Many websites noticed their natural visitors decline in 2024, in huge half because of the rise of AI-generated search outcomes. Many queries not result in click-throughs, and even when customers click on, it’s laborious for firms to get extra context on searches made inside apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity.
The reply to this downside is typically referred to as generative engine optimization, or GEO, in a nod to search engine optimization. “Some name it AI search visibility optimization, which is a bit longer, however I consider is a little more correct,” stated Otterly.AI CEO Thomas Peham (on the precise within the picture above).
Like New York-based competitor Profound, the Austrian startup builds dashboards to assist firms and advert businesses monitor and optimize their presence in AI outcomes. But whereas Profound continues to be in closed beta, Otterly is exiting stealth mode after passing the 1,000-user milestone, Peham advised TechCrunch solely.
You might have heard of Otterly earlier than: It launched on Product Hunt earlier this 12 months to some success. Then, Google shook every part up.
“To be sincere, the fact was we rebuilt the product from scratch after Google launched AI Overviews in May,” Peham stated.
AI Overviews are Google’s implementation of AI-powered outcomes, usually leading to so-called zero-click searches the place customers by no means transcend the search engine.
As AI Overviews begins rolling out globally, firms who relied on natural search visitors are feeling the sting. Peham gave the instance of a Cloud Software enterprise that noticed its natural search presence decline within the U.S, solely to comprehend by way of Otterly that Google confirmed AI Overviews search outcomes for half of its search engine optimization key phrases.
The subsequent query is find out how to make this information actionable, particularly when LLMs are sometimes described as a black field. That’s one motive why Otterly plans so as to add a advice engine, and within the meantime, why it went from month-to-month to weekly monitoring — so advertising groups can conduct experiments to optimize their content material and rapidly see what may be working or not.
While this tinkering is partially akin to search engine optimization, clicks are much less of a spotlight. “I feel calling it AI search visibility optimization actually highlights the facet that we as advertising groups additionally want to consider our model place, our model visibility,” Peham stated.
Peham himself spent most of his profession in advertising. A former VP of promoting at CMS firm Storyblok, he began Otterly to scratch his personal itch and perceive how ChatGPT was impacting search from a model perspective.
Eventually, he teamed up with two co-founders, Josef Trauner (within the center within the picture above) and Klaus M. Schremser (on the left), who’re respectively the previous CEO and head of development at Usersnap, a consumer suggestions platform they offered to saas.group in 2023.
Having two co-founders helps all of them break up duties, with Schremser targeted on operations and product, and Trauner on technical elements. It doesn’t damage both that the pair had an exit collectively. His incubator, GroWTF, additionally supported Otterly, however the startup received’t search exterior funding, Peham stated.
Instead, he stated Otterly plans to maintain on rising with its buyer base, with the ambition to turn into what Semrush or Ahrefs are for search engine optimization, however within the AI search house.
There’s all the time a danger that these firms might wish to develop their scope and turn into direct rivals, however Otterly is hoping they will work collectively, and plans to announce particulars of a partnership with Semrush subsequent month, Peham stated.
