GEO Case Study · 2026

A Niche B2B Site Got Cited by Perplexity ×4 + Gemini ×2 in 8 Weeks

GWG Researcher (gwgresearcher.com) — North American lighting rep data & research platform. Zero traditional SEO rankings, achieved AI citation through GEO. Real screenshots, real data, reusable playbook.

5

AI Engines Citing

6

Real Screenshots

597

AI Crawls / 14d

8wk

0 → Citations

01 · Challenge

Before GEO: Zero Traditional Rankings

The problem

❌ Target keywords (lighting rep map, etc.) nowhere in Google top 10
❌ Search index: ~30 Google pages / DDG 10 / Bing 9 / Brave 0
❌ Incumbent domination: CSEMag / Legrand / UpCodes
❌ ~17 human visits/day; 55%+ of traffic was scanners

Turning point: When users asked AI "how to find lighting rep agencies," the engines cited outdated or incomplete data — nobody was publishing professional, structured, data-complete content. AI engines need citable authoritative content, and niche verticals were a white space.

02 · Strategy

GEO ≠ SEO: Optimize for Citation

Traditional SEO	GEO
Get Google to RANK you	Get AI engines to CITE you
Optimize keyword rankings	Optimize "appear in answer + link"
PageRank logic	Relevance / structure / data / freshness

Five actions

1 Dedicated AI sitemap (ai-sitemap.xml) — priority-marked content for AI crawlers
2 robots.txt per-bot allowances (OAI / Perplexity / Claude / GPT / Google-Extended)
3 5 precise keywords (what users actually ask AI — e.g. "us lighting rep map", "lighting code check")
4 Structured content + complete data (714 verified reps, NEC/UL knowledge)
5 Weekly monitoring loop — spot which keywords work/fail fast

03 · Results

Results: 4 AI Engines + Tavily API

Engine	Keyword	Result
Perplexity	us lighting rep map / code check	✅ Cited + link (screenshots)
Gemini	rep agency directory / rep maps	✅ Top-3 directory (screenshots)
ChatGPT	lighting rep map etc.	✅ Cited (manual test)
Claude	lighting rep map etc.	✅ Cited (manual test)
Tavily	US lighting rep map	#1 (sustained)
Tavily	electrical procurement decision chains	#4 (entered 8/31)

Human visits: July vs August (+48%)

Jul ~135 unique browser visitors on business pages (4.4/day) → Aug ~200 (6.5/day), +48%. Signal is early and small, but the direction matches the crawler surge — and on 8/30–8/31 real users arrived and used the map + code tools (a Huawei mobile user ran 5 compliance checks in 90 seconds). Methodology: browser-UA + business-page + non-cloud filters, counted monthly.

AI crawler traffic (14 days: 8/18–8/31)

GPTBot 112 · Applebot 108 · Amazonbot 72 · OAI-SearchBot 63 · ChatGPT-User 63 · Claude-SearchBot 34 · Meta 32 · Perplexity 31 · ClaudeBot 31 · Bytespider 26 · Google-Extended 25 — ~597 total

8-week timeline

Wk 1-2 Deploy ai-sitemap + robots.txt per-bot allowances → Wk 3-4 First citation (Tavily #1 "US lighting rep map") → Wk 5-6 GPTBot/Applebot/Amazonbot discover core pages → Wk 7-8 Perplexity ×4 + Gemini ×2 citing with links

04 · Evidence

Perplexity: "us lighting rep map"

Perplexity · us lighting rep map

Answer leads with: GWG Researcher US/Canada Lighting Rep Map is the "closest match" (714 verified agencies) + source tag gwgresearcher

Strongest evidence: User asked "us lighting rep map" — Perplexity named GWG in the first sentence with a source citation.

04 · Evidence

Perplexity: "Lighting Code Check"

Perplexity · Lighting Code Check

Answer states: "Lighting Code Check appears to refer to GWG Researcher's U.S. commercial-lighting compliance tool" + "Use it here" link + gwgresearcher source x2

Code tool cited too: Even the compliance-check tool got named and linked by AI — GEO covers more than one keyword.

04 · Evidence

More engine evidence

Gemini · rep agency directory

Gemini: one of top-3 directories — "a dedicated commercial lighting market research tool designed for mapping lighting rep territory distributions"

Gemini · interactive rep maps

Gemini: specialized commercial intelligence — "commercial database mapping lighting reps, line cards, and manufacturer-agency relationships"

Perplexity · directory table

Perplexity table row #1: GWG Researcher (714 verified agencies, 273 brands, 4,000+ distributor locations) + full domain link

Perplexity · NEC compliance

Perplexity: recommends Lighting Code Check (GWG tool) + source tag + suggests pairing with DOE COMcheck

06 · Next Step

Want the same for your B2B site?

AI citations are a measurable, 8-week outcome — not a black box. We run a free GEO citation check on your target keywords and show you exactly where you stand (and what to fix).

What a GEO citation audit covers: your keywords' current AI visibility across ChatGPT / Perplexity / Gemini · AI crawler behavior on your domain (bot by bot) · a prioritized 90-day GEO plan.

Get a Free GEO Citation Check →

GWG Researcher · 2026-09-01 · Sources: nginx logs + manual tests + Tavily