Search is changing… fast. While Google still holds around 89% of the market, tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews are quickly becoming people’s go-to for answers. They pull from multiple sources, show citations, and when your site gets mentioned, that can be a source of referral traffic.
Most businesses and SEOs aren’t paying attention to this yet. But we are. At Embarque, we’ve been helping our clients show up in these results consistently.
What We’ll Cover
This case study breaks down exactly how we’re helping our clients show up in AI search (and what that actually looks like in numbers).
Within just a few months, MentorCruise and other clients are seeing thousands of visits from AI tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT.
What We Did
Many of the strategies we used actually overlap with good SEO practices. Authoritative content, strong backlinks, and helpful pages still matter.
But there were also a few extra factors that played a big role (ones that most people either overlook or don’t give enough attention to).
Structured Content for AI Citations
We rewrote and structured content so it was easier for AI search engines to read and cite. That meant using exact-match titles based on what people were searching for, adding clear subheadings like “What is…” or “How to…”, and keeping each section focused on a single idea.
We also added short summaries at the top of each page. That gave AI tools a clear answer to pull from. This simple structure made a noticeable difference. Pages started getting picked up more often in tools like Perplexity, especially for glossary and how-to searches.
Programmatic SEO for Long-Tail Coverage
For a client, MentorCruise, we built out large volumes of content using programmatic SEO. We focused on long-tail keywords and structured every page to match a clear query. Each page was useful, on-topic, and easy to parse.
This gave us broad coverage across related searches and helped reinforce topical authority. It also increased our chances of getting picked up by AI tools, since they tend to pull from niche, well-aligned pages that directly match the question being asked.
Paid Attention to Bing SEO
Since ChatGPT, for example, relies on Bing’s search index, we gave Bing just as much attention as Google. We made sure content ranked well there by optimizing titles, meta descriptions, and schema in ways that aligned with Bing’s ranking signals.
Improved Crawlability and Technical Clarity
Even with AI in the mix, solid technical SEO still matters. We made sure all key pages were indexed, included in the sitemap, and not blocked by robots.txt. That ensured content could be discovered and referenced by tools.
We also added schema markup where it made sense. That helped AI tools understand the page structure more clearly. On top of that, we cleaned up internal linking and breadcrumbs so everything was easier to navigate and logically connected.
Here’s How the Approach Paid Off
1. MentorCruise
MentorCruise brought in 11,500 visits from AI search engines within a few months.
Here are few places they’ve been picked up
AI overview
ChatGPT
Perplexity
2. Growform
Growform saw 852 visits from AI sources.
Also, below are some instances where they’ve showed up on AI search.
AI Overviews
Perplexity
ChatGPT
3. Instatus
Instatus reached 831 visits to high-intent blogs and status pages.
AI Overviews
Perplexity
ChatGPT
4. SignWell
AI Overviews
ChatGPT
Perplexity
5. Embarque
We also tested our own strategy on the Embarque site and saw 652 visits from AI platforms.
AI Overviews
Key Learnings
- AI search is already driving meaningful traffic: This isn’t just early hype. Tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT are sending real, trackable visits… and clients are seeing results within a few months.
- Solid SEO still lays the groundwork: Pages that already performed well in search had a better chance of getting picked up by AI tools. Good SEO fundamentals still matter.
- Structure and clarity make the biggest difference: Content that’s easy to understand, well-organized, and directly answers a query is far more likely to get cited in AI search results.
- Bing matters more than people think: Since tools like ChatGPT pull from Bing, ranking well there increases your chances of being included in AI answers.
Scale Your Organic Growth With Embarque
AI search is opening up new opportunities for websites that publish helpful, well-structured content. The results we’ve seen with MentorCruise, Growform, Instatus, and our own site show what’s possible with the right strategy in place.
Ready to start driving traffic from AI tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT? Book a free strategy call to see how Embarque can help you show up and grow.
