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The Complete Guide to Mersel AI: How Brands Get Recommended by AI Search

Everything you need to know about Mersel AI -what GEO is, why AI search matters, and how Mersel helps brands get recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

Mersel AI Team
Mersel AI Team
11 min read

People are changing how they search. Instead of typing keywords into Google and scanning ten blue links, they're asking AI a question and getting a single answer. "What's the best CRM for small teams?" "Which running shoes are good for flat feet?" "What accounting software works with Shopify?"

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini -these platforms don't return a list of links. They return an answer. And in that answer, they mention 3 to 8 brands by name. Everyone else is invisible.

This is the biggest shift in online discovery since Google itself. And most businesses aren't ready for it.

This guide explains what's happening, why it matters, and how Mersel AI helps your brand become the one that gets recommended.

The Shift: AI Is the New Search

The numbers tell the story. 80% of consumers now use AI-generated answers for 40% or more of their searches, according to Bain & Company. AI referral traffic to retail sites grew 4,700% year-over-year. And when someone does click through from an AI answer, they convert at 15.9% -compared to 1.76% for Google organic.
Meanwhile, traditional search is shrinking. U.S. organic clicks dropped from 44.2% to 40.3% between March 2024 and March 2025. Google still matters, but the trend is clear: a growing share of discovery is happening inside AI.
For a deeper look at this shift, read The Web Is Splitting in Two.

The Problem: Most Websites Are Invisible to AI

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your website was built for humans. It has navigation menus, pop-ups, cookie banners, JavaScript-heavy layouts, and interactive elements that look great to people but confuse AI crawlers.

When ChatGPT or Claude visits your site, they don't see what your customers see. They see a mess of HTML, scripts, and layout code. They miss key information. They misinterpret your pricing. They skip your site entirely and recommend a competitor whose content was easier to parse.

This isn't about having bad content. It's about having content that AI can't read properly. Your product pages might be excellent for human shoppers but completely opaque to an AI trying to understand what you sell, who it's for, and why it's good. We wrote about this in detail in Why AI Gets Your Pricing Wrong and Is Your E-commerce Store Invisible to AI?.

What Is GEO?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. It's the practice of making your content visible and accurately represented in AI-generated answers.

If SEO is about ranking on Google, GEO is about being recommended by AI.

They're fundamentally different challenges. SEO is about keywords, backlinks, and page authority. GEO is about structured content, clarity, and making it easy for an AI to understand exactly what you do, who you serve, and why you're the right choice. We broke down these differences in SEO vs. GEO for E-commerce.

Think of it this way: when someone searches Google, they see a list and choose. When someone asks AI, the AI chooses for them. That means the AI needs to understand your business well enough to recommend it confidently. GEO makes that happen.

What Mersel Does

Mersel is a full-service GEO agency. We don't just give you a tool and leave you to figure it out. You get a dedicated GEO specialist who builds and executes a strategy tailored to your brand -your industry, your competitors, your goals. Here's how the process works:

1. Discovery Call

We start by understanding your business, your audience, and your goals. Then we show you exactly how AI currently sees your website. Not how you think it sees it -how it actually sees it. Most businesses are surprised by the gap. Product descriptions get mangled, pricing gets misread, and entire service categories get ignored.

2. Research & Strategy

Your GEO specialist analyzes your competitive landscape through the lens of AI search. Which competitors are already being recommended? For which queries? Where are the gaps you can fill? This isn't traditional keyword research -it's understanding the conversations AI is having about your industry. From this, we build a tailored strategy specific to your brand.

3. Website AI-Readable Optimization

We create an AI-readable version of your existing website. Your product pages, service descriptions, pricing, and key content get structured into a clean format that AI can easily parse and accurately reference. Your human visitors still see your original site, exactly as you built it -nothing changes for them. But when an AI crawler visits, it gets a version designed to be understood and cited.

4. GEO Content Creation

We write GEO-optimized blog posts and articles for your brand. Our GEO specialists analyze top competitor content and create pieces designed to get cited by AI. Each post includes factual snippets, structured data, citations, and FAQ sections -the exact signals that make AI recommend your brand. This isn't generic content. Every piece is tailored to your brand voice, your products, and the questions your potential customers are asking AI.

5. Custom Action Strategy Based on Your Brand

No two brands are the same, so no two strategies should be. Your dedicated GEO specialist builds a custom action plan based on your specific industry, competitive landscape, and business goals. This includes which AI queries to target, what content gaps to fill, how to position your brand against competitors in AI answers, and which platforms to prioritize. The strategy evolves as your market changes and as we learn what drives results for your brand.

