Over The Top SEO Launches Dedicated Generative Engine Optimization Division, Becoming One of the First Agencies to Offer Full-Service AI Search Optimization

As AI-generated answers replace traditional search results, Guy Sheetrit says the window for establishing brand authority in AI systems is measured in months, not years.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guy Sheetrit, CEO and Founder of Over The Top SEO, today announced the formal launch of the agency's dedicated Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) division — a purpose-built practice designed to help enterprise brands, ecommerce companies, and professional services firms establish and defend their visibility inside AI-powered search platforms including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity AI.

The new division represents one of the industry's first full-service GEO offerings, combining AI citation optimization, entity authority building, structured data architecture, and ongoing AI visibility monitoring into a single managed service.

AI search platforms are experiencing explosive growth. Google Gemini's user base is expanding 12 percent quarter-over-quarter. Perplexity has captured nearly six percent market share in under two years. ChatGPT has added 400 million weekly active users in twelve months. Across these platforms, roughly one in three queries is commercial.

The critical difference: traditional search presents a page of links. AI search names specific brands inside a generated answer — often before the user ever sees a link. For brands that aren't named, the result is functional invisibility.

"If ChatGPT doesn't mention your brand when someone asks about your industry, you effectively don't exist for that person. And every month you wait, a competitor is building the citation history and topical authority that will make them the default recommendation. This is the same inflection point we saw with traditional SEO twenty years ago — except the timeline is compressed from years to months."

— Guy Sheetrit, CEO & Founder, Over The Top SEO

The Compounding Citation Advantage

OTT's internal research indicates that brands establishing a Generative Engine Optimization presence in 2026 will hold a three-to-five-times citation advantage over competitors who enter in 2027. The gap compounds because of how AI models learn: brands that are cited frequently become more visible to the model, which leads to more citations, which further cements their authority in the model's knowledge base. Late entrants must overcome not just their own absence, but the entrenched presence of competitors who moved first.

The parallel to early search engine optimization is instructive. In the early 2000s, the brands that invested in SEO first captured dominant positions that took competitors years to challenge. The difference with Answer Engine Optimization and GEO is speed — what took years in SEO will take months in the AI era.

Understanding the SEO-to-GEO Shift

GEO is not a replacement for traditional SEO. It is a parallel discipline addressing a different discovery mechanism entirely. OTT has published an in-depth analysis of the differences in its GEO vs Traditional SEO guide.

In traditional SEO, success means ranking on a page of links and earning a click. In GEO, success means being the brand named inside an AI-generated answer.

The ranking signals are fundamentally different. Traditional SEO relies on backlinks, keyword placement, page speed, and user experience. GEO relies on topical authority, structured data, AI citation patterns, and content architecture that large language models can reliably interpret. The competitive dynamics differ too: traditional SEO rankings shift with every algorithm update, while GEO citation authority compounds over time as AI models retrain on updated data.

OTT's position is that brands need both — and that agencies with deep SEO expertise are best positioned to deliver GEO, because the technical foundations overlap significantly.

Who Is Most at Risk

Enterprise and Fortune 500 organizations risk being displaced by AI-native competitors. For these brands, GEO is a defensive strategy as much as a growth strategy — protecting brand equity from erosion in AI-generated recommendations.

High-growth ecommerce brands competing for AI-powered purchasing decisions. When a consumer asks an AI assistant for the best product in a category, GEO determines whether their brand appears in the answer.

Professional services and SaaS companies where a single AI citation can generate significant pipeline value.

"We've been doing this longer than almost anyone, and we've never seen a shift this significant. The move from ten blue links to AI-generated answers changes everything about how brands get discovered. Everyone else is still writing the blog post. We already built the division."

— Guy Sheetrit

About Over The Top SEO
Over The Top SEO is an award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in SEO, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and AI-powered search strategies for Fortune 500 companies, ecommerce brands, and high-growth businesses. Founded by Guy Sheetrit, the agency has served nearly 1,000 clients and generated over $1 billion in client revenue. OTT is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, with operations in Los Angeles and global remote teams. Learn more at overthetopseo.com.

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Media Contact
Guy Sheetrit
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Over The Top SEO Launches Dedicated Generative Engine Optimization Division, Becoming One of the First Agencies to Offer Full-Service AI Search Optimization

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