Contributors:
Amol Ghemud Published: February 17, 2026
Summary
Your fintech brand isn’t ranking in ChatGPT or Perplexity because AI systems don’t index the same way Google does. They crawl selectively, trust authority differently, and reward content built for explanation over keywords. The GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) framework fixes this by aligning your content strategy with how AI systems actually discover and recommend brands. This guide covers the three-pillar GEO framework (Gather topical authority, Explain clearly, Optimize for discovery), how to audit your current AI visibility, which metrics actually matter beyond traditional rankings, and a 30-day action plan to start capturing AI citations. Fintech brands that optimize for AI search now are capturing a disproportionate share of traffic, with 527% year-over-year growth in AI referral traffic and 4.4x higher conversion rates than standard organic visitors.
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How to get cited, recommended, and discovered by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and next-generation search platforms
Two years ago, a fintech CMO’s playbook was simple: rank on Google, drive clicks. Today, that model is collapsing. Gartner predicts traditional search volume will drop 25% by 2026, while AI Overviews now appear in a significant share of searches. Users aren’t just searching anymore; they’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for direct answers.
For fintech, this shift is existential. AI summaries are reducing CTR by 58–61%, but brands cited inside AI results are seeing higher overall organic performance. AI referral traffic is also exploding, and LLM-driven visitors convert better than standard organic users.
And there’s an added fintech risk: compliance. If AI tools cite incorrect rates, terms, or product claims from your content, the liability doesn’t disappear. RBI and SEBI guidelines still apply. That’s why GEO isn’t just about visibility anymore; it’s about controlling how your brand is represented in AI-driven financial decisions.
Why your fintech brand is invisible to ChatGPT (and how to check)
You’re not in ChatGPT’s recommended results because five companies control 84.5% of all AI crawler traffic. Your site isn’t being crawled enough.
ChatGPT doesn’t index the entire internet as Google does. It crawls through a selective lens: domain authority, content quality, topical depth, and recency. If your site doesn’t meet these bars, the crawlers move on. One SaaS company tracked its server logs and found 366 bot visits over 24 hours, 83% of which were from ChatGPT retrieval bots. But your fintech site might see zero.
To check if ChatGPT knows about your site, ask directly. Try: “What does [yoursite.com] say about [topic]?” or “What do you know about [company name]?” If ChatGPT says it doesn’t have information or provides generic guidance instead of citing your content, you’re invisible.
The second test is simpler but harder to admit: ask ChatGPT for recommendations in your category. In our experience with fintech clients, most brands never appear in the top three recommendations. If a CMO asks ChatGPT for “best neobanks for international transfers” and your neobank doesn’t show up, you have a GEO problem.
Some fintech brands appear in ChatGPT but only for branded queries. This is worse than invisibility. It signals weak topical authority. You’re only known for your name, not for solving the problems your customers face.
There’s a compliance angle here, too. When AI systems don’t know your brand, they may still discuss your product category. Without your content as a source, they rely on third-party blogs, outdated press coverage, or competitor content. The result: AI platforms may cite inaccurate information about your interest rates, fee structures, or regulatory status. Under RBI’s Fair Practices Code and SEBI’s investor protection guidelines, you have a responsibility to ensure accurate information reaches consumers, including through AI channels.
The 3 types of AI crawlers and what they mean for your content
Not all AI crawlers are equal. Understanding which ones matter for fintech is critical.
Type 1: deep training crawlers
These grab massive volumes of content to train foundational models. They’re indiscriminate but slow. Your content might be captured during training, but you won’t see immediate traffic. OpenAI’s training crawlers, Anthropic’s, and Googlebot (which feeds AI Overviews) fall into this category. You optimize for these by having excellent, authoritative content, and that’s it.
Type 2: real-time retrieval crawlers
These pull content on-demand when a user asks a question. ChatGPT’s web-browsing retrieval system, Perplexity’s crawlers, and AI Overviews’ live crawlers are Type 2. These crawlers are selective. They don’t scrape everything. They target domains with high trust scores and topical authority. This is where your GEO work matters most.
Type 3: vertical or custom crawlers
These target specific industries or use cases. Financial data scrapers for fintech (used by brokerages and research platforms), regulatory crawlers, and industry-specific AI systems fall here. Fintech companies should track whether their content is being pulled by regulated AI systems that serve financial professionals. In India, platforms aggregating financial product comparisons must comply with RBI and SEBI disclosure norms. Your content needs to meet these standards whether a human reads it or an AI bot retrieves it.
For a fintech CMO, Type 2 is your battleground. These crawlers make decisions in real-time. They ask: Is this domain trusted? Does it have topical expertise? Is this content recent? Is it cited elsewhere? Getting right with Type 2 crawlers is the difference between appearing in recommendations and being invisible.
Case study: how Fi.Money became the #1 AI-cited neobank
Fi.Money was a strong fintech player, but they had a GEO problem. They ranked well in Google, but ChatGPT and Perplexity rarely cited them. Worse, when they did appear, it was only for branded queries.
