Table of Contents
- Why Test Your Own Visibility?
- Test Methodology
- Results: 2 of 6 Queries (33.3% Hit Rate)
- Where We Appear
- Where We Don’t Appear — And Why It Matters
- The Competitive Landscape
- What We’re Doing About It
- FAQ: AI Citation Self-Testing
Why Test Your Own Visibility?
Every AEO agency tells clients to measure. Few publish their own results.
We ran a live citation presence test on staycitable.com on July 7, 2026. Six queries, top 20 search results each, across Startpage and Brave Search. The goal was simple: how often does our own domain appear for the terms we claim to own?
The answer: 33.3% of the time. Strong on branded search. Patchy on everything else.
Here is the full breakdown — what we found, what it means, and what we are doing about it.
Test Methodology
We selected six queries spanning four intent types:
| Query | Intent Type |
|---|---|
| ”generative engine optimization agency” | Commercial — service discovery |
| ”AEO GEO audit vacation rentals” | Niche — vertical-specific service |
| ”how to get cited by AI search engines” | Informational — educational/how-to |
| ”AI visibility for vacation rental websites” | Niche — vertical pain point |
| ”answer engine optimization pricing 2026” | Commercial — buyer research |
| ”staycitable AEO GEO” | Branded — navigational |
Each query was searched with pages=2 (top 20 results). We recorded position, URL, and competing domains for every result where staycitable.com appeared — or noted its absence.
Search engines used: Startpage (primary, queries 2-6) and Brave Search (query 1). We chose engines that proxy Google results without personalization, giving a clean view of organic ranking.
Results: 2 of 6 Queries (33.3% Hit Rate)
| Query | Found? | Position |
|---|---|---|
| ”generative engine optimization agency” | No | — |
| “AEO GEO audit vacation rentals” | Yes | ~8-9 |
| ”how to get cited by AI search engines” | No | — |
| “AI visibility for vacation rental websites” | No | — |
| “answer engine optimization pricing 2026” | No | — |
| “staycitable AEO GEO” | Yes | 1, 2, 3 (5 URLs) |
Hit rate: 33.3% Best non-branded performance: “AEO GEO audit vacation rentals” at position ~8-9 Branded dominance: 5 distinct URLs occupying positions 1-3 for our own name
Where We Appear
Query 6: “staycitable AEO GEO” — Branded Dominance
Five URLs on page 1:
- staycitable.com/about/
- staycitable.com/blog/aeo-tools-comparison-2026
- staycitable.com/services/
- www.staycitable.com/blog/
- www.staycitable.com/blog/aeo-content-audit-guide
This is what healthy internal linking and topical clustering looks like. Search engines clearly understand that staycitable.com is the authoritative source for information about StayCitable.
Query 2: “AEO GEO audit vacation rentals” — Position ~8-9
Our single non-branded appearance came via staycitable.com/blog/. Competing domains included craftedstays.co, marqade.com, and Google’s own developer documentation on structured data.
This is our niche — and we barely crack the top 10. One result, one URL, no featured snippet.
Where We Don’t Appear — And Why It Matters
”generative engine optimization agency”
This is literally what we are. But the query is owned by greenbananaseo.com, percepture.com, directiveconsulting.com, and agency listicles on clutch.co.
Our homepage exists. It ranks for branded queries. It does not rank for the generic term describing our core service.
Root cause: The homepage competes against dedicated landing pages optimized for this exact phrase. We do not have one.
”how to get cited by AI search engines”
We have a post titled exactly this: “How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.” It was published May 2026. It does not appear in the top 20.
The query is owned by aeoengine.ai (a content marketing SaaS), searchengineland.com, and frase.io — domains with domain authority orders of magnitude higher than ours.
Root cause: Our post exists but lacks the domain authority and backlink profile to compete against established martech publishers. Content quality alone does not win search — authority does.
