Case Study · Fashion & Retail
How a UK Fashion Retailer Audited AI Search Visibility and Built a GEO Growth Strategy
AI Search Visibility Audit & GEO Strategy for a UK Fashion Retailer
SERVICES
AEO & GEO Monitoring · AI Search Visibility Audit · Competitor & Source Analysis · Technical & Content Audit · AEO / GEO Strategy
CLIENT
Fashion Brand
INDUSTRY
Retail
MARKET
United Kingdom
PROGRAMME
4 weeks
Findings at a Glance
22.6%
Presence in swimwear-focused AI search answers
1.3%
Mention Rate across wider fashion monitoring
382 domains
Referenced across monitored AI answers
49%
Of product-page content invisible to AI crawlers
The Challenge
The retailer has an established UK ecommerce business with a large product catalogue, multiple fashion categories and its own editorial content.
The project covered the brand's full position in AI search: where it appeared in AI-generated recommendations, which competitors were more visible, which external sources influenced those answers and how the website itself supported or limited AI visibility.
The objective was to turn this analysis into a GEO strategy covering technical improvements, product and category content, external visibility and ongoing monitoring.
The Baseline
Three AI search monitoring rounds were run across priority product categories, audience segments and shopping queries.
The analysis covered:
- Brand mentions and category visibility.
- Competitor mentions and recommendations.
- Third-party sources used in AI answers.
- The brand's presence within those sources.
- The retailer's own pages appearing in AI answers.
- Product attributes and positioning.
- Website and page analysis, including AI crawler access, content visibility, indexability and technical performance.
The monitoring was combined with competitor, source and website analysis to identify where visibility was being lost and why.
What Was Done
1
Ran AI search monitoring
The brand's visibility was measured across product discovery, comparison and recommendation queries, identifying where it was already appearing and where it was missing.
2
Benchmarked competitors
The brands appearing across the same queries were analysed to identify where competitors had stronger category visibility and positioning.
3
Analysed AI sources
The third-party domains and publications used in AI answers were reviewed, measuring the retailer's presence across the sources influencing recommendations.
4
Audited AI crawler access and content visibility
2,834 indexable pages across 562 URL templates were analysed to understand what content AI crawlers could access and what information was missing from their view.
5
Audited URL health, performance and indexability
Broken and redirected URLs, mobile performance and sitemap coverage were reviewed to identify issues affecting search and AI discovery.
6
Audited metadata and structured data
Metadata and JSON-LD were analysed across the audited pages to identify gaps affecting how search and AI systems understand and use the site.
7
Built a GEO growth strategy
Our team combined the monitoring, competitor data, source analysis and website findings into a prioritised roadmap covering technical work, owned content, product positioning, external visibility and ongoing measurement.
HIGH LEVEL OUTLOOK
AI Search Presence Research & GEO Audit Findings
The retailer's strongest AI visibility was in swimwear, where the brand appeared in 22.6% of monitored answers.
Across the wider fashion monitoring, Mention Rate was only 1.3%, while competitors appeared considerably more often across many recommendation and shopping queries.
The external-source analysis found the same gap. AI answers referenced 382 different domains, while the retailer appeared on only 4 of them.
The website audit identified another layer of the problem. 49% of product-page content was not visible to AI crawlers, including reviews, product Q&A, purchase information and product details.
AEO / GEO Strategy
Based on the monitoring, competitor analysis, source research and website audit, our team developed a prioritised a detailed page by page AEO / GEO strategy across three layers handled to be carried out by internal team.
Technical. Improvements to crawler access, site performance, indexability, metadata and structured data.
Owned content. Product and category pages built around the attributes, buying questions and recommendation scenarios identified in AI search.
External presence. Increased visibility across the third-party publications and sources already influencing AI-generated recommendations.
Ongoing AI search monitoring was included to measure changes in brand visibility, competitor presence and cited sources as the strategy is implemented.
What Changed
The retailer moved from separate AI visibility checks to a full understanding of where the brand was missing and why.
The project resulted in a page-by-page, prioritised AEO/GEO implementation strategy with defined actions across technical optimisation, owned content and external visibility, supported by ongoing AI search monitoring.
This gave the retailer a structured plan for improving its position across AI-generated shopping recommendations.
In marketing since 2009. In AI search since it became a category.
Our team has worked with international brands across SaaS, e-commerce, fintech and professional services for over fifteen years, originally as ContActive Tech Communications.
Today, that same senior team applies its strategic and technical expertise to answer engine optimisation, generative engine optimisation, and AI search visibility.
If AEO and GEO are on your radar, we would be glad to talk.