6. Tracking & Continuous Improvement

We monitor how AI platforms interact with your site over time. You can see which AI engines are visiting, which pages they're reading, and how many real people are clicking through from AI answers. Your GEO specialist reviews this data in bi-weekly reports and continuously refines the strategy -adjusting content, targeting new queries, and responding to shifts in how AI platforms behave. For more on the metrics that matter, see What Is CTR in AI Search? and Clicks vs. Human Visits.
For a quick overview of the product itself, read What Is Mersel AI?.

How It Works Technically

Mersel operates at the DNS level. You make a single DNS change -that's it. No code to install, no plugins to configure, no developer sprint required.

Once connected, Mersel sits between your website and incoming traffic. When a real person visits, they go straight through to your original site. Nothing changes for them. Zero performance impact, zero visual differences.

When an AI platform visits -ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or any other crawler -Mersel serves a structured, optimized version of your content. This version is designed to be easy for AI to parse, understand, and accurately cite.

Your site stays exactly as it is. Mersel handles the AI layer automatically and keeps it updated as your content changes. It works with any website, any hosting provider, any tech stack.

Who Is Mersel For?

E-commerce

When someone asks AI "What's the best standing desk under $500?" you want your product in that answer. Mersel structures your product catalog -names, descriptions, pricing, specs, reviews -so AI can recommend your products accurately. Read our full GEO Playbook for E-commerce and How AI Decides Which Products to Recommend.

SaaS

"What's the best project management tool for remote teams?" -these comparison queries are where SaaS brands win or lose in AI search. Mersel ensures your features, pricing tiers, and differentiators are clearly structured so AI recommends you instead of defaulting to the biggest name in the category.

Local Businesses

"What's the best sushi restaurant in Taipei?" AI is increasingly used for local discovery. Mersel helps local businesses surface in AI answers by structuring location data, service offerings, and customer proof points in a way AI can consume.

Content Publishers

If your business depends on content visibility, AI is either your biggest opportunity or your biggest threat. Mersel makes sure AI platforms can accurately reference and link back to your articles, rather than summarizing them without attribution.

Results to Expect

GEO is not a switch you flip overnight. Like SEO, it takes time to build presence. Here's a realistic timeline:

Week 1-2: Setup and initial optimization. Your DNS change goes live, Mersel begins serving structured content to AI crawlers.
Month 1: You start seeing data in your dashboard -which AI platforms are visiting, which pages they're reading. This is your baseline.
Month 2-3: AI platforms begin updating their understanding of your content. You may start appearing in AI-generated answers for queries related to your business.
Month 3-6: Compounding effect. As AI platforms repeatedly visit your optimized content, your presence in AI answers grows. You should see measurable increases in AI-driven clicks and brand mentions.

The key metrics to watch:

  • Agent Visits: How often AI platforms crawl your site
  • AI Clicks: How many real people come to your site from AI answers
  • CTR: The percentage of AI visits that result in human traffic
  • Brand Mentions: How often AI names your brand in its answers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GEO replacing SEO?

No. SEO still matters. Google isn't going away. But a growing share of discovery is moving to AI, and that share is accelerating. GEO is a new channel, not a replacement. The smartest businesses invest in both.

Does Mersel change my website?

No. Your website stays exactly as it is for human visitors. Mersel only serves a different version to AI crawlers. Real people never see the optimized version.

Do you write content for me?

Yes. Our GEO specialists write optimized blog posts for your brand on a regular basis. Each post is researched, written, and structured specifically to get cited by AI -with factual snippets, structured data, citations, and FAQ sections. The content is tailored to your brand voice and targets the queries your potential customers are asking AI.

Is the service the same for every brand?

No. Every brand gets a dedicated GEO specialist who builds a strategy specific to their industry, competitors, and goals. The optimization approach, content topics, and tracking priorities are all tailored to your brand. This isn't a one-size-fits-all tool -it's a managed service.

How is this different from schema markup or structured data?

Schema markup is a piece of the puzzle, but it's not enough on its own. AI platforms need more than just metadata -they need your entire content structured in a way they can consume. Mersel does that comprehensively, going far beyond what schema tags alone can achieve.

What if I already rank well on Google?

Great -that means you have strong content. But Google rankings don't automatically translate to AI recommendations. AI platforms use different signals and different logic to decide who to recommend. Many businesses that rank #1 on Google are absent from AI answers.

How long does setup take?

We handle the entire setup for you. After a short discovery call, your GEO specialist gets everything running -typically within 24 hours. No developers needed on your end.

What if I have thousands of pages?

Mersel works at any scale. It automatically discovers and optimizes all your pages, and keeps them updated as your content changes.

Want to see how AI currently reads your website? Book a free AI visibility audit and we'll show you exactly what AI sees -and what it's missing.

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Published on February 1, 2026