When Buyers are shifting from traditional search engines to AI chatbots:
GEO and How SEO · SEM · Paid Ads work with it

A0One question, four ways to be seen

A CFO at a mid-sized trading company in Hong Kong wants to replace her old SAP ECC system. She might look for answers like this:

A1Four channels compared in one table

Channels where the user searches or asks (SEO, SEM Ads, GEO), and channels where the platform pushes content to the user (Paid Ads)

A2How the four channels connect ⏱ 2′

A3The goal moves from "being clicked" to "being mentioned and cited" ⏱ 1′

B1GEO is SEO, extended to the age of AI answers ⏱ 1′

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation): getting AI to mention you, cite you, and describe you correctly when it writes an answer.

B2AI search happens in three types of places ⏱ 3′

Number of users (2026)

App market share (Sensor Tower, May 2026): ChatGPT 46.4% (below 50% for the first time), Gemini 27.7%, Claude 10.3%. Perplexity dropped ads in Feb 2026 and moved to a subscription model.

Whether each platform is available, and how much it is used, differs a lot by market.

B3How AI answers are made: most cited answers come from a live search ⏱ 4′

How AI Answers your question? Workflow see Below

How AI Pick up passages and answer your question? AI uses two sources to answer a question. One is the model's memory (what it learned in training, up to a cut-off date). The other is live search (it searches the web on the spot). Answers with source links come mainly from live search. This is also the layer GEO can influence most.

Four facts that matter most to us

B4(*Optional) Technical layer: make sure AI can get in and read your pages ⏱ 1′

This is the first of the three layers, which is technical SEO. If basic technical SEO has problems, your content and off-site work are wasted. This layer is the fastest to show results and the cheapest.

Worth noting: most partner websites have few technical SEO problems. The agency or the website tech team usually handles this layer, not the marketing team.

• Should you notice any 404 errors or page rendering/loading issues on your partners' sites, raise them case by case with the agency or website team, and run a site audit (crawl, rendering, status codes) to find the cause.

There are three types of AI crawler, and each does a different job

Three technical traps that people often miss

Recommended approach for B2B websites

# Search crawlers: always allow (decides whether AI can cite you)
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

# Training crawlers: a business decision. For B2B marketing sites we usually recommend allowing them,
# so models "remember" your brand and credentials
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

# Never open admin areas, client portals, etc.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /portal/

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

B5Content layer: write content that AI wants to cite ⏱ 4′

One simple test: if AI takes only this one paragraph, can it use it to answer the user directly? If yes, it is likely to be cited.

Rewrite example: an SAP partner's company description

Which AI preferred content practices have evidence, and we can further apply for value add

Google itself says "you do not need to rewrite for AI". Our view: the practices above are simply the standard for good content. If people can understand it clearly, AI can too.

B5.1Content strategy: from "who asks, and what" to "which pages to write" ⏱ 3′

B5 is about how to write one piece of content so AI cites it. This section is about what content to write overall. This is also the value we can add for SAP partners: we turn the questions a buying committee asks AI into a content map and a set of writing briefs.

Step 1: Who asks? A buying committee, not one person

In the same ERP project, the CFO, the CIO, business teams and procurement ask AI very different questions. Each role needs a page that answers their question. Otherwise, when AI answers that role, it cites someone else.

"Sources they trust more" is our judgement: there is no reliable study yet that compares how each role uses AI (R6 research). Scenario card numbers refer to E1.

Step 2: What do they ask? What is the intent behind, and what should be the landing page for the search intent

The example questions are illustrations. Before using them, add them to your prompt library and measure a baseline with the B8 method.

Step 3: Set priorities: write these 6 page types in the first 90 days (*Below as sample)

1. Company facts page (weeks 1–2): credentials, partner level, years, industries, number of projects, offices. The same facts in all three language versions. Serves the "partner" intent and procurement / legal.
2. Migration pillar page + timeline page (weeks 3–4): use SAP's official dates. ECC mainstream maintenance ends in 2027. Extended maintenance runs to 2030 (+2 percentage points). The 2031–33 transition option is "not a maintenance extension". (SAP official, 2025–2026)
3. Cost structure page (weeks 5–6): explain how users, scope, data migration, customisation and hosting affect the price, and say why you do not publish a price list.
4. 3 industry case studies (weeks 5–8): pick the partner's 3 strongest industries. Every case has numbers and a go-live time.
5. Comparison page (weeks 7–10): for example, "ECC extended maintenance vs RISE vs the transition option: which fits which company". List the pros and cons of each.
6. Line-of-business and local compliance pages (weeks 9–12): SuccessFactors × MPF / Taiwan labour pension / CPF; e-invoicing × InvoiceNow / Taiwan e-invoicing.

First map who asks and what they ask, then decide what to write. Each page covers one intent and serves at least two roles. Once it is live, add it to the prompt library and measure.

