How a Leading Hospitality Brand Pivoted Existing SEO Research into LLM Success
We helped a leading global hospitality brand leverage a strong SEO foundation to launch an SEO + AEO strategy that earned #1 positions in Google AI Overviews while simultaneously growing organic search visibility by 166%.
At a Glance
In 10 weeks, we helped our client go from a single AI Overview appearance to 44 — with 86% at the #1 position. At the same time, organic impressions on AEO-optimized content surged from near-zero to 350,000+ per week. The correlation is clear: content built for AI citation ranks in traditional search too.
AI Overview Rankings & Organic Impressions Growth
Total AI Overviews Ranked #1 Weekly Impressions
50403020100
400K320K240K160K80K0
The Challenge
Like most businesses, our client recognized the rising tide of LLM popularity and realized that their brand would need to find a way to be represented in AI search or forfeit an enormous opportunity to gain and maintain market share.
But with so much buzz about how to influence LLMs and so few proven methods, they weren't sure where to start.
To address this challenge, they partnered with Tangible Value. We first conducted a thorough research project to determine tactics that were most likely to positively influence LLMs and then leveraged our software solution to deploy our most promising hypothesis.
The Approach
Our client had invested over five years in building a strong SEO foundation. Rather than starting from scratch, we leveraged that existing research as the springboard for an AI search strategy.
1
Turn Keywords into Prompts
We had to turn our SEO keywords into prompts because that's how users interact with LLMs. Early research shows that users interact with LLMs with much longer, more detailed queries than they would when conducting a traditional Google search.
2
Establish Baseline Visibility
One of Tangible Value's core tenets is to measure according to the scientific method — so that we know if our initiatives are working. Using our established measurement framework, we tracked how often LLMs surfaced our client's brand for each of our generated prompts.
3
Generate & Launch LLM-Friendly Content
A main reason our client was not appearing for many LLM prompts was that their library of educational content was not deep enough. Simply put, users pose a wide variety of specific questions during their purchase journey and our client was not hosting content that addressed all or most of these questions. We also had to make sure that the content created was optimized for LLMs, which prefer simple, structured data.
The Solution
This was a significantly complicated set of requirements, which the Tangible Value team met by leveraging their proprietary AI-powered platform.
Our methodology — built on 15+ years of deep SEO knowledge and powered by Claude AI — turns a carefully-organized set of SEO keywords into relevant prompts and then aids client SMEs in creating accurate, helpful content that meets the technical requirements of both SEO and GEO / LLMs.
We then partnered with both Profound and Gumshoe to track LLM visibility.
These elements are core to the platform you can learn about here — and applying them generated significant gains in SEO and LLM visibility in only a few months.
AI Overview Growth
Starting from a single AI Overview appearance in late December 2025, our client's visibility in Google's AI-generated answers grew steadily week over week, reaching 44 keywords by early March 2026.
AI Overview Rankings Over Time
Total AI Overviews Ranked #1
Key insight: 86% of all AI Overview appearances were at position #1. When our client shows up in an AI Overview, they're almost always the top-cited source.
AI Overview Coverage by Destination
The strategy produced results across all of our client's key markets, with the strongest AI Overview presence in their APAC destinations and Hawaii properties.
10
Maldives
9
Fiji
9
Oahu / Waikiki
8
Mauritius
4
Maui
3
Kauai
Top AI Overview Keywords
These are the highest-volume keywords where our client now appears in Google's AI-generated answers — queries that represent travelers actively planning trips.
| Keyword | AI Overview Rank | Monthly Volume |
|---|---|---|
| maldives vacation | #1 | |
| best time to visit maldives | #1 | |
| best time to go to maldives | #1 | |
| best time to visit fiji | #1 | |
| best time to go to fiji | #1 | |
| things to do in maui with kids | #1 | |
| best time to visit mauritius | #1 | |
| best time to see maldives | #1 | |
| fun things to do in maui | #4 | |
| best time to go to mauritius | #1 |
Showing top 10 of 44 AI Overview keywords by monthly search volume. Source: SEMrush Position Tracking, March 2026.
Organic Traffic Impact
The travel resource pages built for AEO didn't just earn AI Overview citations — they drove significant organic search traffic from Google. These pages went from near-zero to 350,000+ weekly impressions in under 10 weeks.
1.87M
Total Google Impressions
4,430
Clicks to AEO Content
350K+
Peak Weekly Impressions
95
Countries Reached
Weekly Google Impressions — Travel Resource Pages
Impressions
Top Performing Pages
| Page | Clicks | Impressions | Avg. Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Time to Visit Fiji | 737 | 246,612 | 3.0 |
| Kauai Resorts & Hotels Guide | 570 | 234,290 | 10.7 |
| Best Time to Visit Mauritius | 437 | 143,487 | 4.2 |
| Best Time to Visit Maldives | 301 | 248,019 | 4.6 |
| Things to Do in Kona Hawaii | 219 | 75,389 | 9.5 |
Source: Google Search Console, Dec 8, 2025 – Mar 7, 2026.
Key insight: Content built for AI citation also earned strong traditional search rankings. The top "best time to visit" pages achieved average positions of 3–5 in Google — meaning this content serves double duty, capturing both AI-generated and traditional organic traffic.
Key Wins
- From invisible to dominant: Grew from 1 to 44 AI Overview appearances in just 10 weeks — with 38 of those at the #1 position
- High-value query ownership: Now the #1 AI Overview source for "maldives vacation" (14,800 monthly searches) and "best time to visit maldives" (5,400 monthly searches)
- Multi-destination coverage: Earned AI Overview presence across all key markets — Maldives, Fiji, Hawaii, Mauritius, and more
- Traditional SEO uplift: Organic top 10 rankings grew 166% (50 to 133 keywords) during the same period, showing SEO and AEO work together
- 1.87M Google impressions in under 3 months from AEO-optimized content, with traffic from 95 countries and top pages ranking in positions 3–5
- 41,970 monthly search volume now captured through AI Overview rankings alone — an entirely new visibility channel
The Takeaway
These results prove that AEO isn't a separate strategy — it amplifies existing SEO work. The same content quality, authority, and structure that drives traditional rankings also powers AI Overview visibility, but only when deliberately optimized for it.
Just the Beginning
These results represent just the first phase. We are working with this client to repeat this exercise across even more user intents, destinations, and content types — expanding their AI search footprint systematically using the same platform and methodology that produced these initial gains.
Each new round builds on the last. The keyword-to-prompt pipeline identifies new opportunities, the content engine produces optimized pages faster, and the measurement framework tracks what's working in real time. As the client's content library deepens, their authority compounds — making each subsequent initiative more effective than the one before.
Want results like these?
We can do the same thing for your brand. Set up a call and we'll show you where you stand in AI search today.