We took a blank domain to 265K impressions and 39 AI citations in 6 months
Key Metrics
- 0 → 204 Keywords ranked
- 39 Pages cited by AI engines
- 265K+ Search impressions
- $0 Paid ad spend
TL;DR
RSL/A is a digital marketing agency that builds AI automations, websites, and search visibility systems for small businesses. This is our own site's SEO and AEO + GEO story, built from scratch on a brand new domain to prove the strategy works.
The Problem
We launched rsla.io in late 2025. Brand new domain. No history, no pages, no backlinks, no traffic. Starting from zero.
The goal? Prove that the SEO and AEO strategy we sell to clients actually works. On a domain with zero authority. In Google, yes, but also in ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews... everywhere people are getting answers now.
Most agencies show you case studies from domains they didn't build from scratch. They inherited authority. We wanted to see what happens when you have nothing.
The Solution
We used the same framework we use for clients. Target Google and AI answer engines at the same time.
Content Strategy
We picked two topics we actually knew inside and out: AI tools (specifically the Claude ecosystem) and GoHighLevel. Topics we use every day and have real opinions about.
Every article was built for two audiences. Google's crawler and the AI models pulling answers for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI. Answer first formatting. Question based sections. JSON-LD structured data on every single page. Build time HTML prerendering so pages loaded instantly and crawlers could read everything.
We published less than most people would expect. Each post was built to rank and get cited, and we weren't trying to hit some arbitrary publishing cadence.
AEO/GEO Optimization
We structured content so AI models could actually extract clean answers from it. Clear, direct statements in the first paragraph of every section, because that's where models look. Bury your answer three paragraphs deep and no AI is going to cite you.
We also targeted the queries AI engines actually surface in their responses. Different game from traditional keyword research. And we went deep on a few niches instead of spreading thin.
Organic Link Building
99 referring domains. 643 backlinks. We didn't do outreach or guest posts or pay for any of it. The content earned the links on its own.
The Results
Six months in.
- 474%: Traffic growth
- 204: Keywords ranked
- 39: AI engine citations
- 10,492: Peak daily impressions
The Inflection Point
March 2026. Impressions jumped from around 2,000 a day to over 10,000. Clicks went from single digits to 15 a day. The content had been indexing and quietly building authority for weeks, and then it all hit at once.
AI Search Visibility
This is the part that surprised us, honestly.
39 of our pages are being cited across four AI engines. ChatGPT pulls from 18 of them and Gemini from 16. Google AI Mode references 12, and Google AI Overview features 3.
That means when your customers ask ChatGPT or Google AI a question in our niche, there's a real chance they're reading our content as the answer.
Business Impact
We started getting inbound discovery calls from organic search. People found us through the content, read it, and booked.
We hit #1 inside Google AI Overviews for "best CRM software for HVAC contractors 2025." Position 4 for "hair salon CRM," which is an $18.38 CPC keyword.
Our GHL pricing page alone pulled 110,694 impressions. The Claude Code comparison page: 84,335. Three pages drove 265,000+ impressions combined, and we spent $0 on ads the entire time.