Sources: Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey (Jan 2026); G2 buyer behaviour research (Apr and Jul 2026); Semrush AI buying journey survey (Jul 2026); Kevin Indig / Growth Memo (2026); Surfer fan-out study (Sep 2026); Profound pricing page study (Sep 2026); TrustRadius 2026; Gartner Digital Markets (2025); Lily Ray (2026); SAP official maintenance timeline. Details in _research/R6.

B6Off-site layer: what others say about you matters more than what you say ⏱ 3′

Which off-site sources AI cites most:

Off-site action list (from lowest to highest effort)

1. Make your entity details consistent: company name, one-line description, credentials and address must be exactly the same on your website, LinkedIn, SAP Partner Finder, Google Business Profile and every directory site.
2. Complete official directories: SAP Partner Finder, chambers of commerce, government pre-approved lists (if relevant).
3. Joint releases with customers: case study press releases, customer posts on LinkedIn.
4. Expert content: consultants' long LinkedIn articles, SAP Community blogs, YouTube demos.
5. Industry media and events: guest articles, interviews, talks at SAP events, talks at industry associations.
6. Digital PR: publish original data (for example, a "Hong Kong enterprise ECC migration survey") so media and others cite it.

B7Content Accuracy and brand safety: what to do when AI gets you wrong ⏱ 2′

Being mentioned by AI is only the first step. Being described wrongly is more dangerous than not being mentioned. Buyers come to the first meeting with the wrong idea, or they cross you off the shortlist straight away.

Correction process: find where gets wrong and correct the source

1. Check regularly with brand prompts: about 10% of the prompt library, for example "What does Company X do?" or "What is the difference between X and Y?". Test once a month.
2. Log the error: platform, prompt, what was wrong, the source AI cited, possible cause.
3. Find the source: look at which page AI cited. Most errors come from an outdated third-party page or one of your own old pages.
4. Fix the source: update or remove your own old pages. Ask third parties to update their information. For major changes (such as dropping a product line), publish a dated announcement.
5. Build a "company facts page": on the About page, state clearly the founding year, partner tier, product lines, service regions, offices and customer industries. Add Organization schema (structured data that describes your company).
6. Send feedback to the platform: Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT both have feedback buttons. You can submit, but a fix is not guaranteed. The real fix is still to fix the source.
7. Test again: answers based on live search usually change after the source is updated and crawled again. The part that comes from the model's memory changes more slowly.

B8Measurement and tracking: you can only manage what you can measure ⏱ 4′

The question GEO hears most is "How do you prove it works?" In 2026, both official and third-party tools have improved a lot. But you look at rates, not rankings.

6 core metrics

Official tools in 2026

Mention rate (Visibility)The simplest manual tracking method (for small and mid-sized B2B)

B9GEO for SAP partners: win at the shortlisting moment ⏱ 3′

For SAP partners, the customer has often already decided to use SAP. The real choice is "which partner". More and more buyers ask AI first at this step.

These are global figures. There is no public data yet on "ask AI first" for ERP in Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore.

What AI looks at when it recommends SAP partners

GEO tactics for partners

C1GEO × SEO: one foundation, win twice ⏱ 5′

SEO is the foundation of GEO. When AI answers with web search, most platforms first use a search index to find candidate pages (see B3). If a page cannot be found in search, AI will almost never cite it. But "ranking" does not mean "being cited". The two differ in a few key ways.

1. Make Sure pages are loading fine, no 404 pages
2. Make sure your landing page content is well structured and following AI Citation preferences

One piece of content that works for both (the "dual-use content" template)

 3. off-site work pays off twice

Industry media coverage, SAP ecosystem directories, case studies published together with customers, talks and podcasts: for SEO they bring backlinks and authority; for GEO they bring third-party mentions and sources AI can cite. So SEO and GEO should plan the off-site budget together, not as two teams doing the same work twice.

C2SEO × SEM: use the speed of paid search to build organic assets ⏱ 4′

Ranking × bidding matrix

C3GEO × SEM: when the AI answer takes over the top of the screen ⏱ 2′

• Ads in AI positions: Some MUs already has English AI Overviews ads and ChatGPT ads. Taiwan has Traditional Chinese ChatGPT ads. In markets where they are open, if the AI answer fills the top of the screen and does not mention you, SEM is the only way to make sure you appear on the same screen. AI position ads also need no new campaign. Eligibility comes from your existing Search campaigns and landing page quality. The clear content you write for GEO also helps SEM win these positions.
• After AI mentions you, someone must catch the brand searches: when users see your name in AI, their next step is often to search your company name on Google. Rising brand search volume is a sign that GEO is working. Brand keyword SEM and your brand pages must catch these people.
• Amplify the content that gets cited: if AI often cites an article, it is seen as an "authoritative source". Promote it to target accounts with LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads. This brings more shares and off-site mentions, and the loop keeps feeding itself.
• Use SEM data to grow the prompt library: long questions in the search terms report are ready-made GEO tracking prompts.

Ads inside AI answers: availability across Asia-Pacific

C4* Channel mix decision table: which stage, which budget, how soon you need results

D1SAP partner scenario library ⏱ 3′