BULTI FIELD NOTES / OPEN ACCESS

Learn how brands
earn an AI answer.

EDITOR’S NOTE / 2026

Practical GEO briefings for brand and growth teams. Each note turns an AI-search observation into a check you can run, a page you can improve, or a metric you can own.

44 PUBLIC NOTES

INDEX / FIELD NOTES

Start with the question
your team is asking now.

AI visibility, citations, content architecture, measurement, and real brand examples.

01

FIELD NOTE / FREE

What is GEO, exactly? It means your customers have started asking AI instead of Google.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of getting your brand cited inside the answers that AI tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews generate. Here's how it differs from SEO, and why it's an opening for sellers right now — in five minutes.

02

FIELD NOTE / FREE

There's a formula for content AI quotes — 5 GEO moves you can apply today

A practical generative engine optimization guide to answer-first leads, self-contained paragraphs, question subheads, FAQs, and readable pages.

03

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Will your brand show up in AI answers? A 5-minute self-check

A 3-step way to check whether your brand gets mentioned in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Measure your coverage with a question list, and learn the difference between a mention and a citation.

04

FIELD NOTE / FREE

SEO searches down 42%, GEO up 66% — is it time to switch?

The generational handover in search, seen through Google Keyword Planner data. With SEO-related searches falling and GEO-related searches surging, here's when and how sellers should move — backed by data.

05

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Your customers are asking ChatGPT instead of Google now — what changed?

Customers who used to type keywords into a search box have started asking AI in full sentences. Here's the difference between keyword search and asking AI, and what it changes for sellers.

06

FIELD NOTE / FREE

What are Google AI Overviews, and why did my blog traffic drop?

How the AI Overview at the top of Google search works, why it's cutting your blog clicks, and how to flip the situation by becoming one of its cited sources.

07

FIELD NOTE / FREE

ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs Google AI Overviews — where do your customers ask?

A comparison of the three AI search surfaces e-commerce customers meet. How each one builds its answer, and where sellers should respond first.

08

FIELD NOTE / FREE

What kind of content does AI quote? Start with how the answer gets built

From receiving a question to assembling an answer — the three stages of retrieve, extract, synthesize. Here's the principle behind what it takes for your content to survive each stage.

09

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Where do you find the 30 questions your customers ask AI?

A question list is where GEO begins. Here's how to mine real questions from three warehouses — reviews, inquiries, and autocomplete — and a five-axis frame to fill them in without gaps.

10

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Writing to get cited in Google AI Overviews — the conditions for becoming a source

Learn how to get cited in Google AI Overviews using question-matched titles, direct answers, structured sections, readable HTML, and a monthly check.

11

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Product page vs blog — which one does AI actually read?

GEO for ecommerce starts with readable product information. Compare product pages, marketplace listings, and blogs to see what AI search can retrieve and cite.

12

FIELD NOTE / FREE

FAQ schema, no coding required — a copy-and-paste guide

How to mark up your page's FAQ in a format search engines and AI understand (structured data). A copy-paste template and a way to verify it, no code knowledge needed.

13

FIELD NOTE / FREE

The questions you're losing to competitors — there's a way to find them

A question where AI only mentions your competitor = share you're losing. Here's how to map a four-quadrant grid from your question list to spot lost questions and open-territory gaps.

14

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Is my content for SEO or for GEO? A 3-minute test

Five tests to tell whether existing content was written to rank or structured to get cited by AI, plus a rewrite order that captures both surfaces with one piece.

15

FIELD NOTE / FREE

A GEO case study — what we're doing with this very series

Instead of someone else's success story, we're opening up how Bulti applies the GEO formula to its own service. From keyword selection to FAQ schema and a public learning library — the execution log and reasoning behind it.

16

FIELD NOTE / FREE

How much does a GEO agency cost? An outsource-vs-DIY calculator

GEO agency cost depends on strategy, content production, and monthly monitoring. Compare GEO consulting pricing with the real cost of running the work in-house.

17

FIELD NOTE / FREE

E-commerce marketing in 2026 — where should a seller with no budget focus?

The year ad costs rise and search shifts to AI. With 'e-commerce marketing' searches up 45%, here's where a budget-strapped seller should push, channel by channel.

18

FIELD NOTE / FREE

GEO Audit Tool: What It Checks and How to Run a Free Audit

A GEO audit checks whether AI search engines can find, understand, and cite your brand. What technical and competitive GEO audits measure, a 20-minute manual version, and a free tool to run one now.

19

FIELD NOTE / FREE

An intro to LLM optimization — what comes after SEO

LLM optimization (LLMO) is the work of making your content easy for language models like ChatGPT to find, cut, and cite. Its relationship to GEO, the principle behind it, and how to start today — explained for beginners.

20

FIELD NOTE / FREE

We asked AI about 20 small US brands. 18 of them never came up.

We ran 20 indie US DTC brands through the same 30 questions their customers ask AI. 90% were cited in zero of them. Here's the data, what the two exceptions did differently, and why an empty shelf is the opportunity.

21

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Revenue started coming in from ChatGPT. Here's how to check yours in GA4.

AI referral traffic is already landing in your analytics. How to find chatgpt.com, perplexity, and gemini in GA4, what the numbers looked like for one brand, and why this traffic converts better than search.

22

FIELD NOTE / FREE

We ran the same test on 284 Korean brands. The gap is global.

284 Korean DTC brands, same method: 65.5% cited in zero of 50 customer questions. Category-by-category breakdown, why beauty scored worst despite producing the most content, and what this means for English-language brands.

23

FIELD NOTE / FREE

You wrote the article and AI still isn't citing it. Here's how to check, and 5 reasons why.

