Pieter Verschueren is the co-founder of Rankshift AI and Depends SEO agency. He specializes in SEO and the emerging field of Generative Engine Optimization, where he helps brands understand and improve their visibility in AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode and Perplexity.
Perplexity AI is an AI search engine that answers questions with citations and links back to its sources. When a user clicks one of those links your site receives a referral, and that traffic is often high intent because the user already saw a summary and chose to click through. Understanding how much traffic comes […]
Millions of people ask assistants like Claude for answers, and those agents include links to the sources they trust. When someone clicks or copies one of those citations, they end up on your site. GA4, however, lumps most of those visits into “Direct” or “Referral,” because AI front‑ends often strip referrer data and the default […]
AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude are redefining how people discover brands. To stay visible you need tools that monitor where your brand shows up, benchmark you against competitors and offer actionable suggestions. This article compares two leading AI visibility platforms, Rankshift and Peec AI, with a focus on pricing, flexibility, user […]
Large language models are becoming a default starting point for research, decisions, and daily work. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Bing Chat a question, the answer often includes references to outside sources. Being one of those cited sources is no longer a nice to have; it is a new form of visibility. For brands, […]
As AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews change how people search online, the rules of visibility are shifting fast. In this case study, we look at how Depends — a Belgian SEO agency — responded to this shift by launching a new service: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Instead of relying on old […]
Perplexity isn’t a typical search engine. It’s an answer engine that scans the web, picks out useful parts, and creates short, clear responses. Each answer includes in-text links to the sources it used. Being one of those sources can help more people discover your site, and it can bring you backlinks and traffic. However, getting […]
AI-powered search is changing how we track website traffic. This guide shares top tips and answers common questions, so you can confidently track and understand referrals from ChatGPT. 1) Know how ChatGPT referral traffic works Sometimes, ChatGPT includes links to websites in its answers. When someone clicks one of those links, OpenAI often adds a […]
Google’s AI Overviews are changing how people discover information. Instead of blue links and a featured snippet, many searches now show a generative answer that pulls from multiple sources and sits at the top of the page. These responses often cite the pages they used. That makes them a new layer of visibility you can’t […]
OpenAI’s ChatGPT gained millions of users in its first week, and by early 2025 reports suggested more than 700 million weekly users. Exploding Topics’ research found that users send 2.5 billion prompts every day. While most ChatGPT interactions involve coding, writing or brainstorming, about 30% of prompts are search-like according to research published by SparkToro. This still amounts […]
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, announced that ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly active users during OpenAI’s Dev Day in early October 2025. Google’s AI overviews appear on a growing share of queries, and Semrush predicts that AI-driven traffic will outpace traditional search by 2027. AI search is on the move. This zero-click environment means people often […]