We rebuilt their content architecture around high-intent, low-keyword-volume queries that AI systems actually retrieve on. Instead of optimizing for “best neobank,” we targeted queries like “how do smart deposits work,” “what’s the safest way to park emergency funds,” and “how to compare interest rates on savings accounts.”
The strategy worked because these queries are exactly what fintech users ask AI systems. They’re questions, not searches for rankings. Fi.Money’s content now provides the answer that AI systems want to cite.
A critical part of this approach involved ensuring every piece of content aligned with RBI’s digital lending transparency requirements. When AI systems pull Fi. Money’s content on interest rates and deposit features is accurate, up to date, and compliant. This accuracy is what builds the trust signal AI crawlers look for, and it protects the brand from regulatory exposure when AI platforms cite their content to consumers.
Result: Fi. Money became the top authority for smart deposit queries in Google AI Overviews. They also achieved 200K additional organic search clicks, a 7M impression increase, and captured 15K+ featured snippets.
The lesson is critical: the same content that gets you cited in AI Overviews also strengthens your organic visibility. You’re not sacrificing Google for ChatGPT. You’re optimizing for how people actually find answers.
The GEO framework for fintech: from invisible to recommended
GEO isn’t SEO with an ‘E’ in the middle. It’s a fundamentally different approach to building authority with AI systems.
The framework has three pillars: Gather, Explain, Optimize. We’ve tested this across fintech clients, and it works because it aligns with how AI systems make trust decisions.
Pillar 1: Gather (Topic Authority)
AI systems determine authority by measuring topical breadth and depth. This means you need to own an entire topic cluster, not just one page.
For a neobank like Fi. Money, this means you don’t write one page about “savings features.” You write comprehensive guides on:
Interest rates
How compound interest works
Emergency funds
Comparing savings accounts
Tax-efficient savings
Automation
Every piece links to the others. Together, they signal that you’re the expert on savings.
AI crawlers notice this. When they see 12 interconnected articles on savings, all from the same domain, all updated regularly, they trust you more than a competitor with one good page.
Pillar 2: Explain (Content Quality)
AI systems prefer content that teaches over content that pitches. This is where most fintech brands fail.
Your content should answer questions the way a financial advisor would explain them to a peer. Not marketing speak. Not keyword stuffing. Clear, specific, honest.
When you explain how interest is calculated on a savings account, don’t lead with your APY. Start with how compound interest works, show the math, then mention that your product offers competitive rates. AI systems recognize teaching-first content and give it greater weight. Plus, ChatGPT users remember explanations. They forget marketing.
For fintech companies under RBI and SEBI oversight, this teaching-first approach also serves as a compliance strategy. Content that clearly explains financial concepts, discloses risks, and presents accurate product terms satisfies both AI trust algorithms and regulatory requirements. The brands doing this well don’t treat compliance as a checkbox. They treat it as a signal of content quality.
This is why Fi. Money’s content on smart deposits worked. It explained the concept before selling the feature.
Pillar 3: Optimize (Discoverability)
After gathering topical authority and writing teaching-first content, you optimize for AI systems specifically. This isn’t hard, but it’s different from SEO.
Keep paragraphs short. Two to three sentences. Use clear subheadings that answer questions. Include direct answers in the first two sentences (so AI systems can extract and cite immediately). Build internal links with descriptive anchor text. Update publish dates when you refresh content. Include data and original research where possible.
These optimizations don’t trick AI systems. They help AI systems actually find and understand your content.
What Metrics Actually Matter
This is where most fintech brands get it wrong. They obsess over rankings in ChatGPT, which don’t exist in the same way they do in Google.
There is no “position 1” in ChatGPT. It’s conversational. Sometimes your brand is mentioned. Sometimes it’s not. You need to measure differently.
Metric 1: AI referral traffic
This is your north star. Track the traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI sources in your analytics. Segment it separately from Google traffic. Most fintech companies don’t do this and therefore don’t realize AI traffic is growing at 527% year-over-year.
Metric 2: Citation count
How many times is your brand mentioned in AI-generated responses? This is harder to measure precisely, but you can sample it. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the same 20 questions your customers ask. Count mentions. If competitors are mentioned 5 times and you’re mentioned once, you know your GEO work isn’t working.
Metric 3: Recommendation visibility
In our tests, about 60-70% of fintech customer queries result in AI-generated product recommendations. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for recommendations in your category. Track whether you show up in the top 3. This is a binary metric, but it’s predictive of broader GEO success.
Metric 4: Audience perception
Survey your audience: “Have you asked ChatGPT about our company? What did it say?” You’ll often find that ChatGPT has outdated information or generic guidance. This is a leading indicator that you need GEO work.
Metric 5: Citation accuracy
This is the compliance metric most fintech CMOs ignore. When AI cites your brand, is the information accurate? Are interest rates current? Are product terms correct? Are regulatory disclosures included? Track this monthly. Inaccurate AI citations create both reputational and regulatory risk under RBI and SEBI guidelines.
