"U&AI opened a new sales channel we didn’t even know we were losing. Thanks to our visibility on ChatGPT, we closed high-ticket clients such as Buffalo Wild Wings and Crumbl Cookies.”

Liran Engel, CEO, 360 Rodent Control

About

For their category, discovery is increasingly happening inside AI answer engines, not just “blue links”, because buyers ask for shortlists and “best option” recommendations. Google AI Overviews explicitly present AI-generated snapshots with links to sources, and ChatGPT search experiences commonly include source citations.
That made AI visibility commercially important for them, especially as they started seeing commercial and institutional buyers use AI tools during vendor research.

The challenge

In the June 18 to July 18 baseline window, 360 Rodent Control was effectively invisible in tracked AI responses across ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. The issue was not “ranking” in a classic SEO sense. The issue was AI discovery:

• When prospects asked AI tools for rodent control recommendations in Southern California, the brand was not being named.

• When AI tools did provide citations or sourcing, 360’s owned pages were not being used as sources. (For example when someone asks - "what is the process", or "how much does it cost"?)

• This created a compounding risk: the brand was absent from the “recommended set” that users often accept as a shortlist, especially in time-sensitive pest situations.

For a small family business in a high-competition local market, being excluded from AI-generated shortlists means fewer opportunities even when real-world service quality is strong.

ChatGPT Visibility was 0%, meaning they were not showing at all

While their competitors were national brands, dominating the space

and the Citation Share (Where AI "Brain" take it sources from) was only 0.2%

The situation was similar on Google AI Overview:

The Approach

U&AI approached this as Answer Engine Optimization, not traditional SEO. The strategy centered on a simple loop:

1. Monitor how AI engines answer the exact transactional and educational questions, not just keywords. This included consumer intent (urgent rodent problems) and commercial intent (facilities, restaurants, multi-site operators).

2. Diagnose why the brand was excluded by comparing AI outputs, which sources were cited, and what entity signals and “extractable” information the engines could reliably use.

3. Execute changes that AI systems can use: tighten entity clarity, publish answer-ready pages, and build supporting authority signals so the brand becomes both “sayable” and “citable” inside AI responses.

ChatGPT and Google AI Overview Starting point visibility breakdown by topic

This matters because Google AI Overviews are designed to summarize information and include links for users to dig deeper, so being cited is a direct visibility lever.

The Process

Our tracking process is just the starting point to understand: 360 Rodent Control starting point and what brands and content is being mentioned. The next step, and the most important one, is reverse engineer what is working right now in order to:

1. create new content for 360 Rodent Control

2. commenting on Reddit and other highly cited social media platforms

3. collaborating with highly cited media sites

4. 
   

This is where our dedicated AEO experts come into action, crafting strategy for where we want to rank, and how to do content that will achieve those goals.

The Outcome

In just 5 Months, 360 Rodent Control gained 68.5% Visibility on ChatGPT, the 2nd Most Recommended brand.

on Google AI Overview we've seen success as well being 69.6% of the time being visible.

When we break it down topic by topic, 360 Rodent Control rules high-intent with big search volume, such as "Rodent Control Near Me" or "Attic Rat Removal" on ChatGPT

The biggest reward accrued within the citation share, as of the end of the tracking period, 360 Rodent Control is the most cited website on ChatGPT and #3 most cited on Google AI Overview

ChatGPT 22% Citation Share. More than Reddit!

Google AI Overview 15.7% Citation Share.

Why It Matters

For local services, AI visibility is not a vanity metric. It directly affects who gets considered when a user asks:

• “Who should I hire?”

• “What’s the best option near me?”

• “Who handles this for commercial facilities?”

Once a brand becomes consistently citable, two things compound:

1. AI shortlists stabilize. The brand stops being a one-off mention and becomes part of the default recommendation set for certain intents.

2. B2B discovery becomes possible without “enterprise marketing.” When decision makers use AI tools during procurement, appearing as a recommended vendor changes access to conversations that would otherwise be locked behind relationships and large budgets.

AI visibility is earned through an execution loop: monitoring what the engines actually say, fixing the reasons they cannot confidently recommend you, then publishing and reinforcing signals until you become both quotable and citable. Monitoring alone does not change outcomes. Execution does.