By skyforbes 
TL;DR: Launched a new website on Sept 21st with zero existing traffic. By mid-October, we’re getting cited in ChatGPT, Copilot, and Bing — with only programmatic content generation and zero manual labor. Traditional SEO takes 6–12 months for this. Here’s what actually worked.
The Setup (The Problem Most Businesses Face)
If you’ve been following the AI space, you’ve heard about “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimization). The concept is solid: get your content cited by AI models like ChatGPT and Claude, not just ranked for Google searches.
The problem? Most advice is either vaporware or incomplete. People talk about it in theory but rarely show real, verifiable results with timeline and methodology.
We decided to test it properly. Here’s what happened.
Week 1: Launch & Content Blitz (Sept 21–22)
What we did:
- Built a fresh website with zero domain authority
- Generated 9,000+ pages of blog content programmatically (AI-written, focused on evergreen topics in a specific industry vertical)
- Published everything to a sitemap
- Submitted the sitemap to Google on Sept 22nd
What people usually get wrong here: They think a few hundred well-written articles is enough. Wrong. LLMs train on massive datasets. To get cited, you need surface area. We went big.
Manual work involved? Zero. The entire content generation, optimization, and publishing pipeline was automated. Set it, hit publish, walked away.
Week 2–3: The Waiting Game (Late Sept — Early Oct)
Nothing happened for about 10 days. This is important — GEO isn’t instant. But something was brewing in the background.
What was actually happening:
- Google indexed our pages
- LLM training data updated and started pulling from our domain
- Search engines began understanding our site’s topical relevance
By Oct 3rd, the analytics showed a spike.
Results: What We’re Actually Seeing (Mid-Oct)
Traffic by source (174 total sessions):
- ChatGPT referrals: 12 sessions (6.9%)
- Copilot referrals: 6 sessions (3.45%)
- Bing organic: 38 sessions (21.84%)
- Direct/other: 118 sessions
The key metric: 32% of our traffic is coming from LLM citations and Bing (which heavily integrates GPT technology). That’s real GEO working.
Engagement: 40.23% engagement rate. People aren’t bouncing — they’re actually reading.
Content scale: 9,000+ indexed pages generating consistent, steady traffic within 3 weeks.
Why This Matters (And Why It’s Different)
Traditional SEO: 6–12 months to see meaningful traffic from organic search.
GEO: 3–4 weeks to get cited in LLM results AND rank in search engines simultaneously.
The catch: You need to build at scale with quality content. You can’t just write 5 blog posts and expect ChatGPT to cite you.
The Reality Check (What We’re NOT Claiming)
- This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. 174 sessions in 3 weeks is solid but not explosive.
- We’re not ranking #1 for high-intent keywords. This is discovery traffic — people asking questions and getting our content as answers.
- The website still has zero domain authority. We’re winning on content relevance and freshness, not link juice.
- This only works if your content is actually good. Garbage content won’t get cited, no matter how much of it you publish.
How We Actually Did This (The Methodology)
- Topic clustering: Identified high-volume, low-competition topics LLMs frequently query about
- Programmatic generation: Built an AI content pipeline that creates, optimizes, and publishes at scale
- Semantic optimization: Content is optimized for how LLMs understand relevance, not just keyword density
- Sitemap strategy: Submitted everything at once to accelerate discovery
- Zero ongoing manual work: The system updates and publishes automatically
Tools used: Custom automation (not Make or Zapier — those would break at this scale), programmatic SEO best practices, and content generation APIs.
Lessons for Your Business
If you’re thinking about GEO:
- Scale matters. If you’re competing for LLM citations, 100–1000 pages of content won’t cut it. You need 5,000+.
- Quality still wins. AI-generated doesn’t mean low-quality. We curate, fact-check, and optimize every piece.
- Patience pays off. 3 weeks sounds fast, but it’s not instant. Build the foundation and give it time to work.
- Manual labor kills ROI. If you’re hand-writing 9,000 blog posts, you’ve already lost. Automation is the only way this scales economically.
- It’s complementary, not replacement. GEO + traditional SEO + paid ads = full funnel. Don’t bet everything on one channel.
What’s Next
We’re now testing:
- Scaling to 50,000+ pages to see if there’s a traffic ceiling
- Optimization for specific LLM query patterns
- Integration with voice search and emerging AI search engines
- Measuring actual conversions (not just traffic)
Results coming in 30 days.
Questions?
Common ones we see:
“Is this ethical?” Yes. We’re creating useful content that answers real questions. People are engaging with it (40% engagement rate). The only difference is we’re optimized for how LLMs discover content, not just how Google ranks it.
“Will Google penalize this?” No. We’re following Google’s core update guidelines. Quality content at scale is not a violation.
“How much did this cost?” Significantly less than hiring a content team to write 9,000 posts manually. Build the automation once, publish infinitely.
TL;DR for people in a hurry: We built a content machine, published 9,000 pieces in 3 weeks, and got cited in ChatGPT and Copilot. It works. It scales. And it requires zero ongoing manual work. This is the future of SEO.
Edit: A few people asking about specifics. Happy to discuss in the comments, but I can’t share exact client details or proprietary methodology. If you’re interested in learning this for your business, we run a free audit that maps out GEO opportunities specific to your niche. Link in profile.
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