# Ritik Namdev

> Independent AI-search research: original studies, pre-registered experiments, statistics with verification grades, and free tools for GEO, AI SEO, and getting cited by Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Claude, and Bing Copilot.

Ritik Namdev is a growth marketer building an open, methodologically transparent research publication around AI search visibility — every statistic is source-traced and graded (traceable / partial / broken), every original claim is tiered (fact / evidence / hypothesis / open), and every pre-registered study commits to publishing its result regardless of outcome. See /blog/state-of-ai-search for the current state of the research program and /about for background.

## GEO, AI SEO & definitions

- [The AI citation dataset strategy](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-citation-dataset-strategy): Every dataset this site plans to publish, in one place - what it contains, when it ships, and how it is licensed. Raw files, not just summary reports.
- [What is AI SEO?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/what-is-ai-seo): The umbrella term for optimizing a site's visibility across the whole AI-search landscape - generative answers, AI crawlers, and the technical infrastructure behind both.
- [What is GEO?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/what-is-geo): Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing content so AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini cite it when generating an answer.
- [AI search glossary](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-search-glossary): Definitions for the terms used throughout this site's research - kept tight, each linked to the fuller page where the concept is explored.
- [AI SEO statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-seo-statistics): Every AI-search statistic on this site, in one table, each with a verification grade and a link to full context.
- [AEO statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/aeo-statistics): Answer Engine Optimization statistics - genuinely fewer exist under this specific label than under GEO, and this page says so rather than padding itself.
- [GEO statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/geo-statistics): The most commonly cited Generative Engine Optimization statistics, each with a verification status attached rather than uniform, unearned confidence.
- [The Null-Results Registry](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/null-results-registry): Every pre-registered prediction on this site that is - or is predicted to be - a null result, tracked in one place. Almost nobody publishes negative findings.
- [WebMCP and the agent-readable web](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/webmcp-agent-readable-web): Google and Microsoft shipped an early preview of a structured agent-interaction protocol for websites in Feb 2026. What it is, and why site owners should understand it now.
- [MCP servers as a visibility channel](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/mcp-servers-visibility-channel): The Model Context Protocol lets AI agents query a business data directly. Does publishing one affect AI-search visibility? Untested, but genuinely early.
- [The AI Visibility Measurement Standard](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-visibility-measurement-standard): 'AI visibility' currently means whatever a vendor's dashboard measures. A proposed open specification so numbers from different sources become comparable.
- [GEO vs AEO vs LLMO: which term is winning](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/geo-vs-aeo-vs-llmo): Three acronyms describe overlapping ideas about optimizing for AI-generated answers, and the industry hasn't settled on one. What each means, where they overlap, and which is gaining ground.
- [The GEO Tactic Evidence Scoreboard](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/geo-tactic-evidence-scoreboard): Every tactic the industry recommends for getting cited by AI search, graded by the actual evidence behind it - not by how often it is repeated.
- [Bing Copilot SEO: the easiest AI engine to crack](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/bing-copilot-seo): ChatGPT search runs on Bing's index - so getting into Bing is the fastest path to your first AI citation. Here's the full playbook.
- [How to get cited by ChatGPT: 9 tactics, with data](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt): The Princeton-backed levers - statistics, quotes, structure, freshness - that actually move AI citations.

## Technical

- [Open-source SEO agent tooling: what to build](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/open-source-seo-agent-tooling): The citation-collection harness, log-analysis pipeline and audit agents behind this site's own research are more credible open than closed.
- [Claude Code SEO failure modes](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/claude-code-seo-failure-modes): Where agentic SEO work actually goes wrong. Almost all existing coverage is promotional. This is the first-party failure catalogue instead.
- [Claude Code for SEO: the complete guide](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/claude-code-for-seo-guide): Using Claude Code as an execution agent for technical SEO - audits, schema generation, structural fixes and log analysis - with a worked example and safety practices.
- [AI crawler statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-crawler-statistics): How much of the web's bot traffic is AI, which crawlers take the most relative to what they give back, and how that's shifted year over year - with a verification status on every figure.
- [The AI Bot User-Agent Registry](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-bot-user-agent-registry): Every AI crawler that matters for a website owner in one place - what it's for, how to verify it, and what to put in robots.txt. Maintained, not a one-off listicle.
- [GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot: the AI crawler guide](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/gptbot-vs-oai-searchbot): The most-confused pair in AI SEO. One is a training crawler, one gets you cited - plus every other AI bot and exactly what to allow or block.
- [The 50-point technical GEO audit](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/technical-geo-audit): A complete technical checklist to make a site under 500 pages fully legible to Google, Bing and the AI answer engines.

