After several months of building Lorelight, I’m shutting it down.
Not because it didn’t work. The platform tracked brand mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity just fine. Some customers even saw their visibility improve.
I’m shutting it down because I realized something fundamental: GEO tools are mostly unnecessary.
Let me explain.
The pattern I kept seeing
When I analyzed what actually gets brands mentioned in AI responses, the same pattern kept showing up:
- Companies with lots of high-quality content
- Brands mentioned in authoritative publications
- Businesses with strong reputations in their space
- Organizations that built genuine expertise over time
Sound familiar?
It should. Because it’s the exact same stuff that’s always worked for SEO, PR, and traditional brand building.
There was no special “GEO strategy.” No hidden optimization trick. No shortcut.
The uncomfortable realization
Here’s what made me decide to shut down:
AI models like ChatGPT and Claude are trained on the same content that builds your brand everywhere else.
If you’re mentioned in TechCrunch, that helps your GEO. If you publish authoritative content, that helps your GEO. If you build a strong reputation, that helps your GEO.
The same actions that improve your SEO, your PR, and your overall brand also improve your GEO. They’re not separate strategies—they’re the same strategy.
Which led me to an uncomfortable question: Why am I building a tool for something that doesn’t need a tool?
What actually works for GEO
After tracking hundreds of brands across different AI platforms, here’s what I found actually moves the needle:
1. Be mentioned in high-authority sources
The single biggest factor in AI visibility is being mentioned in publications that AI models trust. Think major industry publications, well-respected blogs, academic papers, government sites.
This isn’t a GEO insight. It’s a PR insight that’s been true for decades.
2. Create comprehensive, authoritative content
Brands that publish detailed, expert-level content on their own sites get mentioned more in AI responses.
Again, this isn’t a GEO strategy. It’s content marketing 101.
3. Build genuine expertise and reputation
AI models favor brands with established credibility and expertise in their field. The more you’re recognized as an authority, the more often you’re cited.
Same as it’s always been.
4. Get backlinks from respected sources
Quality backlinks signal authority to both search engines and AI models.
Nothing new here either.
The tool doesn’t matter
Here’s the hard truth I had to accept:
You could use Lorelight to track your brand mentions across AI platforms. You could see your sentiment scores. You could monitor your competitors.
But none of that fundamentally changes what you need to do.
Whether you track your GEO performance or not, the actions that improve your visibility are the same: build a great brand, create quality content, earn authoritative mentions.
A GEO tool can show you the results of your work. But it can’t do the work for you.
And if the work is identical to what you should already be doing for SEO and brand building, what’s the point of the tool?
What this means for GEO
I’m not saying GEO doesn’t exist. Your brand can be more or less visible in AI responses, and that visibility matters.
I’m saying that GEO optimization is just brand building under a new name.
If you’re doing good marketing—creating valuable content, earning media mentions, building genuine authority in your space—your GEO will take care of itself.
You don’t need a specialized GEO tool. You just need good marketing.
What’s next for me
I’m going back to what I know works: building French Together through quality content and genuine value.
I’ve spent 10 years growing that blog to 200,000+ monthly visitors, not through hacks or tools, but through consistency and focus on what matters.
That’s what I should have been doing all along.
The lesson
Sometimes the smartest business decision is recognizing when you’re solving a problem that doesn’t actually need solving.
GEO is real. But GEO tools? For most businesses, they’re not needed.
Focus on building a great brand. The AI visibility will follow.
To Lorelight users: You’ll have full access to the platform through October 27th. After that, the platform will shut down permanently. Thank you for believing in the vision and being part of this experiment. I wish you continued success with your brand building efforts—which, as it turns out, is also your GEO strategy.
Benjamin Houy is the founder of French Together and former founder of Lorelight. He writes about building online businesses on X and at growwithless.com.
Lorelight Team
AI Insights & Analysis