From minimum viable product to algorithmic reputation: how to position your brand in the era of language models and GEO optimization.
A few weeks ago, I built a low-cost administrative tool tailored to the way I work. Amazing! Yet an immediate question came to mind: how many people with my profile are doing the exact same thing? How do you compete with a similar tool inside such a narrow digital funnel?
I think of all the professionals who have left firms and consultancies, or who have lost their jobs; they are likely building digital products directly tied to their area of expertise.
We used to say you had to test the market before building, because it wasn't worth investing in something nobody wanted to use. That still holds true; however, the evolution of AI for building apps, websites, and software has been so drastic that you can now go from an MVP to a market-ready product in just a few weeks.
Today, given current events and how fast the world is shifting, starting a digital business or building an AI-powered app makes complete sense—not only because of lower costs, but also because of mobility and the ability to relocate your business if circumstances require it.
The million-dollar question: have you been able to monetize your tool?
I imagine many people are asking themselves this right now. Traditional digital marketing revolved around SEO, but today the core question is different: are AI tools positioning your brand? Are they citing you, or are they naming your direct competitors? And when they do cite you, what exactly are they saying about you?
This is called GEO: Generative Engine Optimization.
How to get cited by ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude
For your business to be recommended and cited by leading language models, two foundational pillars must be in place:
- Crawlable presence: Your web infrastructure must be technically readable by AI bots. Specifically, pages should include a well-structured
llms.txtfile, which facilitates crawling through a clean summary free of formatting noise. - Real authority and consistency: Your brand must earn positive mentions across third-party platforms, maintaining consistent sentiment throughout the digital ecosystem.
The paradigm shift: Algorithmic reputation and intrinsic opinion
Where is all of this heading? We are moving squarely toward monitoring algorithmic reputation—that is, the trust score models assign to your digital footprint and intrinsic opinion.
Previously, value centered almost exclusively on backlinks, page speed, and keywords. Today, intrinsic opinion evaluates the genuine sentiment behind your brand by analyzing social media, blogs, news, and forums. It is like building your own real-time digital PR, allowing model recommendations to become hyper-personalized.
In this new landscape:
- Content creation shifts from writing generic blog posts to stuff keywords toward publishing original research reports and authored insights.
- Active participation in direct communities—such as specialized groups, forums, and podcasts—becomes essential.
How does this translate into practice in your web infrastructure?
If you are building or revamping your digital presence from scratch, there are two key action steps:
1. Build or revamp your web infrastructure: At IDEA Digital, we design and develop websites optimized for artificial intelligence from their base code (ensuring bot-readable structures such as the llms.txt file). Explore our AI Web Development service.
2. Measure your brand's reputation in AI chats: With our Studio Visibilidad tool, you can audit what language models say about you in real time. You can simulate the exact questions your potential clients would ask (for example: “Can you recommend a Spanish-speaking tax specialist in the Netherlands?”) to evaluate whether they cite you or your competitors and map out an effective strategy.
- Audit your brand's visibility with a free audit at Studio Visibilidad.
- Explore all our visibility plans.
- Our self-service plan runs on a €29 monthly subscription at Studio Visibilidad.