With the rise of AI search engines, traditional SEO strategies are facing huge challenges. More and more websites are experiencing a decline in organic traffic, forcing businesses to seek new optimization methods. Austrian startup Otterly has keenly captured this trend and developed tools focused on AI search visibility optimization to help companies improve their rankings and brand exposure in generative search results. This tool not only monitors traffic, but also pays attention to the overall performance of the brand on platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, providing enterprises with data-driven optimization strategies and helping them adapt to the new search environment in the AI era.
In 2024, with the rise of AI-generated search results, many websites will see a sharp decline in organic traffic. In response to this trend, Austrian startup Otterly has developed a tool focused on AI Search Visibility Optimization to help businesses and advertising agencies optimize their presence in generative search results.
With Google launching AI Overviews in May, search engine users can get answers directly on the page, greatly reducing clicks to external websites. This change poses a serious challenge to companies that rely on organic search traffic. For example, one SaaS company discovered through Otterly that Google was covering half of its SEO keywords in AI overviews, directly causing a drop in organic traffic.
Otterly CEO Thomas Peham said that "AI search visibility optimization" focuses not only on traffic, but also on the brand's position and visibility in generative search. Through its dashboard tools, Otterly helps businesses monitor and optimize performance in platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and provides weekly tracking and recommendation engine features that enable marketing teams to quickly experiment and adjust content strategies.
Otterly originally launched on Product Hunt in early 2024 and gained traction, but after Google launched AI Overviews, the company chose to completely rebuild the product. Recently, Otterly passed the milestone of 1,000 users and officially exited incognito mode.
The company’s founding team includes Peham and co-founders Josef Trauner and Klaus M. Schremser, both of whom were previously executives at user feedback platform Usersnap and sold it in 2023. Otterly is currently backed by GroWTF, the incubator founded by Schremser, and has not yet sought outside financing.
Peham said Otterly's goal is to become the Semrush or Ahrefs of AI search. Despite the risk of direct competition, Otterly plans to partner with these industry giants and revealed details of its partnership with Semrush will be announced next month.
As Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) becomes increasingly important, Otterly's innovative solutions are helping businesses find opportunities in the new search environment.
The emergence of Otterly provides enterprises with effective solutions in the new AI-driven search environment. Its future development and cooperation with industry giants are worth looking forward to, which will further promote the development of the field of AI search optimization and bring more benefits to enterprises. Many opportunities.