## Original research & studies

- [The state of AI search: September 2026](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/state-of-ai-search): A snapshot of where AI-search research actually stands as this site's research program launches - five findings, five unanswered questions, and an honest inventory.
- [AI search CTR statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-search-ctr-statistics): How click-through behavior changes when an AI Overview appears - with the specific population each figure describes attached, not stripped away.
- [AI search and YMYL content: what is actually known](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-search-ymyl-content): Health, finance, legal and safety queries carry higher stakes. Whether AI engines cite differently for them is an open, under-studied question.
- [Local AI search: what is actually known](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/local-ai-search-statistics): Local intent is a large share of all search behavior. Rigorous AI-search research on it is almost entirely absent - stated plainly rather than filled with a borrowed number.
- [AI shopping and agentic commerce statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-shopping-commerce-statistics): AI agents are beginning to complete purchases on a shopper's behalf. What is actually measured, and how much of the coverage is still forecast rather than fact.
- [Agentic browsers: what do they actually fetch?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/agentic-browsers-what-they-fetch): ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet and Gemini in Chrome are shipping now. What they actually request from a page has barely been studied. Pre-registered.
- [Do AI crawlers render JavaScript?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/do-ai-crawlers-render-javascript): If retrieval bots do not execute client-side JavaScript, any content that depends on it is invisible to them entirely. Pre-registered experiment.
- [AI Mode vs. AI Overviews: source delta](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-mode-vs-ai-overviews-source-delta): Two distinct Google AI surfaces, routinely treated as interchangeable. Do they actually cite the same sources for the same query? Pre-registered study.
- [The Reddit dependency: what Perplexity cites when Reddit has nothing](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/reddit-dependency-perplexity): Perplexity's citations skew heavily to Reddit. For B2B and enterprise topics with thin discussion, what fills the gap? Pre-registered study.
- [The Wikipedia dependency: what ChatGPT cites when Wikipedia has nothing](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/wikipedia-dependency-chatgpt): ChatGPT's citations skew heavily to Wikipedia. For topics it doesn't cover well, what fills the gap? Pre-registered study.
- [Brand mentions vs. backlinks: which predicts AI citation?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/brand-mentions-vs-backlinks-ai-citation): Reported correlations put brand mentions at roughly 3x the predictive strength of backlinks for AI Overview visibility - with a confound nobody has controlled for.
- [Does an author bio affect AI citation?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/author-eeat-ai-citations-study): Author credentials and E-E-A-T signals are recommended constantly. No controlled test isolates whether they change AI citation rate. A pre-registered RCT.
- [Does content freshness increase AI citations?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/content-freshness-ai-citations-study): 'Keep content updated' is universal GEO advice. No controlled study has tested it against citation rate. A pre-registered RCT.
- [Crawl-to-citation latency](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/crawl-to-citation-latency-study): How many days pass between an AI crawler first fetching a new page and that page first appearing in a citation? Pre-registered panel study.
- [The Query Fan-Out Corpus](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/query-fan-out-corpus-study): Everyone repeats that Google AI Mode fans a query into '8-16 sub-queries.' Nobody has published the data behind that number. A pre-registered corpus design.
- [Cross-platform citation concordance](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/cross-platform-citation-concordance): How much do ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google agree on what to cite? A reported ~11% two-engine overlap suggests: not much. Pre-registered study.
- [AI citation half-life: how long do citations last?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-citation-half-life-study): Once a URL is cited by an AI engine, how long does it stay cited? Nobody has measured this. A 12-month tracking study, pre-registered.
- [Does schema markup increase AI citations?](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/schema-markup-ai-citations-study): The most contested tactic in GEO. This page registers a randomized test to settle it, pre-registered before a single page is enrolled.
