Depra AI is its own first case study, and the worked example of the proprietary Depra AI methodology: measure the buying questions on four engines, read which sources the answers cite, change the pages and listings those sources point to, then measure again. We set up a Depra AI project for the Depra AI brand, asked the buying questions a founder in India would ask about AI visibility tools, and changed the site according to what the four engines said. Two months later, ChatGPT names Depra AI in 23.4% of those answers in our own Depra AI project (122 of 522, 30 September to 14 October 2026), and Google home-page clicks doubled in 28 days (76 against 38, Google Search Console to 12 October 2026).
The honest half of the story is on this page too. Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews still name Depra AI in almost none of their answers, and the site has a small number of referring domains. This page lists every change with its date, every number with its source, and what we do next. No customers, revenue or awards are claimed, because none are part of this story.
What did we set out to do?
We wanted ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to name Depra AI when someone in India asks which AI visibility tool to use. That is the exact job Depra AI does for consumer brands, so we used the product on ourselves and followed its reports the way a customer would.
The site was rebuilt as answer-first pages in September 2026. The goal was to find out, with our own tracker, which changes move an engine and which do not.
On 6 October 2026, in the owner's own checks, ChatGPT ranked Depra AI on top for "best AI visibility tool in India", "best AI visibility tool in India for Shopify store" and "best AI visibility tool in India for D2C brands". That was a single set of manual checks, which is why we rely on the tracker numbers below rather than on screenshots.
What did we track, and how?
We tracked Depra AI the way any brand does in Depra AI: one project, our competitors, a set of buying questions, four engines, two languages and one market. Every answer is stored in full, so each percentage on this page can be traced back to the answers behind it.
The window on this page is 30 September to 14 October 2026, and in that window our own Depra AI project holds 1,666 answers to 37 buying questions in English and Hinglish, asked from India. Hinglish is Hindi and English typed in English letters, the way many Indian shoppers type. The engines are checked on the product's normal cadence: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews daily on every plan, and Perplexity weekly on Starter, Growth and Scale and daily on Enterprise.
- Visibility: the share of answers that name Depra AI, per engine and per language.
- Order: when an answer names Depra AI and a rival, which one it names first.
- Objections: what the engines say when asked directly about Depra AI, which is where the most useful findings came from.
- Outside the tracker: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and our own Hinglish vs English AI shopping study, which measures the engines, not our brand.
What did we change on the site, and when?
Most of the work was publishing pages that answer the exact questions the engines are asked, then keeping the engines fed with the changes. The table lists the changes in order. Each one is something a brand can do in its own Depra AI project.
| Date | Change | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug 2026 | Published the Hinglish vs English AI shopping study: 480 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in India | Original data that other sites can cite, which is what the engines read |
| September 2026 | Rebuilt the site as answer-first pages: the first paragraph of every page answers its question | So the answer is in the first paragraph, not behind an introduction |
| 7 and 8 Oct 2026 | 61 pages published: guides, comparisons with dated vendor facts, documentation and Solutions pages | One page for each buying question, with facts an engine can check |
| October 2026 | llms.txt kept current as the single fact sheet for AI readers | One place where every price, limit and engine is stated |
| Daily, October 2026 | Daily LinkedIn posts | LinkedIn is one of the sites Google AI Overviews cites most for our category |
| 12 Oct 2026 | Product Hunt launch | A directory profile the engines can read and cite |
| 13 Oct 2026 | Free AI audit launched as the main call to action; study re-run with 479 new answers and published as section 6 of the study page | A way to try the product without a trial, and fresh data on the same questions |
| 13 Oct 2026 | Search Console and IndexNow housekeeping: sitemap resubmitted, indexing requested for changed pages, 140 URLs pushed to Bing through IndexNow | Engines can only name pages they have read |
| 14 Oct 2026 | Site changed to answer the objections the engines raised about Depra AI: engine coverage, support reply time and the trial | The engines quote a stated fact instead of inventing an absence |
What moved in Google and Bing?
Google home-page clicks doubled in 28 days (76 against 38), impressions rose by about a third (1,588 against 1,208), and Google's own AI features show the home page twice as often as before. Bing's Copilot already cited the home page hundreds of times in the quarter. All numbers here are from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, read on 13 and 14 October 2026.
- Last 7 days on Google: 44 clicks, 3,840 impressions, average position 15.5 against a 28-day average of 17.1 (Google Search Console, read 14 October 2026).
- Bing: 344 citations in Copilot in the quarter shown, and 56 depra.ai pages indexed (Bing Webmaster Tools, read 13 October 2026).
