SEO tools are adding GEO. It isn't the same job.
Your SEO agency now has an "AI visibility" tab. Here's what the research actually says — and why we built Ghostart differently.
The facts that change everything
Every study that has measured where AI pulls from when it answers a question about a business agrees on the direction: the large majority of it was published somewhere other than the business's own website — LinkedIn posts, articles, reviews, answers. Muck Rack's vendor analysis of 25 million links puts the third-party share around 84%; an independent University of Toronto study finds 54–66% across four engines; McKinsey puts a brand's own sites at just 5–10% of sources. The sizes differ, the direction doesn't — and it's exactly the ground an SEO tool doesn't touch: it's covered by people publishing, not pages optimised.
Ranking doesn't carry over either. When Ahrefs compared what AI platforms cite against what ranks on Google, only about 12% of the URLs cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot appeared in Google's top 10 for the same question. One vendor's analysis, so hold the exact figure lightly — but the direction is clear: AI draws on different sources.
Sources: Muck Rack (vendor data); Chen et al., University of Toronto; McKinsey; Ahrefs, 2026.
Together they're why a GEO tab on a keyword tool doesn't do the job. It's built on the assumption the data contradicts.
What SEO tools are genuinely good at
Semrush, Ahrefs and the restare excellent at what they were built for: keywords, backlinks, technical audits, rankings. If you want to rank on Google, use them. We're not here to tell you SEO is dead.
Why the bolt-on doesn't transfer
The bolt-on assumes AI visibility is an extension of search ranking: rank well, get cited. The evidence says otherwise. Google's own AI Overviews do lean on top-ranking pages, but ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity go elsewhere — personal posts, community discussions, first-hand accounts. Optimising a page for position three doesn't put you in the answer.
And the data itself is priced for agencies
There's a practical problem too. Neither Semrush nor Ahrefs publishes a flat monthly API fee: Semrush gates API access behind its top SEO tier and sells data in prepaid unit packages, and Ahrefs bundles API units into Lite plans and above, with extra units at $50 per million. You don't need any of that to open their AI-visibility tab — you need it to work with the data at any scale, and that is still an agency-budget exercise. Ghostart is priced for the businesses being written about — it starts at $99 a month.
What getting recommended by AI actually takes
Specific, first-hand content from real people. A business AI can confidently identify. Published where AI actually looks. Measured across the engines that matter, not just Google.
What Ghostart does instead
Ghostart runs the whole loop. It finds where you're missing from AI answers, builds a strategy, gives each person in your team topics they can credibly own, drafts in their voice, scores it against our Beige-ometer — a check on whether it reads like a real person wrote it — publishes it, then re-checks whether you're being named across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Most of them now offer to write something too. What none of them does is put real, named people at the centre of it — content in each person's own voice, then a check across all six engines to see who actually gets cited.
We've run employee advocacy programmes for some of Britain's best-known organisations. We know what happens when you ask real people to publish.
Logos reference clients of Togethr, our employee advocacy training and platform business.
The honest bit
You still want SEO. It's a different job from getting recommended by AI. Doing GEO properly doesn't cost you your search presence; it moves you to where search is heading. We just think that deserves a platform built for it, rather than a tab added to one that wasn't.
Who is this comparison for?
Founders and marketing leads at small and mid-sized businesses, and the agencies and ghostwriters working on their behalf, deciding whether an SEO platform's new AI-visibility tab is enough or whether the job needs a dedicated GEO tool.
What are the key facts?
- The large majority of what AI reads about a business was published somewhere other than the business’s own website. Estimates of the exact share vary — Muck Rack’s vendor analysis of 25 million links puts it around 84%, an independent University of Toronto study finds 54–66% across four engines, and McKinsey puts a brand’s own sites at just 5–10% of sources — but every study agrees the majority is off-site, and much of it is ground the business’s own people can publish on.
- Only about 12% of URLs cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot also rank in Google’s top 10 for the same question (Ahrefs, 2026 — a single-vendor analysis, but the direction is the point).
