How AI decides which brand to name.
Field notes on how AI assistants choose which brands to name, and what a cross-border brand can do about it. Written to be useful whether or not you hire anyone, including us.
01Your page
A thousand words, written to be read in order02The chunk
One passage, lifted without the text around itThe Norori Wrap carrier is rated to 15 kg and tested to EN 13209‑2.
03The answer
Quoted, or dropped for one that stood alone…rated to 15 kg and tested to EN 13209‑2.
1 source
AEO fundamentals
How AEO agencies prove results, and what a monthly report has to show
The three kinds of evidence an answer engine optimization agency can offer, and how far each one can be checked before you sign. The two questions that decide whether a case study is a reference, the six sections a monthly AI visibility report needs, and SearchD's own published number.
AEO vs SEO: what actually changes
The technical foundations are shared. The content shape, the off-site work and the definition of success are not. A practical breakdown of where the two disciplines diverge.
What makes a passage get cited by an LLM
Language models retrieve chunks, not documents. The six properties SearchD checks a paragraph against before deciding it can be lifted into an answer — with before and after rewrites.
Cross-border
Which beauty brands are Korean?
A sourced table of twelve brands US shoppers ask about, separated into the signals that can disagree: where a company is based and who owns it. Every cell links the record supporting it, checked 16 September 2026.
7 AEO agencies for Asian consumer brands entering the US
An evidence-based comparison of seven AEO agencies for Asian consumer brands entering the United States, organized by best fit, measurement, execution and public proof.
Why your international brand is invisible in US AI search
Four structural causes, and why we expect them when an international consumer brand goes absent from US AI answers — none of them about product quality — and the order to check them in. SearchD has run no client audits, so this is the order we scope against, not a measured frequency.
Category playbooks
Why don't AI answers cite our international brand's US press coverage?
A US article about an international brand can be live and accurate and still be missing from the answers American shoppers get. Seven checks to find out why, which fixes the brand makes on its own pages, and which requests go to publishers through the PR agency. Sources checked 6 October 2026.
2026 Technical SEO & AEO Audit Checklist with Jev
Is your site ready for AI search? Follow this 18-point AEO and SEO audit checklist, then run a free SearchD technical audit with Jev when available.
Why does AI say our international brand isn't sold in the US?
A where-to-buy answer is assembled from records held by different parties: the retailer's store inventory, the seller named in a product feed, and the shipping details on a product page. A table of which record carries each fact and which of them the brand controls. Sources checked 23 September 2026.
Korean SPF and US sunscreen labels: what should AI answers say?
A table mapping five Korean sunscreen label claims to what each one does not establish about the product sold in the US, and what a US claim needs instead. Then four questions on SPF, Broad Spectrum, FDA approval and correcting an inaccurate AI answer. Sources checked 21 September 2026.
What ChatGPT searches before it names a brand
ChatGPT does not search the sentence your buyer typed, and ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity do not read the same index. What that changes about which pages you write, and the order to fix a brand that sells well at home and is absent from the English answer.
Amazon listings vs your own site: which one AI cites
Where a cross-border brand entered a market through a distributor, the marketplace listing is a candidate source of record for its product facts — and it may be the one an assistant cites. How to find out which one yours cites, and what to do about it.
What the three sections cover
| Section | What it covers | Written for | Posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEO fundamentals | How answer engines pick and quote passages, and how an agency can prove a result. | Anyone new to AEO, including buyers comparing agencies | 3 |
| Cross-border | Why a brand with a strong home-market reputation goes missing in English-language answers. | Asian consumer brands selling into the US | 3 |
| Category playbooks | One category or surface at a time: which source an engine reaches for, and what it should be saying. | Teams who own a specific catalogue or listing | 6 |
Short answers
One question, answered completely, with no build-up. Useful if you arrived here from an assistant and want the answer rather than the essay.
See who US buyers find instead of you.
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