Brand launch · Whissel Beer Group
A brand-new domain, found on Google and cited by AI
Problem
After the October 2025 merger, the new brand went live on a new domain with almost no search authority. Years of authority sat on the old domains. People had started asking AI assistants which team to hire, and we weren't in the answers.
Decision
- Run Google, AI Overviews and AI assistants as one search program, built on one approved fact sheet.
- Carry the old domains' authority into the new brand with a full redirect map, so we didn't start from zero.
- Mark up every article so machines read the same facts people do.
- Package the team's trademarked services as one product suite, with the positioning and sales tools agents pitch from.
- I set the AI search strategy and our content agency executed it. Once it worked, I used AI to carry that work in-house and cut the expense.
Result
Organic clicks grew from 58 to 3,345 a month in five months. Domain rating climbed from 4 to 42, and AI citations went from 0 to 313.
Next: most clicks still come from people searching our name. I'm going after non-branded searches and turning AI citations into inquiries.
Organic clicks per month · Google Search Console
58 to 3,345 clicks a month, Feb to Jul 2026
Google Search Console, monthly organic clicks to the brand domain, Feb to Jul 2026.
Before and after · Ahrefs
Authority moved in, then AI started citing us
Domain rating, Jan to Sep 20264→42
0Ahrefs scale, 0 to 100100
AI citations, 13 Mar to 8 Sep 20260→313
0Across AI answer engines350
Ahrefs domain rating and AI-response counts for the brand domain, checked against a control domain.
Who did what
From agency playbook to in-house AI
StrategyI set the AI search plan, the fact sheet and the measurement.
ExecutionOur content agency wrote and published to that plan.
In-houseI carried the work forward with AI and cut the agency expense.