”AI visibility for vacation rental websites”
This is our stated niche. We have nine posts about vacation rentals and AI visibility. None appear in the top 20.
The query is owned by vacation rental SaaS platforms: Lodgify (aiready.lodgify.com), Guesty, PriceLabs, and specialist agencies like craftedstays.co and hospitalitylabs.io.
Root cause: SaaS company blogs carry domain authority from their main product domains. A standalone agency blog cannot compete on authority without backlinks from these same platforms.
”answer engine optimization pricing 2026”
Commercial intent. Prospective buyers researching costs. We have a pricing page at staycitable.com/pricing/ with 1,880 words and FAQPage schema. It does not rank.
The query is owned by percepture.com, scrunch.com, and other agencies with pricing-focused content marketing.
Root cause: Our pricing page targets existing site visitors who navigate to it. It is not optimized as a landing page for search-originated traffic. No one searches “staycitable pricing” and finds it — they find it because they searched for us. The page needs keyword targeting, internal links from relevant blog posts, and external backlinks.
The Competitive Landscape
Five domains appeared across multiple queries and represent our primary competition for organic visibility:
| Competitor | Appears In | Type |
|---|---|---|
| percepture.com | ”GEO agency” + “pricing 2026” | AEO/GEO agency |
| craftedstays.co | ”vacation rentals” queries | Niche SEO specialist |
| hospitalitylabs.io | ”vacation rental” queries | Vacation rental tech |
| aeoengine.ai | ”how to get cited” | Content SaaS |
| searchengineland.com | ”how to get cited” | SEO news publisher |
The pattern is clear: the domains that outrank us either have higher domain authority from being established publishers, or they operate in the exact niche where they are publishing content.
What We’re Doing About It
The test surfaced four concrete actions. Here is what changes — and when:
-
Jul 13: Create a dedicated landing page targeting “generative engine optimization agency” — distinct from the homepage, optimized for that exact phrase, with internal links from every relevant blog post.
-
Jul 14: Optimize the existing “How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini” post for search — add keyword-targeted H2s, FAQPage schema, and internal links from other visibility-related posts.
-
Jul 15: Publish “AI Visibility for Vacation Rental Websites: The 2026 Landscape” — a pillar-page-length guide with original data, linking out to the SaaS platform posts that currently outrank us (turning competitors into backlink targets).
-
Jul 16-17: Outreach — pitch guest posts to the vacation rental SaaS blogs that already rank for our niche terms. Earn backlinks from the domains that currently occupy our space.
We will retest all six queries on August 7, September 7, and October 7. Results will be published.
FAQ: AI Citation Self-Testing
How often should I test my own site’s citation presence?
Monthly. AI models retrain, search algorithms shift, and competitors publish. A quarterly test is the minimum; monthly gives you signal fast enough to course-correct.
What queries should I test?
Three types: branded (your company name), commercial (what someone searches when they want to buy your service), and informational (the questions your content answers). Aim for 6-10 queries total.
How do I run the test without biased results?
Use a search engine that does not personalize results. Startpage proxies Google without your search history. Brave Search is another option. Avoid testing from your own browser where cookies and history skew results.
What is a good hit rate?
For a site under 12 months old: 25-40% is normal. Over 12 months with consistent content publishing: target 50%+. Agencies that have been publishing for 2+ years should push for 70%+ on their core terms.
Does ranking in search predict AI citation?
Imperfectly but directionally. Domains that appear in top-10 search results for a query are significantly more likely to be cited by AI models answering that same query — because both depend on the same underlying authority signals. A search presence test is the fastest proxy for AI citation likelihood without needing to run direct prompts against every AI engine.
This post is part of StayCitable’s commitment to publishing real data, not just promising it. The full test data is available in our public audit repository. We will update this post with retest results on August 7, 2026.
Related reading: What Is a Generative Engine Optimization Agency?, AI Citation Readiness Checklist, How to Run an AEO/GEO Audit.