- What this means: the pages written for exact buying questions, such as the best AI visibility tools roundup, earned impressions inside the 28-day window to 12 October 2026 in which they were published (981 for the roundup, against 0 before). Clicks have not followed yet, because the average position is still on page two.
| Page or measure | Last 28 days | Previous 28 days |
|---|---|---|
| Home page clicks | 76 | 38 |
| Home page impressions | 1,588 | 1,208 |
| /pricing impressions | 211 | 81 |
| /best-ai-visibility-tools impressions (new page) | 981 | 0 |
| Google AI-feature impressions, home page | 703 | 348 |
What moved in ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is the engine that names Depra AI most often. In our own Depra AI project, ChatGPT names Depra AI in 23.4% of answers (122 of 522) to buying questions about AI visibility tools asked from India between 30 September and 14 October 2026. English and Hinglish questions give the same result on ChatGPT: 23.4% each, in our own Depra AI project.
Order matters as much as a mention. When ChatGPT names both brands, Depra AI is named before Otterly.AI in 61% of answers (33 of 54) and before Peec AI in 59% of answers overall (31 of 53), in our own Depra AI project over the same window. Otterly.AI and Peec AI are two other tools in this category, so being named first in most shared answers matters as much as the mention count.
The owner's manual checks of 6 October 2026 match this: ChatGPT ranked Depra AI on top for "best AI visibility tool in India" and its Shopify and D2C variants on that day. A tracker gives the same question many times over many days, which is why we quote the tracker rather than one day's screen.
What has not moved yet?
Three of the four engines, and the link profile. Being honest about this is the point of a case study, and it is also what the Depra AI reports showed us first.
- Gemini: names Depra AI in 1.1% of answers (6 of 522), in our own Depra AI project, 30 September to 14 October 2026.
- Perplexity: 3.8% of answers (5 of 130), in our own Depra AI project, same window.
- Google AI Overviews: 0.6% of answers (3 of 492), in our own Depra AI project, same window. Google shows the home page more often in its AI features, as the Search Console table above shows, but the AI Overview answers themselves rarely name Depra AI yet.
- Referring domains: the number of outside sites that link to depra.ai is small. Gemini and Google AI Overviews build their answers from best-of lists on other sites, and depra.ai is not on most of those lists yet.
- Objections: when asked directly about Depra AI, the engines raised engine coverage, support reply time and the trial. The site was changed on 14 October 2026 to state the facts on each. The next scans will show whether the engines pick them up.
What do we do next?
The same loop, monthly: read the tracker, change the site or earn a mention where the gap is, and re-run. The next steps are set by which engine is behind.
- Monthly re-runs of the study: the October re-run of the Hinglish vs English study on 13 October 2026 kept the August design (10 prompts, 3 engines, 8 repeats, India) and collected 479 answers. The Perplexity brand gap grew from 23.4 to 28.2 points, the Gemini gap fell from 7.8 to 2.0 and the ChatGPT gap fell from 2.2 to 0.8. A third wave turns these into a trend line.
- Backlinks, earned not bought: get Depra AI onto the lists Gemini and Google AI Overviews already cite, through pitches with checkable facts, and complete the directory profiles the engines read.
- Gemini and Google AI Overviews: both quote best-of articles and rank the sub-questions behind a query, so the work is mentions on those pages and pages of our own that answer each sub-question in the first paragraph.
- Keep the engines fed: IndexNow after every deploy, Search Console indexing requests for changed pages, and update dates that change only when the content changes.
How can a brand copy this playbook in Depra AI?
Start with the free audit, then run the same loop for your own brand. The loop is the same for any brand: the tracker, a list of buying questions, and pages that answer them with checkable facts.
- 1. Run the free AI audit: 5 questions on 4 AI engines, no signup and no card. It shows whether the engines name you today.
- 2. Start a trial: Starter, Growth and Scale start with a free trial, and the current terms are on Depra AI pricing. Add your competitors, your market and the buying questions your shoppers ask, in English and Hinglish.
- 3. Read the objections and the order: the answers that name a rival before you, and what the engines say when asked about you directly, tell you which page to write or fix first.
- 4. Publish answer-first pages and state your facts: one page per buying question, a fact sheet in llms.txt, and dated, checkable claims. Depra AI does not write the pages or edit your site; it tells you which ones matter.
- 5. Re-run monthly and compare: the before-and-after view shows what moved. It is not proof of cause, and no mention is guaranteed.
- Prefer a walkthrough? Book a demo and the Depra AI team sets up your project with you on a call.