- [AI search conversion benchmarks](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-search-conversion-benchmarks): Published claims about AI traffic conversion range from 4.4x to 23x organic. Different orders of magnitude - here is why, and the honest version of the statistic.
- [AI referral traffic statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-referral-traffic-statistics): How much traffic AI platforms actually send to websites, how it is split between engines, and why standard analytics likely undercount it.
- [Zero-click search statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/zero-click-search-statistics): The most commonly quoted zero-click figures, each attached to the specific population it actually measures - because collapsing them into one number is where most content goes wrong.
- [AI search market share statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-search-market-share-statistics): How traffic is distributed across AI search platforms, how that's shifted over the past year, and how AI referral engagement compares to classic organic.
- [Gemini citation statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/gemini-citation-statistics): Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode are three related but distinct Google surfaces, routinely conflated in coverage. What is actually known about Gemini specifically.
- [Perplexity citation statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/perplexity-citation-statistics): Perplexity is the most transparent of the major AI search engines about its sources - and its citation pattern looks meaningfully different from ChatGPT.
- [Claude citation statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/claude-citation-statistics): What is actually known about what Claude cites, and an honest accounting of how much isn't known - because Claude is the least-studied major AI search surface.
- [ChatGPT citation statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/chatgpt-citation-statistics): What ChatGPT actually cites, how it retrieves information, and how weakly Google ranking predicts showing up in a ChatGPT Search answer.
- [Most-cited domains in AI search](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/most-cited-domains-ai-search): Which kinds of sources dominate citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews - and how little the major engines actually agree with each other.
- [Google AI Mode statistics and query fan-out, explained](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/google-ai-mode-statistics): How AI Mode actually retrieves information - the query fan-out mechanism, its documented patent basis, and what is confirmed versus estimated.
- [Google AI Overview statistics](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/google-ai-overview-statistics): Trigger rates, citation-to-ranking overlap, and click-through impact for AI Overviews - with a verification status attached to every figure.
- [The robots.txt AI-Blocking Census](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/robots-txt-ai-blocking-census): How many of the web's most important sites block AI crawlers, measured directly from robots.txt rather than quoted from a report with no visible sample. Pre-registration.
- [Where AI SEO statistics actually come from](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/where-ai-seo-statistics-come-from): We traced twelve of the most-quoted numbers in AI search back to their origin. Five hold up. Three dead-end. And the most-repeated figure in the field is three studies wearing one number.
- [The AI Citation Index](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/ai-citation-index): A quarterly, open measurement of what seven AI search engines actually cite - query set, raw data and methodology published in full. This is the pre-registration.
- [Zero to Cited: how a new site climbs into AI search](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/zero-to-cited): The evidence-backed timeline and playbook for taking a brand-new site from launch to its first citations in Bing, Perplexity, ChatGPT and AI Overviews.
- [Does llms.txt actually work? A 90-day log test](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog/does-llms-txt-work): I deployed llms.txt and read the server logs for 90 days. Here is what the data - and the largest studies - actually say.

## Free tools

- [AI Overview Exposure Checker](https://ritiknamdev.com/tools/ai-overview-checker): See which of your keywords trigger AI Overviews - and how much traffic is at risk.
- [llms.txt Generator](https://ritiknamdev.com/tools/llms-txt-generator): Generate and validate a spec-correct llms.txt for your site in one click.
- [Schema Markup Generator](https://ritiknamdev.com/tools/schema-generator): FAQ, Article, HowTo & Person JSON-LD, ready to paste - tuned for AI citation.
- [AI Traffic-Loss Calculator](https://ritiknamdev.com/tools/ai-traffic-loss-calculator): Model how much organic revenue AI Overviews could cost you - and what to recover.

## Reference

- [All research and guides](https://ritiknamdev.com/blog): full index, updated as new pages publish
- [Studies index](https://ritiknamdev.com/studies): the AI Citation Tracker and quarterly research program
- [About Ritik Namdev](https://ritiknamdev.com/about): background, approach, and how this research is built