Three ways to confirm whether AI is actually quoting your content, and the five causes that come up most often in diagnostics — starting with the one that makes everything else irrelevant.

24

FIELD NOTE / FREE

GEO for beauty brands — the questions customers actually ask AI

A practical GEO guide for beauty brands: the skincare questions customers ask AI, why beauty content gets missed, and how to make it citable.

25

FIELD NOTE / FREE

5 things not to do when you start GEO

Patterns that backfire when chasing AI citations: keyword stuffing, mass-generating with AI, knocking competitors, unverified numbers, and opening every crawler without thinking. Why each hurts, and what to do instead.

26

FIELD NOTE / FREE

AI Marketing Examples 2026 — 4 Things Small Sellers Actually Use

AI marketing isn't just for big brands. Here are the four places indie sellers and small DTC stores actually use AI right now — content, customer service, ad creative, and AI search visibility — with what works and what backfires.

27

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Does ChatGPT recommend your brand? Here's how to find out in 5 minutes

Check whether ChatGPT mentions your brand when customers ask what to buy. Run a five-minute AI visibility test, understand the score, and see what to fix.

28

FIELD NOTE / FREE

ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini recommend different brands — we tested 73 to prove it

We asked three AI models the same 15 shopping questions about 73 well-known beauty brands. Each model crowned a different winner, and 34% of brands never appeared anywhere. What that means if you only ever check one AI.

29

FIELD NOTE / FREE

AI Search Engines 2026 — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot: Which and When

What AI search engines are, the main ones, and when each is worth using. Plus the one thing every store owner has to check — does your brand come up when a customer asks?

30

FIELD NOTE / FREE

What Is AI Marketing? 3 Things a Small Store Can Start Today

AI marketing doesn't have to be complicated. Here are three things a small store can start today — content, ads, and the AI search visibility most sellers are still missing — with the order to do them in.

31

FIELD NOTE / FREE

How to Track Your Brand in AI Search

Track AI search visibility with fixed questions, mention rate, model coverage, and a monthly routine for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

32

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Which beauty brands does ChatGPT actually recommend? The three things they have in common

When a shopper asks 'what should I use for oily skin?', ChatGPT picks a brand to name. That pick isn't decided by ad spend or brand fame. Here are the three conditions every beauty brand that gets named has in common — and where beauty brands usually fall short.

33

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Thousands of reviews and a 4.9 rating — so why doesn't AI recommend me?

A wall of five-star reviews and the AI still doesn't name you. It's a common beauty paradox. Here's what AI actually pulls from reviews, why the star number matters less than the words inside, and why buying or nudging fake reviews is the wrong answer.

34

FIELD NOTE / FREE

How do I get cited with ingredient content? Niacinamide and retinol, worked examples

Ingredient marketing is beauty's strongest suit — but it's usually buried in mood copy where AI can't cite it. Here's how to answer the combination, order, and skin-type questions customers ask AI head-on, with worked examples and a fill-in template.

35

FIELD NOTE / FREE

My product page is one big image, so AI can't read it — how do I check and fix it?

Beauty product pages are often a single long image. To a human it's packed with information; to AI it's a blank page. Here's a 30-second test to check whether yours is image-only, and how to add a text surface without rebuilding the page.

36

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Being on Sephora and Amazon isn't enough — why you still need owned content

Getting stocked on Sephora, Ulta, or Amazon is a sales channel, not a reason for AI to recommend you. AI synthesizes many sources, and the material it cites is answering content. Here's the risk of leaning only on retailers, and why you need owned content on your own site and blog.

37

FIELD NOTE / FREE

AI visibility tools: what they actually cost, and what they don't do

A checked comparison of AI visibility tools — Profound, Peec AI, Otterly, Scrunch, Athena HQ, Semrush AI Visibility, Ahrefs Brand Radar — with published prices, free tiers, and the one job none of them does for you.

38

FIELD NOTE / FREE

llms.txt: the evidence says nobody is reading it

What llms.txt is, who proposed it, and what the server-log evidence and official statements from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic actually show. Plus what to do with the hour you were going to spend on it.

39

FIELD NOTE / FREE

How ChatGPT picks the products it shows — and how a small brand gets in

What decides which products appear in ChatGPT's shopping results: the product feed, Google Shopping fan-out, and the buyer-guide layer. A practical order of work for DTC brands without an enterprise budget.

40

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Answer engine optimization: the same work, a clearer name

AEO, GEO, LLM SEO — three names for overlapping work. What answer engine optimization actually means, how it differs from SEO, and the order of work that holds regardless of which acronym wins.

41

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Profound AI alternative: why small brands don't need a $1,200/yr dashboard

Looking for a Profound AI alternative? Compare Profound's annual tracking subscription with Bulti's one-time diagnostic and publishing program for DTC brands.

42

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Peec AI alternative: when a $95/mo tracker is the wrong first purchase

Comparing Peec AI's published pricing ($95–$495/mo for brands, $245–$795/mo for agencies) against a one-time diagnostic and publishing program. Which one fits your stage.

43

FIELD NOTE / FREE

Otterly.ai alternative: the cheapest tracker still doesn't write the page

Otterly.ai starts at $29/mo and scales to $489/mo. Here's an honest comparison with a one-time GEO diagnostic and publishing program, and how to decide which you need first.

44

FIELD NOTE / FREE

We scanned 15 well-known DTC brands. All 15 answered zero buyer questions AI could read.

We ran 15 well-known DTC brands — Olipop, Graza, Tower 28, Nécessaire, Bala and others — against the 30 questions shoppers ask AI before buying. Every one scored 0. Then we asked ChatGPT directly, and found something stranger.

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