- Google’s own AI Overviews do lean on top-ranking pages. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity largely draw on other material — personal posts, community discussions and first-hand accounts.
- Neither Semrush nor Ahrefs publishes a flat monthly API fee: Semrush gates API access behind its top SEO tier and sells data in prepaid unit packages, while Ahrefs bundles 100k–2M API units a month into Lite plans and above, with extra units at $50 per million. Working with the data at scale is still an agency-budget exercise — that isn’t what it costs to open their AI-visibility tab.
- Ghostart starts at $99 a month and runs the whole loop: find the missing questions, draft in each person’s own voice, score it, publish it, then re-check who gets named.
Ghostart or an SEO tool with a GEO tab: which is right for you?
Keep your SEO tool if ranking on Google is still the main goal. Choose Ghostart if the goal is being the name ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity gives someone asking who's good at what you do.
| Comparison | Ghostart | SEO tool with a GEO tab |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Getting named in AI answers | Ranking pages on Google |
| Primary data | What ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers actually cite | Search rankings and backlinks, with AI visibility added afterwards |
| Entry price | From $99 a month | Their own plans, plus prepaid API unit packages for data at scale — no flat monthly API fee published |
| What you get | Strategy, drafts in each person’s voice, a generic-content check, publishing, and a re-check of who’s named | A dashboard showing where you might be missing |
| Best for | Teams who need real content published in real voices | Businesses whose main goal is still Google ranking |
The honest trade-off: if your revenue depends on organic search traffic today, Semrush and Ahrefs will do more for you than Ghostart. Ghostart doesn't touch technical SEO, backlink profiles or keyword rankings. That isn't the job it was built for.
What mistakes do businesses make here?
- Assuming a top-three Google ranking will show up in an AI answer, when the two systems draw on different sources.
- Buying data access to check AI visibility, then discovering the dashboard still needs someone to write the content.
- Publishing content scored for keywords rather than checked for whether it sounds like an actual person.
Frequently asked questions
Is SEO dead now that GEO exists?
No. SEO and GEO solve different problems. SEO tools still do their job well if organic Google ranking is the goal. GEO is a separate, additional goal: getting named when someone asks an AI tool a question in your field. Most businesses need both.
Can I just use Semrush or Ahrefs’ AI visibility feature?
You can, and it will tell you whether you’re mentioned. The limitation is the assumption underneath it — that AI visibility is an extension of search ranking, which is the thing the evidence contradicts. It also shows you where you’re missing without helping you write anything.
Does ranking well on Google help me get cited by AI?
Only partly, and mainly for Google’s own AI Overviews, which do draw on top-ranking pages. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity cite different material altogether, which is why Ahrefs (2026) found only about 12% overlap between what each system cites for the same question.
What does Ghostart do differently from an SEO tool’s GEO tab?
Ghostart runs the full loop rather than a scoreboard. It finds where a business is missing from AI answers, gives each team member topics they can credibly write about, drafts content in their voice, scores it against the Beige-ometer so it doesn’t read as generic, publishes it, then re-checks whether the business is named across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, plus Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Who shouldn’t use Ghostart?
Businesses whose main goal is still ranking in Google’s organic results are better served by a traditional SEO tool. Ghostart also depends on at least one real person willing to publish under their own name, whether that’s a founder, a single employee or a wider team. No one willing to do that, no specific point of view to share, and Ghostart isn’t the right fit.
Sources
Muck Rack (vendor data): analysis of 25 million links across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, finding third-party sources made up the large majority of what the models read. Chen et al., University of Toronto (independent academic study, arXiv:2601.16858): non-brand share of 54–66% across four engines, with earned sources dominating consideration queries. McKinsey (independent): a brand's own sites are 5–10% of the sources AI search references, Google AI Overviews only. Ahrefs (2026): comparison of URLs cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot against Google's top 10 organic results for matching queries, finding roughly 12% overlap between the two — single-vendor data.
Launching 29 September 2026. Join the waitlist — free AI visibility checks on your site until launch.