How GEO Increased AI Search Traffic for an Education SaaS Provider
Targeted content expansion and keyphrase integration helped an education SaaS provider increase AI traffic growth from 15% to 43% month over month and generate new conversions from AI search engines.
SITUATION
An Education SaaS provider tasked Gatesman to get specific pieces of their top of funnel content to show up more in the LLM results of various platforms to get more engagement from users searching queries relating to that content. They wanted Gatesman to initiate Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy to capture citations and traffic from emerging AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Without optimization tailored for AI parsing models, the company was missing out on a growing segment of highly relevant search traffic.
We provided a robust, strategic roadmap of GEO recommendations designed to optimize a core asset, the "Ultimate Guide to AI in Education". The goal was to establish a scalable way to understand AI search intent and identify content opportunities to capture this new traffic channel.
SOLUTION
The company implemented only a portion of our strategic recommendations, but results were evident.
Phased Approach to Implementation
We recommended expanding the content to explicitly hit on granular, high-value AI topics, including entirely new sections for "AI Implementation and Learning by Discipline," "AI Tools For Teachers," "AI for Parents," and "AI Tools for Students". We recommended a phased approach where easier to implement higher impact actions where approached first and more difficult implementations where approaches later.
What was implemented in the first roll out:
The Client successfully executed several of our core expansion and keyphrase integration strategies. A huge part of GEO is closing content gaps that are high search volume. We proposed many of those gaps, and that’s where the client was able to move forward within the immediate term. Key capabilities included:
Targeted Content Expansion: The company replaced their basic definition section with a targeted "When Was AI First Used in Education?" section, expanded their list of "Advantages of AI in Education" from 10 to 13 items, increased the challenges section from 4 to 5 items, and added a net-new section on "Securing AI Funding for Schools and Districts".
Strategic Keyphrase Integration: The content was updated to include stronger, data-focused positioning, specifically weaving in concepts around AI analysis, data analytics and equity, and data democratization. The future-facing section was also optimized to focus on "The Future of AI in Education".
Evergreen Optimization: In a subsequent update, dated references (like the year) were removed from the headline, and the bottom call-to-action was strengthened from a passive "Ready to Learn More?" to a more direct "Ready to Connect?".
OUTCOME
A review of the performance chart showcases a "clear elbow" forming exactly where the intervention was conducted, visualizing a dramatic positive shift in AI traffic.
Key performance metrics uncovered post-intervention: The month-over-month increase in AI traffic surged from a 15% growth rate to a 43% growth rate following the optimization.The rate of change for AI traffic increases was 43x higher than the rate of change for traditional organic search traffic.Traffic originating specifically from Gemini saw a 14x month-over-month increase in sessions, outpacing organic growth by 8 times.
Additionally, the team found opportunities for net-new conversions and verified attribution: Prior to the GEO intervention, AI traffic resulted in zero conversions. Post-intervention, the page began generating conversions from AI traffic—a critical win considering 98% of the traffic to these pages was identified as highly marketable.
Ensuring we are measuring our impacts: To ensure the growth wasn't just a broader platform algorithm update, the team used site-wide AI overview citations as a control. The rest of the site did not see a natural increase during this period, proving the isolated intervention was the direct cause of the traffic surge. Furthermore, these changes did not negatively impact traditional organic performance, which continued to grow. Additionally, the team looked at AI traffic by platform, attempting to control for platform specific updates. Results remained consistent and positive.
The end result: By translating even a partial implementation of our GEO recommendations into actionable content updates, the intervention helped the Education SaaS provider capture highly relevant traffic, drive new conversions, and ensure their resources were easily discoverable by modern AI search engines and LLM tools.
