By Xolani Nondabula, Technical SEO Lead and Dynamic Creative Performance Lead. Published , updated .
Brands that sell through other people’s websites have a particular AI search problem: the pages an AI answer cites may not be yours. I met it head on in a Q4 technical SEO audit for a South African brand that sells through third-party sites, and it changed how I think about visibility in AI Overviews and answer engines (AIO and GEO).
How do AI search engines choose what to cite?
AI search engines tend to cite pages that answer a specific question clearly, are easy to crawl and read, and back claims with named sources and dates. Consistent facts about the brand across the wider web, and structured data that matches the visible page, also help. There is no guaranteed formula, so test and track.
Why this matters now
Search results increasingly include AI-written answers that cite a small set of sources. Being one of those sources is a different goal from ranking in a list of ten links.
What tends to help
- Clear, self-contained answers to specific questions
- Well-structured pages with descriptive headings
- Named entities and facts that stay consistent across your site and the wider web
- Structured data that matches what is visible on the page
- Evidence on the page: sources, dates and named authorship
How to check where you stand
Pick a fixed set of real customer questions and run them through the main AI search tools.
- Record whether the brand is mentioned, cited or absent
- Note which competitors and pages are cited instead
- Repeat on a schedule to see movement over time
Technical foundations still apply
Crawlability, rendering, page speed and clean internal linking decide whether any engine can read your content in the first place.
From my work
In a Q4 technical SEO audit for a South African sanitary brand that sells through third-party websites, I paired the usual Search Console review with an LLM integration plan, and delivered recommendations in weekly phases rather than one large report.
A separate audit for a nicotine brand added a different constraint. Strict rules on product snippets and rich results meant structured data had to be planned around what could be shown, not just what was technically possible.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between AIO and GEO?
AIO (AI optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) both describe making content easy for AI answer engines to find, understand and cite. The terms vary between practitioners, but the aim is the same: to be a named source in AI-written answers, not only a blue link.
Does technical SEO still matter for AI search?
Yes. If a page cannot be crawled, rendered or understood, no engine can use it. Crawlability, page speed and clean internal links are the base that AI visibility is built on.
How can I check whether my brand is cited in AI answers?
Pick a fixed set of real customer questions, run them through the main AI search tools, and record whether your brand is mentioned, cited or absent, and who is cited instead. Repeat on a schedule to see movement.
Can a brand that sells through other websites show up in AI answers?
Yes, but the cited pages may belong to retailers rather than the brand. That makes the brand’s own product information, consistent naming and presence on those retailer pages part of the work.