For us, it is more like 5% of the traffic from GEO, but we have been running the company for 2 years and have created a lot of handwritten content for devs.
Been in production since August 2025, so ~4 months.
The strategy was intentional from the start: there's no point competing with Adobe, Smallpdf, ILovePDF for Google rankings. They have 10+ years of backlinks, massive marketing budgets, and domain authority I'll never match as a solo dev.
So I made a bet on GEO from day one: - Semantic HTML that LLMs can parse - Clear technical docs (GitHub README as primary content) - Honest about limitations - Privacy-first architecture (client-side processing)
Your 5% GEO makes sense for a 2-year-old company optimizing for traditional SEO. The difference: I skipped the SEO game entirely. When you're competing in an established niche, GEO-first might be the only viable strategy for bootstrapped products.
Curious: what type of dev content are you creating? And have you tested how LLMs cite it vs your traditional marketing content?
LLMs will have limited seats for external urls. So they will eventually go for paid urls OR even organically, it logically makes sense for them to prioritise StackOverflow, Reddit, Quora kind of sites instead of independent websites. It will wield more advertising power to do this. Following money makes sense?
This is just waiting for the dust to settle in I guess.
However, I suspect there's a distinction between Information and Utilities.
An LLM can summarize a StackOverflow discussion on "how to compress a PDF," but it cannot (yet) reliably perform the heavy client-side processing to actually do it securely in the browser without uploading data.
For tools and utilities, the "click" is still necessary to perform the action. My bet is that AI will act more as a dispatcher for specific tasks ("Go here to fix X") rather than just a summarizer.
But you're right — once LLMs get native, sandboxed execution environments, even tools might get absorbed.
If a user prompts generic stuff like "best pdf editor", the AI will likely route them to Adobe or the paid giants.
But users often prompt with constraints: "compress pdf locally", "convert pdf without uploading", or "pdf tools no signup".
That's where the indie product fits in. The big incumbents usually require uploads (for data harvesting) or logins (for growth). By strictly adhering to "privacy-first / local-only", my site satisfies a constraint that the big players structurally cannot.
The AI seems to recognize that distinction.
ulinycoin•2mo ago
I wanted to share something fascinating: ChatGPT has become my biggest traffic source, accounting for ~50% of visitors, compared to ~45% from Google. This happened organically — I didn't optimize specifically for AI assistants.
Key Stats: - ChatGPT: ~50% of traffic - Google Search: ~45% - Direct/Other: ~5% - Conversion rate from ChatGPT: 2x higher than Google - ChatGPT users stay 40% longer on average
What I think is happening:
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) vs SEO Traditional SEO focuses on keywords, backlinks, and content clusters. But AI assistants work differently: - They parse semantic HTML structure - They value clear, descriptive content over keyword density - They prefer sites that solve problems directly
The ironic part? My site was built with basic semantic HTML and clear descriptions — not because I was targeting AI, but because it's good web development practice.
Technical Details: - Stack: Astro + TypeScript, client-side PDF.js - No tracking, no uploads — everything processes locally - Semantic HTML: proper headings, landmarks, meta descriptions - Clear tool descriptions with use cases
Why ChatGPT users convert better: 1. Intent clarity: They ask specific questions ("how to compress PDF without losing quality") 2. Contextual recommendations: ChatGPT explains why LocalPDF fits their needs 3. Trust transfer: AI assistant endorsement acts as social proof
Limitations: - Can't track which specific ChatGPT prompts drive traffic - No direct way to optimize for AI recommendations - ChatGPT's recommendations can change unpredictably
Questions for HN: 1. Are you seeing similar traffic patterns from AI assistants? 2. How do you measure/optimize for GEO vs traditional SEO? 3. What happens when every AI assistant has different ranking criteria?
This feels like early Google days — there's a level playing field where good products with clear value propositions can get discovered organically, without massive SEO budgets.
Happy to answer questions about the technical implementation, traffic patterns, or anything else!
unsungNovelty•2mo ago
ulinycoin•2mo ago
arealaccount•1mo ago