Ranking #1 Isn't Enough Anymore. Will AI Recommend Your Brand?

Your website ranks on Google. Great. But what happens when your customer doesn't Google at all?

In this episode of the eCom Ops Podcast, host Norbert Strappler talks with Leo Poitevin, Founder of Astrack and Co-founder of Linkavista, about the shift from traditional SEO to generative engine optimization, and why visibility is increasingly about being mentioned, trusted, and recommended rather than simply earning the click.

Leo explains how AI systems research brands, why third-party sources matter, how to identify the citations influencing AI recommendations, whether backlinks still work, and which eCommerce categories should be paying the most attention to GEO right now.

About:
- Leo Poitevin is the Founder of Astrack and Co-founder of Linkavista. After beginning his career in SEO at French eCommerce giant Cdiscount, he spent years working in highly competitive search industries where constant experimentation was essential to ranking.

You Will Learn:
- What GEO actually means without the marketing jargon
- How AI decides which brands to recommend
- Why ranking well doesn't automatically make your brand visible in ChatGPT
- How to find the sources influencing AI answers
- Why Reddit and comparison sites can matter for AI visibility
- Which GEO tactics Leo believes businesses are overestimating
- Which eCommerce categories should prioritize GEO first
- Why AI referral traffic doesn't show the complete customer journey
- Whether SEO and backlinks are still worth investing in
- What you can do this month to improve AI visibility
- Why brand awareness may become an increasingly important part of search strategy
- Leo's simple rule for adopting AI internally: start with AI

Show Notes:
- (00:02:28) From SEO to GEO Journey
- (00:05:26) SEO vs GEO Overlap
- (00:07:34) Will AI Replace Google
- (00:08:58) How AI Picks Brands
- (00:12:25) Testing Your AI Presence
- (00:16:57) Who Needs GEO Most
- (00:21:13) SEO Still Matters
- (00:23:06) Backlinks Still Work
- (00:25:37) Linkavista Data Insights
- (00:26:58) Can Backlinks Be Detected
- (00:30:49) What Marketing Must Change
- (00:32:08) Mentors and AI Workflow Hack

The No.1 eCom Operations hack
- Just opening incognito mode. You go into ChatGPT, you check your brand, you check what is appearing on your stuff when you're searching the best solution for the services that you're providing, and you check all the sources.

This episode is sponsored by B2Bware the B2B commerce platform that replaces your email orders, your manual data entry, and your integration mess with one system that runs on your ERP. Check them out at b2bware.com.