI assistants appear in Google's top 10 for the same question.
• Around 80% of pages cited by AI assistants do not rank for the original query, but are found through sub-searches.
• ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot rely on different search indexes: Google, Bing, and Bing respectively, while Claude uses Brave and Perplexity has its own index.

Google AI Overviews for Brands Include Third-Party Sources

Google's AI Overviews are increasingly prominent in brand-related searches, with 73.3% of branded US desktop queries triggering them in September, up from 61.3% in July. These overviews often cite third-party sources like Wikipedia, YouTube, and LinkedIn, posing risks of misinformation or negative portrayals, as Google may be liable for false statements (per a German court ruling). Concurrently, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) has emerged as a new discipline to enhance brand visibility in AI-generated answers from chatbots like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews. GEO requires technical checks for AI crawler access, prompt-based strategies, high-quality content creation, and building third-party presence. It is becoming a CMO-level concern, integrating SEO, PR, and social media, with challenges including attribution difficulties and the declining effectiveness of listicles.

• Google's AI Overviews appear for 73.3% of US branded desktop searches in September, up from 61.3% in July.
• AI Overviews for brands often cite third-party sources like Wikipedia, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and Google may be liable for false statements (German court ruling).
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is a new discipline optimizing brand visibility in AI-generated answers, distinct from traditional SEO.

714 Suppression Campaigns: Negative Results Trends Analyzed

Erase.com analyzed 714 online reputation suppression campaigns (Aug 2024 - May 2026) to identify what impacts success in pushing down negative search results. Key findings reveal that the starting position of the worst negative result is the strongest predictor of clearing Page 1; campaigns starting at position 4 or lower were 3.5x more likely to succeed. The number of negatives also mattered. Publishing volume was not a differentiator; instead, the placement of new assets within the top 10 was key. Most successful campaigns cleared Page 1 within 3-4 months. Court records were easiest to suppress, while Reddit threads and review sites were hardest. The rise of AI Overviews, which often cite URLs beyond Page 1, suggests that pushing negatives only to Page 2 may be insufficient.

• Erase.com analyzed 714 suppression campaigns from August 2024 to May 2026.
• Campaigns with the worst negative starting at position 4 or lower cleared Page 1 3.5x more often than those starting at position 1.
• The typical suppression campaign published 29 positive assets, but successful campaigns had a median of 6 new assets in the top 10 vs. 4 for unsuccessful ones.

5 Agent Analytics Use Cases for Marketing Teams

A few months ago we launched Agent Analytics as our first step towards end-to-end AI search tracking in OtterlyAI. The launch post explained why we built it: AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript, so GA4 and every other script-based analytics tool is blind to them, and the only place they leave a trace is your […]

Getfluence and OtterlyAI Partner to Turn AI Search Visibility into Editorial Action

Getfluence, a French media network, and OtterlyAI, an Austrian AI search visibility platform, announced a partnership to help brands improve their presence in AI-generated answers. OtterlyAI tracks brand mentions and citations across AI search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, identifying the sources that influence answers. Getfluence leverages its media network and editorial expertise to help brands publish content in authoritative outlets. The partnership connects measurement with targeted editorial activation, enabling marketing teams to move from diagnosis to action. It addresses the growing importance of off-site authority in Generative Engine Optimization, supported by an OtterlyAI report based on 5.85 million citations.

• Getfluence and OtterlyAI announced a strategic partnership.
• OtterlyAI tracks AI search visibility across platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
• Getfluence provides editorial placement services.

OtterlyAI Launches Agent Analytics

OtterlyAI announced Agent Analytics, a new feature that reads website server logs to surface every AI agent and crawler visiting a site, which pages they access, and how that activity links to visibility in AI-generated answers. The feature identifies agent types (on-demand fetchers, search index crawlers, AI training scrapers), shows agent visits and trends, and integrates via Cloudflare Worker, WordPress plugin, Netlify Edge Function, webhooks or uploaded log files. OtterlyAI says Agent Analytics is GDPR-compliant, processes no personally identifiable data, has been rolled out to early customers (50+ websites), and will add content intelligence, crawl-to-citation conversion rates, and deeper funnel tracking later this quarter.

• OtterlyAI announced a new feature called Agent Analytics that reads server log data to show every AI agent and crawler visiting a website.
• Agent Analytics identifies agent visits over time and catalogs agents (examples: ChatGPT-User, Claude-Bot, Perplexity-User, Google-Agent) and their most-crawled URLs.
• Each agent is categorized as an on-demand AI fetcher, search index crawler, or AI training scraper to help interpret crawl volumes.