How Smash boosted its AI visibility

Smash is a pioneering French startup in large file transfers, founded in 2017 in Lyon. As a secure and fast alternative to industry giants, Smash allows users to send files with no size limits. Used by over 8 million users and 30,000 customers in France and internationally, the company stands out for its environmental commitment and its guarantee to never use transferred files to train AI models.

In a highly competitive market dominated by legacy players, Smash has always relied on a strong content strategy and solid domain authority to capture attention through traditional SEO. However, with the explosive growth of AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overview), user search behaviors have radically evolved, particularly in the strategic US market.

For instance, professionals and creatives now ask direct, high-intent questions to AIs, such as: "How to send large files via email?" or "What is the best secure alternative to WeTransfer?".

For Smash, the challenge was twofold: they needed to ensure that AI engines recommended their solution for these queries, while also understanding how to position themselves on this new acquisition channel. Smash quickly realized the necessity of measuring and optimizing its presence within LLMs.

To address this challenge, the Smash team deployed a comprehensive GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) strategy, driven by BotRank.ai data. The goal was to precisely understand how AI engines perceived the brand and to identify actionable levers to increase their share of voice.

1. Defining strategic queries
The first step was to analyze their existing presence. Leveraging Google Search Console data, Smash identified their top-performing SEO queries and translated them into strategic AI prompts. Key queries like "How to send large files via email?" were integrated into BotRank.ai for daily tracking across major engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overview).

2. Producing targeted content
Thanks to BotRank.ai's visibility analysis, Smash was able to identify topics where the brand lacked visibility in generated responses. The team then launched specific content creation initiatives to fill these gaps, structuring pages to be perfectly readable and extractable by AI models.

3. Strengthening External Authority
BotRank.ai also revealed the importance of external sources in AI recommendations. To establish its authority, Smash actively worked on its presence across influential community platforms. Notably, the team encouraged reviews and external content creation on networks like Reddit, a major data source for LLM training and responses.