SEO & AEO content strategy
Fairstone: Showing up in the AI search era
SEO + AEO content strategy that's earned 798 AI citations and 329K monthly organic visits.
- Client
- Fairstone
- Industry
- Consumer finance
- Type of work
- SEO & AEO content strategy
- Monthly organic visits
- 329K
- AI search citations
- 798
- Ranking keywords
- 68.7K
The brief
Fairstone came to the agency with a familiar problem and a forward-looking question. The familiar problem: their blog was disorganised, traffic had stagnated, and the content wasn't pulling its weight in search. Plenty of articles, no real strategy holding them together. The forward-looking question: how do we stay visible as search itself changes? Buyers weren't just Googling anymore. They were asking ChatGPT, reading AI Overviews, getting answers from Gemini and Perplexity before ever clicking a link. Ranking #1 wasn't going to be enough. Add in the constraint of a heavily regulated niche — every claim backed by data, every page accessible and readable for everyday Canadian consumers — and the brief was clear: build content that ranks in Google, gets cited by AI search tools, and actually helps people make sense of their finances.
My role
I work as part of a wider team — Fairstone's developers handle technical SEO and site speed, the PR team runs digital outreach, and the agency leads strategy. My piece of the puzzle is the content engine itself: • Long-form blog posts built around keyword clusters and intent. Heavy on data, light on jargon, optimised for both Google and AI search citations. • SEO and AEO templates and checklists so every piece of content the team produces is structured to rank and to be cited by AI tools — clear answers up top, scannable headers, schema-friendly formatting, citation-worthy stats. • Internal linking strategy to turn a disorganised blog into a connected library that search engines (and AI crawlers) can actually understand. • Editorial standards for plain-English explanations of complex financial topics, written for Canadian consumers across every literacy level.
What's working
After ongoing work across the team: • 329K monthly organic visits • 68.7K ranking organic keywords (with 11K+ in the top 10) • 798 pages cited across AI search — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini • AI Visibility score of 64 with 2.4K total AI mentions • 35% US traffic share for a Canadian-focused brand • Authority Score of 53 ("Very good" — Semrush) The numbers I'm proudest of aren't the biggest ones. They're these: Fairstone is being cited 457 times in Google AI Overviews and 174 times by ChatGPT. That's almost unheard of for a non-bank financial brand competing against the Big Five. It means when a Canadian asks an AI tool about credit card debt, debt consolidation, or personal loans, Fairstone's content is showing up in the answer. Traffic held steady through the March 2026 algorithm volatility. When the SERP shifted, plenty of finance sites got hammered. Fairstone dipped, then stabilised. That's what content built on data, expertise, and clear writing looks like — durable, not gamed.
A sample of the work
"What is the average credit card debt in Canada?" is a good example of how the system works in practice: • Targets a high-intent question Canadians are actually typing (and asking AI) • Opens with a clear, citation-ready answer to the headline question • Backs every figure with sources from Equifax, TransUnion, StatsCan • Translates dense data — debt by province, age, income quintile — into plain English • Builds trust through specificity: real numbers, named sources, no fluff • Internally links to related pieces so readers (and crawlers) can keep moving The article currently ranks for the target keyword and is being cited in AI Overview results for related debt queries.
What this kind of work looks like for you
If you're a B2B SaaS or financial brand watching your organic traffic stagnate while wondering what AI search means for your strategy, this is the work I do: • Audit and reorganise the content you have • Build a content engine designed for both Google and AI search • Write the kind of pieces that get cited, not just clicked • Set up systems your team can run with long after the engagement ends Not magic. Just solid strategy, careful writing, and an honest acknowledgment that good SEO is a team sport.