Digital Ink and Smart Elephant have teamed up to help printers be discovered as web platforms expand their use of AI to replace existing search models.
They have developed GEO Rank which says Digital Ink founder Chris Minn, is more than GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) replacing SEO.
He explains that across the UK and US clients have been reported a decline of a much as 50% in referrals from the likes of Google. This has an impact on sales and profits and is down to the way that AI agents are taking control of search within businesses.
“We have worked with Smart Elephant at a number of PSPs that have reported a drop in web search as people are using AI to do their searching,” says Minn. “As a consequence sales were dropping.
“If for example the prospect asked the AI to find suitable label printers, it might return just five recommendations, instead of several pages of results. To sell print in future people will have to come to this in a slightly different way.”
It could mean he explains that a large business is overlooked in favour of a smaller more nimble business that have restructured its data to be found by the AIs. He adds that this is the way that GenZ are making purchases and discovering suppliers.
This is part of what GEO Rank aims to do. It will also a platform where printers can compare their position against a selection of rival businesses to check their relative visibility to the AI engines. And what is needed to improve their score. “Businesses need to know that they are going to be found or they risk losing out on sales,” says Minn.
“Take a large business that has never had to worry about SEO because of its size. Now if they don’t have the data structured in the right way, a small company that is more organised can be ranked higher,” he explains.
Pilot projects have been completed with Precision Proco in the UK and Sandy Alexander in the US. Now GEO Rank is available for commercial implementation with the first customer, a business in Dubai already signed up.
This does not affect the normal search engines which continue as before, but as agents are increasingly used in decision making, companies that have not adapted will lose out. “This is a challenge that is multiplying by the day,” says Minn. “The easier it becomes to use AI software, the quicker business need to transition to bing cited by the large language models.
“We are already planning for the next phase when ecommerce moves further into platforms like Shopify and advertising opportunities open up directly inside tools like ChatGPT, where a user should be be able to purchase print products without ever leaving the LLM they are using. We believe GEO Rank is the foundation of that new world and we are building for where it is going, not just where it is today.”
The appeal of the platform is increased by a partnership with Trust Pilot which has the data that can be used for comparison with other print businesses and to keep pace with changes that the AI companies make to their tools.
