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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+1

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #232 - Off-Page GEO. Backlinks Aren't Dead, But the Game Changed: The Goal Is No Longer the Link, It's the Citation.

Aug 3, 2026

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9 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #232 - Off-Page GEO. Backlinks Aren't Dead, But the Game Changed: The Goal Is No Longer the Link, It's the Citation.

In SEO, off-page work chased the backlink. In GEO, off-page work chases the citation. This week I put Peec AI's off-page playbook, Waikay and Dixon Jones's "what AI knows about you" approach, and fresh Similarweb data side by side. They all point to the same place. Per reported analyses, a brand's own website is only 5-10% of the sources AI leans on when it builds an answer. The rest is off-page: Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, industry portals, earned media. And no, this doesn't mean backlinks or domain authority are dead. The data says both still work, just not as the goal anymore. Plus the one move to make this week.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #231 In Turkey, the Service for Getting Seen by AI Doesn't Even Have a Name Yet. And the Demand Isn't Gone. It's Still Being Searched as "SEO."

Jul 27, 2026

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9 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #231 In Turkey, the Service for Getting Seen by AI Doesn't Even Have a Name Yet. And the Demand Isn't Gone. It's Still Being Searched as "SEO."

This week I put Semrush, our own Google Search Console data, Google Trends, and YouTube side by side. Turkish users have already adopted AI tools: "chatgpt" gets 1,000,000 searches a month. But almost nobody searches for the service of getting seen inside those tools. "seo hizmeti" (SEO service) gets 1,600 searches while "geo hizmeti" (GEO service) sits below the measurement threshold. The service doesn't even have a settled name. Yet the demand didn't evaporate. It's still hiding inside the word "SEO." So this season's job isn't to capture demand, it's to make hidden demand visible.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #230 :In English, G2 Tells AI the "Best" Tool. In Turkish, That Seat Is Empty, and Ads Fill It.

Jul 20, 2026

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4 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #230 :In English, G2 Tells AI the "Best" Tool. In Turkish, That Seat Is Empty, and Ads Fill It.

This week I ran a live test across 10 sectors, on two engines (ChatGPT and Perplexity), both logged out. One question: when AI answers "what is the best X," who actually feeds the answer? You already know the English-language answer: G2, Capterra, PCMag. So I ran it in Turkish, a market with no independent-review layer, to see what AI leans on when that layer simply doesn't exist. Across 20 searches, the number of independent, neutral local review institutions was zero. The gap gets filled by vendor listicles, commission-driven comparison sites, and, I am not kidding, a recipe site. It is a gap. It is also a wide-open opportunity.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #229 :How GEO Actually Works. A Short Guide, and the 6 Myths the Industry Still Believes.

Jul 13, 2026

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10 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #229 :How GEO Actually Works. A Short Guide, and the 6 Myths the Industry Still Believes.

This week I'm not reporting news, I'm writing a guide. A language model decides what to say about your brand based on only two things: training data and grounding. Almost every myth in our industry comes from missing that distinction. I take the six biggest ones apart. At the center sits the llms.txt saga, and its real lesson has nothing to do with the file: don't take Google's word for it, and don't take your favourite expert's word for it either. I apply the same discipline to Google's new OKF standard. Then one live observation: I asked Google's AI which credit card is best. It named seven banks by product. Not one of the sources it cited was a bank.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+2

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #215: Why Is AI Ignoring You? 98,000 Citation Rows Have the Answer

Apr 6, 2026

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17 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #215: Why Is AI Ignoring You? 98,000 Citation Rows Have the Answer

What does AI actually reward when it reads your content? Kevin Indig analyzed 1.2 million ChatGPT responses and 98,000 citation rows, debunking most "universal" SEO/GEO advice. Meanwhile, Lily Ray published a 70+ branded questions checklist for AI search visibility. This week: the data-driven truth about AI citations.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+1

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #205: Grounding in AI Search, Google's Data Secrets, and GEO Strategies

Jan 26, 2026

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11 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #205: Grounding in AI Search, Google's Data Secrets, and GEO Strategies

This week in SEO's Diners Club, we dive deep into the "Grounding" concept that will shape 2026 SEO strategies, leaked court documents revealing how Google uses user data, and Microsoft's new AEO/GEO guide. Packed with actionable insights and the latest AI developments.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #191 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Oct 20, 2025

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20 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #191 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

By Mert Erkal, SEO Strategist & Conversion Expert with 15+ years of experience

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #182 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Aug 18, 2025

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13 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #182 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

By Mert Erkal, SEO Strategist & Conversion Expert with 15+ years of experience

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+2

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #174 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Jun 22, 2025

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11 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #174 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

By Mert Erkal, SEO Strategist & Conversion Expert with 15+ years of experience

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+1

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #153 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Jan 26, 2025

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11 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #153 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Here are the weekly SEO insights for the SEOs Diners Club members.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+1

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #140 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Oct 27, 2024

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15 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #140 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Here are the weekly SEO insights for the SEOs Diners Club members.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

+2

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #120 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Jun 9, 2024

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11 min read

🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #120 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

Here are the weekly SEO insights for the SEOs Diners Club members.

Mert Erkal
Mert Erkal
The SEOs Diners Club

The SEOs Diners Club

Stradiji founder Mert Erkal interprets the important SEO developments of the week for you.


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