Traditional rankings matter less with each passing quarter. AI Overviews reduce CTR. But brands cited in AI Overviews earn 35% more clicks overall. The game is authority and relevance, not position. Measure accordingly.
Your 30-Day Action Plan to Start
Week 1: Qudit and Baseline
First, figure out where you stand today. Create a document with 30 questions that your fintech customers commonly ask. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity all 30 questions. Log whether your brand is mentioned, whether competitors are mentioned, and what the AI says about you.
Then, audit your current content. Identify your strongest pages (highest traffic, most topical authority). Map them against your audit questions. Are you answering the questions that AI systems retrieve? Or are you answering Google keyword questions instead?
Include a compliance check in this audit: review what AI systems say about your interest rates, fees, and product terms. Flag any inaccuracies. These aren’t just GEO issues. They’re potential regulatory liabilities.
Week 2-3: Strategic Content Gap
Based on your audit, identify the top 5-10 topics where you should own AI recommendations but currently don’t. These are your GEO priorities.
For each topic, ask yourself:
Do we have content on this?
Is it teaching-first or marketing-first?
Is it comprehensive (part of a cluster) or standalone?
Does it meet RBI and SEBI disclosure requirements for the products discussed?
What’s missing?
Create a 90-day content roadmap addressing these gaps. This isn’t about quantity. It’s about topical authority. You’re building clusters, not pages.
Week 4: Optimize Existing Assets
Don’t wait for new content. Optimize your strongest existing pages for AI discovery immediately.
Make paragraphs shorter. Two to three sentences. Add clear subheadings that answer questions. Put your most important answer in the first two sentences. Improve internal linking with descriptive anchor text. Update the publish date if you’ve made meaningful changes.
This takes 2-4 hours per page. On your top 10 pages, you’ll see results within 4-6 weeks.
Start building AI visibility today
At upGrowth, we’ve helped fintech brands like Fi. Money and Vance achieve measurable AI search visibility through compliance-first optimization. We don’t just track AI citations. We build the content infrastructure that makes AI platforms cite you correctly.
Our GEO service combines content strategy, topical authority building, and AI-specific optimization. We don’t just improve your rankings. We make your brand the answer AI systems recommend.
1. Does robots.txt control whether ChatGPT crawls my site?
No, not fully. ChatGPT respects robots.txt directives, but it will crawl your site if you don’t explicitly block it. If your robots.txt blocks all bots, ChatGPT won’t be able to visit. If you allow Googlebot but block everything else, ChatGPT will still crawl using its own user agent. The safest approach is to allow ChatGPT’s crawlers (they use distinct user agents, such as GPTBot) and monitor them through server logs.
2. How long until the GEO work shows results?
4-12 weeks for measurable growth in AI referral traffic. Optimization of existing pages can show results within 4 weeks. New topical content takes longer to appear because AI systems need to discover, crawl, and integrate it into their training cycles. Organic traffic improvements typically follow AI citations within 8-12 weeks.
3. Should we block AI crawlers to protect proprietary information?
Not for fintech. Your public content isn’t proprietary. If you block ChatGPT and Perplexity, you’re blocking visibility and potential customers. Block only if you have genuinely sensitive technical information that competitors could exploit. For most fintech brands, blocking AI crawlers is a strategic mistake.
4. Does being in Google AI Overviews help or hurt organic clicks?
Both happen simultaneously. Individual clicks from AI Overviews may drop 58-61%. But brands cited in AI Overviews earn 35% more total organic clicks because such citations strengthen authority and brand awareness. The net effect is positive. You’re trading some direct clicks for visibility that generates more clicks across all channels.
5. What’s the difference between GEO and traditional SEO?
SEO is optimized for Google’s algorithm and keyword rankings. GEO optimizes for how AI systems evaluate trust and retrieve answers. SEO focuses on backlinks and technical signals. GEO focuses on topical authority and explainability. Both matter. But they’re optimizing for different systems using different signals. A good GEO strategy strengthens SEO as a side effect, but they’re not the same discipline.
6. How do we track whether fintech customers are using AI to research us?
Ask them directly in surveys and user interviews. “How did you first hear about us? Did you ask ChatGPT?” Track AI referral traffic in your analytics (most tools now segment this separately). Monitor your brand mentions in AI Overviews monthly by searching for category queries. You can also use third-party GEO audit tools to track visibility across AI search platforms.
7. What’s the compliance risk if AI cites inaccurate information about our fintech product?
It’s significant. Under RBI’s digital lending guidelines and SEBI’s advertising code, financial brands are responsible for ensuring that product information reaching consumers is accurate and complete. If ChatGPT tells a user your loan charges 12% interest when it’s actually 18%, and that user converts based on the AI’s recommendation, the liability exposure extends to your brand. GEO work that prioritizes content accuracy and freshness isn’t just a marketing strategy. It’s a risk mitigation framework.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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