Teaching my company to rank and get cited

I run an AI data agency. Before I optimize anything, I measure it. This is the baseline for getting freddy.ai to rank in search and get cited by AI models — published so the next post can prove what moved.

What is GEO, and why does it matter now?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of getting your content cited inside AI answers — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity — not just ranked in blue links. Search sends clicks; GEO sends citations. For a young company, a citation in an AI answer is distribution to buyers who never see a search results page.

0 of 12 target queries cited freddy.ai at baseline. That's the number we're moving.

What did the freddy.ai baseline actually measure?

I picked 12 buyer-intent queries an SMB operator would ask an AI assistant, then recorded whether freddy.ai was named in the answer across three models. The baseline:

• Search: the target keyword sat on page 2, position 14.
• Citations: 0 of 12 queries surfaced freddy.ai in any model.
• Indexed pages: 6 of 9 priority pages were indexed.

How do you get a startup cited by ChatGPT?

Models cite sources that are easy to lift: self-contained, factual, and specific. The plays I'm running:

1. Answer the question in the first sentence. Definitional, quotable, no preamble.
2. Publish original numbers. Benchmarks and baselines get cited because nobody else has them.
3. Structure for extraction. Question-shaped headings, short takeaway lists, one stat per section.
4. Keep the canonical here. Syndicate later; the original lives on freddyxai.com.

What am I betting on next?

That original data plus extraction-friendly structure beats volume. One cited baseline post is worth more than ten generic explainers. I'll re-run these 12 queries every month and publish the delta.

Key takeaways

• GEO optimizes for citations in AI answers, not just search rank.
• The freddy.ai baseline: page 2 search, 0 of 12 AI citations — the numbers to beat.
• Win citations with first-sentence answers, original data, and extraction-friendly structure.
• Measure monthly, publish the delta. Receipts compound.