Field notes on AI search

What the engines actually do,
and what to do about it.

Pieces
7
Read end to end
58 min
Last published
2026-04-22

Latest

2026-04-22

7 min read

What Is Generative Engine Optimization?

In 2024, every category page on the web competed for ten blue links. In 2026, those same pages compete for a single sentence — the one ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini synthesize when a buyer asks them a question. Whether your brand appears in that sentence, who it appears alongside, and what is said about it is now a board-level visibility metric.

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  1. 2026-04-158 min read

    5 Ways to Get Your Brand Cited in ChatGPT

    ChatGPT cites a small, conservative set of brands per category. Earning a slot requires deliberate work across content depth, schema markup, source authority, alias hygiene, and citation-friendly formatting. Here is the playbook.

  2. 2026-04-088 min read

    How AI Search Engines Decide Which Brands to Recommend

    AI engines do not pick brand recommendations randomly. They follow a layered ranking process driven by citations, schema, entity authority, and freshness. Here is how the signal stack actually works in 2026.

  3. 2026-04-019 min read

    Google AI Overviews for Brands

    Google AI Overviews now serve a meaningful share of commercial-intent queries. Here is what they are, how to monitor inclusion, what affects appearance, and what brands measurably get out of being included.

  4. 2026-03-258 min read

    Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Google AI Overviews

    Three engines, three citation behaviours, three different brand-strategy implications. Here is how Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews actually differ in 2026 — and why a multi-engine GEO program is not optional.

  5. 2026-03-189 min read

    The MentionAudit Methodology

    Every MentionAudit run is a nine-pass pipeline that captures, diagnoses, and recommends across every supported AI engine. Here is what each pass does, what we capture byte-for-byte, and what we abstract.

  6. 2026-03-119 min read

    Schema Markup for AI Search

    Article, FAQPage, Organization, and Product schema are the four schemas that move citations in AI search. Here is what each one does, what Google AI Overviews and Perplexity actually parse, and how to validate.