How I Outranked the #1 Brand in AI Search (Without Ads or Big Budgets)

Summary:
This blog post breaks down how a small brand beat one of the most well-known brand names in an AI search result. It explains the emerging practice of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), why traditional SEO no longer applies to AI tools, and the exact strategies used to get cited in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. These insights come from real-world results and are part of the system taught in The AI Search Visibility System course.

How I Outranked the #1 Brand in AI Search (Without Ads or Big Budgets):

Most people assume that the top results in tools like ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews are reserved for the biggest brands. The ones with million-dollar budgets, massive PR machines, and armies of marketers.

But recently, something wild happened.

A brand I helped showed up above the industry leader in an AI search result. 

And it wasn’t a fluke. It’s happening consistently.

Here’s the thing: these new AI-powered search tools don’t follow the same playbook as traditional SEO. Authority still matters, but it’s not about backlinks or domain age anymore. It’s about being the right answer in the right format for these tools to pull from.

That’s what I’ve been teaching and testing with something I call GEO: Generative Engine Optimization.

It’s about making sure your content gets found, cited, and surfaced inside AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s new AI snapshots.

No hoping Google’s 10 blue links are still relevant in a year.

Just a smarter way to structure your content so AI tools want to quote you.

What actually worked?

• Content designed for AI engines to extract and cite, clear, concise, expert.

• Co-citation strategies to show up alongside trusted sources.

• Optimized not for keywords, but for conceptual authority, a totally different approach than old-school SEO.

• Make sure my content was showing up in the right public places where AI tools go hunting for answers.

And it’s paying off.

If my small brand can outrank the category leader in this new AI-powered landscape, it’s proof that size doesn’t matter. Strategy does.

If you want to learn how to do the same for your startup or service business, that’s exactly what I teach inside The AI Search Visibility System.

The future of search isn’t coming. It’s already here. And if you’re not showing up inside the tools your customers are asking questions in, someone else will.